Joy Inexpressible and Full of Glory

Have you ever had those experiences in the Holy Spirit when it seems like the curtain of heaven is pulled back just a little bit and you are filled to overflowing with joy, peace, and the unswerving assurance that God is with you and that you are His?  I have just recently.  In fact, I can distinctly remember prior occasions when this has happened.  I remember being filled with the Holy Spirit and the full knowledge and assurance of my salvation in college.  Another time, I was reading Romans and when I came to 3:21-26, the full impact of being justified "freely" hit me like a ton of bricks and I was, as it were, lifted up to heaven itself - or so it felt like.  Yet another time, I was filled with the same assurance while unloading a truck on the overnight shift at Wal-Mart (it's probably a good thing I didn't immediately begin to speak in tongues, at least on that occasion).  These are just three examples.




What I am trying to say is that it seems like we get a small glimpse of the joys of heaven when this happens.  As a younger man, I can remember once meditating on these experiences and wondering at the two sides of my Christian life.  On the one hand, I thought a lot about doctrine and the meanings of biblical passages.  I loved to plumb the depths, as it were, of substantial theology and how it applied to life.  I was and am very intellectual.  On the other hand, there was an intense personal side to my life with God.  I didn't just know about God, I knew God Himself.  I loved God through Christ.  I still do.  As time has gone on, I began to understand how the Scriptures could say:

In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

 Psalm 16:11b NKJV



...Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.  But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out, and when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.  Yet they will be no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.  John 10:1-5

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."  The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God...  Romans 8:15,16

For the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Romans 14:17

For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh...  Philippians 3:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,   who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:3-9

It just made sense to me, and still does, that there is an experiential side to Christian faith.  God relates to me personally and through His covenant.  He knows me and I know Him.  At the same time, it just made sense to me, and still does, that there is objective, abstract truth about God that God desires us to know.  Doctrine for me is not just some dry, arid exercise of trying to gain intellectual superiority (though I have been accused of that before).  Doctrine is truth about the God I love and wish to make known. 

The funny thing about this is that as a younger man, it never occurred to me that the intellectual side and the experiential side were at odds with each other.  I knew intuitively that they were two different sides of my Christian life, but I never questioned that these two sides belonged together.  I thought every Christian felt as I did.  I didn't know that some were afraid of experiences and others afraid of doctrinal precision until I went to Bible college.  That doesn't make me better than anyone, it just was my experience of it.


God loves His people and desires to fill them with the unwavering knowledge of His love.  He showed definitively that love by sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross to atone for their sins.  God desires for His Church to be filled with joy and peace in believing (Romans 15:13), not only for their own good and happiness, but also because it is a powerful testimony to the reality of God before the unbelieving and hostile world.  Joy in the Holy Spirit is supernatural and can only be brought about by Him, as He points us to Jesus (John 16:13-15).  For someone like me, who is more melancholic in temperament and fights depression, it absolutely is a miracle.  I hope that you, the reader, will similarly be driven to Jesus to find Him waiting to shower you with His love by the Holy Spirit.