As I sit down to share with you this day, I can identify with the psalmist who wrote, "My heart overflows with a good theme; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer." The good theme on my heart today is the "joy unspeakable" that I experience daily in being a child of God. Joy is an undeniable mark of a Christian believer who is full of the Holy Spirit. People may deny your doctrine, deny your faith, deny your human reasonings, but they can never deny your joy. People sit up and take notice of joy as it enters and transforms a place.
I remember the first Holy Spirit convention I ever attended. It was the Methodist Aldersgate meeting in Savannah, Georgia in 1986. I had been perusing the brochure and noting the panel of speakers who would keynote the convention. There was one particular speaker who caught my attention by the name of Tommy Tyson. I had never heard of him, but looking at his picture I decided I didn't like him. He looked too much like Boss Hawg on the Dukes of Hazzard. He had huge jowls and a goofy grin that went from ear to ear. I was certain that he would be a real dud, and couldn't minister to an intellectual such as I fancied myself. I distinctly remember the Friday night of the convention as we were awaiting the start of the meeting. I heard, or perhaps felt, a stirring, a commotion, at the back of the auditorium. Sitting on the aisle I had the advantage of being able to turn around and look back to see what was transpiring. What I saw I'll never forget. It was a plump, jolly little man who looked like Saint Nick in a suit and tie quickly moving down the aisle. He was grinning from ear to ear and laughing and jovially greeting the people as he went. People were reaching out from both sides of the aisle just to touch him as he walked by. The air seemed to be electrified all around him. As he reached the platform, the entire auditorium seemed to be transformed by his presence. He spoke on the topic "Why Jesus?" and before he was finished my life was changed forever. His preaching was punctuated by long bouts of laughter. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy talking about Jesus, relating to the people, and life in general. It was my first encounter with a man radically immersed and saturated in the Holy Spirit. There is no doubt in my mind that the joy of Jesus had a transforming effect of the same kind on the people who clamored to touch Him. I went back to my hotel room that night and as I lay in bed I began to pray. I soon discovered that I could not pray in English, and I became blanketed in an invisible warm presence that covered me like grandma's down comforter my mother used to put over me when I was little. For the first time I understood "why Jesus." I understood that Christianity is not a school of thought. It does not primarily consist of a doctrine, a political stance, an intellectual persuasion, a slogan. It is not whether you vote Republican or Democrat. It is not really even a religion. You could not spread it simply by "education" or "legislative mandate". Christianity is something God is doing; it is supernatural help from above. It is the Spirit of God coming to live inside the hearts of people who surrender to Jesus.
Paul wrote to the Romans, "The kingdom of God is not what you eat and drink; it is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Paul describes the Greek-speaking converts in Thessalonica as "having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit", and the Hebrew Christians as having "accepted joyfully the seizure of [their] property, knowing that [they] have for [themselves] a better possession." Peter spoke of the converts scattered throughout the world as having "joy unspeakable", in spite of the persecution they faced. These peoples' lives were radically changed by the Spirit of God. They were radically joyful, radically unselfish, radically overcoming adversity. It was not religion-as-usual.
God is restoring the Church of today to this lifestyle of joy. There is a joy movement on the earth right now. No longer will this world see a joyless, spiritless, legalistic, critical breed of persons who are basically just like everyone else. God is raising up an authentic witness of His love, joy and peace. This tired, war-torn world is right on the verge of an encounter with a new breed of humanity, gloriously immersed and saturated in the Holy Spirit.
Our joy will become complete when you also become a partaker of this kingdom of joy. "What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write so that our joy may be made complete." (1 John 1:3-4)
@ copyright 1994 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.