Another way to cultivate the fruit of joy, and cause it to grow and produce in our lives is to seek the presence and fullness of God. Psalm 16:11 (AMP) says, “You will show me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy.” But where is God’s presence, and how do we […]

Now that God has provided the way, how do we find His presence? How do we begin to enjoy the fullness of the presence of God? James 4:8, 10 (AMP) gives some instructions: “Come close to God [with a contrite heart] and He will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; and purify […]

Another way to cultivate the fruit of joy, and to cause it to grow in our lives, is to become self-less, giving of one’s self to others. When we as believers give of ourselves in service to others, joy rises up inside of us – just as it did with Paul in these verses: *Philippians […]

One of the ways that we can begin to cultivate the fruit of joy, as we will find in all the Fruits of the Spirit, is by spending time in God’s Word. Romans 10:17 (AMP) says, “So faith comes from hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by [preaching of the] message concerning […]

Another purpose or function of the fruit of joy is to protect against oppression by breaking the chains upon the believer’s neck, as we saw earlier in Isaiah 52:2. We will come against problems in our lives, and we will have those who try to oppress us, but we are told in James 1:2-4 (AMP), “Consider […]

I always think it’s important to know what words mean. Here are a few definitions that pertain to this study of joy: *Overcome: to conquer, to get the better of, to overpower or overwhelm a person physically or emotionally. *Master: a man in control or authority; someone who gets the better of a rival; to […]

Another purpose or function of joy is to provide fulfillment in our lives. We can achieve this “fulfillment” in many ways on this earth, but Matthew 6:32-33 (NIV) says, “For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and […]

Praise brings joy. Joy brings victory. We must be strong in the Lord to gain a victory. Joy will help us in this area. Nehemiah 8:10 (KJV) says, “…the joy of the Lord is your strength.” When we are weak and heavy-laiden, downcast and depressed, we need to “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” and […]

There are many, many examples of God’s children glorifying God in the midst of their circumstances, like Abraham did. My favorite example of this is found in Acts chapter 16, beginning in verse 16. To give you a little background here, earlier in verse 9 we find that Paul had a vision in the night […]

One purpose or function of joy is to provide victory in our lives, to cause us to become “overcomers” in all situations in our lives. The key to overcoming every situation in our lives is to realize what we are seeing and to realize that, as in 2 Corinthians 4:18 (AMP), “So we look not […]