As we enter into the Presence of God we can literally feel His emotions, we can feel His love for us, and we can feel His joy and peace. As we learn how to walk in the Spirit, His emotions are continually flowing into and out of us.
As we tune into the Lord, we can feel His presence, we can feel His Spirit. There are certain things emanating (to come out of somebody) from God called the fruit of the Spirit. As we learn how to enter the secret place, the place where He is, the place He prepared for us, one of the things that seems to surround us is an amazing joy.
Psalm 16: 11Thou wilt shew me the path ( way of living ) of life: in thy presence (face) is fullness(abundance) of joy; at thy right hand (authority) there are pleasures for evermore.
The will of God does not automatically happen in the natural realm, but it automatically happens in heaven. When we learn how to abide in the Lord, when our spirit stays connects to His through focus, His life flows into it and we begin to experience His nature.
The will of God is first of all a participation in His nature, which begins to transform the atmosphere as the Spirit of God is released into it.
The emanation of his presence influences everything that it comes into contact with. When Saul came into the atmosphere of the presence of God created by the prophesying of the school of the prophets he took off his armor and began also to prophesy. His heart was full of murder- he wanted to kill David, but in God’s presence his emotions were transformed.
Jesus said in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer I have overcome the world. Jesus overcame the world and went to prepare a place for us where we can experience His presence 24 hours a day.
We are in the world but not of the world; therefore the world need not influence us like it does others. When we learn the secret of dwelling in the secret place, we can experience the transformation of our emotions.
When we are in His presence we feel what He feels, because his emotions are transferred to us in His presence. All the attributes of God are transferable, so that when our spirit is connecting to His-the life flow of His Spirit flows into ours and we experience His thoughts and emotions.
When we learn how to draw from the Spirit of the Lord, to appropriate His Spirit (His nature) into us, what we are experiencing, what is happening in our heart is greater than our awareness of what is happening around us.
When we abide in the realm of his presence, we are positioned in a place where we are no longer moved by what is happening in our circumstances. We are completely unaffected by circumstances that would ordinarily wipe a person out, because our awareness of the Lord is greater.
When Paul and Silas cast a fortune-telling spirit out of a woman in Philippi, they were taken to the market place and beaten, then they were thrown into prison and their feet were fastened in stocks. They were physically in pain, yet because of their awareness of the Presence of the Lord, they were aware of a different realm where they experienced the transformation of their emotions.
The Joy of the Lord is not generated by human emotions or conditions: It is a divine state of God’s Presence. No matter what we are going through in the natural realm, when our spirit is in communion with the Lord we are aware of His Presence, and in that awareness we can experience the fruit of His Spirit in a greater way than the pain we experience in the physical realm. This is the only way we can endure the sufferings that we may have to go through.
Our awareness of the presence of the Lord increases, as we learn how to walk with Him. We become aware of our spirit and learn how to commune with the Spirit of the Lord.
The joy of the Lord was in Paul’s spirit so that he was enabled to endure the inhuman beating and imprisonment he experienced. He was so in tune with the spirit world that the natural world could no longer hold him prisoner; the jail doors were supernaturally opened.
The joy that we are looking for does not come by having all our circumstances being worked out to our liking; it does not come from having obtained our heart’s desire. The joy of the Lord comes by knowing the Lord in an intimacy that supersedes (to take the place of something that is less effective) the intimacy we can have with another human being. The joy we are looking for does not come from circumstances being just right, but by being aware of the presence of the Lord.
It is when we press into a walk with God that we find this joy unspeakable and full of Glory. Difficulties have nothing to do with this joy, the joy comes from the presence of God in our life, and it is a fruit of His Spirit. It is the result of God filling our heart.
The glory of God emanates from His person , so the first thing we come into contact with is His love, we can feel His love for us in a personal way.
The next thing we experience is the joy of the Lord, because joy is next to love in the holy manifestation of God’s presence. The third thing we experience in the manifestation of the divine nature of God is His peace, all the confusion concerning the will of God is removed in His presence. We have no questions; His mind is imparted to us in His presence. The warfare in our heart is silenced, as His Spirit displaces it with His presence. In His glory no evil can exist. In his presence is fullness of joy, and evil is incapable of joy. The path of the Lord is one of peace.
To approach the Lord is not a matter of distance; it is a spiritual plane (a particular level of existence or level of reality). As we become aware of the Lord, we also become aware of the Love and joy that emanates from His being. To enter His presence requires an intensity of focus, we have to worship-love-express our self to him, which is called seeking him with all our heart, it is our spirit reaching out to Him and then His Spirit responds to us, where we become aware of Him.
Psalm 100:1Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. 2Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
It is when we determine that we are going to walk close to the Lord acknowledging Him in all our ways. It is when we determine that we are going to begin to love others and be a blessing to them that we begin to experience the joy of the Lord being a part of our lives.
There is nothing in the earth that can compare to a walk with God. Our joy is found in our relationship with the Lord. It is how close we walk with God that counts, not what we have achieved on a human level.
The key is in learning how to practice the presence of God by abiding in the secret place of the Most High. It is in our awareness of the presence of the Lord, that our spirit absorbs His emotions which strengthen and transform us. The presence of God transforms our emotions.