Choose Joy

Thursday, June 20th, 2019

I just thought, 'You know what?  Whatever is going on, God is so much better.'  I was so full of joy as I focused on Jesus, I was full of joy.
Ana Werner

TRANSCRIPTION

Hi, I am Ana Werner with Ana Werner Ministries and I want to welcome you to God Today.  Today I want to talk to you about a subject that probably isn’t covered a lot. That is the subject of joy as a weaponry.  My favorite scripture is Psalm 16:11, “In His presence is fullness of joy.” Did you know God is happy? With everything that is going on in the world, God is happy. He is full of joy.  Every time I have been to Heaven, it is the most joyful place. There is no sadness in Heaven. There is no sickness in Heaven. Joy. There is overflowing joy. Can you imagine that?

 

I want to share with you a story.  I think joy – I don’t believe joy is something you can just work up.  I do believe sometimes you have to choose joy. Before I share that story, in Galatians 5 it describes joy as one of the fruits of the Spirit.  Fruit is something you have to cultivate. If you grow something, you put the seed in, you have to water it, give it sunlight, it grows. If joy is the fruit of the Spirit, it is something you cultivate.

 

One day I had to choose joy.  But, I will tell you my story.  My husband and I, my husband is Sam.  Sam and I were missionaries overseas. Missions, sometimes, can bring out the worst of you.  As you are stretched beyond your comfort, you know. We weren’t in our best nature, let’s just be honest.  There we were and we were bickering back and forth with each other. We had to go – they were doing this thing for couples, where they were going to put on this celebration feast or something for all the married couples.  I honestly was going, “I don’t want to go to this with him. I can’t stand him right now.” I’ll be real. And he was feeling the same way.

 

There we were – about to go to this love feast.  We didn’t want to go with each other! I went into our little hut, I don’t want to say bedroom – in our hut.  I was just there not praying the best prayers. I was groveling to the Lord. “God, I don’t want to go with him.  He makes me so mad, he has hurt me.” I was totally in my flesh in the moment – it wasn’t a good moment. And an angel came into the room.  An angel that was so big, it was as tall as the ceiling. It was huge. Came into the room and its presence just knocked me on the bed. He got right up in my face, like this – right up in my face.  He had a huge, large trumpet in his hand. He blew that thing right in my face. It was so loud. I could feel the vibrations go through my body when he blew it in my face. He said, “The joy of the Lord is your strength, Ana.  Choose joy.”

 

Then he was gone.  When he did that, I could feel the electricity just shoot through my body.  Then suddenly, I was filled with joy. I was just laughing. I was laughing so hard and it wasn’t like I worked up to it.  I just thought, “You know what? Whatever is going on, God is so much better.” I was so full of joy as I focused on Jesus, I was full of joy.  What happened with that story is funny. I got out of that hut, I went to my husband. I was laughing so hard and the presence of God was still flowing through me.  I couldn’t even walk. Me and my husband – he had to carry me. We crawled on this truck – back end of a truck. All the couples there, as I was laughing in the car, other couples were also fighting that day – I went and touched them.  As I touched them we all started laughing. The presence of God came over us and we were filled with joy, we were all filled with joy. I want to just encourage you!

 

I am going to pray for you right now.  God, I pray for an impartation of joy, joy, joy to just be released over all of us right now, God.  FIll us up with joy, no matter what circumstances we are going through right now, God you’ve got it.  We say, “In your presence is fullness of joy.” We thank you, Jesus. Amen.