JOY IS STRENGTH - November 3, 2014

Dear One, We have studied about peace and how Jesus said that He gave peace to His disciples after He was resurrected and came back to live with Me. He said that they would have peace in their minds, the same peace that He had because He was sending My Spirit to live in them. You can have perfect peace when your mind is stayed on Me and My goodness toward you. Another facet of my personality that I give to you in the person of the Holy Spirit is My joy. Joy is an outgrowth of the indwelling of My Spirit and it was called fruit by Paul. Fruit grows on the branches of a tree. My fruit grows on the branches which are attached to the vine, which Jesus called Himself. You are the branches, He is the vine, and so My fruit grows on you. Joy is just as important to the human mind as peace because joy can usher peace into the mind and help produce the mind of Christ. You have experienced when fear and turmoil have begun to settle in your mind that you have chosen to sing songs of joy and, as a result, peace came back into your mind. There is a physiological reason for that. The reason is that when you choose to sing joyful songs, you make the choice to shift from the active area of your brain which has produced fear and you activate the area of the brain which produces joy and happiness.

You have chosen joy instead of sorrow, happiness instead of sadness. You take off sackcloth and ashes and put on the gladness of My Holy Spirit. You have experienced that joyful dancing can replace mourning, giving you My peace in the meantime. Joy is strength. I said that My joy is your strength. There is a power to joy that defeats fear, sorrow, mourning and sadness, Joy has power over the damaging effects of negative emotions. Because joy has power, it is strength to you. It strengthens your emotions, your faith, your peace, your love, your stability and your sound mind. When you dance with joy before Me, as David did, you incorporate your whole body in the activities which are created by joy. When you dance before Me, you do not limit the joy to your mind and voice, you allow it to permeate your body. There are people who have been healed by letting My joy permeate their entire bodies. Joy is strength. Isaiah said that with joy you will draw waters out of the wells of salvation and in that day you will say Praise the Lord. You can use that process as an antidote when fear or sadness attack your mind. Begin to sing joyful praise songs about My goodness and you will activate the part of your mind which draws My joy out of My Spirit who lives inside of your Spirit. The result is that you will begin praising Me instead of praising the negative circumstances of life by giving them first place in your thoughts. You will switch from fear to joy, from mourning to gladness, from sadness to happiness. All of that happens simply because you have chosen joy instead of sadness. Because you have chosen joy, you will have Herculean strength, overcoming negativity in every form. Let My joy be your overcoming power, the strength to overcome every depressing thought. It doesn’t take long to put fear and depression in their places, which is under your feet. With joy you will draw happiness, wisdom, insight, love and peace out of the wells of salvation that reside in the Holy Spirit. He is My power and His power is activated through joy when you choose it. Sing about joy. Sing that joy is your strength until you are empowered with My strength to overcome every dart of the devil. Joy is strength. Choose My joy and be strong. Your Loving and Joyful Father Psalm 81:1-3; Psalm 21:1; Nehemiah 8:10-12; Jeremiah 31;7l Psalm 47:1; Isaiah 12:3-6; Luke 2:10; John 15:11-13; John 16:22-25.