13TH JANUARY, 2025
PASTOR OLUBI JOHNSON
JOY, STRENGTH AND PRAYER
Romans 14:17 KJV
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.Galatians 5:22-23 KJV
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit: it is a spiritual force that comes from the Holy Spirit to the recreated, born-again human spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).
Joy gives elation to and strengthens our emotions before we see any change in our physical circumstances (Hab. 3:17-18), irrespective of the physical circumstances. This is in contrast to happiness, which is an elation of the emotions when something good is happening, but which quickly dissipates to sadness and discouragement in negative circumstances.
We must make sure that the joy of the Lord is constantly flowing from the Holy Spirit, through our spirits into our emotions, because it is the joy of the Lord that gives us the spiritual strength to continue in prayer during tribulations (Rom. 12:12).
Nehemiah 8:10 KJV
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
In situations in which all hope seems to be lost, and there seems to be no zest or strength to even pray, like David at Ziklag when the Amalekites had carried away all their wives and children, how can we tap into the joy of the Lord? (1Sam. 30:1-4).
We tap into the joy of the Lord by thinking on the mercy of the Lord to help us in a helpless situation, like David did at Ziklag (1Sam. 30:8; Psa. 77:2-12).
So, in the day of trouble, seek God firstly by your thoughts, because you may be too weak or discouraged to even talk. As you do this, God will begin to give you joy through your thoughts by His sovereign mercy, which is always present in the air, flowing into your spirit and mind.
This joy will then give you strength to speak the Word of God in prayer to receive life, and to begin to pray in the Spirit in all kinds of prayer with tongues and travail (Eph. 6:18; Rom. 8:26; Heb. 5:7).
The power of God released through prayer will then turn your situation around and give you victory over the tribulation, like God did for David at Ziklag and Paul in the jail at Philippi (1Sam. 30:17-19; Act. 16:25-26).
So as we ‘smite’ the ‘Amalekites’, symbolizing the crucifying of the flesh by the Spirit (Rom. 8:13), in prayer by the strength of the joy we receive from the Lord through our thoughts, we too will recover all in every attack or tribulation we face!
Romans 12:12 KJV
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.
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