Joy in the Journey

 

·       Fire in the Firehouse!  Luke 3:16 John answered their questions by saying, “I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. “BAPTIZO” means to be so immersed in Christ that you literally take on a PERMENANT CHANGE (an entirely new nature). You are not here by accident. God is going to show up in this place tonight. My prayer is that if you haven’t already, you’d quickly make room in your heart to receive from Heaven! And if you do make room and you do receive, you will never be the same. You can leave completely changed (Baptizoed) by the power of God. Revelation always requires a response….

·      Prayer for the fire of God to fall in the firehouse!!! Ephesians 3… that they might know…thay they might respond to depths and heights of His Love… and truly know and believe with all their hearts the Love you cherish for them!

·       God’s highest plan and purpose for your life is to commune with Him intimately throughout the journey. God’s purpose is the process! Because He is a relational God… it’s all about the intimacy….knowing and being made known. Which leads me to the MIP of the night concerning Joy.

·        Joy is not a state of Blessing, but a State of BEING.  Joy is a supernatural experience. True Joy has nothing to do with circumstances and with stuff. It’s not a new car, new job, new body, new husband, new house. TRUE JOY is NOT about YOU at all. TRUE Joy IS JESUS and has everything to do inner contentment, utter peace of heart and mind, and inexplicable bliss that flows out from the inside. Rivers of Living waters that flow….

·      This is how Jesus revealed Joy. He defined it as:

Joy- living in love

He is my portion, no sorrow can dim, the Light of the Love found only in Him.

 I didn’t come up with this stuff (RMJ- the revelations). Amazing, profound revelations of His Father’s Heart. God took my mess and turned it into HIS Message. (share a bit if testimony).

·      Living in Love- what does that mean? Singular Heart’s Desire. Obsession.   Jesus is my great obsession. I want nothing else but to “Know Him.”  Like Paul says in Phil. 3:10- my life’s verse. [READ IN AMP!]

When He is your one and only heart’s desire you are CONSUMED by this desire. When you are “in Love” you think of nothing else, you incessantly talk of your love, and when you can’t be with him, you long to be… when you are in love you are blinded to everything else. That’s why they say love is blind. Because your overwhelming passion is for your love.

·      HE is my portion. Portion literally means my part, my inheritance, my share, my place.

·      My Part- Luke 10 familiar with the story of Mary of Martha. Rd Luke 10:38-42. “ Martha, Martha you are anxious and troubled about many things; but there is need of only ONE. Mary has chosen the good portion (the only part that really matters) and it shall not be taken from her!! “The best part” Martha was overly pre-occupied and distracted. Mary was partaking.  Our Part is partaking…receving for ourselves. Receiving= taking into our hearts. I wish I could receive for you… but that is YOUR PART. Your part is to receive the BEST PART, which is HIM. Explain John the Beloved, “The One whom Jesus Loved.”  He is simply comfortable in My Love. He partook, he reclined at the Table and laid on HIS breast and unabashedly received!!!! Your part is to receive the BEST PART, which is HIM.  And if you do…you’ll know and say in your heart, I’m His Beloved and His desire is for me. I’m the ONE whom Jesus Loves!!

·      Portion means, My Part, My Inheritance, My Share, My Place,

·       Inheritance- today’s culture miss the importance of this word because it’s meaning has been reduced to possessions and money. PS 16:5. The Lord is my portion and my inheritance.  Inheritance literally means, property, plot of ground. Land takes on specific meaning to the Lord and HIS people. The Promised Land was the inheritance of the Children of Israel. There is a difference between what belongs to you, what is actually yours. It only becomes yours when YOU possess it.  How tragic for any of you to leave the same way you came in. But it will happen for some because you will refuse to make the connection personal. You will listen as if it were knowledge, and not OWN IT for you yourself. You must be willing to receive it for you. INHERITANCE= land. The Promised Land in the OT is a foreshadow of what was to come. What we are to possess now is our inheritance/ future in Christ. Recite RM vision statement. This land is a fertile ground known as our hearts. It is our present and our future because it is all wrapped up in Christ. We are “in Christ.” Col 3:3 your life is hid with Christ in God. What a glorious mystery!

·      He is my Portion= my part, my inheritance, my Share, my place…

·      MY SHARE. UNIQUELY MINE.  The exciting part. The part that thrills me to no end! There is no limit. Share means “allotment.” Which implies a specific amount. But when it comes to our portion in Christ, thee is no specific amount or limit to what we have in HIM. He will enlarge our capacity to receive as we hunger and thirst. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for they shall be FILLED! Our share will expand as we partake. in other words your hunger will never exceed His provision!!!! you can be as close to God as you want to be. My share is uniquely mine, prepared and ready for me to take, and I can take as much as I hunger and thirst for.

·      Portion: my part, inheritance, My Share, My place…

·      MY PLACE. I love “my place.”  “Place where we belong.”  Place that is safe, comfortable, and secure. “Place where we belong.”  Share the story of Paula. Though she had “no place.” She totally understood and LIVED in the place where she belonged…she is safe, secure, and comforted in Him even though she was homeless.

·       HE IS MY PORTION NO SORROW CAN DIM THE LIGHT OF THE LOVE FOUND ONLY IN HIM. We just discussed how HE is our Portion.

·       

NO SORROW CAN DIM

·      Joy in the JOURNEY.  REMEMBER the purpose is the PROCESS. Sharing these daily experiences with HIM. Life is a journey of daily experiences, some experiences full of wonder and amazement, some full of inexplicable sorrow. If you haven’t experienced suffering or pain then you are not alive. Literally, even in order to breath your very first breath… there is struggle, and pain. Life can be SHOCKING, jarring, jolting, debilitating…. But I am going to suggest to you in convincing fashion that in the very middle of our sorrow we can experience this supernatural JOY that Jesus provides. Because HE IS our JOY.

·      We are going to learn a little something about joy in the Book The Lamentations. Lamentations literally mean to Lament, to mourn to grieve. It’s called the song of wailing. Open Amp and read… Jer. Weeps over the ruin of God’s Beloved City of Jerusalem. Lam 2:155 A city which was called the Joy of the whole Earth…. Devastation desolation and horror abounded to the point where mothers were eating their own children. This is the unimaginable picture of what Jeremiah was lamenting over.  Yet in Lam 3:19-25 Jeremiah  says… READ!

·      No sorrow can Dim…We are Blessed when we need Him the MOST!! SORROW, trouble, heart-ache can be the very the gateway into the Kingdom of God and to greater intimacy. For me, my neediness is my opportunity to experience Jesus daily. What most people accomplish naturally, I can only accomplish supernaturally. But He loves that I cling to Him and I love to cling to Him. I dance in the wild beauty of God’s plan for my life. I no longer despise my neediness.

·      PS 23:1 because the Lord is my Shepherd I have everything I need. I experienced myself what it means to be carried by Jesus, My Good Shepherd. Discuss a “cast” sheep and how He gently revived me.

·      Weeping endures for a night, but JOY comes in the morning. PS 30:5 Our sorrows are TEMPORARY. Light momentary affliction….this life is a vapor!!

·      We were created for delight and to be a delight. “Eden” means delight

·      No eye has seen nor ear has heard or can imagine what God has prepared for those who love Him!!!!!!!

·      The Garden of Gethsemane garden  ….for the JOY SET BEFORE HIM!! We are His JOY!! Hebrews 12:2 HE, for the JOY (of obtaining the prize) that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God. We are His prize, we are His inheritance, We are His Bride!

 

THE LIGHT OF THE LOVE-

Explain “THE MAN WITH THE CROOKED FACE”- my next book.

Jesus appears several  (5) times post resurrection:

1.     Mary Magdalene at the Tomb. John 20:11-17

2.     Apostles were hiding in fear of the Jews. John 20: 19:23. Notice verse 19 and 20. They were terrified….at the sudden appearance of somebody and 2 they didn’t recognize Him…HE needed to immediately show them His hands and Feet.

3.     To Thomas the twin 8 days later. Notice in both these cases he is making known that the Risen Lord bears the marks/ wounds/ scars of His suffering in His physical appearance.

4.     Road to Emmaus Road to Emmaus- RD Luke 24:13-35. In the intimacy of table fellowship, as Jesus breaks the bread and offers the blessing, they suddenly become aware of who he really is! "Open" in verse 31 and verse 32 is the Greek verb dianoigo, where the phrase "eyes were opened" means to [15] "Recognize" (24:16, 31) is the verb epiginosko, "to connect present information or awareness with what was known before, acknowledge acquaintance with, recognize, know again."[16]

5.     John 21:1-14.  Breakfast by the Sea- Once again they didn’t recognize Him. Verse 12. None dared ask Him “Who are you? Knowing it was the Lord. They knew it was. But it didn’t look like the LORD they had known.

·      I’d like to suggest to you the reason none of His closet companions who spent the better part of every day and every night with this man they called Lord for 3 days didn’t recognize Him after His Death and Resurrection is that He was unrecognizable by His appearance.

·      He was beaten beyond recognition. Is. 52:14 As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.   But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man. NLT First He was beardless. Explain.

·      I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting. Isaiah 50:6  I gave my back to the smiters - I submitted willingly to be scourged, or whipped. And my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair - literally, 'My cheeks to hose who pluck, or pull.' The word used here (מרט māraṭ) means properly to make smooth, completely bald. that is, to pluck out ALL the hair, or the beard. Culturally speaking, the beard was regarded as a mark of honor. I hid not my face from shame and spitting - To spit on anyone was regarded was the highest insult and indignity one could give.

 

FOUND ONLY IN HIM-

·      “Lover”

·       Longing souls. Ps 107:9 HE satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness.

·        Eccl. 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” I believe that means the hope and expectancy of what God had planned from the Foundation of the World; Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

·        Created with the “desire for more.”  It was a Godly desire and Satan took advantage and perverted that Holy Desire for completion in God, and deceived Eve. Gen. 1

·        How do we satisfy that desire…listen to the voice of this

world like Eve did the Serpent? Try to fill that longing with… you fill the blank… I  believe we get sidelined as women and we fall for our enemies tricks to fall into pity parties, stumble over petty things like jealousies and comparisons, we get side-lined by depression and anxiety…all kinds of things that distract and keep us from our one soul’s desire.  I am here to tell you there is a longing so deep, so real, so profound, and for some of you, I’m putting a voice and defining it for the first time in your spiritual lives tonight. Eternity in the hearts of Men. Longing to partake of Paradise.  Paradise is not about a place as much as it is about THE Person of Jesus Christ.

·                But we get so sidelined. Instead of longing for His appearing we are longing to get more, to do more, to become more, to achieve more, to be more… for you. about you, to you. It’s all about you. You fill in the blanks. This desire will destroy you. Examine your own hearts. This wordly, selfish “desire for more” I’m talking about is defined at COVETEOUSNESS. Covetousness is the enemy of contentment. It is the dissatisfaction with what you have, the longing for what someone else has. The Secret to Contentment will be found in your Godly pursuit for more of Him. Remember the definition of JOY: LIVING IN LOVE. YOUR SINGULAR passion and heart’s desire IS FOR MORE: MORE OF CHRIST ALONE.

“I AM ENOUGH”…DO not doubt or be dismayed, your provision has been made. BE CONTENT, and do not Fear for your GOD I AM is here… though circumstances may be tough lift up your Eyes I AM ENOUGH. The secret to contentment is found in the realization that HE IS EVERYTHING you need and long for.

·        Instead of listening to the voice of the world We should satisfy that “desire for more”  by listening to the voice of Jesus. HE says …. Rev 3. Behold I stand at the door and knock…and if any man will COME I will sup with him and he with ME.  INTIMACY. Matthew 11:28 Come unto ME all you who are weary..…and I will give you rest. The Voice of Jesus says I AM the WAY the TRUTH, and the LIFE.

Psalm 16:11 You have shown me your paths Oh Lord, in Your presence is fullness of JOY, at your right hand there are pleasures forever more!!”

·         Abiding in Christ continually as described in John 15 with the Vine and the branch, is a foretaste of the intimacy to come. “Intimacy”

·        The only way to satisfy that Godly desire for more that was created within us when HE breathed His breath of life into man’s nostrils is To live as “ONE” in a state of “holy communion .” I’d like to suggest what I believe is alluded to in Ecclesiastes:  HE has set (established, fixed, preordained) eternity in the hearts of men…yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I believe that means the hope and expectancy of what God had planned from the Foundation of the World…. To be His BRIDE, Jehovah’s Counterpart and to live in a perpetual sate of Holy Matrimony. There is no such thing as an earthly “SOULMATE.”  We have only ONE SoulMate and His name is Jehovah! The Great I AM, The Alpha and Omega and the Beginning and The End Read REV. 19:7-9 The Marriage supper of the Lamb.

 

 Get Guitar and TAKE COMMUNION-   CRUCIAL: examine your hearts before God. You and HE must do business. Some of you need to repent. You’ve lost your first love, you’ve become lukewarm, you care more about yourself and things of this world than you do for Jesus. You need to turn from your worldly pursuit for more and TURN TO the Godly desire for MORE of Him· Just like those post Resurrection appearances of Christ…Jesus is revealed in the breaking of bread.  Let Him reveal Himself to you.