The divine revelation in Psalm 16:11 is, In thy presence is fulness of joy; In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Some people, in receiving the Holy Spirit and various spiritual experiences, have gone through reactions and emotions that were only echoes of what they entered into on a spiritual plane. As we approach the Lord, one of the things that seems to surround us is an amazing joy.
Stop and look at the world. There’s no joy in it, because there’s no reason for joy. Consider joy and happiness; people can have all of this world’s goods, be successful in everything they try and still be unhappy. Why?
Because happiness is not a natural condition that automatically happens in the affairs of men. It’s something that automatically happens in the realm of spirit. And we who understand something about coming into the presence of God know that the fruit of the Spirit named in Galatians 5:22 are certain things emanating from God: love, joy, and then peace.
Some religions have made inward peace a nirvana state, the supreme end of all striving or unstriving to finally become a vegetable devoid of human feeling and human reactions until there is no reaction when stuck by pins, etc.
That state of nirvana is about the same as being dead, except for someone shoveling the dirt on you. Dead from the neck up, they’ve dialed out almost everything. Who wants to follow that? Not me.
A Christian who loves God and is filled with the Holy Spirit can be alive to every single state and condition round about them. They can be supremely alert, yet completely unaffected by circumstances that would ordinarily wipe a a person out. They can be filled with joy. A beautiful illustration of this is recorded in Acts, chapter sixteen—the account of Paul and Silas in prison. They had cast a fortune-telling spirit out of a woman in Philippi; and when her masters saw that they didn’t have any more hope of gain from her, they had Paul and Silas seized and taken to the marketplace and beaten. Then they put them in prison, and fastened their feet in stocks. Who would take care of the wounds?
After a beating like that it was the custom to rub salt into the wounds, a neat, humane way to prevent infection! It also left some awful scars. Then they would pour salt water over them. You can imagine the pain it caused.
That’s when Paul and Silas had a “sing-in”, a “bless-in”. How could they worship the Lord with joy at a time like that? The joy that the Lord gives can be such a great factor because it is not generated by human emotions or feelings or conditions; but it’s a divine state of God’s presence—a fullness of joy. They just tuned into the Lord, and the first thing you know, the old jail began to shake and the prison doors flew open and they were set free. The jailer was ready to commit suicide because he was responsible for all the inmates.
You can imagine what kind of security measures they took, for if anyone escaped, the jailer had to take their place and serve their term. So when he saw the prison wall shaken down, he drew his sword; he would just as soon finish off himself as to have the Roman government do it for him.
But Paul said, “Do yourself no harm. We’re all here.” Before the night was over the jailer and all of his family were baptized and a church was started. Later Paul wrote an epistle to this church, and when you read that epistle to the Philippians you read all about this joy. Paul calls them his joy and crown (4:1).
Joy and rejoicing are two key words of the book of Philippians. Read it. Remember that joy was in Paul’s spirit when he was subjected to inhuman beating and imprisonment. This means that the joy we’re looking for doesn’t come from circumstances.
If you young people will just get with it and serve God, really walk with Him even with a lot of difficulties, you will find this “joy unspeakable and full of glory”. Difficulties have nothing to do with that joy. It comes with the presence of God in your life and it is a fruit of the Spirit. Love is mentioned first as a fruit of the Spirit and joy is second. That’s why it’s important to love and give attention to one another. When you feel love flowing, you feel joy flowing because joy is next to love in the holy manifestations of God’s presence. The third fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) is peace. That’s what we try to encourage the young folks to get into. Get rid of the confusion, get rid of the hangups and open up to the peace, the real release that God gives you in the Spirit.
If you and I were transported, we would actually come into a spiritual state of approaching God; not a matter of distance but a spiritual plane. As we approached Him we would find the fullness of joy. Probably one reason that evil is banned from the presence of the Lord is because it’s incapable of joy. The curse has taken joy from the people and the more evil this age becomes, the more their entertainment will be devoid of joy. Movies have been that way for a long time. You’re not supposed to have a good funny picture anymore where you can really laugh. Instead they show all kinds of fights, beating and stomping on people—that’s supposed to be entertainment, blood and thunder all the way. Television is the same way—so much of it is filled with violence and brutality. The same thing is true of modern fiction. Then you listen to the music of the hour! I like some of it because they’re tuning into certain beats that could be a good thing. But have you noticed the way they work at it? Watch some of those teenagers dance on television—that awful intense expression of suffering through it all. Where’s the joy? Where are the kicks they’re supposed to be getting out of a life of sin? It isn’t there. The way of the transgressor is hard (Proverbs 13:15). But the joy of the Lord, the path of the Lord, is one of peace. Great joy have they that find Thy word. That’s the way it is.
Happiness or joy, is not generated by all the circumstances being just right. Many a young man, starting out says, “If I can just land this job, then I’ll be happy.” But after he lands that job, he isn’t happy. “If I can just marry that girl, then I’ll be happy.” He marries the girl, then he thinks, “If I can just take over this business, I’ll be happy.” He climbs on up and up and up and finally his ulcers are bothering him and he grows away from his family because they grow away from him. “If I make that first million I’ll be happy.” He’s still not happy. So finally he becomes cynical; he tries to buy his way, and still he’s not happy. All of the favorable circumstances you can name will not make you happy. Some people are completely unconcerned about anyone’s welfare but their own. They seem to gain a kind of sadistic pleasure by dominating and beating down those round about them and making them very miserable. That is usually short-lived because it has a way of rebounding.
We’re after real joy. How can we achieve it? Walk in the presence of the Lord—that’s where the joy is. How can we really find love? A Scripture in Proverbs 18:24 says A man that hath friends must show himself friendly. Sometimes people in the church come to me, tight-lipped and complain, “There’s no love in this church. No one speaks to me. When I walk in the church they make a big path around me. What kind of love is that?” And I say, “Listen, you’re bringing it on yourself. He that would have friends must show himself friendly. Open up a little bit. Draw close to the Lord and let a little love out, and it will come right back.”
If you begin this walk determined, “I’m going to walk close to the Lord; I’m going to give love and blessing to others,” you’ll be surprised how happy your life will be. It’s easy to get your mind on things like a devil assault. We’re in the culmination of the battle of the ages. It’s great. Just think, we’re riding through the biggest event of the whole spiritual chronology from the beginning of eternity—so what’s a little battle? What’s a little bit of struggle? We’re right in the middle of it. But the important thing is that you relax going through it, that you be aware of everything.
Some people are so filled with fear that they’re uptight all the time. They can’t relax; they can’t enjoy anything, for they’re always living with that feeling of insecurity. The sense of security comes not in things, because some of the most insecure people in the world are the rich. There are the poor worrying themselves to death, too. It isn’t a matter of what you have or what you don’t have, but of your relationship to the Lord. Abide in the secret place of the Most High—that’s the answer. It’s not what you are or where you are on this earth, but where you are with God—that is your joy, your security, your future; that’s everything to you. There isn’t a thing in this world that can take the place of a walk with God.