THE JOY OF THE SPIRIT part one

Beloved, you have to learn the things of God, it doesn’t and it won’t jump on you; that is why God added the teaching ministry to the church so that you can learn how to do what you need to do to make your life better. Just like you go to school to learn how to be a doctor, or a nurse or learn how to be a professional in any field you desire; so also you learn the things of God. For those who learnt how to be professionals in mechanics, I believe the first time you handled the spanner, it felt strange and you were not flowing with it because you were not a professional yet. But now I believe there is a great difference in your handling of the various tools and equipment from when you started. This is as a result of putting it to work over and over again. Whatsoever you practice over and over again you become a professional at. This is why we always admonish you to learn the things of God so that you become a professional in it.

In the book of 1st Timothy 4:7 the Bible says, “But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.” In other words, learn to do things like God would have you do things, you have to learn it; it won’t fall on you. I remember when I started putting my faith to work, I was feeling sick and I spoke to my body to be healed in the name of Jesus Christ but the healing didn’t come; but I didn’t give up and eventually it started working. It will work for you in the Jesus name but you have to learn it. You don’t have to give it up. There are so many of us who put the word to work for the first time and once it doesn’t produce result, they give it up. Because it doesn’t work the first time doesn’t mean it won’t work, it will work but you have to keep working it. For those of you who know how to drive, the first time you started learning; did it work out perfectly? No, but you continued and now you are a professional in it. The same applies in Christendom. You must continue, if you don’t continue you will never be a professional. You will fail but you must get up and move forward until you become a success. Those are the things God pays attention to in your life that makes Him to bless you. It gets to a point in your life when you learn how to pray and it becomes difficult for your prayers not to be answered because you are a professional now. For example can you imagine the prayers of Jesus not been answered but Jesus didn’t start like that. The Bible says He learnt obedience from the things He suffered. You have to learn also; and don’t you ever look down on yourself because you are failing now. Failure is an event, it will pass and if you don’t give up, you will become a professional. The New International Version (NIV) renders 1st Timothy 4:7 this way, “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.” You can become a spiritual giant if you train yourself and don’t give up. You may fail several times but if you don’t give up eventually you will become a spiritual giant.

When you fail, God understands why you are failing but what He wants you to do is to keep putting the word to work. That is why those challenges or trials come to you so that you can train with them. You train with problems, to solve problems and when you solve them by the faith that is in you. You become a success and when greater ones come you overcome them but when you are not able to deal with the little ones that has been coming, when the big challenges comes, you will not be able to handle it. But you have to allow these things to pass through you, don’t look for an easy way out.

You can’t receive anything from the God without joy. This is the reason I am emphasizing that you have to learn how to exercise yourself unto godliness. You have to learn spiritual things; it is not going to happen automatically. You might say how am I going to learn how to be joyful when things are not ok? That is the problem, if you have to wait for things to be okay before you become joyful, you will never be joyful. The expression of your joy brings out the manifestation of your blessings. No joy in expression, God will never answer you. If you want the devil to keep piling problems upon you, go with a straight face all the time. No matter how much you cry, God does not attend to tears. God attends to faith that is stimulated with joy. “...the joy of the LORD is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10). No joy no strength, you lose your joy, you lose your strength. That is why the devil fights you all the time with problems, so that you can describe yourself with the problem that you have. Jesus said in the book of John 16:22, “...your joy no man taketh away from you.” Don’t let the devil take your joy. Whatever happens to you, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers’ temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” James 1:2-4. When you lose your joy, you lose your faith because the Bibles says in Romans 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” In other words, where there is no righteousness, peace and joy the kingdom cannot work. When you want to destroy the kingdom of God in your life, keep frowning and complaining to people. Your problem doesn’t describe your position, it is you who decides whether you will be happy inspite of the trials you are going through. 1st Thessalonians 5:16 says, “Rejoice evermore.” Rejoice evermore, that is to say rejoice always, whether there be trials or not; you have to learn to rejoice all the time. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” When you are happy and always joyful, it is difficult for you to be sick. Joy is a medicine; it heals you from your flesh to your bone marrows. So rejoice and rejoice all the time that is why Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” Don’t let the devil take your joy and your peace from you. Always celebrate Christ, if you don’t have something to celebrate, the Bible says in the book of Romans 12:12, “Rejoicing in hope...” That is to say that you believe that things will get better. You can’t receive anything from God except with joy. Isaiah 12:3 says, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” That is to say, if you don’t have joy, you can’t receive anything from God.

To be continued next month. God bless you.