Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
—Isaiah 12:3 (NKJV)
Joy is not a feeling. It is the security of knowing our salvation has given us new life—that the old is now gone and we are newly reborn with the spirit of the living God (2 Corinthians 5:17). Joy comes from knowing and believing the new person Christ has made us—not from what we feel and experience in life. Joy draws from the depths of our salvation.
When we lack joy in our lives, we lack knowledge and belief of the new person we are in Christ. But when we know and believe all things are new—that Christ died for all our sins for all time—when we live by the faith that He has given us and not by what we feel and experience, we draw from the Holy Spirit within us. Sin is no longer held against us. We have peace with God (Romans 5:1). We rejoice in that peace. When we really believe we have peace with God—that we are new and our sins are no longer counted against us, we have joy.
“Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8, NKJV).
Peter had walked with Jesus every day for three years. He had heard Jesus speak and perform miracles. Peter had even beheld the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1-9). But none of these experiences kept Peter from denying Christ (Matthew 26:69-75, Mark 14:66-72, Luke 22:55-62, and John 18:15-27).
Before Christ’s resurrection, the disciples had only known Christ in the flesh and not through the spirit (2 Corinthians 5:16). When Peter rejoices in 1 Peter 1:8 with “joy inexpressible and full of glory” he is walking by faith and not by sight—by what he believes and not what he feels (2 Corinthians 5:7). With joy, he is drawing from the wells of his salvation. Knowing Jesus by faith is greater than knowing Him by what we sense. When we have to feel or see to believe something, we are not walking by faith.
“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38, NKJ).
The fullness of God lives within us (Colossians 2:9-10). The Holy Spirit has filled us with Christ’s living water. It flows out of our born-again spirits producing fruit in our lives. Galatians 5:22-23 says that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” These qualities are nothing that our flesh produces but should spring from within us—just like an artesian well. For these to flow in our lives, we have to conform our thinking to God’s Word (Proverbs 23:7; Isaiah 26:3; Romans 8:6, 12:2). When we conform our thinking to His Word, we begin to believe in our hearts the new creation we are in Christ.
Rivers of living water flow in your life when the new person you are in your spirit is believed in your heart. You stand before God without blemish because Christ’s sacrifice is perfect for all the sins of the world. “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17, NKJV). When you see yourself as God sees you, then you believe the Word.
Be renewed by the Word to know and believe the new person you are in Christ (Romans 12:2). Walk by faith and not by sight, and draw from the well of your salvation (2 Corinthians 5:7, Isaiah 12:3).
“Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8, NKJV).
Out of the new creation you are in Christ flows rivers of living water. Love, peace, and joy!
© 2022
www.lynnlacher.com/2022/03/joy/html
No comments:
Post a Comment