Breakthrough Prayer
BREAKTHROUGH JOY
I still remember the last couple of chapters in the previous book on joy, How joy is different from happiness. Happiness is circumstantial while joy is not changed by the circumstance. Here, once more I find myself confronted with this topic. Actually, I am confronted with this frequently. I had a hard time sleeping again. Even though I had a good amount of stool elimination on day 19 of the colon cleanse in the morning, and God gave me yet another dream of healing, today has been a discouraging day. I vividly remember the dream this time. I was in this living room and sitting in a circle and the people were playing cards. We took a short break, I got up, and could walk. I was so overjoyed that I ran over to show my dad that I could walk again. I did not need any assistive device to walk. I was so excited until I woke up and still had my condition. Two nights in a row that I would dream of healing and again disappointment. I had the image of Acts 3 and the healing of the cripple man at the beautiful gate who was healed and then was so excited in praising God. I felt this great confidence that God still heals today and yet as the day went on and noticable pain would come and go in my knee, discouragement set in again.
"Just as there are natural laws governing physical well-being, so there are also certain keys to robust spiritual health. These keys are presented in Scripture.
Let's visit God's pharmacy and learn from the Word of God about a key building block of vigorous spiritual health: "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones" (Proverbs 17:22 nasb).
The Bible focuses on the state of the "heart," which here stands for the human spirit, as the critical factor. In this case it is a joy-filled, cheerful inner being that brings a widespread soundness to the whole person. A crushed spirit has the opposite affect. Although joy is vital to our well-being, we rarely pray for it. When is the last time you heard someone pray, "Lord, fill me with the joy you promised me"? This is what I call one of the forgotten prayers of the Bible. It's something God wants to give us, but we have to ask for it. Believing, praying Christians should be filled with the joy of the Lord.
The New King James Version, which comes closer to the meaning of the Hebrew text, renders the verse, "A merry heart does good, like medicine." Literally, it could read, "A merry heart works a good healing, brings good improvement, and powerfully advances the recovery." The root of the Hebrew word denotes the healing of a wound even to the removal of a scar. The "medicine" that brings such deep healing is a heart filled with the joy of the Lord. In stark contrast, a broken or crushed spirit dries up the bones. Joy is vital to our spiritual well-being.
ABC World News Tonight recently told a story that seems to bear out this point. A lab technician from Rochester, Minnesota, fell and shattered her wrist while walking to work one day. The damage was so bad that she said it looked as though she had been thrown through a car windshield. How had a woman who took great pains to maintain her health by exercising regularly, eating well, and taking vitamin and mineral supplements sustained such an injury?
Even her doctors were surprised by the amount of damage she had suffered. "Usually a woman that age can sustain a fall and put their wrist out and catch themselves and not have any problem,"said her physician, Dr. Lorraine Fitzpatrick of the Mayo Clinic. "But she had this very bad fracture."1
While operating to repair the damage, doctors discovered the problem. This forty-six-year-old woman had unusually brittle bones. The diagnosis was advanced osteoporosis. Dr. Fitzpatrick commented that her patient had the bones of a woman fifteen-to-twenty years older. Doctors believe the problem may have stemmed from a bout of depression the woman had suffered years earlier. Apparently there is significant evidence showing that depression can lead to bone density loss in both men and women.
A recent medical study offered X-ray evidence of the bone density loss in women who suffered even mild depression compared with those who never suffered depression. The study revealed that when depression lifted, new pockets of calcium would amazingly form and strengthen the weakened bones. Ironically, in that verse from Proverbs, Solomon spoke through the Holy Spirit concerning this more than three thousand years ago."
I am so excited when human experience and scientific findings show the truth of Scripture written thousands of years prior. Indeed, a joyful spirit is like good medicine but a crushed spirit is very harmful. I see this in my own life. I have periods of joy but also periods of being crushed in spirit. I know this is not helpful for my recovery. I mean, even when sitting at the table tonight for my brother's birthday, I was only mildly happy. My default mood is depressed and I have no idea how this can lift. I know this depression pre-existed my joint situation and so I really need emotional healing as well. Depression often goes with anxiety which is what I also feel concerning my life and future. This truly is a forgotten prayer of the Bible which I have only recently been praying for. Depression is very bad for my health and also for life in general.
"The cure God offers for these maladies is simply the joy of the Lord. Real joy is not mere "happiness," a feeling that fluctuates with our circumstances. Rather, it is a deep, inner delight in God that only the Holy Spirit can produce. This divine joy is more than medicine. It is our strength! "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10).
This is the strength we need to engage in spiritual warfare. Otherwise, Satan, who has many cunning strategies, will try to get us to begin our days with a joyless attitude. Thus weakened, we make easy targets for even heavier satanic artillery aimed at destroying our faith.
George Mueller, a spiritual giant and man of faith of the nineteenth century, asserted that he couldn't safely start a new day without first being "happy in God." Mueller was a man who trusted God to feed thousands of orphans in his care over the course of several decades. He found this happiness by starting every day with prayer and meditation on Scripture. He learned valuable secrets about faith in God, one of which concerns the fortifying element of joy: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him" (Romans 15:13).
If we are going to walk victoriously by faith, we must maintain a daily spirit of joy in the Lord. Trust and joylessness cannot coexist for very long. The positive effects of joy reach to the very perimeter of our being: "A happy heart makes the face cheerful" (Proverbs 15:13).
Some people who attend church and sing hymns about God's love look as if they were baptized in lemon juice. This fact is sadder than it is funny. Christians should be the happiest people on earth,
with smiles that proclaim God's goodness. Glum and despondent believers should be sued for false advertising—Jesus Christ is far greater than they're letting on.
I will never forget a woman in the church I attended as a kid who always wore a black dress, black shoes, a black coat, and black stockings (and those stockings weren't even "in" yet). She never sat with anyone, never talked to anyone, and never smiled. I certainly couldn't imagine her ever laughing. Once I asked an adult why the "lady in black" seemed so downcast. His answer puzzled me. He said she looked that way because she walked with God and lived a holy life. If that were true, I wondered what she would look like if she backslid.
Many people throughout church history have made the very same mistake about what holiness looks like. Contrary to what I was told as a youngster, I believe that those who live closest to God are the most joyful people on the planet. Although my own experience in church may have been different from yours, we all need this reminder: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17)."
I too have heard it said that holy people are gloomy people. I have been to churches where people seem like they are attending some other kind of service and not a worship service. We are often warned against emotionalism and music tends to have that on us, but the songs I enjoy the most are upbeat and speak about the goodness and greatness of God. The joy of the Lord is our strength, not only spiritually but physically as well. How do we cultivate that deep inner delight in God? It is not automatic and comes only from the Holy Spirit. Sometimes I am deep in prayer in the morning and only a couple of hours later my mood becomes back to depressed. I agree. The people so close to God are not the ones with emotionless or angry or bitter faces. People who are close to God have a true and deep joy about them. We can spot people like that a mile a way, people with that deep delight in God. The closing illustration is a woman mamed Lynette Mohammed. She was married to the first and only love of her life for 24 years. They had two kids and exemplified a couple in love with each other and with Jesus. This marriage would come to an end on September 11. Only months later, her son, struggling with deep emotional wounds from the tragedy would take his own life. She was very shaken by what happened, but the churched prayed.
"One Sunday Lynette and her daughter stood on the platform together as the entire Brooklyn Tabernacle called on "the God of all comfort" to help our sister and give her consolation. I can still see her with hands lifted and tears running down her cheeks.
Lynette struggled most at night when she was alone in her bedroom. Without Boyie, the house seemed strange, and it was filled with painful reminders. I spoke almost daily with Lynette, and one day I called to find out how she was doing.
"Pastor, thanks for calling," she replied. "The Lord has been so good to me." Her voice and spirit seemed strong and vibrant.
"The other night the most wonderful thing happened. I couldn't sleep, so I went into the living room to spend time with the Lord. I sat in his presence and told him how hard it was to carry on without my husband. Oh Pastor, his Spirit came to me as I was sitting there, and he flooded me with not only peace, but his joy also. I began singing and worshiping God there in my living room as if I was in a sanctuary filled with other Christians. Oh Pastor, God has been so good to me!"
I was stunned. I was the one who had called to encourage Lynette, and here she was, lifting my spirits. The fullness of her joy flooded over into my life, and I praised God for his faithfulness and tender care.
Prayer:
Father, such moments are more difficult and painful than words can ever describe. A life partner and best friend of 24 years, the one we wake up next to and spend our lives with, no one would ever want that to happen to themselves or anyone else. What the son did made the pain all the more deep. It is a sad reality when things like Nine Eleven happen and it impact thousands of lives directly. Truely joy does not come easy but is a deep delight in You and comes only from the working of Your Spirit,. This chapter, on breakthrough joy is one that comes very timely. These days I struggle really hard for joy. Most of the time I feel so discouraged. This day with the pain in my knee, I feel more and more discouraged especially after the dream of Your healing. I was overjoyed in my dream at Your healing and it carried over when I woke up and my confidence and faith in You grew until I began to feel pain again. My worry is so so strong and my faith so weak. Father, fill me with the joy which is our strength.
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