Rejoice in the Lord?
By Abraham Israel
Many people who think that New Testament speaks a very higher standard of living and so commands like "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice." (Php 4:4), which really means that we should choose to be happy and release the joy that God has put inside our spirit-man 24/7/365 without fail, are impossible to keep.
But guess what the Old Psalmist declares with a shout, "Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name." (Psa 97:12). Praise the Lord! He says tha same thing even in those times to the saints. So, the Old Testament is New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is Old Testament revealed.
The Psalmist knows that the righteous people will face a lot of trouble because Satan works as the god of this age [i.e. world system of governance] and acts as the prince of the power of the air around the world to influence it and also to make the wordly people to do things opposite to what the saints believe (2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2). As a result of all the unhappy faces under the demonic influence of the world system of governance that manifest themselves openly seeing the righteous lifestyle of the saints, can only be expelled and not be allowed to weigh the heart of saints when they choose to receive the supernatural joy and happiness from the new spirit-man which was given to them when they were born again. This spirit-man acts as a supernatural conduit to receive heaven's joy continiously.
So the Old Testament saints tried to rejoice always by faith and dreamed to do it continiously but did not have the priviledge to make it happen in reality as they had no new spirit man unlike all the New Testament believers. But still we have received a supernatural key of how they rejoiced in the Old Testament times, which has been revelaed in the same second part of the verse where the Psalmist gives out the secret saying, "give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name".
Each time we remember the name of our Lord Jesus we should give thanks for it. Each times we use the name of JESUS we should give thanks for it to God. Each time we bless God, we should give thanks to the Holy name of our Lord JESUS. This will make us to continue to rejoice in the midst of the world system of thinking that acts opposite to what we saints believe and live. So if the Old Testament saints tried it even when rejoicing was not fully and continiously available spiritually, how much more we as the New Testaments saints fully loaded with the ability to rejoice because of a supernatural quickening done inside us when we were born again in our spirit. Surely with Paul I REJOICE and reaffirm to say, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice." (Php 4:4). I say this because this is the only way for the saints to live healthy spiritually and take a instant supernatural vacation each time they choose to REJOICE!
MUch BLEsSINGs.....
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