You may not feel like you have any joy to release right now. But I can assure you, you do. If you're a born-again child of God, you have His own joy residing in your spirit. You just need to prime the pump so it will start to flow. You need to purposely stir up the joy of the Lord.

How can you do that? First, by meditating on the Word of God. You can understand why the Word is so important to your joy when you read some of the last things Jesus told His disciples before He went to the cross. He said:

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you…. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full…ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
(John 15:7, 10-11, 16:24)

When you meditate on the Word of God and revelation begins to rise in your heart, joy comes! It comes because you begin to have a deeper and clearer knowledge of the Father. It comes because you realize you can go boldly before Him in prayer on the basis of the Word, and be confident your prayers will be answered.

If you've been sorrowing over a wayward child, for example, you can replace your sad thoughts with a revelation of God's promise in Isaiah 54:13, and joy will come into your heart. Suddenly, instead of crying over what the devil is doing to that child, you start shouting about what God will do.

You laugh and say, "You might as well forget it, devil. Just pack it up and go home right now, because as far as I'm concerned, the victory is won. All my children shall be taught of the Lord. And great shall be the peace of my children!"

Then when the devil comes back at you and says, "Maybe so, but aren't you sorry over all the years that child has wasted?" you can shoot the Word right back at him. You can say, "No, I'm not sorry. I don't have to be sorry because Jesus bore my grief and carried my sorrows (Is. 53:4). So I believe I'll just go ahead and have myself a grand time rejoicing in Him!"

Proverbs 15:23 says, "A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth." When you start answering the troubles and trials you're facing with the Word of God, it will release joy in you and run the devil off. He can't stand the joy of the Lord!

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries