When the Lord tells us in the Scriptures, “Be of good cheer” (Matthew 9:2; 14:27; John 16:33), do you get the idea that He is saying, “Come on, cheer up now. Don’t be sad”? He probably is not referring to what we can produce in the way of good feelings and joy in ourselves, because no doubt He has already produced the feeling of heaviness within us. His Word and His chastening do that. These are often very heavy. Therefore, God must impart divine joy to us. Nehemiah chapter 8 speaks about this joy. It tells how the Feast of Tabernacles was observed by the exiles after their return from captivity in Babylon.
When the seventh month came, the sons of Israel were in their cities. And all the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel. Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. Nehemiah 7:73b–8:3.
And Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose. Six men were standing at his right hand and seven at his left hand (Verse 4). This is a picture similar to the one in Acts 2:14, where Peter and the eleven stood up to preach the Word on the day of Pentecost. Peter was the spokesman, but all of the other eleven were standing with him in faith; therefore, there was a unique flow of revelation through him. It reminds us also of what the Lord is teaching us in this day. Even though one man may be doing the speaking or the ministering, each of us is to move in with faith to back him up and support him. We are a body of participating believers who in no way are allowed to become mere spectators. We do not gather to watch what happens; rather, we come together to participate in making things happen, in bringing forth God’s will.
Nehemiah 8:5–6: And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord the great God. And all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Notice that first the people lifted their hands and said, “Amen, Amen!” and then they worshiped prostrate before the Lord.
In his first Epistle to Timothy, Paul wrote, “I would that men everywhere would lift holy hands without wrath or doubting” (I Timothy 2:8). In other words, “Let there be receptive hearts that cry out, ‘Amen, Amen, Lord! We listen to Your Word and we take it. We want to receive every Word that You have for us.’ ”
Nehemiah 8:7 names thirteen men who, along with the Levites, explained the law to the people. Verse 8: And they read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading. The Word must be read with revelation before it can be understood. Even when people want to receive the Word, there seems to be a strange dullness in their heart, which makes it impossible for them to understand the Word until someone with genuine revelation brings it forth to them. It is like priming a pump: Once revelation teaching starts, the capacity for it is reproduced in the people; and then they too are able to read the Word with revelation and to interpret it to the hearers with the same flow of the Spirit by which it first came to them.
Today the ministry of the Living Word is being reproduced in many brothers all over the world—not because they are all reading the same commentaries, but because they have been drinking of the Living Word. As they drank, the pump was primed, and the flow was started within them too.
Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. Verse 9. We all know that it is good for the believer to repent and to grieve over his need. In fact, most of the Scriptures on repentance were given to the believer, not to the unbeliever. Most New Testament passages that deal with repentance and conciliation to God are heavy Words laid upon the believer, rather than upon the unbeliever. The unbeliever often cannot repent because he often does not even have a consciousness of sin.
In the familiar soul-winning formula, the first step usually is to convince a man that he is a sinner by quoting Romans 3:23: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” However, if he has to be convinced, then he is not really under conviction; therefore he cannot repent. He is apt to say, “I may be a sinner, but I am just as good as the people who go to church.” He is still of his own opinion—that he is really not too bad.
The only way a person can truly be aware of his sin is to have a revelation of the Lord. In the year that the great reformer King Uzziah died, Isaiah went into the Temple to worship the Lord. He saw the Lord high and lifted up with His glory filling the Temple. Isaiah said, “Woe is me! I am undone! I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:1, 5). Let us minimize our efforts to convince people that they are sinners. Instead, let us try to bring to them, by the Holy Spirit, a revelation of the Lord. Then they will also have a revelation of their own deep need.
The most effective services we ever had in soul-winning and bringing people into God were the Bless-Ins in the Sixties. Sometimes young people came who were high on drugs, and the Lord delivered them. We did not try to prove by rhetorical argument that the Bible is the Word of God, or even that God exists. We just brought the hungry ones in and, as it were, we introduced them personally to the Lord. We said, “Here He is; get to know Him!” When the revelation of the Lord came to their hearts, there was an immediate conviction upon them. Something of self dies under that conviction of the Holy Spirit, because a man sees his unworthiness. Then the Lord may have a prophet in the making.
How does the Lord make a prophet? He puts a coal of fire on his lips and cleanses him and then asks, “Who will go? Whom shall We send?” The prophet answers, “Here I am, Lord. Send me” (Isaiah 6:6–8). He is ready to go, but his dedication is the last thing to come forth. It must be preceded—first, by a revelation of the Lord; second, by a revelation of himself; and third, by a meeting with God. Finally, then, he is commissioned and anointed to go forth and do the will of the Lord.
Nehemiah 8:9 tells us that the people were grieving and filled with remorse when they heard the law. Then he said to them, “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Verse 10. The people were told, in effect, “Do not grieve, because this day is holy to the Lord and we are concerned about doing the will of God. We want you to understand what God wants from you and then you must seek the Lord for that.”
It is true that we must repent of sin, that there are times when we need to grieve and mourn. But there is also a time when God says, “Look, I have restored you, and here is the Word.” We do not want to become so introspective that we lose the revelation of the Lord that is to come forth at that particular time. We do not want our own incapacity and feelings of inadequacy to frustrate us and keep us from doing His will. Introspection is good to a point, but don’t you get bored with looking at the mess that it reveals? What we want is a revelation to our heart that will produce change. This change does not usually come by introspection, but by exposure to a revelation of the Lord.
If you want to find the real way to change, read about Moses when he ascended the mountain and saw the glory of God (Exodus 34:29–35). Paul referred to this when he wrote in II Corinthians 3:18: “Now we, with unveiled face, are reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, and we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even by the Lord the Spirit.” Change takes place by being exposed to the glory of God.
Introspection tends to lead to self-improvement programs that get us nowhere. We have begun in the Spirit. We are God’s creation, and what He is doing in us came forth by exposure, and it is furthered only by more or greater exposure to Him. This is not to say that we should be lax about our need, but we must understand that our need will be met as the attributes of His very nature are transferred to us. We go “from glory to glory,” but not by the exertion of willpower or by introspection to a point of stalemate.
If you get too deep into morbid introspection, it will not produce anything constructive. Instead, let us follow the exhortation given in Nehemiah 8:10: “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Take that “joy of the Lord.” Desire to have Him meet your heart and be revealed to you. When you rejoice in the Lord, His joy will be your strength.
Joy is not an end in itself; it is our strength—the strength we need because of the heaviness of His Word. Joy is an aspect of the Word that insists upon the release of the sons of God. This joy does not mean that we have reached our goal. Rather, that joy gives us endurance. It enables us to keep on keeping on. While it is true that joy comes when we have fulfilled the will of God, remember that it also comes as our strength so that we can continue to fulfill the will of God. Joy is the inner lift which makes the difference between our withering under a goal that God gives us to perform which seems absolutely impossible, and actually accomplishing the impossible. We know that God is going to do the impossible, but we tend to forget that He will do it through us.
Adjust your thinking. When the Lord sets before you the impossible course and you break under it, He will give you His joy as an undergirding strength so that you can complete that which you know you are inadequate to do. Does this mean that our inadequacy is human limitation or spiritual? Both! When God continually asks you to do even more in Him today than you were able to do in Him yesterday, He does violence to your thinking about your limitations. You are forced to readjust your thinking when you find yourself right in the middle of an impossible task. When you realize that yesterday’s ability is never enough for today’s need, you will know that God gives grace sufficient for your need. Joy is part of the grace of God. He gives you His joy, which enables you to persist in the appropriation of what you have asked for. The Lord has given it to you; it is your heritage. Rejoice! Walk in it! Claim it!
The end time is always related to the labor that the Lord sets before us, and His joy comes to strengthen us as we go on to do the will of the Lord. We are claiming full release from everything that has blocked us and hindered us in the past, and the joy of the Lord will be our strength. As we move on, the joy actually helps us to move up into the spiritual plane where fulfillment always occurs. By faith we possess and then we embrace His blessing; we bring the miracle into being.
Faith cannot operate without joy to sustain it. Without joy, we will slip back from faith to the human level of striving—striving for a human, mental assent to the promises of God. But the human level of encouragement cannot be sustained long enough to see the answer. The joy of the Lord alone holds us on the plane of effectiveness. Come into His presence. Do not withdraw from it. His joy will keep on sustaining you right into the completion of all the things that God has for you to do. Like Paul, desire to complete your ministry with joy—not just to accomplish it, but to accomplish it with joy sustaining you to the perfect fulfillment of your faith.
Nehemiah 8:17 tells us that the entire assembly of those who had returned from captivity made booths and lived in them. There was great rejoicing as they kept the Feast of Tabernacles according to the instructions of the Lord. The Feast of Tabernacles must always be approached with joy. The Old Testament tells us to “rejoice before the Lord your God” (Leviticus 23:40; Deuteronomy 16:11), but this is not some self-inspired emotion. True joy comes from a genuine revelation of the Lord. Psalm 16:11 tells us that in His presence is fullness of joy. The joy we want comes to us when we stand in His presence and are exposed to the Lord. We are commanded to be joyful, but we cannot produce that joy by our own decision. We must apply ourselves to the cause of that joy: coming into His presence. There is the fullness of joy.
The Feast of Tabernacles was observed properly with rejoicing; but only when you stand in the presence of the Lord will this joy fill your heart. It becomes a natural effect of your revelation of Him, because it is His joy.
Jesus repeatedly spoke about the joy that He would give us. In John 15:11 He said, “My joy I give to you. I want My joy to be complete within you.” Joy is an issue today. Many people are miserable and unhappy. Joel foretold these days when he said, “Joy is withered away from the sons of men, and even the beasts of the field are moaning” (Joel 1:12, 18). In the midst of the spiritual famine in the land, we will know a joy that comes from being in His presence. It is good for us to remember this because there will be times when there is no other source of joy. Circumstances around us usually produce only gloom. They will push us down and depress us. We must learn to exist each day by sources of support and strength that are outside of our circumstances.
The minute that circumstances adversely affect us, we will murmur and complain, just as the children of Israel did in the wilderness. We do not want to do that! We do not want heaviness in our spirits because of the difficult circumstances in our lives. The powers of the heavens will be shaken and men’s hearts will be failing them for fear as they see the things that are coming upon the earth (Luke 21:26). Men will even dread facing each new day. Every indication and circumstance from every outward source will lead to only one verdict: everything is utter disaster. But these same circumstances will lead us to draw into His presence where there is fullness of joy. At His right hand are pleasures evermore (Psalm 16:11).
Why then do we still tend to feel that the fruit of the Spirit can be produced by our own effort? When God says, “You must love everybody,” we work at it, trying to do it in ourselves. Yet that kind of love always falls short. It is not long-suffering. It is not kind. It may flow along for a while with a kind of sticky sweetness; but when the pressure is turned on, something else surfaces and we soon run out of that human love. It does not stand the test.
The same is true of joy, which is second in the list of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). When you read that God wants joy in your life, you may strive to be happy, walking around with a smile on your face; but that smile may be very artificial. The Lord wants you to learn to come into His presence and draw from Him; then you can be truly joyful.
We receive from the Lord exactly what we see in Him. Unfortunately, we tend to see Him with a limited vision. Too often we are limited by our denominational or doctrinal interpretation of the Scriptures. There is a story about two deacons who were listening to a preacher who was being evaluated for the position of pastor in their church. The first deacon turned to his friend and said, “One thing we want to watch is how this preacher prays because the way a man prays is even more important than the way he preaches.” About then the preacher began to pray—and how he did pray! After about half an hour he finally finished, and the second deacon said, “Wasn’t that amazing? That preacher asked the Lord for things I didn’t even know He had!” The truth is that the Lord has many more things for us than we realize. We need to open our hearts and ask Him to show us all that He wants to be to us.
I have long had a vision, which is now being fulfilled, to publish a book entitled A Thousand Faces of God. It will not contain any portraits of the face of Jesus Christ because no one can possibly convey His glory and what He is by that method. Instead, it will illustrate the various attributes of God as described in the Scriptures. For example, the Scriptures tell us that the Lord God is a fortress. The book will have a picture of a fortress with the appropriate Scriptures underneath. It will picture all the things that God wants to be to us. When an individual leafs through it, he will meditate on the many attributes of God and say in his heart, “How marvelous! The Lord wants to be all of this to me!” Imagine how effective such a book could be when used for meditation, or to teach children about God!
Believe that God wants to be the source of all your joy and love, as well as the other seven attributes of the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is the flow of His divine nature and its expression in your life. A believer should not look at himself as a tree that is a little short of fruit and say, “I’ll remedy this situation by hanging a little more of this fruit here and of that fruit there, and eventually I will have produced a nine-fruit tree.” The fruit of the Spirit is not something we can produce in ourselves. It is imparted from the Lord, just as the gifts of the Spirit are imparted. The various attributes of the fruit are not produced one at a time; they seem to grow and mature simultaneously.
In the midst of God’s dealing, when the heaviness is upon the heart, we need to stand in His presence and draw His joy. Lift holy hands and declare, “Lord, it is Your joy I seek. I am touching You for the joy You speak of.” Believe to receive it just as surely as you would receive a jolting shock if you grabbed hold of a live electric wire. Believe that every one of His attributes is readily communicated.
Isaiah 61 is a delightful chapter that causes us to praise the Lord. It tells about His righteousness and how, like a bride, we will be putting on new robes—robes of righteousness. This scriptural passage is often used by evangelists who promise people that they will be clothed in robes of righteousness. Unfortunately, they divorce that truth from the fact that God is talking about His righteousness—the Lord comes and drapes some of His righteousness around us. In everything God does for us He communicates some of Himself to us.
How marvelous it is that we can appropriate so much of the Lord, and yet He is never impoverished by it. He never grows poorer. He could make the whole Christian world hilarious with joy at this very moment, and yet He would not be any less joyful in His own heart. Is it possible that the more He gives of Himself, the greater He is?
As you draw from God’s abundance, His attributes are communicated to you. The first attribute that He gave you was eternal life. When you were born of God and became a believer, God communicated His own eternity to you. In the same way, He wants to see every attribute—everything that He is—communicated to you. When you grasp this truth in your mind, then you will realize, “I do not have to submit to anything within the human level of emotions that is disturbing me. I can be joyful. I can reach into God for His other attributes too—for His love, His peace, His patience, His kindness, His goodness, His faithfulness, His gentleness, His self-control. All of these things God wants to give to me!”
This truth became real to me many years ago when we were remodeling the building which eventually became the mother church of many other New Testament churches. The entire project had become a frustrating experience, and there were many difficult obstacles to overcome. We were putting button board on the walls and I was crying (I did a lot of crying in those days). Then I hit my fingernail instead of the plaster nail I was aiming at. That did it! I threw the hammer down and sat on the stepladder and cried out, “Lord, I’ve just run out of faith!” And then as clearly as the voice of the Lord has ever come to me, He said, “Then why not use Mine?” The reality of my need for His faith and of its availability to me became very real to me. From that time on, signs and wonders began to come forth. I realized that I did not have to pump up my own faith. Instead, I could reach into God and take His faith. Do you realize how you can apply this truth in a difficult circumstance? Simply declare, “I take faith to believe. I take His faith to claim this.”
Let us declare also, “I take Your joy, Lord. I will walk in everything that You have said, even though I have no capacity for it. I know my own inadequacy and incapacitated state of being, but that will not bother me, because I am going to draw from You. I will be the happiest, most joyfully inadequate person ever seen, because all of this must come to me from You, Lord.”
When the dealings of the Lord fall heavily upon you, do you wonder, “What is happening? I’m discouraged, I must be on the list of the unpardonables.” Remember—He scourges every son whom He receives (Hebrews 12:6). You are asking for another scourging if you rise up and demand, “How dare You treat Your son like this!” Instead, let there be a rejoicing in your heart. Reach to the Lord for it. You may sow with tears, but you will reap with rejoicing (Psalm 126:5). Believe that you will meet God—while you are working, while you are sowing, while you are building, while you are in spiritual warfare. The Lord is saying, “Come, let us be altogether joyful. Enter in and take hold of My joy.” As you enter into His presence, a fullness of joy will come to you.
How will you respond to this teaching? Will you say to yourself, “Well, I guess I should cheer up.” No, that is not the message. The message is that there is a joy to be found in the presence of the Lord, and you can practice His presence. You can learn to come into the presence of the Lord, by the Holy Spirit, and stand there undistracted, receiving His joy and knowing that the dealings of the Lord are heavy upon you because He is bringing many sons to glory. The trial of your faith is more precious than gold that perishes (I Peter 1:7). When the Lord does a deep work within your life, submit to it with joy—with all joy (James 1:2–3). Open your heart and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory (I Peter 1:8). That joy cannot be manufactured on the human level; it happens only in the presence of the Lord. It is true that He is always with us; the problem is that we are not always aware of His presence, and that is what is needed.
Almost everything of heaviness comes because we are absorbed with our circumstances, with the dealings of God upon us, and we do not know how to respond to them. In our family my mother was the disciplinarian and when she started toward me to spank me, I would run to her, throw my arms around her, and hold on tight. I had learned that when I was in that position, she could not get much leverage. I would hang on and tell her how much I loved her, how sorry I was for the wrong I had done.
Is the Lord chastening you? Is He dealing with you? There is only one way to respond. Cling to Him and love Him. That way you will take away much of the leverage. In all of His dealings, learn how to draw nigh to Him, saying, “Lord, I love You. I love You!” And let the joy of the Lord be your strength.