The Positive Aspects Of The Happiness Of God.
- Happiness (+H) is not following the crowd and accepting their approach toward life but living for our Lord and following Him; MAT 4:18-22.
"Follow Him that it demands an immediate response of leaving whatever it is that we need to get rid of to do so.
Notice that they left their logistics to survive, which was their boat, and they left their sentimental attachment with a member of their family, in this case, their father, just like Abraham had to do back in Gen 11.
This man needed to be challenged concerning what type of home he was concerned about.
Here we see the importance of not being in bondage to the details of life but instead having the attitude that you are willing to pick up your cross and follow Him at any moment.
There is another man that needs to get straight if he is going to follow the Lord because he must put “following the Lord” ahead of his earthly family, even the ones who have died.
He is saying in effect, “I will follow you after I go and take care of my family and the details of the funeral.”.
MAT 8:22 But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me; and allow the spiritually dead to bury their own physical dead."
In MAT 9:9, notice our Lord’s invitation to Matthew following Him and also notice Matthew’s quick positive response.
No one is worthy to follow the Lord until they are willing to pick up their cross and follow after Him.
Picking up your cross is denying yourself of fleshy indulgence and to follow the Lord not your flesh.
For those who follow Him, notice what He did; MAT 12:15 But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed Him, and He healed them all.
Look at the demands our Lord gives His followers in MAT 19:16-30.
Sometimes our Lord would choose who He wanted to follow Him so that He could teach them a very serious lesson as He did with Peter, James, and John; MAR 5:37.
MAR 5:37 And He allowed no one to follow with Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James.
The last passage and the most popular one found in the Bible concerning following the Lord begins in JOH 1:29.
If you follow the Lord, you will not walk in darkness; JOH 8:12.
In JOH 10:4, His sheep follow Him because they know His voice or doctrine.
"If anyone serves Him, they must follow Him and His servants and if anyone serves Him, the Father will honor him; JOH 12:26.
The whole principle is for us to follow the Lord and not care who else is following or not following the Lord because it’s none of our business, JOH 21:21-22.
- Happiness (+H) is not following the crowd and accepting their approach toward life but living for our Lord and following Him; Gospel passages.
- A happy person is one who makes up his own mind, has his own convictions and doesn't allow himself to be manipulated.
As the apostle Paul taught in ROM 14, we all have to make up our own mind.
- Happiness (+H) is not allowing yourself to indulge in the usual manipulation that goes on in life.
- Happiness (+H) is coming to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized or just considered.
JAM 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
Just believing or considering or conceptualizing the word is not going to make you happy, it is becoming what James said in JAM 1:22.
JAM 1:22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
- A person is happy because they are growing daily and not knowing where their limit lies.
This means that God’s happiness can never be put in a box, it has no limitations.
ISA 55:8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord.
ISA 55:9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
- Every day there can be a new revelation or a new discovery about life and about God that can give the believers the power to be content and happy.
- Happiness (+H) is also being able to treasure the memory of the past misfortunes.
- Happiness (+H) isn't something you just experience; it's something you remember.
- It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness (+H).
- The key to true happiness (+H) is a change in our mental attitude.
This is the importance of the “E” in ICE or the grammatical and syntactical analysis of the passage from the original languages.
- The English noun "joy" refers to a state of happiness (+H) or bliss or something which causes happiness (+H) or great pleasure or satisfaction.
- The verb "rejoice" is also another word which describes happiness (+H) and it is defined as an expression of a state of happiness (+H) or to be delighted.
- The English noun "happiness (+H)" is defined as a state of well-being characterized by a relative, permanent contentment, marked by pleasure, satisfaction, or joy.
- Eshor is translated blessed, blessedness, happiness (+H). It is usually found in the construct form ashere, generally translated happiness (+H), blessing, blessed.
Eshor and ashere on the basic words used for happiness (+H) in the Old Testament.
- The Greek noun chara is translated "joy" but the Romans and Greeks were very cynical about happiness (+H), and didn't seek it in things and people as we do.
- The noun makarios (usually in the plural makaroi) is translated "blessed" or "happiness (+H)."
The noun makarios (usually in the plural makaroi is translated "blessed" or "happiness (+H)."
- The noun autarkeia comes a little closer, because it means contentment, to be content, to be self‑sufficient, it means a perfect condition of life in which no aid or support is needed.
It is used in 1TI 6:6 But living the spiritual life keeps on being a great means of prosperity when accompanied by contentment or capacity for life.
Notice how it is translated in 2CO 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency [there's autarkeia or another definition for happiness (+H)] in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;
Its verb arkeo, in the active voice, means to be sufficient; therefore to be self‑sufficient.
2CO 12:9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."
In the passive voice, the verb sufficient means to be be satisfied and content.
Hence, this refers to an expression of happiness (+H) related to spiritual autonomy.
The passive voice use of this is found in 1TI 6:8 Now having nourishing food and a change of clothes. with these we shall be content.
- Therefore, to understand what happiness (+H) is becomes a grammatical, exegetical, contextual examination of certain passages of the Word of God.
- Most people carry the entrenched notion that some set of circumstances, things, or people can "make" us happy.
Happiness (+H) is not something that is made or manufactured by you.
- We must never confuse happiness (+H), as taught in the Word of God, with the various stimuli of life which are enjoyable for the moment, but have no ability to sustain us in day‑by‑day living.
Whatever happiness (+H) is, it is something we have with us all the time.
- It's only in the body to the extent that the soul is in the body, for happiness (+H) is related to the soul and spirit, to the immaterial parts of man, and is not related to the body at all.
No rapport with God, you will never have rapport with people and you also will never experience true happiness (+H).
- Satan does not personally administer pseudo happiness to any person, but he provides the system called in this passage the world or the cosmos which we call the cosmic system.
- The cosmic system provided by Satan is filled with illusions, delusion, fallacies and misconceptions of happiness (+H).
Satan's myth of arrogance is that both people and pleasant circumstances in life can make you happy.
- Satan's propaganda is that money, success, pleasure, social life, sexual life, public approbation, fame, material things, travel, health, and pleasant circumstances in life can make you happy.
Often these things are pleasurable, stimulating, fun, and enjoyable, but they don't carry you......especially in time of suffering.
By way of contrast, what God has provided for us in perfect happiness (+H) is a permanent factor and a problem-solving device.
Anything that is worthwhile is worthwhile in adversity as well as in prosperity.
- If you are dependent on any person or set of circumstances for happiness, then you are weak and you do not have happiness in any realm.
- To the extent that you are dependent on people, circumstances, prosperity, success, or any accouterments of life for happiness (+H), you are weak.
- You are not only a strong person, but you have that great inner happiness (+H).
- God's happiness (+H) isn't dependent on environment, associations, or circumstances of prosperity or adversity; it depends on none of these things.
- Remember that Satan is the ruler of this world, LUK 4:5-7; JOH 12:31, 14:30, 16:11 [ruler]; 2CO 4:4 [god]; EPH 2:2 [prince].
In LUK 4:5-7, Satan claims to rule the kingdoms of the world.
In JOH 12:31, he is called the ruler of this world.
In 2CO 4:4, he is called the god of this world.
In EPH 2:2, he is called the prince of the power of the air or the one who controls the atmosphere in this world.
- Satan rules and controls through a policy called arrogance, in contrast to God's policy of grace.