The mantle of authority is being laid upon us, but with it is coming a heaviness. The Lord wants to take away that heaviness and mourning, and give us praise and joy. This is not a luxury, for as we enter these days, we must be delivered from participating in the time of sorrows and heaviness (Mark 13:8). We must have the joy of the Lord to sustain us.
We are no longer defeated by the lusts of the flesh, the lure of the world, ambition, or greed. God has given a basic deliverance in these areas. If we do give into those things it is because we have lost that sustaining strength and have become victims of the heaviness. The heaviness can cause us to become discouraged, doing things that afterwards we regret. A consistent walk with God and the appropriation of His joy and strength are essential. We must have the spirit of worship and the desire that the Lord meet us. If there is no joy or motivation to worship, we may not realize we are in trouble.
The joy of the Lord is our sustenance. I liken it to a man on stilts which are twelve feet high. He knows how to use them safely, but it becomes necessary to cross a pond fifteen feet deep. He will make it across as long as he is on the stilts, but if he slips off he will flounder and perhaps drown.
The same is true of us. We are sustained by the joy of the Lord; it is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). It holds us above the problems, where we can walk in the victory of the Lord; the Lord sustains us. We pass through waters, and they do not overwhelm us because the Lord has given us simple keys about His joy and how to draw it.
The joy of the Lord is related to basic salvation, to everything the Lord does. There is joy when we come to Christ. There is joy when we are filled with the Spirit. There is joy when we are persecuted. In the New Testament, wherever the presence of the Lord and the obedience of His people are manifested, there is an uplifting joy. We too must enter into that joy.
Churches many times ask for help when it seems they have reached an impasse. Trouble begins in a church when heaviness is ministered to the congregation. Generally it comes from the pulpit. The Apostle Paul said, “If I am not the occasion of your joy, who is going to make you joyful?” (II Corinthians 2:2). There is an authority and a responsibility that rests upon a pastor to prophesy and loose the people into the joy of the Lord.
The seventh chapter of Acts tells of the persecutions of Stephen and his martyrdom. In the eighth chapter we find a thread of the joy and rejoicing which occurred when Philip went to Samaria to preach the Word.
And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison. Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. Acts 8:1–4. They killed Stephen in hopes of curtailing the gospel, but what they did was like stomping on an oil fire. As they stomped, it scattered and spread everywhere.
God, in His dealings upon us, is taking events that Satan would bring (testings God allows Satan to bring) and turning them into victory. It is better to take the initiative and do the will of the Lord, than to be prodded into action by circumstances ordered by God.
The original command was to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). “How can this be done? All the apostles are at Jerusalem; who wants to move to Samaria, or to Antioch, or Assyria?” No one wanted to move into those places, yet the stories that follow are of Christians taking the Word with them as they left Jerusalem and fled to those areas. They preached the Word and churches sprang up everywhere (Acts 8:1–4). Some of them were reluctant to become involved with God. There was no response to counsel; therefore God dealt with them one by one. However, it was not a sign that they failed.
The same is true of us today. God allows circumstances and events to become a turning point in our lives. They prod us into the next level God has for us. At times we are reluctant to become totally involved in our destiny. It then becomes necessary for the Lord to prod a few into it, like lead sheep, and the rest learn to follow. The dealings of the Lord are upon us, but we have not seen anything yet. Either we move into the will of God or we perish. It is difficult to become a Joshua when you have been a Moses, but that is what walking with God involves. We must become more aggressive in doing the will of the Lord.
God has put us through testings. We pray to change, but when we come to an impasse we are unable to move. We pray and receive release for a season, then we find ourselves giving up in despair. The dealings of the Lord are upon us; He is prodding us. He is preparing to launch us into a greater wave of obedience, faith, and worship than we have ever known. Impasses are being broken. Let us pack our prophecies, our tapes, and the Word, and make our way into the Kingdom of God. We will probably cry and have times when we are heavy before the face of the Lord because He is prodding us.
Those mentioned in Acts 8:5–8 did not reluctantly do the will of the Lord: And Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were heated. And there was much rejoicing in that city.
Sometimes you may think you will never again be joyful or happy, nor ever be released from the heaviness and burden that is upon you. You will. II Corinthians 6:4–10 is the testimony of Apostle Paul, telling how we are to serve God. But in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in stripes (beatings), in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings (sleeplessness), in fastings (hunger), in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things. This Scripture belongs to the apostolic company of today: sorrowful and heavy, but always rejoicing, conscious that we are instruments in the hand of the Lord.
When Philip preached in Samaria there was great rejoicing in the city. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Acts 8:14–17.
It was a continued action. This was not the same as it was in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, when all were instantaneously filled with the Holy Spirit; not as in Acts 10, in the house of Cornelius, where they all began to speak with tongues simultaneously; nor as in Acts 19, at Ephesus, when twelve brethren received the Holy Spirit, spoke in tongues, and prophesied. Those were simultaneous events. Yet in Samaria, when Peter and John began laying hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit, the entire city rejoiced and accepted the Lord.
And so, when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. Acts 8:25. There was joy and rejoicing in the experience in Samaria.
We must never lose our awareness of the fact that joy accompanies everything God does for us. If at any time you find yourself overwhelmed with heaviness, remember that joy is the necessary ingredient in everything that happens to you in the Lord. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3. In Samaria they rejoiced when they received salvation and also when they received the Holy Spirit. They were filled with joy and spoke the Word of God with boldness.
There is joy whenever God moves in our lives. Joy is related to our relationship with God. If we are not right with God, we find the joy is gone. If we find our hearts not joyful, it is because we do not have the divine flow of the Spirit in our lives. If there is something clogging the water pipe, we must take the plumbing apart to find whatever is keeping the water of joy from flowing through. If something stands as an impediment or a hindrance, keeping us from that joy, we must remove it so the water can flow. If our relationship with God is right, there will not be a continual mourning or heaviness, but a lifting of our spirit. We must have it. The joy of the Lord is our strength.
When David had sinned, Psalm 51 became his prayer of repentance. Notice how many times he spoke of joy in relation to his position in God. If we do not have the joy, our relationship to the Lord is at fault, something is wrong. It may be a sin, a failure, a neglect to do the will of God, or the dealings of the Lord calling for repentance, even as David repented.
Psalm 51 says, Make me to hear joy and gladness (some come to a service and nothing makes them rejoice, while others rejoice continually because God makes them to hear His joy and gladness), let the bones which Thou hast broken rejoice. Verse 8. God is a good Shepherd. When we wander near the wolves, He breaks our leg with His staff. We cry and He binds it up. Then we stay close to the Shepherd. He breaks our bones in order that, as they heal, there comes a joy and rejoicing to our heart.
Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Thy presence, and do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners will be converted to Thee. Verses 9–13.
You cannot successfully witness or speak God’s Word, when heaviness is upon you and you are without His joy. A person in the world, who has no revelation, will walk away shaking his head, thinking you are a fanatic. But if the joy of the Lord is there, it creates a buoyancy that takes away the sting of offense. It is difficult to be angry at a joyful person.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; then my tongue will joyfully sing of Thy righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Thy praise. Verses 14–15.
I know what a congregation is going through when they worship and praise the Lord. If a sustaining, buoyant joy is missing, their worship never breaks through. It does not matter whether we whisper our praise or shout it; the important ingredient is a joyful relationship to the Lord. It will be there as we approach the Lord in worship, for in His presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forever (Psalm 16:11). Any contact with God, or experience from God, will have the ingredient of joy in it because that is part of His basic nature. God is love, but the Kingdom of God is also righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Joy is very essential.
We see what God is doing in the restoration when we read about the everlasting joy upon their heads, in Isaiah 35:10, and the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, in Isaiah 61:3. The joy is slipping away from most churches which have aggressively served God in previous decades. It is withering away from them because they fall into the old trap of more programs and more machinery, rejecting what the Spirit brings. Eventually they resort to a social program, trying to cover up the lack of reality for the people. The further we walk with God, the more we repent of the ways of the flesh. We desire to walk in the Spirit with the Lord. The more joyful we become, the less we need what other churches use to sustain their program.
The joy of the Lord is as necessary in a person’s life as vitamins. Without joy you become listless and rebellious; your problems become greater. With it you are strong and you overcome. Antibodies work against disease in the human body. If you have sufficient antibodies, you can be exposed to many diseases and throw them off readily. But if your resistance is low, you succumb easily.
Likewise, something is missing in the diet of a church when it blossoms out with problems, such as people becoming offended or irritable where previously they were easygoing. The joy of the Lord is missing from their diet. When sheep rip the wool off one another’s backs, it is due to a vitamin deficiency. It is not the nature of sheep to do this. A pastor must bring his flock into a right relationship with the Lord; the barometer will rise and everyone will be filled to overflowing, bubbling, and rejoicing in the Lord. That is the answer to every problem.
When a person is overwhelmed by his problems, he must choose either being carried along and ministered to every service (hoping nothing happens between services to cause defeat), or he can press in and let the Lord meet his heart. When we seek the Lord we find an uplifting joy that makes us buoyant. First comes the overflow, then the immunity and resistance. With joy and rejoicing we create the counterpressure against every assault.
Fasting and seeking after the Lord causes problems to surface, one after another. The hidden rocks must be uncovered. God brings everything to the surface and allows us to feel a desperation and need within us. He does not allow us to be sustained or buoyed up by anything the flesh would substitute for spiritual strength. As we see the need we touch God. Being filled with the Holy Spirit starts the overflow and causes us to bubble. We must come to the place where the joy of the Lord sustains us.
Every experience with the Lord can be renewed and expanded; it can become greater. We read, in the fourth and fifth chapters of Acts, that when the days of pressure came upon the Church, they did not know what to do. The apostles were beaten, but as they began to cry out to God with their brethren, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. The place was shaken and great joy was among them. They began to speak the word of God with boldness. Had these people previously received the Holy Spirit? Of course they had, but every experience received from God can be renewed and expanded constantly.
When you receive a word from God, you may think it is enough to hide it in your heart. But you must also keep it foremost in your thinking and continually seek the Lord concerning it. “Lord, do You have an amendment to this? Do You want to strengthen it? Do You want to speak it again to me to confirm it? Make this word live in my heart, Lord. I do not want it to be a word that I only accept. I want it to be a word that I possess—a word I jump in, dance in, and walk in.”
If you have experienced speaking in the Holy Spirit, why not wait upon the Lord until there is a flow? Expand the experience by allowing the Lord to refill you. There is always an initial experience, but richer experiences will follow.
A man and woman who love one another very much may come before the ministries for marriage counseling and blessing. Soon they speak their covenants and God makes them one. There is much to be said for the wedding and the honeymoon, but it should not end there; it should become a way of life. It will be better as time passes because the couple has faith which they apply to their love. Many things can change that situation. If the couple allows that to happen, on their anniversary they may only reminisce about how wonderful their honeymoon was. Honeymoons are not that good. Everyone involved in the wedding has been working hard. Suddenly, two strangers who are tired and tense are thrown into new circumstances in the will of God. It is honorable and blessed, but it should become better with time.
Likewise, God wants us to rejoice in what He has given us in salvation, and in what our walk with Him means to us; nevertheless, it should be getting better all the time. The experience should keep expanding.
You may never have had so much from the Lord in your life, still you should not be able to hold it at that point. The overflow should be there; and it will be, if you seek it. It is up to you. It will only be what you make it and believe it to be. A beautiful marriage relationship does not automatically happen. There must be two people who work at it, believe for it, and strive in God to understand one another and to walk together.
Unity is not accidental and neither is joy. You cannot walk down the street, stumble over a brick, and fall into a puddle of joy. It simply does not happen that way. If there is joy and rejoicing in your life, it is no accident. You may live life merely hoping to eventually be happy, but you will not be happy until you seek God and appropriate His joy. If He is dealing with you, be careful not to spoil what He is doing. He will lead you to appropriate more of Himself, to meet Him in everything. You will know you have met Him when there is a joy that comes to your heart.
Hosea 2:15 contains a promise which the Lord gave to Israel. “Then I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.” The word “Achor” means “trouble.” In Joshua 7:25, Joshua said to Achan, “Why have you troubled us?” This is how the valley of Achor was named. They crossed over into Canaan and took Jericho, but they were defeated at Ai because of the sin of Achan. He had stolen things God said not to touch.
Joshua and all of Israel took Achan and his family, with their belongings, to the valley of Achor—the valley of trouble. And Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.” And all Israel stoned them with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day, and the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day. Joshua 7:25–26. The prophecy which came in the days of Hosea spoke of this.
Hosea was a prophet of love in the Old Testament. As you read the book of Hosea you should also read the Gospel of John. Certain books in the Old and New Testament are linked together, such as Leviticus and Hebrews, Joshua and Acts. It is a deep blessing to compare parallel passages in books from the Old and New Testament that are linked together.
“And Sharon shall be a pasture land for flocks, and the valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for My people who seek Me.” Isaiah 65:10. What was Isaiah speaking about? In the valley of Achor stood a great mound of rocks with the bones of Achan’s family inside. They had been stoned and burned with fire. Stones were then heaped upon them as a warning against disobedience to God.
In the days of restoration, God is going to make the valley of Achor (where He troubled people, dealt with them, and reduced them to ashes) a door of hope where flocks and herds will feed. He will make it a place of blessing where people will sing before the Lord, as when the Israelites first came out of Egypt and Miriam played her tambourine, dancing upon the shore of the Red Sea (Exodus 15). Joy will return. Where we have failed, God will bring us to a door of hope. That which has been a valley of trouble is to be a door of hope.
God wants to turn everything of grievous dealings away from you. When you come into the valley of trouble, feed upon the Lord. Sing before Him. Let Him make a door of hope for you. Be altogether joyful.
The Lord will bring us out of bondage, trouble, and grievous dealings. Although He has troubled our spirits with words and driven us into a valley of trouble, we are learning to walk with Him and experience Him anew. We desire to meet Him, so that He might stone the Achan in our lives, that which is displeasing to Him. We want only to feed upon His presence, rejoicing in Him and singing as in former days. When there is heaviness and repentance, He will meet us and sustain us with His joy, undergirding us with His everlasting arms and bringing us to the door of hope.