Joy is a Spiritual fruit, Happiness is a Choice
January 27, 2016
Joy is a Spiritual fruit, Happiness is a Choice
1 Timothy 6:6
But godliness with contentment is great gain.
Isaiah 12:3 says, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” The thing I have experienced through my life is that when I am walking the closest in fellowship and relationship with the Lord is when I experience the greatest joy in life. Since joy is a spiritual attribute and fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22-23, it only makes sense that as we walk in the Spirit and feed off of the fullness and goodness of God we are going to experience the joy and contentment of the Lord. The thing about the joy of the Lord is that it isn’t dependent up the circumstances around us. There can be great storms raging in our lives, but yet joy and peace can remain in our hearts when our eyes are fixed on Christ and upon the promises of His Word. When we walk in the Spirit we see things and life from a God perspective. If it pleases the Lord, it pleases us. It is no longer about all of my needs and my wants being fulfilled. This is where a lot of people confuse joy and happiness. If happiness is reliant upon our feelings then it is going to be an elusive experience. It will be here one minute and gone the next. Why, because our feelings are up and down. It rides the roller coaster of our emotions. The feelings of happiness are circumstantial. They are based again a lot on self: self-contentment, self-fulfillment, self-gratification, but not on self-control.
Here is an example many of us can relate with: Why do I have an unhappy marriage? He or she doesn’t meet my needs. They only think about themselves. They don’t care if I am happy or fulfilled. They don’t provide enough. They don’t give enough. They don’t do enough. What is the central theme you hear in all of these phrases? You don’t make me happy and what makes you happy for a short time is going to change to feelings of unhappiness and discontentment the moment your expectations aren’t met. Happiness has to be a choice that you make that isn’t dependent upon what someone else does or doesn’t do. I read this morning where marriages are more successful with people who go into marriage as already happy people rather than those who go into marriage looking for happiness. Don’t put the responsibility for your happiness upon someone else. That is your responsibility. Otherwise you are always going to be disappointed and hurt. People can never give you what only God can give you and that is joy and contentment.
Our verse today is so powerful because it is short but it says so much, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” It simply says we have made a decision that God is enough. What ever He supplies and provides in my life is enough. That may be much or that may be little, but as long as I have God that is enough. The apostle Paul made the statement in Philippians 4:11-13, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, [therewith] to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Paul didn’t have his eyes on people to meet his needs. Many of the churches didn’t help him financially or support him. He could have gotten bitter or angry or upset with them, but he didn’t. They weren’t his source and his supply, God was. He had learned to be content with whatever God brought into his life because he had this revelation; “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Who is your strength today? Who is your supply? Who is your joy and contentment? Maybe anger, bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness have come in to make you so miserable because you have been looking to others to meet your needs and they have disappointed you. Let us learn what Paul did, that the Lord is enough. We can make the decision that we are going to be happy because God is enough rather in much or little, rather we are abased or abound, rather we are full or we are hungry. In order to experience the fullness of joy in our salvation we must take our eyes off of us and let Christ become the focus of why we live. We live to serve not to be served. We live to give and not to take. We live that in all things we may please Him who has given us life. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).” Experience the joy of your salvation by walking in the Spirit and make the choice to be happy because of the One that resides within you.
Blessings,
#kent
The River of God
February 6, 2014
The River of God
Revelations 22:1-2
And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations.
I believe that through the ages of time there runs a river of life from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It is a river of Truth and Revelation that God is unfolding to mankind as it flows to the consummation of the ages. Christ, the Lamb of God, is the greatest truth this river has brought to mankind. We know that He indeed is the Tree of Life that was there even in the Garden of Eden. This river has ever been a source of blessing and spiritual fruitfulness. Psalms 46:2-5 says, “Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; [Though] the waters thereof roar [and] be troubled, [though] the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. [There is] a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy [place] of the tabernacles of the most High. God [is] in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, [and that] right early.” It is my prayer that you have been baptized and immersed in that river today, that you are, in fact, the wellspring of the life that is in that river. That river is not a natural one, but that of the Spirit of God that flows through humanity in the lives of those who are yielded to Him. When we are in the center of His Life we are in that river. Jesus says in John 7:38, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers ofliving water.”
It is producing the fruitfulness of the Spirit in your life. There is a divine dispensation of that tree of Life in the midst of the river. It yielded its fruit every month. Through the Word of God and over time we have seen God revealing Himself more and more to man. The greatest revelation has been in the revelation of Himself through the incarnate man Christ Jesus. In Christ we see what God looks like in the flesh, how He acts and the fruit of His life. We caught the vision and experienced the revelation of His grace and salvation through His blood. When all around is shaken and moved we still have a river that makes glad the city of God.
Through the church age we have seen different marked times when God would raise up and an individual or individuals through whom He would reveal a greater truth about Himself. The greatest tragedy we see in this is not that the truths were not real and precious, but men built a doctrine and a religion around that truth, it became a source of exclusiveness where they saw themselves a little more right and perhaps a little more godly than others. So they established churches, denominations and schools around that particular doctrine of truth. Today we see all these denominations and we wonder can they all be right or which one is right? God is not “a” doctrine or “a” truth, He is “the” Truth. The River of Truth that is never stagnant or still, but continues to flow and reveal itself in greater truth. The denominations have become the product of man’s work that have served to often splinter and divide the body of Christ rather that which causes it to function in unity and oneness as God purposed it too. If this is where you see your life today 1 John 2:27 says, “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye neednot that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” It is not to say that churches aren’t good and that we can’t learn from other men, but don’t relinquish the teacher you have within you, the anointing that is leading you into truth as you abide in Him. This is your River. We don’t want to find ourselves in the little eddy by the side of the river that just flows round and round but never goes anywhere new. We want to be out in the depths of the river moving and continually growing in the swell of its Truth. As part of that mainstream of the River of God we carry the fruit and fruitfulness of the Tree of Life for the healing of the nations. You are the leaves and the fruit of the Vine. It is through you and me that God is manifesting His Life and Truth to the world today through the Life giving and revealing Spirit of Truth within us. We are not to be a stagnant pond of ‘has beens” who once experienced God and know about God, but are not experiencing Him in power and fullness. If this sounds too much like you then it is time to wade back out into the River and experience the baptism of renewal and refreshing that the Holy Spirit brings. Come alive and be a part of the pure crystal waters and a part of the tree of Life for the healing of the nations. Our God is a dynamic force. He is never stale, stagnant or complacent, but is always moving. Get in His current and let it carry you to the places of Life in Him He wants to take you.
From Such Turn Away
August 28, 2013
From Such Turn Away
2 Timothy 3:5
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
This scripture comes after Paul gives a description of a people you would think would be obvious that they were not Christians, for he writes in 2 Timothy 3:1-4, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” Yet, these people, as ungodly as they are, are described as having a form of godliness, but their very nature denies the power of it. 2 Corinthians 11:14 describes a similar situation of how satan often appears to us, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” Does that mean he is an angel of light or simply masquerades or disguises himself as one? If we are gullible and take everything and everyone at face value, we are open to deception. Most likely many of us have been deceived at one time or another by someone, who having a form of godliness, came in with heresies or teachings that subtly distorted and manipulated God’s Word to appear to say and teach something different than what the Holy Spirit was conveying. There are those that would love nothing more than to draw us away unto themselves and through there teachings or influence shipwreck our faith. Obviously that is why Paul is telling Timothy “from such turn away.”
Jesus gives the same type of exhortation to his disciples in Matthew 7:14-23, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the w!y, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; ” a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
The message here is plain, just because a tree looks like an apple tree doesn’t necessarily mean it is, but if it is, it will bear apples and not some other type of fruit. While none of us professes our lives to be manifesting perfection just yet, we are told that by observing the fruit, the behavior, the attitudes, the true nature of a person; we will be able to discern if they are really of Christ or not. One can only hide their true identity and nature for so long until it will show itself for what it is. Beware that not everyone professing Christ is of Christ. They may well be as deceived in as much as they are trying to deceive you. Don’t compromise the standard of God’s Word. It doesn’t change no matter how spiritual someone professes to be or how much Greek and Hebrew they say they know. Hold fast to the foundational principles of the faith. If God is showing you a deeper revelation of a truth in His word that does not follow conventional teaching He will confirm it for you if you seek him. It won’t have to just come through one person or one source, there will be other witnesses to it and it won’t go counter to God’s Word.
The exhortation is when we recognize these ones who only have a form of godliness, but lack the true Spirit of Christ in them, turn away from them and have no more fellowship with them. It doesn’t mean that you take up a judgmental spirit or that you don’t try to restore those who are in error, but if they are unwilling to see their error and turn from it, then have no more fellowship with them. If you continue to associate yourself with them you will be drawn away and corrupted by them. Be vigilant and discerning of those you have fellowship with, that they have true godliness and not just a mere pretense of it.
Blessings,
kent