FUNCTIONING STEADILY ON CLOUD NINE - PART 5

FRIDAY 22 DECEMBER 2023

I love being on cloud nine because it is indeed, a true picture of the character of God's precious people on spiritual and physical levels. One of the sure ways to be on cloud nine is to practise gratitude, and there is always an eternity of reasons to be grateful in Christ. Believe me, if you want the world around you to make sense, be full of gratitude to God, and once your spirit is knitted together with divine grace under the attitude of gratitude, your happiness will rapidly increase and soar in the air.

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

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

Every new day, you have so many opportunities to be glad and smile in a powerful way. Even your focus can be sharpened with a great smile, bearing in mind that happiness makes you smile but sorrow can crush you (Proverbs 15:13 CEV). So when people are happy, they smile, but when they are sad, they look depressed. A happy heart will strengthen you and people will take note of it as they observe your countenance.

To instantiate this truth, a passage in the Bible tells us of how King Artaxerxes noticed that Nehemiah was unhappy. Nehemiah 2:1-2 reads, "And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. Therefore the king said to me, 'Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart...'" (NKJV).

Beloved, the brightness of your countenance matters. Even when the King asked Nehemiah the reason for his sadness, he answered, "Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?" You see, Nehemiah couldn't be happy about the waste because it was a sad story or negative incident report. This is the reason I mentioned that we have not been told to overflow with joy because of any predicament or ruin. We can only rejoice because we have a hopeful confidence that any unfavourable situation will be turned around.

God can change an unsuccessful business such that it becomes successful for you when you're joyful in hope of such change. God can cause a negative situation to change in a positive direction for you, as you deliberately remain on cloud nine. However it's important to always consider the reason for being overjoyed. You should always be confident in hope of change. To that effect, Romans 12:12 reads, "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer" (ESV) Got it? Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Notice the order of mention: Firstly, rejoice in hope, not rejoice about affliction. You have no business being happy about affliction or tribulation. But you can rejoice because you have hope, and your hope will not be cut off.

You can only exercise patience in tribulation; endure it as you persist in prayer. Zero wonder the latter part of Romans 12:12 says, "endure in hard times, and be persistent in prayer." When your heart is sad, you cannot truly bear the image and character of Christ. Zero wonder Proverbs 4:23 reads, "Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life" (NKJV). And you should be deliberate about keeping watch over your heart, for everything you do flows from it. For instance, do not let anxiety weigh it down, and swiftly understand that there is no level of happiness that is truly justifying which is not powerful in strengthening the heart.

The opposite of cloud nine is abject sadness, which is usually a reaction to the existence of an underlying feeling or hypostasis such as hurt, rejection, betrayal, neglect, criticism, or subdued control. Once you comprehend the power of happiness over these underlying emotions, no matter where they emanate from, you automatically learn not to respond to or accept them as normalcy because you have subscribed to a greater mental force, known as cloud nine.

Beloved, whatever is unresolved in your heart will continue to be experienced, however stressful and self-defeating that is, until you wake up to cloud nine where you can rule over the psychological dynamics of inner conflicts. Even the spirit of sadness disappears on its own once you see the need to be on cloud nine confidently and experience true joy within yourself. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Isaiah 66:13-14; Proverbs 10:28; Nehemiah 8:10; Romans 15:13.

Exuberant Declaration:

I have the marvellous light of eternal hope in me and I'm totally convinced that my hope is always secure in producing an expected end, as I function steadily on cloud nine. Hallelujah!