Unspeakable Joy

    Have you ever seen someone sing the old song "It is joy unspeakable and full of glory" and look like death warmed over?   How about the chorus of the earlier charismatic move "The joy of the Lord is my strength"? I have seen people sing that who appeared to be sucking on lemons.  Sour!   How about the song "He touched me"?  I seen people sing that and their expressions would be more appropriate at their mother's funeral.  Isn't it crazy that in the age of re-defining, we have even re-defined joy?   Now, people can say "I have joy" without any sign of its presence.  Naah!   Joy not only touches the heart, it touches the face.  Joy unspeakable is simply joy that has been birthed in the belly, the spirit, and has made its way to your mouth. When it is there, you smile and show all thirty-seven of your ivories, or two, however many you have.  And, for the novices, joy unspeakable has a sound.  Something like "ha ha, ho,ho, he, he". And, when it is full of glory, it is laughter mixed with praise.  That my friend is "joy unspeakable full of glory", 1st Pet. 1:8.

    You know, once, when Israel experienced freedom from one of their periods of captivity, the psalmist described it this way, "When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.  Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.     The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.    Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.    They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.   He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him". Ps. 126:1-6.  I tell you this, at times I have had this feeling.  A feeling of being so free!  It is, like a dream.  Your mouth is filled with laughter and your tongue can't stop singing.  How wonderful the feeling of freedom!  Oh how I wish I could easily pass this freedom on.  Unfortunately,  many don't want freedom.  It takes effort to press for freedom, it is easier to stay in captivity.  But, when men get free, the heathen start to take notice jus as the psalmist notes.   The heathen world around us needs to see free Christians.  Yet, so many of us are like the Pharisees.  Jesus once told them they were in bondage and they answered a fool's answer "Why, we've never been in bondage to any man".  Isn't that crazy,considering Israel's long history of bondage, considering that at that very moment the were under the thumb of the Romans?  YOu see, that is the real problem with real bondage, especially the spiritual kind.  It is blinding!  If we could see our bondage we would more likely step out of it, or try to. But, the insidious nature of spiritual bondage is that it blinds us to what it is.

   The blindness element of spiritual bondage is precisely why we should read this psalm and read 1st Peter 1:8 and read about the early church being filled with great joy, again and again.  It gives us sight as to what freedom looks like.  When you can't see freedom, it is easy for the deceiver to keep deceiving,  But, when you know what it looks like, you also know when you don't have it.  My friend, if there is no joy in you, no joy in your form of Christianity, you are in bondage.   God declares in both Old and New Testaments that in His presence there is fulness of joy!   This is not just a promise of heaven, though we will know joy there.  This is a promise of right now for believers.  Like Peter said, even though we have not seen HIm, yet we believe and we rejoice with unspeakable joy!

    Friend, if you have ever truly experienced this kind of freedom, you will relate to the second half of the psalm "turn again our captivity".  DO IT AGAIN GOD!  Bondage comes and goes.  The enemy of God works hard to make that a fact.  In fact, if you are like me, (and the psalmist), and your joy slips away, or is stolen,  you are likely to begin to weep tears of joy, bearing the seeds of the freedom you know to be so wonderful and so real.   And, if you do, you may come again bringing a harvest of fresh new liberty and freedom.