The Fruit of the Spirit 30 (Introduction to Joy)

 The Fruit of the Spirit (Introduction to Joy)

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,"
Galatians 5:22 (NKJV)

For some weeks, I have shared about love from a biblical perspective. Starting with this article, I will be sharing about joy from a biblical perspective.

The first thing I want us to know is that joy is an essential component of the Christian life. It is so important that it appears over 100 times in the Old Testament and over 50 times in the New Testament. I am sharing this background because I have discovered that many believers don't experience joy. We talk about love, patience, and faith, but joy is equally important.

Galatians 5:22 shows us that joy is one of the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit, the second on the list. This highlights its significance. Unfortunately, the reason we have not been walking in this dimension of the Spirit is that we have reduced joy to just a feeling.

Joy is one of the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit. It is not just a feeling; it is a component. Just as love, faith, and patience are essential for Christian living, joy is equally essential. Without it, you cannot live and manifest the life of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is the life of Christ springing up in us through the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the first thing I want to debunk is the reduction of joy to just a feeling. No, it is tangible!

According to Strong's Concordance, joy in Greek is "chara," which means calm delight or inner gladness. The word "chara" is also related to two other words: "chairo," which means rejoice, and "charis," which means grace. So, if I could put these three together, I would say that joy (chara) means to rejoice because of God's grace that we have received.

So, what is the grace of God that we have received? 2 Corinthians 8:9 gives a perspective on what God's grace is: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9 (NKJV). The grace of God is the person of Christ Jesus, including His finished work on the cross. When a person receives by faith all that Jesus did on the cross, the resultant effect is joy. It does not matter what is done or undone. What matters is that we have received Jesus and His beautiful work for us on the cross as our own. Thus, joy is the by-product of the Holy Spirit living in those who put their faith in Christ.

Do you have the Holy Spirit? If yes, then you already possess joy, and you have the potential to walk in everyday joy irrespective of the circumstances. This is the truth of the gospel. But is this truth real in our lives? Whether we experience it or not, it remains the truth. But God's intention is for us to enjoy His joy. That is why He has given us the Holy Spirit. Joy is so essential that without it, we will not be able to find, follow, and fulfill divine destiny.

Putting it in perspective to our experience: biblical joy comes from the Lord. It is a perpetual gladness of the heart that comes from knowing, experiencing, and trusting in Christ and in all that He has done. Finally, joy is the reaction and response of the soul to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In short, we can only experience joy by knowing the person of Jesus and His finished work. Therefore, in the course of this series, we will delve into knowing Jesus so well that we can fully experience joy.


Article written by Peter Ayoola Fakeye (PAF)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE VICTOR’S MENTALITY 17 (Knowing Jesus Is Knowing Truth)

Calvary greetings, my beloved readers! Today, we’ll continue exploring the armor of God, focusing on the belt of truth, which we began discussing last time. This armor equips us to stand against the wiles of the evil one. We’ve shared quite a bit about the belt of truth already, so to catch up, please check out our blog site for the full teaching . Here’s our key text:“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,” (Ephesians 6:14 NKJV) One thing I don’t want us to forget is that truth is how God sees things. That’s the truth! For our belief system to be firmly rooted in Christ, we need to see things the way God sees them. So, today, we’ll dive into how to see things as God does. This is foundational to cultivating a victor’s mentality. Let me start by declaring that Jesus is the truth:“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14:6 NKJV). No one—living or dead...
Read more

THE VICTOR'S MENTALITY 9 (The devil is a Liar)

  In this article, I will begin sharing about the second phase of our series: understanding who our opposition is. We’ve already explored the first phase, which focused on the type of strength we have and its source. Let’s revisit our reference text:   "Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11 NKJV)  It is crucial to know who our opposition is—the one who does everything possible to hinder you from walking in everyday victory. Many grace-based believers argue that it’s unnecessary to talk about the devil. Sure, we are not devil-conscious, but as ministers, there’s nothing wrong with presenting the devil the way Jesus and His Apostles did. My issue is with those who attribute to the devil what he does not possess. Nowhere in Scripture do Jesus or the Apostles describe the devil as having any power or authority. If we can see the devil as the Bible presents him, that alone is the victor’s mentality. Th...
Read more

THE VICTOR’S MENTALITY 20 (Knowing Jesus Is Knowing Truth 4)

By God’s grace, in today’s article, we’ll finish what we started about knowing Jesus intimately in the Scriptures. We’ve already discussed three ways to see Jesus intimately through the Scriptures: • Photographically in the Gospels • Doctrinally in the Epistles • Prophetically in the Old Testament By God’s grace, I’ll share two more in this article. You can check the previous article to get the full experience of what we’ve taught. Another way we must know Jesus, who is the truth, is: 4. Experientially in the Believer’s Life We need to understand that knowing and seeing Jesus goes beyond theological or intellectual knowledge; the aim must be to know Jesus personally and experientially. That’s what I intend to share with you in today’s write-up and this is the aim of the Scriptures. We’ve talked about knowing Jesus through the Gospels, Epistles, and Old Testament—all to these is to an end that it leads us to a living relationship with the person of Christ. To have an experiential relat...
Read more