by Jane Upchurch
Joy hasn’t always been considered desirable for Christians. A shame considering the bible says ‘In your presence is fullness of joy’ Psalm 16.11, and ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength’ Nehemiah 8.10. These have helped me for years. They help me physically because joy links to the endorphins that keep our body healthy. I have become aware that when I get sniffles or a sore throat I have often been feeling down, so instead of thinking ‘Oh no, I am getting a cold’ I feed the joy like a medicine or an energy field for a day or so which works wonders.
And joy is more than this. Galatians 5 lists what are often referred to as the fruits of the Spirit but the word in the bible is single – fruit. In other words the Holy Spirit in our lives leads to all these qualities; they are all part of the divine nature, they are linked to each other and are part of us. The first, of course, is love, the third is peace but the second is joy! So as we live in joy we will also be filling our souls with love and peace (and vice versa).
For me this is also part of what Jesus called the kingdom of heaven, and what the Aramaic translates as the realm of unity. Luke 17.21 says that this is within us. So feeding our minds and souls with joy is not looking for a download from heaven but is available within us. We can access it by calling on it. We can choose to be flooded with the joy of God (what the mystics called bliss). And on days when we carry real sorrow, that love/joy/peace can hold it and help us through. This isn’t a selfish practice. Living in this essence of the Spirit of God will affect those around us, will feed into the morphic field, and will help the transformation of our planet and our people, not just ourselves.