Hope is the anchor you hold on to. It’s not just God’s Glory in heaven – as wonderful a hope to hold on to as this is.
It’s in you. Now! Christ in you, your hope of Glory.
Strong’s Concordance — doxa: opinion (always good in N.T.), hence praise, honor, glory Original Word: δόξα, ης, ἡ Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration: doxa Phonetic Spelling: (dox’-ah) Definition: opinion (always good in NT), praise, honor, glory Usage: honor, renown; glory, an especially divine quality, the unspoken manifestation of God, splendor. (https://biblehub.com/greek/1391.htm) (Emphasis is mine.)
“The unspoken manifestation of God, splendor“
Wow. That’s the Glory of Jesus. Jesus is in you. There is Glory in you.
Now let’s experience this somewhat differently, adding richness to your experience.
Your joy is already present. Has been. Is always here. If you look deeply with silent attention, you can notice and experience this more consciously. More on purpose.
Your joy is already present, is in you, for you to attend to, notice and… dare I say it? Enjoy!
Hiding in plain sight, it was. Already available to you.
So…what to do now? Attend to your joy deeply and with silent attention. Rejoice! Yes, that’s it. Rejoice!
You have found your joy. It’s always in you, always with you. Attend silently and deeply. Notice….
The day began with thick clouds and fog but as the sun rose they parted to reveal the peaks of the Continetal Divide. It was an absolutely glorious spring morning in Moraine Park.
You want more joy—most of us do!
What you seek, look for, and are alert for – you will find more of.
Old survival habits have conditioned us to look for danger, problems and difficulties. It is good to be alert for such.
AND when we look for reasons for joy, we can have more joy. Today!
This is an important reason so much prayer begins with praise and thanksgiving. Done sincerely, joy increases.Give thanks for a few things in your life, now – and notice what you experience!
So pray for joy. Pray for more joy! Receive more joy by faith – habitually.
Praying for joy and experiencing joy is a valuable part of the normal Christian life. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”, Philippians 4:4, NASB.
And – there are practical benefits to joy: when full of joy, it is easier to hear God. Easier to have a two-way conversation: prayer!
When you are full of joy, it is easier to experience the Presence of God.
When you are full of joy, it is easier to experience being full of Holy Spirit.
And when you are full of joy, Holy Spirit and you can powerfully change the surrounding atmosphere. You can transform the atmosphere so others can experience more of the Presence of God, be more easily full of Holy Spirit, more easily hear God and pray well. Miracles happen more often in such an atmosphere.
Follow Holy Spirit, and experience more of the Fruit of the Spirit. Including joy! Experience more of the Kingdom of God, and experience more righteousness, joy and peace.
Practice joy! One of the more important spiritual disciplines – and this can transform your life. You can be contagious with joy and help transform the lives of people in your sphere of influence. Your ministry is often more powerful and effective when done joyfully.
So pray for joy. Pray for more joy! Receive more joy by faith – habitually.
No evil can stand in or resist any aspect, nature or quality of God. No unclean spirit can exist or remain in God’s Glory — these are just too antithetical. Too different. It is impossible.
So…in the Glory or Presence of God, no devil, no demon; no evil or unclean spirit can remain – they are too opposite. Only God is bigger and more inclusive and wins every time. No evil can be equal to any nature or quality or aspect of Jesus, who is the perfect representation of our Father and who sends Holy Spirit to us.
How is this different from the promises of Psalm 91?
Go. Pray. Be secure and safe in the Presence and Glory of Jesus.
There is more to the Glory &Presenceof Jesus than we know. Here’s a view that will help understand and experience more of the Glory and Presence of God.
I saw this better while in my study and Father showed me and put together for me experiences and memories so I can see them in a more fresh and complete way.
Holy Spirit will gladly help you experience this for yourself because the more you understand the Glory & Presence of God, the more you are seeing Jesus. Who is the exact representation of our Father. So:
Ask for more of Holy Spirit and receive by faith. Be being more full of Holy Spirit.
Ask Holy Spirit to show you the existence of this so you may experience the truth of this for yourself.
The key idea that you want to understand and be very clear about is this: every good quality, aspect or characteristic of Jesus that you can discover in Scripture or from inspiration through Holy Spirit, and every experience of Jesus where you understand his very Nature better — is part of his Glory & his Presence.
What are some qualities of God? What is his nature? Just to name a few, God is:
Love, Loving, Merciful, Kindness
I Am, Being, Existence
Small Still Voice – our Lord is Still and Quiet; speaks to our spirit.
Eternal, Eternity
Presence
Peace
Light
Merciful and loving; in Hebrew you might say: Hesed.
Harmlessness – he has complete power to harm and chooses not to. A variation of Love and Mercy.
Savior, Rescuer, Redeemer
Trust, Trustworthy, Trustworthiness
Perfect, Complete; Lacking Nothing
Judge
Holy
Awesome
Each of these qualities points to an aspect of his Nature. Who he is, how he is: glimpses of how you can seek to experience Jesus.
Each of these qualities is worth your personal exploration; just ask Holy Spirit for help. Meditate. Contemplate. (And be sure to learn what these mean.)
Each of these qualities, when experienced deeply over time, will transform you. You, gazing on him, will be gradually coming to be more and more like him.
If you take on and express and are being such qualities, you are growing more and more into the likeness of God. You are expressing with Holy Spirit such good Fruit that you and those around you are more safe. You are expressing more and more of Jesus. What could be better for you?
You can pray with Holy Spirit to extend such qualities that are part of the Glory and Presence of God to other people and places (intercession that does not rely primarily on your words). Please do so!
We will explore more about this, later. For now, you can see how you can be protected and safe from spiritual attack. Learn about The Best kind of Spiritual Warfare.
We are also privately and secretly too certain that most prayer is too seldom answered. Of course, the word, “never” is so strong that we would not say it out loud. Many of us do not even say it to ourselves.
But there it is, lurking, underneath. The fear of yet more unanswered prayer.
No wonder so few of us are eager to pray! No wonder so many of us hesitate to pray. We have a terrible secret: it too often does no good.
Oh, we have reasons for this. Maybe God isn’t good. Maybe he’s mad at us. Some preachers act like he is. Full of judgement and anger, even. At sin. At how horrible we are. Even though we say otherwise in public, and often we say better than that to ourselves. Maybe we just do not understand his mysterious will nearly enough.
None of that is true. Yet it sure can seem that way!
And whenever we are suffering, our good answer to prayer seems to take too long.
I used to be like this. Then one day, it all changed for me.
I had been keeping track of prayers, so I would not forget. (I get distracted and forget far too easily and often. Including forgetting to pray powerfully for others. I need reminders.) Holy Spirit must have been guiding me, because I did it so well I made a tremendous and surprising discovery.
I used index cards. Kept track of who or what the prayer was for. When I started, and when I stopped. I prayed for three weeks, 21 days, unless asked to continue by another person or by God. I even kept track of what happened. I put Prayer Targets into writing.
Prayer Targets – visible results. Things noticeable. You can see what happened so well that it’s obvious what happened or changed and what did not.
These index cards helped me remember who to pray for, what to pray about. An enormous advantage that makes a difference.
Then it happened. I reviewed my prayer cards, the ones completed and finished. I made a discovery so unexpected, startling and amazing – that it literally transformed my prayer life.
Most of my prayers were answered. Most prayer targets were achieved. Nearly all of them! And quickly, too; even the speed was surprising. I was delighted. And I was surprised!
And I began to wonder how this could be. How is it that so many of my Prayer Targets were noticeably achieved and so quickly and I had somehow not noticed?
So I reviewed how I had prayed. And it slowly dawned on me: I was so concerned for the prayer targets that I was always praying and asking for something new. Something yet undone. Something important.
I was so focused so often on what was yet not accomplished and that seemed so important that I had never noticed how many Prayer Targets achieved – nearly all of them. With such good speed that, by hindsight, was amazing.
Please do this for yourself; discover and verify – most of your Prayer Targets are successful, and quickly. (And if not, find out the reason why! Good Prayer Target results are – dare I say it? Normal!
Big things like a new job or a new place to live would take – once I asked single-mindedly, about two days before the clue or hint came that led to success. Smaller things like headaches or personal problems with someone improved usually within two hours.
And I had never noticed. Not until I kept written records of Prayer Targets that could be noticed and observed.
I have habitually been focused on what’s needed and missing so many successes that I was not noticing or giving thanks for what God has already taken care of for others and for myself.
Not all Prayer Targets are quickly achieved. A small number of them drag on for a long, long time. I have come to suspect that the issue is often a lack of readiness to receive. When we are not ready, Prayer Target success take longer…until we are ready. Which is sometimes much longer than we realize or accept because we are so eager for good success.
Also important is single-minded faith, as described in the first chapter of James. When I or others are double minded, prayer success is not rapid. When double-minded, Prayer Targets are seldom achieved.
Strangely, it can take a year or two before single-mindedness occurs, especially for major changes. At least for me. I think it happens in this way. We are happy with a job or place we have; we were happy for the improvement. We’d asked for it, sought it out. We become comfortable with the way things are – even while we want yet more improvement. We are double minded and not and not yet really ready for change.
Oh! It’s the same issue!!We’re not ready. And when we are ready and single minded, when we ask for good things that God wills, it can then and most often does happen quickly.
God is good. Better than we think. Even better than many of us hope for much of the time. Better than we dare expect, even.
Prove and test this for yourself. Read the first chapter of James. It’s not long, but it sure makes a lot of points that we all need.
Choose noticeable Prayer Targets that allow you to rejoice with certainty when they are met. Do this in writing.
And discover for yourself, as I have – if I can do it you certainly can, too: most Prayer Targets are successfully achieved, and with wonderful speed.
Why does joy come so easily in the morning? Because it’s a fresh day, a fresh start. New discoveries are waiting to be made.
In Christian gatherings, new discoveries are made from time to time. New to the people who are present. Then the discoveries are explored.
This is a time of increasing attendance, with more people eager to learn what’s next. To explore and practice what is being learned about.
The Jesus Movement, re-discovery of Holy Spirit, practicing Spiritual Gifts, growing in the use and application of Spiritual Gifts. Prophecy that encourages and edifies and speaks with the passion of a full heart holding back nothing. There have been many more, and thee will be yet more, I promise.
Each individual can go through such cycles. Entire groups can experience such cycles together.
After a while, what was new to you becomes taken for granted – in a healthy way, it’s becoming a part of your life, now.
You may even become a bit bored. Try not to get stuck or bitter because learning is going so well and freshness is waning.
Not to worry. God has you covered. New discoveries are coming again.
The cycle is always refreshing itself, the cycle of discovery and learning goes on…for eternity!
You get to know who God is more and better. You get to learn your own identity more deeply and in new ways. You get to exercise and learn new gifts, grow more familiar gifts into greater maturity and skill.
Learning and discovery cycles go on…they come, and the newness seems to go. Another one is coming soon. I wonder what this one will be like?
It took a few times before he did it, but finally, Dale came to the meeting. He was nervous about this, not sure how he’d fit in.
When he came he could sense the difference between here and other places. The atmosphere and mood were special. Higher energy, more exuberant. Even…dare I say it? More joyous.
And there was another important difference. Before anyone greeted him in person, he felt comfortable: Dale knew he belonged.
They greeted him first by one person, then another. Many of them greeted Dale in various ways. Two with a nod of the head, another with face pointing at his face – with a smile that opened up as he saw Dale. Two others came over to him and talk to him, one at a time. To welcome him, to make sure he knew that they were glad to have Dale here among them.
Dale realized that this isn’t like going to other places. It’s different. The energy is brighter and better.
Dale may recall little of what happened in that meeting. He’ll never forget how several people welcomed him and the quiet and pervasive joy.
This happens in good Christian meetings. This happens when Christians gather, loving one another. And not just for a newcomer, either. They all love one another and are glad to see each other. They Bring the Presence of God and God’sloveto each other.
Look at the light of the sunrise. Look at and notice the color and quality of the light. Is not joy easy when you do this, breathing deeply and being glad to be alive?
A fresh day. A new start.
Remember what it was like when you were new to having answered the call from Jesus? Can you see and experience how mornings can be an echo of that? How morning rising resonated with New Life? The more you are willing to notice this – the more joy you will experience.
How much wonder can you be full of? Wondering what will happen today…what you will experience, what today will be like?
When you give thanks for your day and the day to come, your joy will only increase. You can even give thanks right now. Name three to five things you can be thankful for. The more it is an effort, the more joy you will feel after having done this.
Pray – talk to God about what you are thankful for. Now listen to what he has to say to you. You connect to God more closely, and you have more joy. The closer you connect to God, the more easily will joy come to you and stay with you.
You can have joy in the morning.Joy is easy in the morning!
This is easy. It’s kind of fun! It sure is better than being joyless!
You can have joy in the morning.Joy is easy in the morning!
I have a brilliant friend who recently dealt with and took care of fear. Including fear that he was not sure of the origin of. He has had outstanding success.
I asked him about this, and what he said was a major insight and illustrated well a powerful and effective way of dealing with such experiences.
He said,
The more appreciation I show, the more gratitude and blessings I bestowed onto the fear, the lesser the grip or contraction of the fear.
Only then can I fully feel into the sensation.
We have to anchor ourself in strong positive emotion or power before we should approach fear. Otherwise we could get paralyzed and stuck.
From my friend, Yk Liu, a doctor in Hong Kong and a student of all kinds of healing.
So now they (disciples) have transformed your Christian life through your learning to andthe practice of making of disciples. So much changes when we do this. It’s exhilarating, joyous, fun and very, very encouraging. You learn a lot! You grow tremendously. This is a major step on your Christian journey, and this changes your life for the better. You are more rich for the rest of your life when you are making disciples.
What’s next?
Continuing to grow in applying Spiritual Gifts?
Continuing to grow in faith and applying faith?
Continuing to learn to get to know our Lord more?
Continuing growth in learning who you are in him?
Yes! All these are not only good, they interact with each other. There is synergistic growth – growth that multiplies and often grows exponentially. These are not only all good, they each provide what can be a wonderful pathway for a lifetime of growth on earth and into eternity.
He showed this next step with the 12 and the 70, and more…and Paul showed step this every time he planted a local church.
What is this next step? Community and the expansion of Community.Why? Because it roots all Christian Community into the Trinity Community of Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Or at least resonates with these Persons. And we all crave community and grow best in community – even us introverts!
Without this next step, churches stagnate and grow smaller. Too many are closing. The lack of this is the major reason evangelization is too often too hard these days, and yields so little fruit with too much work.
Ecclesias! Ecclesias enforce the standards and method of the Kingdom of God and results in the rapid and healthy spread of Christian Community.
Ecclesias made of disciples who encourage, support and edify one another. Who socialize, share Communion, and who serve one another.
Ecclesias are the major driving element that results in New Testament speeds of making new Christians and planting new local churches.
What’s their first gigantic step in serving each other and in serving others, resulting in so much marketplace ministry that the Ecclesias reach so many and transform the people they touch through Jesus and born again into the Kingdom of God?
Prayer. Massive amounts of loving and faith filled prayer. Prayer for one another. Prayer for others they know about. Prayer for community people they network with and can so easily touch. People who need help and have needs. Oh, yes! People with needs who are thus prayer and ministry targets.
What are prayer and ministry targets? Prayer for and ministry to people and situations where you can see the wanted results as the Kingdom of God spreads.
Massive prayer precedes and results in people being sent. Sent to share the Gospel, to minister, to make new Christians, disciples, form Ecclesias that result in the planting of local churches.
