FUNCTIONING STEADILY ON CLOUD NINE - PART 2

TUESDAY 19 DECEMBER 2023

Reference: Proverbs 17:22 New Century Version (NCV)

"A happy heart is like good medicine, but a broken spirit drains your strength."

A happy heart is a good blessing from God and its a secret wisdom for healing, bearing in mind that medicine is designed for healing. The Greek term for medicine intertwins spiritual healing with the physical. When you are lost in thoughts of God's goodness, you can experience cloud nine as a medicine, which can restore a troubled mind and body progressively.

Why is your happiness important to God? Firstly, you can't be wearing an appearance absolutely opposite to the purpose of being born again. The appropriate way of interpreting a godly outlook is being on cloud nine. Secondly, you can't use an unhappy attitude to win people to Christ. If you put such an attitude on, it indicates that the work of redemption done by Christ in your personal life is in vain. Happiness is a dispositional factor that drives you towards your destined end of conformity to the image of Christ, the Son of the living God, and so, you must deliberately confront and deal with anything that robs you of such countenance in your general attitude to life, until you sustain a happy frame of mind.

Many a time, we hear people say that happiness is dependent on circumstance, and therefore, it is temporary, but joy is always a lasting experience and it doesn't get tampered by trouble or afflictions. But I insist on informing you that this notion is not entirely chained to timeless truth. Let me use a common truth to instantiate what I mean. If you are sincere to yourself, you'll definitely admit that functioning in a state of untold sufficiency or wealth increases the level of joy and happiness. However, your joy and happiness must NOT only be dependent on things you own or have but on the Lord's faithfulness. On the other hand, if your joy overflows only when you are faced with all manner of hardship, more than when you have so much blessings and enough to bless others with, as well as spend and invest, it is not ALWAYS an indicator that you are serving God faithfully. If you derive more joy being in a state of lack, don't do so to prove the existence of lasting joy, and I will expound what I mean by this, in part 3 of this topic.

Understand that cloud nine is a state of perfection in terms of happiness. It means to be overjoyed. Simply put, being overjoyed sustains the same meaning as being on cloud nine, which is to be extremely happy. The extensive basement which some people attach to expressing great joy while facing terrible or unbearable situation is questionably pointless. For instance, there is no extreme happiness or joy in the midst of war; don't pray or hope for it in your country. There is no extreme happiness or fullness of joy in losing a loved one to death; don't wish for it. God forbid, but if a terrible bad news ever happened to a born again Christian, and God allowed it, no one still has to be joyful about an evil experience. However God's grace is sufficient to carry on in such situation with other joyful memories and experiences, but the higher truth is that God can sustain His childern without sorrow - by perfecting all that concerns them.

Apostle Paul said, "...I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." In fact, he went ahead in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, saying, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (NIV).

Question: Why did Paul plead with the Lord to take it away for three good times? This is simply because it wasn't a desirable and joyful experience. Why did the Lord not answer the prayer by taking the thorn in his flesh away? The thorn was a remarkable part of his calling. To instantiate this verity, when Ananias was reluctant concerning ministering to Paul (formely known as the Saul of tarsus), the reason behind his fears was because of all the harm he did to the saints in Jerusalem, and his acts of obtaining authority from the chief priests to arrest God's people. But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake" (Acts 9:10-16 NLT).

Kindly notice that verse 16 meticulously points that Paul was called to suffer GREATLY for the Lord's name. As for you, a born again Christian, God's perfect will for you is to have an abundant life, and function in a state of cloud nine, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Stay tuned for part 3. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Psalm 16:11; John 15:11; Philippians 2:1-2; Esther 8:16.

Exuberant Declaration:

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has given me life, and has positioned me to have it more abundantly. Functioning steadily on cloud nine has brought to light, the many-sided blessings of eternal life at work in me, and I'm full of gratitude to God. Hallelujah!