How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost
and with power: who went about doing good, and healing
all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him.
ACTS 10:38
I have good news for you: God is good; Jesus is good. God
wants to bless you! Jesus wants to bless you! People ask me,
“What’s all this joy in your meetings? Why joy? What is the purpose?
Don’t you know it’s the Holy Spirit, not the joy spirit?”
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, although it is not the only fruit
of the Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit does His work in your life,
you will have all nine fruits of the Spirit: love, joy; peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control
(see Galatians 5:22-23 NIV). Joy is noticeable, however,
because it is very much an outward expression others can see.
Jesus brings joy. When Jesus shows up, He says to you,
“Be of good cheer.”
When Jesus shows up, He says, “Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!” When Jesus
shows up, He says, “Be strong.” In the book of Acts, chapter 8, we see
that when Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Jesus Christ
to them, there was great joy in the city. What happens when Jesus shows up?
There is great joy! A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance.
PROVERBS 15:13 AMP
Someone wrote, “But Rodney; Jesus didn’t jump up and
down, do cartwheels, and run around the place.” Maybe Jesus
didn’t, but people He touched did. They went around walking and
leaping and praising God! Oh, hallelujah!
Another person said, “You don’t have to get so emotional.”
I’m telling you right now, when Jesus touches you, you want
to shout it from the rooftops! If you say you had an encounter
with the Living God and are not stirred in your heart all the way
through your emotions — then I question whether you had a real
touch.
Only people who have not had a personal encounter with
the power and presence of God tell us that we should not have an
emotional response to the reality of the touch of God in and on
our lives. God is real, Jesus is real, the Holy Spirit is real, and if
I meet them face-to-face — I am going to know about it and so is
everybody else!
If you can have an emotional response to something other
than the Lord, such as a spouse, a child, a sporting event, a great
triumph, or a great tragedy — then it’s only logical that your
emotions would respond to the love and power of God in your
life. Emotions are not all bad.
Emotions which come out of your carnal nature, such as
bitterness and lust, should be controlled and eliminated by the
power of God. Our emotions, like the other areas of our life,
should be controlled by our spirit and the Holy Spirit — not
by our flesh and our sin. But to express good emotions is
normal and healthy.
And my language and my message were not set forth in
persuasive (enticing and plausible) words of wisdom, but
they were in demonstration of the [Holy] Spirit and power
[a proof by the Spirit and power of God, operating on me
and stirring in the minds of my hearers the most holy emotions
and thus persuading them].
1 CORINTHIANS 2:4 AMP (EMPHASIS MINE)
According to the Gospel, when Jesus walks in the door,
He meets your every need. As the Holy Spirit moves on people in
our meetings, many times they are filled with joy. Critics have
said, “Well, it doesn’t really seem there’s any purpose in what’s
happening in your meetings, because nobody’s life depends upon
receiving joy.”
The problem is that people are always looking for some
great significance and reading other things into everything Jesus
did. But the desire of Jesus’ heart was simply to meet people’s
needs, whatever they might be; to show us that God has provided
for us in every situation.
