That Your Joy May Be Full

[Rev. Darla Winn Lassiter]

John 15:11
     I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.
 
What God speaks, (His Word) brings joy, not what you possess.  The flow of joy comes from what God says (the Word of God).

 

Those who walk in obedience to the Word of God - those who are doers of the Word - are those whose joy is full.  You lose your freshness when you lose your joy. Joy matters.

 

Acts 20:22-24
     22-And now, you see, I am going to Jerusalem, bound by the [Holy] Spirit and obligated and compelled by the [convictions of my own] spirit, not knowing what will befall me there--
     23-Except that the Holy Spirit clearly and emphatically affirms to me in city after city that imprisonment and suffering await me.
     24-But none of these things move me; neither do I esteem my life dear to myself, if only I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have obtained from [which was entrusted to me by] the Lord Jesus, faithfully to attest to the good news (Gospel) of God's grace (His unmerited favor, spiritual blessing, and mercy).

 

You get on the other side of your trial by seeing the joy set before you, it will deliver you to the end or to the other side of your trial, Hebrews 12:2  Joy stems from what God speaks - the Word of God.

 

When your affections are tied to things, you will have joy issues.  Our joy can be less than full.  God wants our joy full, when it’s less than full we start faltering.  How do we make sure we are in fullness of joy?  To the measure of our obedience will be to that measure we will have joy.  The greater our adhering to the Word of God the greater flow of joy.  Joy comes from obedience to God‘s Word.

 

The True Function of Faith
It is a waste to use faith for things that are not apart of fulfilling the plan of God for your life.

Some of those in the faith camp who don’t understand faith, measure their faith level by how much they possess.  Yes, faith will accumulate some things but that is not how you measure your obedience to God.  You can use your faith to accumulate things and not fulfill the plan of God.  This is dangerous!

Smith Wigglesworth shook the world from a small home.  His joy was full in his house.  He didn’t have to use his faith for his home.  It was paid for.

 

God wants you to be where your joy is full, not where you are impressing and trying to demonstrate that you have faith. 

 

The more things you possess the more you will have to maintain.  You must be sober about getting things - see how much faith it will take to maintain it.  You must be able to see past the honeymoon stage of the possession and soberly ask yourself, “Do I want to spend my faith on this for the next 2 or 3 years?”

There is a reason Jesus borrowed everything: He borrowed boats, homes, donkeys, upper room, and a tomb.  Jesus borrowed, however, He did not mooch - He handsomely rewarded those He borrowed from.

He borrowed Peter’s boat and later when Peter was fishing and could not catch any fish Jesus said “Let down your net” and a multitude of fish filled the net, not only a multitude of fish for Peter but for others who were there whom he was associated, filled their boats.

 

Lighten Up And Go Faster
God is not subtracting from us when He tells us to lighten up.

 

Gideon’s Army was 10,000 men.  God had him dismiss 9,700 leaving him with only 300 men to fight the battle.  There was no way in the natural that they could have fought and won that battle with only 300 men.

When God tells you to lighten up, He is not reducing you, He is bringing you into a supply of His power. 

God will divinely reduce you but not subtract from you.  He is simply calling you into a new room, I Corinthians 16:9, and sometimes this new place in God requires you to redirect your faith. He uses your personal possessions to train you on your faith to prove you.  Then He will redirect your faith and put it toward the plan of God - the call of God on your life.

 

Lillian Thatcher was a woman God called to go to Egypt to start an orphanage. At the time of death she had over 2000 orphans, but for several years she only had 6 orphans. She asked God about why she still only had 6 orphans.  He told her He wanted to see if she was a  quitter.  If she was, He wanted it to effect the least number of people.

 

God trains us in our personal lives to see how we handle our faith in earthly things, then we graduate to using our faith for Kingdom business.  He does this to stretch us and then redirect us. 

 

When we are being led to reduce or downsize, one of the main concerns is our happiness in the new place. Will my joy be full in the new place, is a legitimate thought.  Using a house for instance.  Maybe God led you to buy a house, you lived there for years using your faith to maintain the house and keep you in it.  Then God leads you to downsize.  If your joy was full in that house, your joy was satisfied, so you can move on to the next place of joy and in that place your joy will be full too.  I am not talking about a house here, but using this as an example of moving from one place of joy to the next. You will never feel subtraction because your joy was satisfied.

 

An athlete spends everything they have to reach their goal. Once they have achieved their goal their joy is satisfied and they can now move on to another joy.  Some didn’t have another joy to go on to therefore, turned to a life of drugs, alcohol etc.  God is always directing you to the next joy. Some will try to stay in the same place and this is dangerous, they will then be reaching outside of God for fulfillment.

As the Spirit leads move to the next joy.  You stay full by continuing to move to the next joy. 

 

Midlife crises comes because people have no joy to reach for.  Their joy, up to this point, is full but they see they have lived more of their life then they have left. There is more of their life behind then what is out in front of them. They see they are getting older with everything going south, getting closer to the ground.  They begin to reach for things to make them look younger than their age. In searching for joy they will sometimes leave their spouse in search of another.  They are looking for a new place of joy but have none.  They identify self worth with youth and good looks.  They think if they can keep their looks this will fulfill their joy.  There is nothing wrong with a nip and a tuck but that is not from where your joy stems.  Your joy stems from the Word of God. 

 

The Pilgrim Spirit
The Bible tells us that we are changed from glory to glory, II Corinthians 3:18.  We need to like change otherwise we are not going to have joy.

 

We need to have a pilgrim spirit in the sense of staying ready to move when the Spirit leads.  Abraham lived in a modern city - he was not bogged down in the place where he was at.  Certainly his joy was full there with all of the modern conveniences of the day.

 

When you’re in the place that God has led you, your joy will be full until it’s time to move.  When Abraham obeyed God and moved he lived for the rest of his life in tents - he let go of modern conveniences to be where God said.  Following what God speaks is where your joy is. You cannot protect your place of joy by staying in disobedience. 

 

Abraham traveled every day with no map.  The average Christian  won’t leave what they have for what they don’t know.

 

To the carnal Christian the unknown is scary, but to the spiritual Christian the unknown is like a gift from the Father.  It’s wrapped, you cannot see what is in the package but you know, because it’s from your Father, it will be good.

 

Years ago my spiritual father pastored a church in Torrance California. He had a congregation of about 1000 people.  When God said it was time to leave, without hesitation he put a man in as pastor.  Before he did that he sold the building they were in and put the people in a smaller one.  The smaller one would take less faith to maintain it.   God was  not reducing them to subtract from them.  He wanted them to operate in their measure of faith.  This was a blessing to them and not a burden. 

God did not lead my spiritual father to start this church for him to build his own little empire.  It was not for him to possess.  He went there out of obedience.  He started the church in Torrance not to keep it but as obedience to God.  You are not going to keep what God is leading you from.  If you disobey and stay you will lose it. When God tells you to leave and you stay that place becomes your preacher of disobedience. 

When God tells you to give an item away that you really like, that item will talk you out of it.  If you choose to keep it, it will remind you that you are in disobedience.  It becomes a preacher of disobedience.

 

If you stay where God is leading you from, that place will remind you, you are a disobedience servant.  The struggle comes from the area you are disobeying.  The struggle comes from trying to hang onto something we want against what God wants.  The pilgrim spirit won’t labor on what they know - the Word of God.

 

Dr. Sumrall, while in South Ben, was praying upstairs after Sunday morning service when the Word of the Lord came to him and said, “I want you to go to the Philippians, I am going to do more for you there than I have anywhere else.” 

 

He came downstairs and told Sister Sumrall, “God just spoke to me, we are going to the Philippians.”  She asked, “When?”  He said, “Tonight.”  He put a pastor in the church in South Ben Indiana and they left for the Philippians.  He didn’t get stuck and want to hang onto the work there in South Ben because he poured his heart and soul into that location.   He didn’t start that work to keep it, he did it out of obedience.  You can’t keep what you are just supposed to be obedient with.

 

After a short time of him being over in the Philippians Dr. Sumrall cast a demon out of a girl bitten by devils.  And because of that he had a nationwide revival break out, he shook that nation.  He was walking down the sidewalk one day when the Lord said to him, “America is in worse condition than this country, go back”, and he picked up and left.  Can you imagine? He was a spearhead for a revival in that nation and he just got up and walked away from it to do what God said.  How many men would do that?  Many would take possession of it and say, “No I have poured my heart and soul into this I don’t want to go.”  You better obey because your joy won’t be full being where God told you to leave.

 

Dr. Sumrall went back to South Ben at 50 years old and had nothing as far as material things.  A minister encouraged him by saying “Dr. Sumrall you’re 50 and finished?  He said to God, “God I am 50, but am I finished?”  The Lord said, “You haven’t even got started yet why don’t you get going?”

 

Not too many people would give up all they accumulated and pick up and go to the next unknown.  The unknown is the friend of the faith man.  But to doubt and unbelief the unknown is a scary place.  Faith is ready to move but doubt wants to stay.

 

Always have a pilgrim spirit. There are those who God will put into one place and they will stay there for the rest of their life.  However, they still need to have a pilgrim spirit, being ready to move if God says to, though they may never be led to leave.

 

Pastor John Osteen kept a suit case packed in the closet, he wanted God to know he was ready to move in the event He said to.

 

Faith is not just to acquire and build things, it’s so we can follow where God leads. The Highest flow of faith is “Where ever God goes I am going, where ever He leads I will follow.”

There is coming repositioning in the Body of Christ - there is coming changes.  We must be willing to make those changes or we will get left behind stuck in our rut. I refuse to miss the great move of the Spirit as He prepares us to receive the precious fruit of the Earth. 

 

You don’t have to try to make things happen but if you hear from God that it is time to move, be joyful about it because God is leading you into the next place where He can make your joy full - be willing.

Jesus said my joy and your joy will be full.  We take our faith and follow the spirit. We must be a willing and obedient people.