A Richer Walk

Galatians 5:22–23 (KJV 1900)
²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, ²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Joy and Happiness

To understand joy, one must first understand happiness. One is of heavenly origin, the other derives from the earth.

HAP’PY adjective [from hap.]

1. Lucky; fortunate; successful.

2. Being in the enjoyment of agreeable sensations from the possession of good; enjoying pleasure from the gratification of appetites or desires. The pleasurable sensations derived from the gratification of sensual appetites render a person temporarily happy; but he only can be esteemed really and permanently happy who enjoys peace of mind in the favor of God. To be in any degree happy we must be free from pain both of body and of mind; to be very happy we must be in the enjoyment of lively sensations of pleasure, either of body or mind.[1]

The word happy is derived from the word hap.

HAP, noun [Latin capio.]

1. That which comes suddenly or unexpectedly; chance; fortune; accident; casual event. [See Chance and Casual.]

2. Misfortune. [But this word is obsolete or obsolescent, except in compounds and derivatives.]

HAP, verb intransitive To happen; to befall; to come by chance.[2]

The word happy is related to unpredictability, probability or chance.  These are not only directly connected to this world, but to this world in its fallen condition. Probability is not a characteristic of heaven, or of the earth in its original state of perfection. The old world understood this and made Chance or Fortune into a deity, a false god who ruled over the destiny of men.[3]

Happiness is also limited to human experience, the enjoyment of the body or the mind. This limitation to experience is made necessary by spiritual death [Ephesians 2.1] and therefore pertaining to the fallen creation, unrelated to the Spirit of God or the human spirit.[4]

Therefore, happiness is confined to the experience of man, limited by the instability which is the byproduct of a universe infiltrated by a second will, opposed to God, a new good and a new evil.

Joy is the spiritual opposite of happiness. Joy is concrete, inflexibly certain. The domain of joy is the Spirit through which it communicates to the human soul by spiritual processes. Joy is not the product of this world, neither its heavenly origin nor its experience in man. Joy is the product of the Spirit through faith.[5]

Superpower Definition: Joy

Joy is the “actualization of freedom,”[6] that mental attitude of confidence in God that is experienced as rest and delight [Psalms 37.4]. Joy is not a mood, it is the state of being of the mature believer abiding with Christ [John 14.23], absorbed in His glory. This joy is the eternal possession of God that became the birthright of the believer upon the completion of the earthly ministry of Christ.[7]

Joy is an invincible and indestructible cognitive state: joy is what everlasting victory tastes like. Joy is a result of the faith that looks back upon the certainties of the Cross of Christ and forward to our universal dominion with Him at the establishment of His Kingdom.[8]

How Does this Superpower Work

Joy is a product of the process of “abiding in Christ” that was discussed in Part 5-Love. In the Bible, joy is directly connected to the believer’s fellowship with Christ: anticipating his salvation, witnessing his works, sharing his ministry and suffering and anticipating his Kingdom. Abiding in Christ leads to spiritual maturity, which includes faith, another fruit of the Spirit. Faith looks back at the doctrines of the new birth: the eternal and irreversible changes wrought within the believer by the sovereign action of God. This same faith looks forward to the eternal, universal mastery of the believer with Christ in His coming Kingdom. Walking in the realization of these twin certainties makes the believer a possessor of the joy that belongs to God. The stability and serenity of the possessor of this supernatural attribute reflects the enjoyment of unbroken divine fellowship through the filling of the Holy Spirit, the Source of all the superpowers [spiritual fruit] of the believer. This joy produces many powerful benefits to the true follower of Christ.

How this Superpower Affects You

Joy is to the believer what invulnerability is to Superman. The bullets of the external and internal enemies of God cannot penetrate joy. Joy is a mental attitude that is caused and maintained by the Spirit of God and although joy is experienced by the believer, it is not diminished by the other emotions of the soul.[9] Therefore, joy can coexist with sorrow or any other category of pain.[10] This enables the believer to function and to serve God regardless of his or her circumstances. Even when the Christian is suffering under persecution, poverty or physical illness, she is in constant fellowship with God, who is pouring strength into her soul, enabling her to obey and glorify Him in the world.

Joy enables suffering without complaint and persecution without bitterness. It makes possible uninterrupted service and worship to God. Joy appears entirely irrational to the world, being unlike happiness in every way. Joy recognizes that God’s purposes are not always apparent, but His character and His promises are both evident and immutable.

Joy is not a feeling, but joy feels good. Joy is the attitude of God deposited into the soul of the mature believer. It feels great because the Christian who possesses this joy is experiencing direct fellowship with God [John 14.23].

Therefore, this supernatural joy enables the proper function of unconditional love. Joy is the strength beneath effective Christian ministry. Joy is one motivation for true worship. Joy is the “actualization of freedom.” Joy liberates you from the evil, the instability and the pain of this world by providing a supernatural mental attitude, a cognitive invincibility.

How this Superpower Affects Others

Everybody in the world wants joy. The world is seeking joy through achievement, through relationships, through false religion. Wearing out their bodies with chemical joy, wearing out their souls by illegitimate sexual joy. Imitation joy is, over time, diminished in its intensity and duration because it isn’t joy at all, but happiness, the shadow of joy.

The unbeliever [let’s call him Fred] sees the saint under pressure and oppression, yet his soul untouched by the fire. Fred cannot understand why outward adversity has not translated into inward stress, anxiety, and depression. On the contrary, there is an undeniable quality of confidence and strength. Observing the believer, Fred remembers Sunday School as a child, when Shadrach and his friends confidently said that they would serve God, even if He chose not to deliver them from the fiery furnace.

Daniel 3:17–18 (KJV 1900)
¹⁷ If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. ¹⁸ But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

As the bullets ricochet off the chest of the joyous Christian, Fred is convicted, realizing something supernatural is here, perhaps, God is in this.

Joy is a very powerful evangelist. Joy is a power that preserves marriages and that stabilizes families and businesses. Unbelievers don’t know what it is, but they know it when they see it.

Joy is attractive. It has a charismatic effect upon people who wish to follow the one who has it. This can be dangerous if the Christian does not quickly direct them to Christ, the Source of joy in the new birth.

Conclusion

The Church Age[11] believer is the model for the worldly superhero, who is a pale replica of what God has accomplished in the new birth. Indwelt by God, while simultaneously a part of Christ’s spiritual Body, the believer exercises divine omnipotence for the purposes of holy living and spiritual ministry. Elevated by these mechanisms of the Spirit, the Church Age believer stands above every believer of every age in position, the Bride of Christ. The greater her understanding of these realities and the more consistent her obedience, the brighter the glory of her joy, her holy crown.

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[1] https://webstersdictionary1828.com Accessed April 20, 2025. Art. Happy

[2] https://webstersdictionary1828.com Accessed April 20, 2025. Art. Hap

[3] FOR’TUNE, noun [Latin fortuna, fero or porto, tempestivus. See Hour and Time.]

1. Properly, chance; accident; luck; the arrival of something in a sudden or unexpected manner. Hence the heathens deified chance, and consecrated temples and altars to the goddess. Hence the modern use of the word, for a power supposed to distribute the lots of life, according to her own humor. https://webstersdictionary1828.com Accessed April 20, 2025. Art. Fortune

[4] The human spirit was rendered inactive at the fall of man. This is the meaning of spiritual death referred to in Eph 2.1. Mankind is incapable of genuine spiritual function and fellowship with God [Eph 1.5, 4.18].

[5] Matthew 25.21; 2 Corinthians 1.24; Galatians 5.22; Philippians 1.25; Hebrews 12.2

[6] Joy is the actualisation of freedom, which takes concrete form in fellowship, R. 12:15. Hans Conzelmann and Walther Zimmerli, “Χαίρω, Χαρά, Συγχαίρω, Χάρις, Χαρίζομαι, Χαριτόω, Ἀχάριστος, Χάρισμα, Εὐχαριστέω, Εὐχαριστία, Εὐχάριστος,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 369.

[7] Luke 2.10; John 17.13. The Fruit of the Spirit [and the characteristic of Joy here discussed] are a direct consequence of the spiritual endowments of the Church Age, brought about by the ascension of Christ and the provision of the Spirt to the Church, the Body of Christ. [see footnote 11]

[8] John 15.11; Romans 14.17

[9] Of course, joy is diminished or eliminated by the believers sin.

[10] 2 Corinthians 8.1-2; 1 Thessalonians 1.6

[11] The Church Age is the period between the Day of Pentecost [Acts 2.1-4 c.f. 11.15] and the Rapture or resurrection of the Church [1Thessalonians 4.16-17], the time of the formation of the Body [1Corinthians 12.13; Ephesians 1.22-23] and Bride of Christ [Revelation 19.7-9]. The Church is the time when believers are endowed with extraordinary but invisible power by which the world is changed, and eternal consequences are achieved by the spiritual transformation of men and women.