Joy is the subject of the blog today and "From Faith To Faith" by Kenneth and Gloria Copeland for today covers it very well!
The joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10
Joy. It's not a warm, happy feeling you're supposed to have now and then when things are going well. It's much more than that. Joy is one of the most powerful spiritual forces in the world.
Look again at Nehemiah 8:10 and I'll show you why. If you were to diagram that scripture and remove the phrase, "of the Lord," you would find what it's truly saying is this: Joy is strength. The two are interchangeable.
That's what makes joy so crucial. You can't live a life of faith without being strong in the Lord—and when God wants to make you strong, joy is what He uses to do the job!
Joy is not just a state of mind. It is not a fleeting emotion. Joy is a very real force, and the devil doesn't have anything that can stand up against it. Just as fear has to yield to faith, discouragement has to yield to joy.
Since joy is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, you already have it residing within you. But you must develop it, confess it and live by it if you want to enjoy its power. Whatever circumstances you are facing today, you can be full of joy. You can be strong in the Lord. You can draw on the supply of the Holy Spirit within you and come out on top. Rejoice!
One of my favorite parts of this is this: Joy is a real force, and the devil doesn't have anything that can stand against it! Now THAT is great encouraging news for every born again believer! As long as we maintain our joy, then the enemy will NEVER be able to get an advantage over us! How do we do that? By meditating on the Word concerning joy. By staying filled with the Spirit through prayer in the Spirit (tongues) and worship in the Spirit! Rendering the devil powerless concerning every situation in your life is well worth any price that you have to pay to get there! AMEN! Here is Hillsong with an older song called "This Is How We Overcome":
Shalom in Him!
