Online Bible College ES105-17

Essential Truths II: Walking With God

17
Walking in Joy
Joy is a primary characteristic of the Christian life. In fact, it is listed as one of the
fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). This means it is not something that you try to
manufacture, but something that comes out of the life of the Spirit. As long as you
walk in the Spirit, one of the effects in your life will be joy. Joy is an evidence that
you are walking on track with the Lord.
Read Romans 14:17 Walking with God
We are encouraged to “rejoice and be glad in Walking as a Son
[the day that the Lord has made]” (Psalm Walking as a Servant
118:24). This joy is part of the abundant life Walking as a Disciple
that Jesus came to give us.
Walking the Way of the Cross
Abundant Life Walking Yoked with Jesus
Walking in the Spirit
Read John 10:10
Walking in His Presence
Jesus came to give us a new life that was both
eternal (in duration) and abundant (in ex- Walking in Blamelessness
pression). This life is not just defined by quan- Walking as an Overcomer
tity (eternal years) but also by quality (abun- Walking in the Ways of God
dant depth). This life is described by Christ Walking as a Family
as being like “streams of living water” flow-
ing out from our innermost being (John Walking in Guidance
7:38). And this irrepressible life – life that is Walking in Grace
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“pressed down, shaken together and running Walking in Humility

over” (Luke 6:38) – has an unconquerable Walking in Forgiveness
joy as one of its main characteristics.
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Walking in Joy
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Yet in the same breath that Jesus describes Walking in Persecution

himself as the giver of this abundant life, he
also describes someone as the thief of that Walking in Balance
abundant life. Satan – the thief who comes to Walking in Perspective
“steal and kill and destroy” – seeks to steal Walking in God’s Purpose
our joy through two snares:
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Ü Legalism (Galatians 4:15; 5:1)

Ü License (Galatians 6:7-8)
Both legalism (self-effort) and license (self-gratification) are joy-stealers. The
reason why they devour joy is because they are distance-creators. They distance
you from the active presence of God, which is the source of true joy.
Read Psalm 16:11
Read Psalm 21:6
True joy comes from the righteous freedom we have in God’s Spirit. As we shall
see in this lesson, joy is the evidence of a life aligned with the purposes of God. A
person who walks with God walks in joy.

Joy and Sorrow

Read Proverbs 17:22
Joy has a healing effect. Laughter and gladness have been proven by doctors to
help speed natural healing and also to bring healing to the heart. Yet the Christian
life was never designed by God to be a constant “natural high.” As we learned in
ES105-13, the “paths of righteousness” that the Lord leads us along sometimes
will take us through “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:3-4). Both joy
and sorrow are encountered along the path of the Lord. Even Jesus – our model
for a joy-filled life – was described as “a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffer-
ing” (Isaiah 53:3).
Don’t think that the joy of the Lord means the eternal absence of sorrow. Even
Paul described himself as “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
Ecclesiastes 3:1,4 tells us:
“There is a time for everything...a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to
mourn and a time to dance.”
Read Romans 12:15
Do you notice that Paul doesn’t rail against those who are grieving, stating: “Hey,
you’re Christians! You shouldn’t grieve! You should be joyful!” No, he instructs
the Roman believers:
“...rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn...”
Copyright © 1999, The Online Bible College.

All too often, Christians have been guilty of trying to “cheer up” those who mourn,
without realizing that God as called us to mourn with them. We are to go through
the hard times as well as the good times together. Our joy is not to be a solitary
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experience; nor is our grief to be a solitary experience.

Read 1 Corinthians 12:26
Although joy is the hallmark of the Christian life, grieving also plays a part. But on
the other side of grief, there is the thaw of a renewed joy, like the spring that

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follows a bitter winter. We see this also in the example of Christ.

Read Hebrews 12:2
Christ plumbed the depths of suffering on our behalf, yet his sorrows were marked
by a silver-lined joy. It was “for the joy set before him” that Jesus endured the
suffering of the Cross. In the same way, God’s desire is to turn our sorrow into
rejoicing.
Read Psalm 126
No better example of this is the story of a pastor in New Zealand, whose wife died
giving birth to twins. The twins also died, and the young man suddenly found
himself alone, with prospect of having to raise his other children alone, with the
added cares of his church weighing upon his shoulders, with no helpmeet now to
shoulder the load. That night, in his despair, he paced his house, tears streaming
down his face, with one phrase on his lips: “Lord, how can I go on?”
But it was into the bitterness of his grief that the presence of God shone like a
piercing ray of sunshine. For as he opened his Bible, his eyes fell on one verse:
Read Psalm 30:11-12
Within minutes, the young pastor was dancing around his house, up and down the
darkened corridors, singing that psalm at the top of his voice:
Thou hast turned my mourning into dancing for me
Thou has put of my sackcloth
Thou has turned my mourning into dancing for me
And girded me with gladness
To the end my glory shall sing praise unto Thee
And not be silent
Oh, Lord my God, I will give thanks unto Thee forever
That song was to become one of the most popular praise songs of the 1970s, spread-
ing out across the world. Even today, it is sung in dozens of languages in many far-
flung regions of the globe.
This young pastor experienced a supernatural joy in the midst of deep grief and
loss. But this is not unusual. It illustrates what can be called the paradox of joy.

The Paradox of Joy

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Read Acts 5:40-42

The paradox of joy is that it doesn’t stamp out all sorrow; rather, it overrides
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sorrow. Here we find the story of the apostles being threatened, flogged, and then
released under threat of it all happening again. But was the response of the
apostles? They “left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing.” And why were the apostles rejoic-
ing? Because they considered themselves “counted worthy of suffering disgrace
for the Name.” Their suffering didn’t disappear; it was simply overridden by a
greater joy.
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Read Acts 16:25

The paradox of true joy is that it is not dependent upon happy circumstances. In
fact, it is not dependent on outside circumstances whatsoever. From all outward
appearance, Paul and Silas had hit rock bottom in that Philippian dungeon. They
had been thoroughly and mercilessly scourged. Salt had been rubbed into the
backs, disinfecting the wounds but causing excruciating pain. And their hands
and feet had been secured in stocks, separated at a degree that was designed to
increase their discomfort and deprive them of sleep. But what do we find Paul and
Silas doing at midnight, the hour of groaning? Singing praise to God at the top of
their voices!
The source of God’s joy is internal, not external. Unless we understand this simple
fact, we will never understand the outlandish claims that the Bible makes – state-
ments that seem, on the surface, self-contradictory. Let’s take a look at just a few
of them.
Read James 1:2
James makes the bold declaration:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds...”
Imagine it! Considering trials and persecutions and sufferings as “pure joy”! Pe-
ter echoes these words in 1 Peter 1:6, when he writes:
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to
suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”
What kind of “religion” is this that has the audacity to expect that joy might come
despite suffering. In fact, the Amplified Bible goes so far as describing the suffer-
ing Christians whom Peter is addressing as “exceedingly glad.”
Read 2 Corinthians 7:4
“I am greatly encouraged,” writes Paul, for “in all our troubles my joy knows no
bounds.” Paul then goes on in verse 5 to describe his troubles as being “harassed
at every turn – conflicts on the outside, fears within.” Yet it was in this context
that Paul exclaimed, “my joy knows no bounds”!
And this supernatural joy was not Paul’s experience alone, but also the common
Copyright © 1999, The Online Bible College.

testimony of all who believed on the message he preached. In 1 Thessalonians

1:6, he reminds the Thessalonian believers:
“You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you
welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.”
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Unless we pick up that one phrase, “with the joy given by the Holy Spirit,” we
might think that the New Testament writers had missed the plot completely.
After all, how can you have joy in the midst of suffering? Surely you need to
remove the suffering before joy can be experienced?

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But it is the “joy given by the Holy Spirit” that makes all the difference. This
corresponds to Jesus’ words in John 7:38, when he described “streams of living
water” flowing out from your innermost being – “living water” that he goes on in
verse 39 to ascribe to the Holy Spirit.
It is the fact that God himself is the source of our joy that gives it its supernatural
quality. Just as God is larger than the problems we face, so his joy is greater than
our troubles.

The Foundation of Joy

Read Romans 15:13
God is described by Paul as “the God of hope,” and it is in the midst of this revela-
tion of the hope of God that we are filled “with all joy and peace as you trust in
him...” We can see three interesting facts revealed by this scripture:
Ü Joy and hope are related
Ü Joy and peace are related
Ü Joy and trust are related
The defining characteristic of this verse, however, is hope. In fact, so powerful is
this hope, Paul states that God intends for the Roman Christians to “overflow
with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Like a cup overflowing, the abundance
of the hope that God pours into your life overflows into an expression of great joy.
This is why Paul declares that “ the God of hope [will] fill you with all joy and
peace as you trust in him.” It is in the overflow of hope that we experience the joy
of the Holy Spirit.
Read Luke 6:22-23
The only reason we can consider ourselves “blessed” when people revile us be-
cause of the name of Christ is because we see beyond the immediate circum-
stances. In fact, Jesus tells us not just to “rejoice” but also to “leap for joy”! Why?
“...because great is your reward in heaven.”
The Amplified Bible gives an extra twist to Jesus’ words:
“Rejoice and be glad at such a time, and exult and leap for joy, for behold,
your reward is rich and great and strong and intense and abundant in heaven...”
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Joy is a product of seeing life with a divine perspective. Remember that it was
“for the joy set before him [Christ] endured the cross.”
Read Romans 5:2-5
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Where does Paul say our joy is found? We rejoice, he writes, “in the hope of the
glory of God,” and it is for that reason that we are able to “rejoice in our suffer-
ings” because we know that our sufferings are producing within us the very thing
for which we hope! This is why the writer to the Hebrews was able to record that
the early believers “joyfully accepted the confiscation of [their] property, because
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[they] knew that [they] had better and lasting possessions” (Hebrews 10:34).
These early believers were no different to you or me. They were not superhu-
man. What made a difference for them, however, was the joy of knowing that
nothing could be taken from them that wouldn’t be returned in abundant mea-
sure. Theirs was the joy of hope.
As the Living Bible paraphrases 1 Peter 1:6:
“So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though the going is
rough for a while down here.”
This was why Peter was later able to write in 4:13:
“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as
though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you par-
ticipate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his
glory is revealed.”
Read Romans 12:12

Release of Joy
Read Philippians 4:4
Paul’s letter to the Philippians is often described as “the epistle of joy.” In fact, it’s
not surprising that it was in a Philippian jail, bound in stocks, that we find Paul
and Silas praising God at the top of their voices.
In his introduction to Philippians, Eugene Peterson writes:
“This is Paul’s happiest letter. And the happiness is infectious...Paul doesn’t
just tell us that we can be happy, or how to be happy. He simply and unmis-
takably is happy. None of his circumstances contribute to his joy: He wrote
from a jail cell, his work was under attack by competitors, and after twenty
years or so of hard traveling in the service of Jesus, he was tired and would
have welcomed some relief. But circumstances are incidental compared to
the life of Jesus, the Messiah, that Paul experiences from the inside. For it is
a life that not only happened at a certain point in history, but continues to
happen, spilling out into the lives of those who receive him. Christ is, among
much else, the revelation that God cannot be contained or hoarded. It is this
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‘spilling out’ quality of Christ’s life that accounts for the happiness of Chris-
tians, for joy is life in excess, the overflow of what cannot be contained within
any one person.”1
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That one phrase – “joy is life in excess” – fully describes the dynamic of biblical
joy. Joy is “the overflow of what cannot be contained within any one person.” No
wonder Paul exclaims:
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

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Read 1 Thessalonians 5:16

The Christian has every reason to rejoice. We rejoice because God is on the throne
(1 Chronicles 16:31), because we have peace with God (Romans 5:1-2,11), be-
cause we have a share in Christ’s inheritance (Colossians 1:11-12), because our
names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20), because we have been released from
Satan’s bondage (Acts 8:5-8) and because we have received such a great salva-
tion (Psalm 13:5; Isaiah 51:3,11; 55:12). But most of all, we rejoice not just for
what God has done, but in God himself (Luke 1:47; Habakkuk 3:17-18).
Read Hebrews 1:9
Joy was part of the anointing on Jesus (see Acts 2:25-28), and is also the anoint-
ing that God pours on the believer. The same oil of joy that rested upon Christ is
now poured out onto your head (note Psalm 23:5).
Read Isaiah 61:3

The Simple Secret to Joy

Read John 15:11
Jesus makes a simple but profound statement to his disciples:
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be
complete.”
What was it that Jesus had just said? What statement had he made for the ex-
press purpose that “my joy may be in you” and that “your joy may be complete”?
Read John 15:10
This verse records what Jesus had told His disciples in order that they may ex-
perience true joy. And the answer is somewhat surprising:
“If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love...”
This is the simple statement that Jesus had made, after which he said, “I have
told you this so that my joy may be in you...”
Obedience is the key to joy! Think about it for a moment. Joy is the experience of
every person when they take that first step of obedience to God by receiving
Copyright © 1999, The Online Bible College.

Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:6).

But many Christians wonder where that first joy goes. In fact, it didn’t go any-
where. What is needed is a continuing walk of obedience. You can’t live off the joy
of old obedience; it is a daily walk with the Lord and a daily experience of joy.
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Read John 17:13

The express desire of the Lord Jesus is that you “may have the full measure of
[his] joy within [you].” This “full measure of...joy” is comprised of two comple-
mentary aspects.

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Ü The joy of the Lord – God has great joy (Zephaniah 3:17). This is the
first half of “the full measure” of joy that Jesus describes, when he says:
“my joy may be in you...”
Ü Your joy – You will never experience greater joy that by obeying God.
This is the joy that Jesus describes as “your joy may be complete.”
The overflow of joy is when these two aspects of joy mix – “my joy” and “your
joy.” How does it work? Let’s use a modern day parable.

The Parable of the Reluctant Teenager

There was once a father who had a son. This son was not a rebellious son – he
would obey the commands of his father, but his obedience was reluctant, the prod-
uct of duty rather than desire.
Each Saturday morning, the father would tell his son: “Son, please mow the lawn.”
And being the good son that he was, he would obey his father. But the reluctance
showed, and although he never voiced his complaint, he would grumble under his
breath. The son had obeyed the father, but there was no joy.
Then one Saturday, the son said to himself:
“I love my father. Is there anything I can do for him to show him my love.
Maybe I can buy him a gift, or cook him some breakfast, or...”
And at that moment, the father said to the son: “Son, please mow the lawn.”
Immediately the son saw his opportunity to express his love. He answered gladly,
and started the lawn mower, pushing it with great enthusiasm across the grass.
And as he mowed the lawn, the son noticed something different about this Satur-
day. There was a spring in his step. There was a tune on his lips. And there was a
smile on his face. This time he was obeying the father, not out of duty, but out of
love. And the result was joy.
When he had finished, he put away the lawn mower and entered the house. It was
only then that he realized something else was different. There was a smile on his
father’s face. Not only had he experienced joy in obeying father, but his father
now shared his own joy with the son. The father’s joy was now in the son, and the
son’s joy was complete.
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Many times, Christians ask, “How do I get joy?” The answer is simple. “Obey the
Father.” “But I do obey,” some say. “I keep my Father’s commands, but still I
have no joy.”
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What we need to understand is that there is obedience, and then there is obedi-
ence. The first kind is an outer obedience – a dutiful obedience. This kind of obe-
dience brings no joy to your heart and no joy to your Father’s heart.
The second kind of obedience is an inner obedience, the obedience of love. This is
the kind of obedience that Jesus was talking about when he said:

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“If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love...”

It is only a love-motivated obedience that results in joy, but this joy is a double-
portion of joy – your joy mixed with the Lord’s joy. This is what Jesus meant
when he said:
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be
complete.”
When we obey his commands – not out of duty, but because we love him – then
not only will our joy be complete, but his joy will also fill us. We get double joy –
our joy in obeying the Lord and his joy on top of that!
Read Psalm 19:8

Unconquerable Joy
Read again Luke 6:22-23
What force in the world can conquer someone with the joy of the Lord? This is
why Nehemiah declares that “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah
8:10).
Read 1 Peter 1:8
Because our joy comes from the Holy Spirit and not from the circumstances, Chris-
tians have a joy that is unconquerable. In fact, our walk with God is a way paved
with joy – from the first moment of our birth into the kingdom right through to
when we are finally ushered into the full glory of God’s presence.
Read Jude 24
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1
Eugene H. Peterson, The Message (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1994), p.487.
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Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from the Bible are from the New International Version, copyright © 1973,
1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

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