How to serve in 2020 is the series that we have been looking at and we started by observing Righteousness and Leadership. One of the things that excited me more while I was preparing for this is that unconsciously to me, because nothing is a mistake with God, there has been a sequence that brings about a tie. The Holy Spirit has been preparing me for this, I realized that the Holy Spirit has only been stringing certain ropes that will end in a particular place. So, when we started by looking at Righteousness and Leadership, it was the beginning of that rope and we looked at how that we live in an atmosphere of the Lord Jesus Christ which makes us righteous. As long as we remain under the covering of that atmosphere, we remain righteous that’s why the Bible says we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus is the atmosphere of our righteousness. So, we understood that.
Listen to Podcast: JOY AND LEADERSHIP
Then, the Holy Spirit took us further to understand Faith and Leadership and he said faith is a realm, is a platform in which we draw from the invisible into visible experiences in our lives. So, we activate the things that are invisible to visible experiences in the realm of faith. And from last week, we looked at Peace and Leadership, we saw a working definition of peace to mean ‘the absence of trouble and fear in our heart’. That the peace of Christ is in your heart and evident in your life when there is peace in your heart, there is no trouble, there is no fear in your heart. There could be fear, there could be trouble around you does not mean that there is absence of peace. The presence of peace is the state in which your heart is free of trouble and it is free of fear.
And today to wrap up how to serve in 2020, God is saying to us, Number1, you must serve in righteousness, you must serve in faith, you must serve in peace and today, He is concluding with us that we must serve in Joy. So we are looking at Joy and Leadership.
We started by looking at a Scripture in Romans chapter 14 verse 17 that talks about what the kingdom of God is about, It said
17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:17
So, the Bible makes us to understand that all these things we are looking at is something that is evident in the Holy Spirit and the Bible says, if you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So, if you want to experience true service in the year 2020, you must serve in the Holy Spirit. You must serve in the Spirit because if you serve in the Spirit, you are serving the kingdom. You can’t serve the kingdom, the interest and the will of the kingdom outside the Spirit. So the interest and the will of the kingdom is served in the Spirit. So, in the Spirit, we must serve in righteousness, in faith, in peace and in joy.
So, today we want to look at Joy and leadership, what is in that joy? When we talk about joy, many of us know that there is a difference between Joy and happiness. When you experience joy, joy is not tied to what you can see. You got an alert of an hundred thousand in your account, then you were now joyful, No! You were happy. But without that money in your account, if you are in a state where there is still an emotion in you that is not tied to what you can see, then, that means there is joy so joy is not circumstantial. Joy is spiritual and in Galatians chapter 5 verse 22, the Bible makes us to understand that the fruit of the Spirit, one of it is joy. And I want to read the sequence of the fruit of the Spirit and let’s see the position that joy took in that Scripture.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
‘But the fruit of the Spirit’, do we see capital ‘S’? Remember where we read in Romans chapter 14 which says the kingdom of God is not about eating or drinking but about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit so the Holy Spirit possesses righteousness. In him, there is peace. In the Holy Spirit, there is joy. And see Galatians 5 verse 22 is validating it. ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law’. I want us to observe the order, after love comes what? Joy! So love is strongly linked to joy and I want to also show us a Scripture that helps us to understand this more. Jesus was saying something in John chapter 15, I want us to see it. There is a strong link between love and joy.
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
John 15:9-11
‘As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love’. That’s Jesus speaking. You will see that, that ‘M’ is capital letter ‘M’. That’s the love of Christ. He said in verse 10, If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, are you seeing it? As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. Does that not talk about righteousness? If you abide in the love of Christ, you abide in Christ, you are righteous. You are the righteousness of God. So, when you abide in him, you remain righteous. He said If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, does that not talk about faith? If you keep My commandments, Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So if you hear and you keep and you do, you what? You will abide in my love. That’s how your righteousness will perpetuate in faith and he said Just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. There’s a chain.
Now let’s see verse 11, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy, did we see that capital M again? That My joy, the joy of Christ may remain in you. So, the joy of Christ comes via faith in righteousness. That love of God is a platform in which we have his joy. He said abide in My love, that’s what he said in verse 9. Then in verse 11, he said these things I have spoken to you, that you should abide in my love so that My joy may remain in you. What is Jesus saying to us there? That my love is the platform for the joy. So if you want my joy to remain in you, abide in my love.
And in Galatians 5 verse 22, we realized that, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, because there is a close association between love and Joy and He said, in verse 11, These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy, do you now see the difference? That My joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. So, we are the ones that need the fullness of joy. His own joy is a full joy but if you abide in the love of Christ, in righteousness, that comes via faith, it says and you keep my commandments, My joy will remain in you. So, outside righteousness and faith, Joy can be missing. If you are not in the love of Christ, there is no joy. He said that My joy, there are different types of Joy but we are talking about the joy of Christ. My joy may remain in you and that your own joy may be full.
The only place you get the fullness of joy is in my joy. So, the joy of Christ is the fullness of our joy. So, when we talk about joy, one of the things we must note is that joy is spiritual, joy comes via a spiritual interaction. There must be a spiritual interaction between you and God for joy to be produced. Joy is a product of spiritual interaction.
11You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:11
‘You will show me the path of life; In your presence, did we see it? is fullness of joy; In your presence, the presence of God. In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. In the presence of God, there is fullness of joy so joy comes via a spiritual interaction that takes place between you and God in his presence. For you to obtain joy, Joy comes via a spiritual interaction. Joy does not come from mundane things.
We are going to see some other Scriptures, everywhere in the Scripture where joy is used, it is always attached to spiritual experiences or they come via spiritual experiences, spiritual interactions. So, joy is a product of spiritual interaction, the spiritual interaction that takes place between your spirit and the spirit of God produces joy because what happens is that your spirit leaves literally all these things you can see visibly and interacts with God and a spiritual realm and it produces joy in you because In Your presence is fullness of joy. So that’s where you get it.
And Galatians 5 verse 22 also says the same thing, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, so it’s in the spirit that you get joy. So it’s a product of spiritual interaction. I want us to see 1st Thessalonians 5 verse 16, we just want to see some things about the joy of Jesus in our heart and what it produces.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit.
1st Thessalonians 5:16-19
‘Rejoice always, pray without ceasing’, You want to see that why is it that after rejoice always, what came after it is pray without ceasing because what is prayer? Prayer is an interaction, a communication between you and God. So, prayer is a spiritual interaction. So, when you are praying, you are interacting with God, you are communing with God, you are fellowshipping with God. You are speaking with God, God is speaking right back at you. But he says rejoice always, the reason you will rejoice always is that you pray without ceasing. There’s always a spiritual interaction going on in your life, that is how you can rejoice always.
It is a command, at the same time, it is telling us the posture we must take, we rejoice always because we pray without ceasing. And in verse 18 he said give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. I love that! So, joy is the will of God in Christ for you. Joy is not produced when you just sit down doing nothing. Joy comes via spiritual interaction. And see verse 19, He says, do not quench the spirit. Because what I am asking you to do now, you can’t do it on your own, you will need to do it via the enablement of the spirit so don’t quench it. You will be able to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, giving thanks in everything to God because your spirit is alive. There is a spiritual interaction going on between the Spirit of God and your spirit.
So, Joy comes via a spiritual interaction. So, when we are talking about Joy, we are not talking about absence of trouble in your life, because I will give us practical illustrations. Not that things will not happen to you but joy is, in spite of what happens. Joy is despite of the happenings. It’s a state you are always. In spite and despite the happenings!
I want us to see 2nd Corinthians, the description Apostle Paul gave about a circumstance in his life and you will see the effect of joy.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—
2nd Corinthians 4:7-9
‘But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us’. Do we see the starting point? That the excellence of the power, that the demonstration, that the result is not of us but of God. So, joy is not man dependent, it is God dependent. And he said this is it, we are hard-pressed on every side, Every side, hard-pressed, that’s what’s happening around us. Yet not crushed; because if we have been crushed, that means our spirit has been affected, that means there’s no joy in us, there is no peace in us which has eroded us of our faith and our righteousness. Despite and in spite we are hard presses on every side, our spirit is not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair; why? Because there is joy in our heart, peace in our heart via faith and righteousness in Christ Jesus. Do we see that?
He said we are perplexed but not in despair because if we had been in the state of despair, we would have lost our peace and our joy. He said persecuted, that is what is happening around us but not forsaken; because we know that the Father loves us, God loves us, we are not despaired. Our heart is held fast because of the peace and the joy that we have in Christ Jesus. And see what he said struck down, but not destroyed. Our peace is not destroyed. Our joy is not destroyed. Intact! Because it is not based on happenings but it’s the state of our spirit, the state of our heart. And we see what we are looking at here,
10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you.
2nd Corinthians 4:10-12
‘always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus’, (his testimony) ‘that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh’. That’s how we do this, that’s why we go through. But in spite of what we go through, we are in joy. That’s why he said rejoice always, even though you are hard pressed on every side, even though you are persecuted and perplexed, even though you are struck down, rejoice.
Yesterday, in the evening Bible school, we were made to understand how to engage our faith in spiritual warfare and he said see, things might happen around you, repose your confidence in the strength of God because when you are weak, then he is strong because God is looking out for hearts that are joyful in spite of what is going on. I remember some years back, there was a time, my husband and I we had our first daughter and we just relocated to Abuja and you know, it came to a season in our lives that to even buy salt was challenging. We were perplexed, there was no money. But in those moments, as though the Holy Spirit opened our eyes, that ‘see, what you are going through is a test, don’t become despaired’. And we say to ourselves, there is no salt but there is maggi in the house, cook it. We had some little beans and rice, we will mix it together, cook it and we will eat it in joy. We were not happy but we were joyful. You are happy when you are excited about something, something you can see but you are joyful when you are excited about something you cannot see. That’s why joy and hope are also tied together, they are linked. Because you don’t hope for what you can see, you hope for what you cannot see, So, you rejoice in what you cannot see.
So, we knew we can’t continue in this phase, it’s just a passing phase so we were joyful and I understood it. I knew it. People would call us and we will talk to them on the phone. ‘Hello, how are you doing? What’s happening? We are fine, we are doing great’ because our joy is not tied to what we were going through. It’s in the hope of what we have not seen and we will pray and God will give us a word and we rejoice. That’s why David said I will rejoice at your word as one that has found a great spoil, did he find a great spoil in actual sense but in the invisible. That’s why you see, you can’t be in faith and not be in joy, except your faith is not real. If your faith is a fluke, that’s when you will have faith without joy. Faith and joy, they are closely linked just like joy and peace, they are closely linked. All these things, is a tie.
That’s why I was just excited when the Holy Spirit was just making me understand that there is a link in all these things. There is a link. You can’t be at peace and not be in joy, you will rejoice, rejoice always. Why should you rejoice always? Because you are praying without ceasing. You are seeing what God is saying, you are rejoicing, you are saying like David I rejoice at your word as one that has found a great spoil. In 2020, you have not seen yet what God has said but you are rejoicing because you know it’s just a matter of time. When you walk in the realm of faith, you will draw from the invisible what God has said about 2020 and it will become a visible experience in your life so the joy that you experience is the excitement that you have about what is not visible.
I want to give us another practical illustration, some years back, something happened to me, and in fact, it’s something that was a shock because it wasn’t something I was expecting at that phase of my life and all that but it happened. I was hard pressed and I landed in the hospital and there was a night, my husband had gone home, people that came around, my brothers and all that, they had gone. And I was alone on the bed and I was in pain. I am explaining joy to us, I was in pain.
There’s a psychological pain and there is a real pain. When there is psychological pain mixed with real pain, there is serious excruciating pain because you can’t compensate the real pain with psychological pain, everything is now together. I was having real pain and the devil was introducing psychological pain to me and that’s why I believe so strongly that if we would really abide in the love of God, the joy of Jesus will remain in us.
And one of the things that the devil said quickly to me at that time was that, ‘Omolara, do you know God does not love you?’ that if God loves you, why will you be in pain? After all, you say you serve God, you love him, how come he allowed you to be in pain?’ Because the devil will bring logical things to you, that’s why joy is about the invisible. It comes via spiritual interaction with God and when he said that to me, I said no! He knew he could not win with that. I said No! God loves me. In spite of what I am going through, I know he loves me, Ah! I know he loves me, and he quickly shifted and he said if I am not going to win you on that ground, do you know your husband does not love you? Because if he loves you, in this pain, he is supposed to be with you in this hospital’. I said ‘that’s’ not true, my husband loves me. I know he loves me. He had something to do. The children are at home. All of us cannot be admitted in the hospital. That so, I know’.
And it looked as if at that time, while he was communicating and interacting, the pain grew worse, it was more painful. You know, wanting my body to deny what is in my spirit. And I said No! Jesus loves me and I started confessing. The place of faith, if you are unshaken in your faith, your joy will remain. That why he said if you will keep my commandments, and abide in My love, my joy will remain in you. Because my joy will escape if you don’t abide in my love and you don’t keep my commandments.
And I said No! God loves me and my husband loves me, I know and I started confessing that and I said it over and over again and I started singing “
"I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, yes he loves me, I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves even me. Yes, Jesus loves me…"
I sang that until the devil kept quiet. All these interactions I am saying, the pain did not go. But something was happening in my spirit and I was aware of it. The psychological pain subsided then the pain that was in my body started subsiding. And that was for the first time I was able to stand up from the bed and take a walk. I walked myself, came back, sat down. And you know how that experience you have, you know the Bible says in Matthew chapter 4, the devil came to Jesus after he had tempted him and left, then angels came to minister to him and when the devil was done with his questions. I had such peace in my heart. He settled it and there was joy in my spirit and I slept.
So, joy is not something that you can touch or is based on something you can see around you but things you cannot see, things going on in the spirit that you are affirming in your heart because it’s about faith. You can’t be in joy outside faith, you can’t! So, you believe the invisible. There is a spiritual interaction going on in your spirit and you choose to keep the commandments of the Lord, you choose to love the Lord. In spite of the happenings, that’s joy. So, you are to be excited about the invisible. I might not see the wind. I might not see the rain.
Habakkuk 3, I want us to see it, very instructive because that gives us a beautiful picture of joy.
17 Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls—18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation 19 The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.
Habakkuk 3:17-19
‘Though the fig tree may not blossom’, look at what is happening here, its talking about what is happening around, pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down. Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; talking about things that are external. Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls. 18 Yet I will rejoice. Yet means what? In spite! Despite of the happenings, he said yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Yet I will rejoice.
I might not see the fig tree blossoming, I might not see fruits on the vine, I might not see that the labour of the olive is there but yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. See 19, the Lord God is my strength, that’s why the Bible says, ‘the joy of the Lord is our strength’, the joy of the Lord, it gives strength to our spirit. It said ‘The Lord God is my strength; He will make..’ See, what joy is about, the invisible. He has not made but he will make, I have faith. He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills. He will! So, I might have not seen it yet, what God has said in 2020, I might not have started seeing it yet but I believe. That’s how to serve God in 2020, that’s how to please the king, in joy.
I might not see it, I might be in pain right now but despite that pain, I know, I rejoice at your word as one that has found a great spoil. Joy! So, joy is not about the things you see, when there is an interaction in your spirit. That’s why when there are challenges in your life, that’s’ not the time to be making decisions. You say, now because of what is happening around me, I am not going to that church again, I am not going to talk to that man again. That’s the time you should get into spiritual interactions, let joy be produced in your heart then you will receive strength, strength to make the right decision, strength to do the right thing, strength to move ahead. David said ‘by my God, I can advance against a troop, by my God, I can scale over a wall because the joy of the Lord is my strength’.
I have had interactions with God to a point, where I am joyful, I rejoice always. Some people will tell you it’s impossible. How can you be rejoicing always? Should we be rejoicing in this? Somebody’s child just died, should we rejoice? Somebody just lost a job, should we rejoice? But see what Apostle Paul said in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, hard pressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted, struck down but not destroyed.
So, the joy of the Lord is indeed our strength whatever we are going through. There is a joy that gives you strength over that situation. There is a joy in God that can push you through that circumstance. For me, that was an experience I could never forget in my life. It pushed me through that season and at a point I looked at the scars on my body, I have always been a fine girl and I said to myself, what is all these? And the Holy Spirit said to me, those are your scars of victory in Christ Jesus and that was the last time I ever complained of those scars.
It came via a spiritual interaction. It could have perpetuated and be a source through which the devil will be coming and be speaking but God settled it once and for all. He said those are the scars of victory in Christ Jesus. And any time anyone ask me, Lara how do you feel about these things? Ah! I feel good. I am at joy. Why? They are my scars of victory in Christ Jesus, it could have been worse. They are the scars of my victory. So, let the joy of the Lord be your strength, I don’t know what that issue is, that you are going through, engage in spiritual interaction with God until your joy, He said ask until your joy is full, that’s what Jesus said, continue to make interactions until your joy is full.
