(Please check Part 1 of this post: The Joy of the Lord: Comprehensive Lessons From Nehemiah 8:10 – Part 1)

Unpacking the Layers of Truth (Contd)

3. Joy is ignited in the heart when we know, understand, and are inclined to respond with necessity and urgency to the words of the certainty of truth.

‘for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.’ – Romans 14:17.

Truth catalyses joy within us as we yield and give obedience to its dynamics. Yes, we may get some fleeting sense of emotional satisfaction and fading eureka with acquiring things. But, true, lasting, and supreme joy and satisfaction are entered into only through the aperture of the understanding of the cause and the purpose for those tools (because that is what they essentially are).

4.  The joy is both potential and kinetic in energy nomenclature and characterization. What do I mean? The joy not only gives resident rest to a man’s soul, and domiciled satisfaction to his ever labouring heart. It also produces the energy to act and execute. This joy is not just passive within, it is simultaneously active. In this is the inherent power to demonstrate and act out the truth; the energy and strength of responsiveness in practicality.

The joy compels and constrains us to go forward and accomplish (in doing and becoming) all that the word opens our eyes and enlightens our hearts to. This is the kind of reading/preaching/teaching that is truly blessed, and that accentuates the blessing (Revelation 1:3, Revelation 22:7, Psalm 89:15, 2 Peter 1:8, John 13:17).

The joy that comes with clarity on what God requires and desires of us as reasonable and responsible sons cannot be described. Truth is always efficacious – inherent in truth is packed the energy superior to an atomic bomb’s. But the effectiveness of truth is only duly, truly, and fully expressed when we make ourselves active conduits of those realities, animating and embodying them consistently, continually, and constantly. Your knowledge and accuracy in truth are not solely dependent on the theories you propound or peddle, but much more in what you have fellowship with (1 John 1:1-4).

The joy of learning and knowing indeed always produces the energy of liberty and liberality (1 Timothy 6:17-20). This is how joy translates to strength, irrespective of the thankfulness of men or otherwise; to know that which pleases God and to do accordingly.

5.  The strength of doing also produces another layer of heightened joy. There is a joy that comes, not just because truth has exploded in the inner chambers of your heart, but because you have taken the handle of faith to put it to work demonstrably. The joy that comes from actually becoming an extension of God’s hand to another, being God’s agent and agency for change, answered prayers, and happiness to another. The joy that comes from becoming God’s shield and defence to the vulnerable, the weak and the weary is so soothing and beyond earthly comparisons.

(Proverbs 22:9, Acts 20:35, 2 Corinthians 1:2-7)

 ‘Then shall the King say to those on his right hand, Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the world’s foundation: for I hungered, and ye gave me to eat; I thirsted, and ye gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was ill, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came to me. Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungering, and nourished thee; or thirsting, and gave thee to drink? and when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in; or naked, and clothed thee? and when saw we thee ill, or in prison, and came to thee? And the King answering shall say to them, Verily, I say to you, Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me’.- Matthew 25:34-40

‘Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world.’ – James 1:27

Truly, it will be demanding; and yes, you will many times have to sacrifice your own comfort, solitude probably, and plans just so you can be in sync with the Immortal King and be a true, effective, and profitable representative of His Majesty and benevolence to men. But the joy that proceeds from it is immeasurable.

Everyone and anyone who has been a system or scheme of God’s help to another can testify to the joy that enraptures their being thereafter. This is one way to experience the reality of ‘they that sow in tears shall reap (in) joy’ (Psalm 126:5-6). Beyond the material benefits that may accompany our obedience are the reward/sheaves of alleviating another’s pain, of winning back an erring sister, of being the tool of succour and encouragement to that family – materially or supernaturally. If the wickedness that the wicked do and the folly of foolish men delights them, how think we that the goodness and goodwill that we exercise brings us no profit of joy?

To be continued…