The Joy of Knowing the Lord Jesus Christ

“I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (John 15:11 HCSB).

Vision of Joyful spirit Gone Sour

In our message this week and for this New Year , we would like to draw your attention to JOY as a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Also, the Lord highlighted the importance of having joy as a Christian. While it is true Christians are faced with many challenges that are competing to destroy our faith and confidence in the Lord, we must remember that the Presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is equally real and He cannot be influenced by our moods (Romans 14:17; Galatians 5:22). It is true when a Christian displays a foul mood in the assembly of the brethren, they have allowed that mood of negative energy to possess them (1 Peter 1:6).

On Friday, October 16, 2015, the Lord gave Charis a short but powerful vision as a rebuke to someone in our ministry. He also used it as a message to emphasize the importance of joy in a believer’s life. In the vision, Charis saw me (Glenn) standing in our bedroom, and the Lord spoke to me (she could not see Him) saying, “My daughter Grace (not real name) used to be jolly and full of energy when she came to the home church worship services but lately, she has lost her joy and her coming serves no purpose.”

Brethren, this is a very serious message from the Lord. As you may recall, just last week, we were warned that the condition of our hearts must always be right before the Lord and at any given moment of time (Acts 8:21; Jeremiah 17:10). Indeed, the message the Lord gave above is true, because the negative energy of silence and withdrawal from the sister affects others in the assembly. When we give praise and worship to the Lord, it must flow from a spirit of great joy and jubilation, just like the Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:8-10; Psalm 149:1-2). As it is, such an attitude contradicts the purpose of our gathering, which is to rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 4:4).

As an experience and in addition to the above vision, we had a sister who would also come to our meetings in a very sad mood. Her facial gestures and mannerisms displayed her dislike of the brethren, and that coming to our worship session was a burden to her. This was evident in her moods. She was thus always uptight. This was a disturbing trend and the Lord rebuked her for having such a spirit. The Bible tells us that there is freedom, joy and peace in the Presence of the Lord, and that we must consider how we ought to encourage one another. We must not come to our gatherings to destroy the joy and faith of others (2 Corinthians 3:17; Psalm 16:11; Hebrews 10:24-25; Galatians 5:13-15).

Joy is a Manifestation of the Holy Spirit

In a rebuke to me some time ago, the Lord told me that whatever things we do in His name enjoys  equal importance, and our humility must be evident in reverence to Him. In my observation of Christians in general, the spirit of joy is evident mostly when we hear or receive something good, but generally, our moods are affected and controlled by worries for other things more than our whole-being in Christ. We cannot ignore the importance of joy in a Christian’s life, for this is showing our hope of salvation to others who don't have a relationship with the Lord (Romans 15:13). Since joy flows from the Holy Spirit, it would be safe to say that a joyless Christian either ignores or stifles the Holy Spirit from expressing Himself through them. The Lord has given all born-again believers the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we are urged to walk in the Spirit–not in the flesh (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Galatians 5:16). According to the Bible, we are identified as children of God through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives (Romans 8:9-11). He is a serious Partner that we shouldn't lose sight of (Ephesians 4:30). Therefore, His manifestation is seen in our lives through the fruits of holiness which we exude (John 15:8).

Often, people are naturally attracted by powerful revelations from the Holy Spirit and these are considered manifestations and rightfully so. However, when Christ came, He repeatedly emphasized the love He had for us, and the Father expressing this in great joy through His actions (John 15:9; Hebrews 12:2). Like today, many people are attracted to others by the ‘powers’ they have, either through some position or worldly wealth. Christ’ command to us, however, is to give love, thus allowing His joy to flow from that love (John 15:11-12). As it is, joy is closely linked to hope and good-will and biblically God is that JOY our souls must yearn for.

Hindrances to Our Joy

Prior to Job’s trials, the Bible tells us that he led a prosperous and peaceful life (Job 1:1-3) and his devotion to God was unquestionable (Job 1:4-5). However, seemingly out of nowhere, his troubles suddenly started and he cursed the day of his birth (Job 3:1-8). This preceding Scripture highlights the sadness in Job’s heart, and with that his joy was gone, making room for more complaining (Job 21:4). Now, we know Job was a man greatly loved and approved by our Heavenly Father, and his patience and faith in God was unshaken (Job 1:22). He certainly lost his joy because his soul was bitter within him (Job 7:11), and through his discourses he came to terms with his situation, acknowledging and charging that only God was his joy (Job 19:25-27).

Having said this, the Lord is teaching us that we will have His joy to help and carry us through our moments of hardship. We should therefore not allow life’s trying situations to harden our hearts, neither should we permit sadness and the worries of life to trouble us (Mark 4:19; Colossians 1:24; Matthew 6:25-34). I’m sure many of you have experienced that the competing worries of life (school, career, parenting, etc.) serve as the greatest thief of our joy. Sadly there are many wounded Christian who are falling prey to this device of Satan. In this ministry, we have witnessed the joy of many brethren who rejoiced in the Lord for the blessings He imparted upon them, and the power of God they experienced in their lives. Even though with all good things from God comes a test (Genesis 22:1-2; Acts 9:16), it is the joy fuelled by love that must remain, not a bitter heart. In other words, the Joy of the Lord must counteract sadness, for our sadness often concerns worldly things. We must not substitute our joy in Christ for the benefit of things that bring suffering (Matthew 19:21-23). When we worry and focus on the object of our suffering, instead of focusing on Christ, our peace will be disturbed (Psalm 42:5).

Presently, as a ministry and family, we are facing some trying situations. The Lord showed us that Satan is using these trials as weapons to steal, control and manipulate our feelings. By encouraging us, He told us just to pray and hope in Him and use His joy as our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). No doubt, the devil attempts to use the cares and concern of things to steal our joy and embitter us against the Lord, leading us to complaining. We are resolute in our commitment, and through it all, we have His joy as a real combatant against worrisome feelings, and with that we retain peace.

A few years ago, a good friend of mine who was unemployed had financial challenges, but his joy and worryless attitude in Christ gave me great courage. Despite his challenges, God provided for him and helped him; he lacked neither food nor money to pay for his rent. I can truthfully testify that even to this day, that brother is still enjoying the fruits of his faith in the Lord, having received everything he owns by faith, and sharing it freely because he refused to abandon the joy of the Lord. Brethren, we must remember that we have a choice to either exercise joy or be handicapped by feelings of worry. Choosing the latter shows that we are weak and walking in the flesh, as opposed to being strong and choosing life in the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16).

Restoring Our Joy

As children of God, we have not been called to complain, grumble, or argue (Philippians 2:14-15). Rather, since the Lord has been pleased to call us His children, we are called to be thankful (Ephesians 5:20; Hebrews 12:28).  If we at least have the basics of food, shelter, and clothing, let us give thanks and serve the Lord joyfully(1 Timothy 6:8; Philippians 4:11; Deuteronomy 28:47). Although it is not always easy, we are called to rejoice in our trials and consider it pure joy (James 1:2; 1 Peter 1:6). The Lord blesses and shows Himself to be full of love and faithfulness when we fast and pray by faith during our trials (Philippians 4:6-7). As the Jews in the time of Esther, we can only have joy when we see the Lord's deliverance after having obeyed, sought, and trusted Him (Esther 8:15-17). Also, when we wrong others in any way, it creates a lack of peace and division which hinders our joy. With humility and having a repentant heart towards those we have wronged and forgiving those who have wronged us, our joy is restored (James 4:6).

If you would like the joy of the Lord restored in your heart, pray for it as King David did when he said “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:12); and the Lord is faithful to give you this good gift (Matthew 7:11). To begin a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, please begin by praying this Prayer of Sincere Repentance. For any questions or comments on this article or our ministry, please contact us.

Peaceful love and joy to in Christ Jesus,

Brother Glenn

The Destructive Nature Of Self-Deception

Displaying An Inflated Ego Is Foolishness

NOTE: Brethren, as a Ministry we would like to apologize for not posting an article last week  Monday (02/12/2019). Our Country have been battling with rolling power outages and that affects almost every household. We therefore urge you dear brethren to continue to pray for our Land South Africa to speedily recover from the effects of corruption and every kind of wickedness in Jesus name!

Back to our message, the online dictionary defines self-deception as “the action or practice of allowing oneself to believe that a false or unvalidated feeling, idea, or situation is true”.

In this study, we would like to acknowledge at least three kinds of deception. We are being deceived by Satan (Genesis 3:1-4; Revelation 12:9); We are also being deceived by people we associate with ( 2 Timothy 3:13; 2 John 1:7), and our own feelings and ideas can lead us astray (1 Corinthians 3:18; Obadiah 1:3-4).

Self-deceit is undoubtedly connected to pride and our ego. The reality is, many of us fall into deception when we receive instructions for life from other sources other than the Bible (James 1:13-17, 22-26). In deceiving ourselves, we often base our beliefs on some Unbiblical way of life; this is largely due to two things: ignorance and outright disobedience to God’s instructions (Hosea 4:6; Galatians 6:3-4, 7-9). We have heard many people saying that because God is a God of love, He will not send anybody to hell. The truth is that people make their own choices and they will reap the consequences of these choices.

How to Discern Self-deception

We cannot help but overemphasize what the Lord said; that the fruit of every believer stems from Christ (John 15:5). This is the most basic self-evaluation. In the Bible, we read that it is the pride of our hearts that deceives us for the Scripture says: “You who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord” (Obadiah 1:3-4 NIV). Pride is one of the things that God hates (Proverbs 8:13; Amos 6:8).

Also, I once listened to a young evangelist preaching. He delivered a powerful message which I heartily accepted. During his preaching, he expressed a great deal of himself including what he has and who he's met. This is a conceited attitude; we are called to be humble and give glory to God. We are not serving the Lord for self-elevation, but we are called to serve one another in humility (2 Corinthians 4:5).

Furthermore, we fall into the trap of self-deception when we are always right and consider ourselves above rebuke (Proverbs 3:11; Hebrews 12:5). King David, when referring to Godly correction, said: “Let the righteous one strike me—it is an act of faithful love; let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head; let me not refuse it. Even now my prayer is against the evil acts of the wicked” (Psalm 141:5 HCSB). This humility by King David to the Lord’s rebuke is also evidenced from the Prophet Nathan’s rebuke of him (2 Samuel 12:1-14). King David submitted himself to the word of God that came through the mouth of the prophet, and he repented.

However, when King Jehoiakim was warned and rebuked by the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah, he despised God’s correction and for his intransigence and disobedience, the Lord God Almighty issued a judgement against him (Jeremiah 36:27-32). In addition, King Zedekiah met an awful end because of his fear of man (his officials), lack of faith, and unwillingness to submit to God’s warnings (Jeremiah 39:1-7).

Kindly allow me to relate an incident involving a very dear member of our ministry. Like I have said in the past, we share our experiences with you as a warning, and not to emphasize the mistakes of the person the Lord used to convey the message. During the last year, a member of our ministry was repeatedly warned by concerned brethren about the wicked behaviour of one of her grandchildren. In her arrogance, she would just ignore the warnings, including some messages from the Lord (through Charis). This led her to confess that only the Lord is allowed to rebuke her and not us, even after we told her that Scripturally we are to correct one another (Luke 17:3; Leviticus 19:17). We also received a vision from the Lord encouraging us to rebuke one another because it saves us from Hell (refer to the vision given to Charis on July 4, 2013, titled "Warning: Do Not Use The Lord’s Name in Vain!" ).

In His rebuke of this member of our ministry, the Lord told her that she was deceiving herself and that she was being used by Satan. The Lord gave her a humiliating rebuke for her arrogant attitude, which had us all standing in awe of the Lord. She humbled herself acknowledging her mistakes before the assembly of the brethren and God; The Lord forgave her for her humility and turned His punishment away from her.

Vision of Christian Gone Astray Through Self-deception

Here’s once more testimony that I would like to share. There was a man who became saved as a result of our witnessing and he asked to join our fellowship. At first he showed great love for God and love for souls. However, after a few weeks he lost his spiritual lustre. He thought he could serve God by still lying and acting worldly. Against the advice of Scripture (2 Corinthians 6:14), he followed the wicked ways of some of his worldly friends. We guided him Scripturally but he continued doing wrong things secretly, until the Lord exposed his ways in a vision to Charis.

I will not relate the entire message of this vision, but in the vision, the Lord showed that he was standing on one side of a wired, spiky, corroded fence and he was unable to climb over it. Where he was standing the grass, trees and soil were dry and withered. He was himself poorly dressed. On the other side of the fence were green trees and beautiful flowers that gave a fragrance all around, with a man and two God-fearing children sitting on chairs under a thick blossoming tree with Bibles in their hands. They looked to the man on the other side and waved to him to come over and join them. Only then could he climb over.

In interpretation of this vision the Lord said that the man on the dry side of the fence was trapped by self-deception, thinking he was serving the Lord right, and when trying to get out of his situation (note his inability to climb over the fence to get to the other side) he could not. When he acknowledged his need for help and by being invited, only then could he climb over or receive deliverance. The beautiful green trees and grass with fragrant flowers represented Heaven. The moment he joined strength returned to him. He submitted his life to the Bible message.

Finally, brethren, if we are following our own counsel and ignoring basing our lives on the Word of God (Matthew 7:24-27; Jeremiah 17:5-7), we are on the wrong side and living in self-deception. We might hope that our going to church, tithing and doing good is enough to get us to Heaven. It might be noble to practice this. These, however, are the fruits which man looks at, but Godly fruit issues from a joyful heart and submissive obedience to the Word of God (1 Chronicles 28:9). Therefore, trim your attitude, submit to God and allow the fruit of the Spirit to grow from you. Shun worldly friends and their counsel, and study your Bible; therein is wisdom, knowledge and Godly counsel.

If you have not made a decision to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, or if you desire to renew your relationship with Him, simply pray this Prayer of Sincere Repentance to get you started in a new life and mean it in your heart. For any questions or comments on this article or our ministry, please contact us.

Gracious peace and love to you,

Brother Glenn.