Romans 15:13
“ Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
For the past week or so I have made this verse a topic that I wanted to explore a little more, with that being stated I have taken my time in exploring this verse. Before I go into some thoughts on "fill you with all joy" I wanted to write about what happen to me Sunday morning while I was at church. For whatever reason here recently I have been dreading going to church for various reasons, but the most important one to me was the lack of satisfaction of being there. I felt as though it was more out of duty then out of desire.
Sunday morning my family was up bright and early as we made our long awaited 45-minute trip to church. The journey was rather peaceful because I think it was one of the few times we left early enough to make it on time, (in my family this is consider a miracle) thus cutting out any obstacles that could or would cause an argument. As we made it into the sanctuary my wife found some seats that were pretty close to the front, which was a plus. Once we were seated I picked up our youngest daughter Abigail and held on to her while we sang a new song (I mean that literally). While we were singing I could see a picture in my mind that the Lord was drawing close to me and was enjoying my heart felt song that I was singing to Him. It was a moment where I felt as though I was starting to become "undone". The louder I tried to sing, the more emotion that swelled inside of me that caused such tears of joy to flow down my face. I could not bare it anymore because if I continued to sing I would have been weeping the entire time like a baby. It was a moment that was filled with so much joy and yet it was a moment of holy fear in respect to the fact God was zoning in on my worship to Him. It was just great for me because my whole being was literally in awe of who He was and I wanted to be so wrapped up in Him.
After singing a few songs and making it back to earth per se, (Yeah it felt like heaven) my pastor was talking about taking an offering to send over to Africa to help out a ministry that we are becoming close with through certain networks. Well, then came the whole "greeting folks" moment that many times I despise but I do it; though it is not with enthusiasm. During this moment a painting was presented to me that was painted earlier in the week by one of the young lady's and it had some "prophetic insight" to this painting. At first I put the painting down as gesture that I will read what it means later, but the Holy Spirit told me to pick it up and read it. Let me just tell you in that moment I was completely “undone” because it was a word that was needed for my life, but also because it brought confirmation to some things that were in the secret places of my heart. It was during this moment that I was filled with joy.
Now here is the ironic part, I had all intentions of coming home later that night to continue to write about what I though it meant to be "filled with all joy"; it was then that my pastor began talking about John 16 and about joy-go figure! Since I was seeking what it meant to be filled with "all joy" I was all ears and did not care to filter out stuff depending whether or not I agreed with it. For the next 30 minutes I was just listening trying to discover what it means to be filled with "all joy". After the meeting we came home and enjoyed the rest of the day together, however, because I was tired I did not write an entry in my blog for two more days. During these past two days I still have been on my quest to know what it means to be "filled with all joy". So this evening I wanted to just give a brief over view of what I have discovered.
There are two types of joy, one created by God for man to enjoy and one created by God for man to be sustained by. There is a verse in Romans 14:17 that says "the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking (enjoyment created by God for man to enjoy) but rather righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit (the one that is supernatural that was created to sustain man). The kingdom of God is a kingdom of joy! There were a couple verses in the Book of John were Jesus made mention that He wanted us to have our joy made complete or full. In the next couple of blog entries I will talk about joy and how it impacts the believer when they allow the Holy Spirit to make their joy complete and full with His presence
“ Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
For the past week or so I have made this verse a topic that I wanted to explore a little more, with that being stated I have taken my time in exploring this verse. Before I go into some thoughts on "fill you with all joy" I wanted to write about what happen to me Sunday morning while I was at church. For whatever reason here recently I have been dreading going to church for various reasons, but the most important one to me was the lack of satisfaction of being there. I felt as though it was more out of duty then out of desire.
Sunday morning my family was up bright and early as we made our long awaited 45-minute trip to church. The journey was rather peaceful because I think it was one of the few times we left early enough to make it on time, (in my family this is consider a miracle) thus cutting out any obstacles that could or would cause an argument. As we made it into the sanctuary my wife found some seats that were pretty close to the front, which was a plus. Once we were seated I picked up our youngest daughter Abigail and held on to her while we sang a new song (I mean that literally). While we were singing I could see a picture in my mind that the Lord was drawing close to me and was enjoying my heart felt song that I was singing to Him. It was a moment where I felt as though I was starting to become "undone". The louder I tried to sing, the more emotion that swelled inside of me that caused such tears of joy to flow down my face. I could not bare it anymore because if I continued to sing I would have been weeping the entire time like a baby. It was a moment that was filled with so much joy and yet it was a moment of holy fear in respect to the fact God was zoning in on my worship to Him. It was just great for me because my whole being was literally in awe of who He was and I wanted to be so wrapped up in Him.
After singing a few songs and making it back to earth per se, (Yeah it felt like heaven) my pastor was talking about taking an offering to send over to Africa to help out a ministry that we are becoming close with through certain networks. Well, then came the whole "greeting folks" moment that many times I despise but I do it; though it is not with enthusiasm. During this moment a painting was presented to me that was painted earlier in the week by one of the young lady's and it had some "prophetic insight" to this painting. At first I put the painting down as gesture that I will read what it means later, but the Holy Spirit told me to pick it up and read it. Let me just tell you in that moment I was completely “undone” because it was a word that was needed for my life, but also because it brought confirmation to some things that were in the secret places of my heart. It was during this moment that I was filled with joy.
Now here is the ironic part, I had all intentions of coming home later that night to continue to write about what I though it meant to be "filled with all joy"; it was then that my pastor began talking about John 16 and about joy-go figure! Since I was seeking what it meant to be filled with "all joy" I was all ears and did not care to filter out stuff depending whether or not I agreed with it. For the next 30 minutes I was just listening trying to discover what it means to be filled with "all joy". After the meeting we came home and enjoyed the rest of the day together, however, because I was tired I did not write an entry in my blog for two more days. During these past two days I still have been on my quest to know what it means to be "filled with all joy". So this evening I wanted to just give a brief over view of what I have discovered.
There are two types of joy, one created by God for man to enjoy and one created by God for man to be sustained by. There is a verse in Romans 14:17 that says "the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking (enjoyment created by God for man to enjoy) but rather righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit (the one that is supernatural that was created to sustain man). The kingdom of God is a kingdom of joy! There were a couple verses in the Book of John were Jesus made mention that He wanted us to have our joy made complete or full. In the next couple of blog entries I will talk about joy and how it impacts the believer when they allow the Holy Spirit to make their joy complete and full with His presence
