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When the joy of salvation is spent!
Posted by prez!
on
4:48 AM
The birth of a child brings unexplained joy not just to the baby who gets everything he or she wants, but to family members too. Everyone is ecstatic...parents and siblings are happy to the point of tears...extended families are thrown into a frenzy of baby names, gifts and opportunity to look upon the new creature. but this excitement only lasts for a while, that does not mean that family stops being joyous at the birth of the child, no, joy of the birth of the child is joined by other joys...the joy of watching the child grow..take his first steps, use his first words and ultimately when you see your child grow up to be something parents, siblings and extended family can be proud of. This same principle applies spiritually.
When you're born again, the joy of your salvation is not experienced by you alone, heaven rejoices with you ("luke 15:10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.") but you are not to remain there...i don't think a 9yrs old child still feeding on breast milk will be as cute as a 3months old baby doing the exact same thing because at some point you have to grow past certain things or you'll be classified as abnormal...or even retarded. Most importantly, Joy is a fruit of the spirit, it must grow...and it only grows when you grow.
It is wonderful to see a newborn Christian who wants to share his faith with everybody because he is so excited about what God has done in his life, but that joy and excitement he feels may become stale if he remains where he is, if he continues to try to feed off the excitement of that joy. At that point he starts to struggle and that rush of emotion he had on the day of is rebirth is now a faint wisp. he is feeding off the wrong joy at that time. This is simply because the excitement at the birth of a child will only continue when the child brings other joys. Parents will remember and thank God for the day a child is born if the child as he grows continues to do them proud, this way they effectively re-experience the joy of birthing such a child. So spiritually, when you don't grow and find more joys in Christ, you'll begin to loose faith in your salvation joy because it hasn't borne any fruit...nothing is happening. Put simple, the joy of your salvation will fade if you don't find other joys that will remind you of it and make you glad that you're saved thus effectively giving you back the joy of salvation.
There is the joy of winning souls (1 Thessalonians 3:9), there is the joy of seeing the power of God grow in you.. there is the joy of being responsible for people and seeing how your mentoring has helped them grow too...there is the joy of seeing your fellowship or relationship with God blossom, there is the joy of seeing God reveal secrets to you... (Psalm 126:2-3) there are numerous joys and they're all connected. when the joy of your salvation has pushed you to evangelize, you should derive joy from seeing a sinner get saved, next you should derive joy from seeing new born grow in grace, you should derive joy from being in God's presence and get excited at the things He shares with you through the Holy spirit. As a new born, all your battles are fought for you, you ask God and God see it done, but as you grow in spirit, God starts to show you that His power is in you to command and see things happen, at this point you derive joy from fighting and winning spiritual battles..from praying by yourself for yourself or others and seeing miracles happen.
Bottom line is, the joy of your salvation cannot continue to be the only thing that drives you to get close to God and do God's work. As Christians we have to grow into other joys therefore creating a strong joy-foundation. it'll be easier for a person who only has the 'joy of salvation' to backslide than someone who has in his arsenal the joy of his salvation, the joy of fellowship with God and the joy of saving a soul. We've read accounts of how Paul rejoiced with the churches as they grew, how their growth made his joy full.(Romans 15:32, 2Corinthians 7:4&16)
Don't get me wrong, the joy of salvation is as important as any joy, but if you don't grow, you'll have only the joy of salvation to rely on and the joy of your salvation can only hold for so long when not bolstered by other joys. So, no, as an old christian, you don't 'need' the joy of your salvation to preach the gospel, cos that would mean you aren't growing. As a Christian you'll overcome by the word of your testimony...your testimony can either be one testimony about your salvation which is good enough if you have the excitement and passion of a new born to carry it or it can be several testimonies about your salvation, the workings of the holy spirit, how you've experienced fellowship with God and His power. It's safe to say that the more testimonies you have, the more likely you are to overcome the devil.
You won't need to look for joy and excitement to preach if you're growing spiritually, because you'll have had enough experience with God to be passionate about Him, haven seen all He has done through and to you.
When you're born again, the joy of your salvation is not experienced by you alone, heaven rejoices with you ("luke 15:10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.") but you are not to remain there...i don't think a 9yrs old child still feeding on breast milk will be as cute as a 3months old baby doing the exact same thing because at some point you have to grow past certain things or you'll be classified as abnormal...or even retarded. Most importantly, Joy is a fruit of the spirit, it must grow...and it only grows when you grow.
It is wonderful to see a newborn Christian who wants to share his faith with everybody because he is so excited about what God has done in his life, but that joy and excitement he feels may become stale if he remains where he is, if he continues to try to feed off the excitement of that joy. At that point he starts to struggle and that rush of emotion he had on the day of is rebirth is now a faint wisp. he is feeding off the wrong joy at that time. This is simply because the excitement at the birth of a child will only continue when the child brings other joys. Parents will remember and thank God for the day a child is born if the child as he grows continues to do them proud, this way they effectively re-experience the joy of birthing such a child. So spiritually, when you don't grow and find more joys in Christ, you'll begin to loose faith in your salvation joy because it hasn't borne any fruit...nothing is happening. Put simple, the joy of your salvation will fade if you don't find other joys that will remind you of it and make you glad that you're saved thus effectively giving you back the joy of salvation.
There is the joy of winning souls (1 Thessalonians 3:9), there is the joy of seeing the power of God grow in you.. there is the joy of being responsible for people and seeing how your mentoring has helped them grow too...there is the joy of seeing your fellowship or relationship with God blossom, there is the joy of seeing God reveal secrets to you... (Psalm 126:2-3) there are numerous joys and they're all connected. when the joy of your salvation has pushed you to evangelize, you should derive joy from seeing a sinner get saved, next you should derive joy from seeing new born grow in grace, you should derive joy from being in God's presence and get excited at the things He shares with you through the Holy spirit. As a new born, all your battles are fought for you, you ask God and God see it done, but as you grow in spirit, God starts to show you that His power is in you to command and see things happen, at this point you derive joy from fighting and winning spiritual battles..from praying by yourself for yourself or others and seeing miracles happen.
Bottom line is, the joy of your salvation cannot continue to be the only thing that drives you to get close to God and do God's work. As Christians we have to grow into other joys therefore creating a strong joy-foundation. it'll be easier for a person who only has the 'joy of salvation' to backslide than someone who has in his arsenal the joy of his salvation, the joy of fellowship with God and the joy of saving a soul. We've read accounts of how Paul rejoiced with the churches as they grew, how their growth made his joy full.(Romans 15:32, 2Corinthians 7:4&16)
Don't get me wrong, the joy of salvation is as important as any joy, but if you don't grow, you'll have only the joy of salvation to rely on and the joy of your salvation can only hold for so long when not bolstered by other joys. So, no, as an old christian, you don't 'need' the joy of your salvation to preach the gospel, cos that would mean you aren't growing. As a Christian you'll overcome by the word of your testimony...your testimony can either be one testimony about your salvation which is good enough if you have the excitement and passion of a new born to carry it or it can be several testimonies about your salvation, the workings of the holy spirit, how you've experienced fellowship with God and His power. It's safe to say that the more testimonies you have, the more likely you are to overcome the devil.
You won't need to look for joy and excitement to preach if you're growing spiritually, because you'll have had enough experience with God to be passionate about Him, haven seen all He has done through and to you.
There are several joys God gives us through Christ and as you grow these joys connect giving your faith the much needed boost. Not only will your growth strengthen your faith, it will strengthen God's faith in you. Besides you'll never really know and come to experience the true joy of salvation until you begin to experience the things that salvation comes with, and you wont experience most of these things if you don't grow
( John 15:10-11, Psalm 119:110-112, Luke 10:17-24, 2Corinthians 1:24)
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