Joy comes by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Joy empowers believers to accomplish the good works predestined for them by their Heavenly Father. Jesus first obtained the anointing of the “oil of joy” by completing His righteous acts. Jesus resisted sin unto death and when He was murdered for his goodness, He rose to live again. Upon re-entering Heaven, Jesus sat down on the right-hand of God and all who name Jesus as Lord also, sit at God’s right hand; as they abide in Jesus by faith. Through the obedience of believers, the good works predetermined in Christ, continue to be accomplished and God’s Will is done on earth as it is done in Heaven.
Joy in Jesus is expressed through righteous acts. These acts bring goodness into the lives of others but they aren’t acts done in service to self or other human beings. Righteousness is the product of serving God only and doing His Will. Doing what God teaches as right is the only true path to healthy self-esteem. Obedience to God forms the building blocks of self-respect. While service of self ends in self-consumption, service to the whims of others ends in exhaustion. It is impossible for human beings to satisfy human need. Service to God fills the need of self, the needs of others, and ends in producing the spiritual fruit of joy.
Joy is the attitude of Righteousness, the correct balance between self and others. It is the attitude that enables believers to endure the hardships of living in a dark and dying world. The world runs in pursuit of happiness, either by pleasing self or others; but happiness is fleeting and joy doesn’t last. Everything the world promises ends in death. There is no lasting joy except the joy found through faith in Jesus. There is no other way for believers to increase their joy but through obedience and by completing the good works predestined for them in Christ. No matter how hard life gets, the believer who persists in obedience, will not come up empty-handed but instead, be fulfilled in joy and find contentment in every painful circumstance. Joy is buoyancy and it enables God’s children to spiritually, survive all the storms of life.
The joy in Jesus that comes by faith and the anointing of the Holy Spirit can’t die but by disobedience it is diminished. In too many believers today, joy is only a flicker of what it is intended to be. Believers rob themselves of personal fulfillment through disobedience and the world grows darker as joyless Christians cease to act as the light others so desperately need. Joy increases as freedom from personal sin, with the new purpose of fulfilling the works of God’s right-hand, is realized by faith and actualized through obedience. Disobedience makes sour lemons out of joyful children of God. Believers, who want to experience everlasting joy, must do as Jesus does and live to serve only the Father.
If you don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior, don’t hesitate to open your heart and mind to Him. By doing so, you will receive the gift of eternal life and receive the anointing of joy. If you are a believer but your walk of faith isn’t as joyful as it used to be, don’t hesitate to draw closer to God by doing more than reading His Word; live your daily life in obedience to the Word. God will provide all our mortal bodies need as we surrender our ways to God’s ways and learn to be like Jesus, the Living Word. Jesus paved the Way to a joyful, abundant life by His righteous acts of obedience and all we’re asked to do is follow. Joy is available to all who choose to listen and obey.
Hebrews 1:8-9
joyindestructible 