INDEPENDENTLY HAPPY

1Tim. 6:15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

“If you never have a great ministry, if you no longer have a church; am I enough for you?” That was the shocking question I felt banging around in my head twenty years ago when The Lord visited me with His presence. In the atmosphere that I was newly enjoying the answer was a no brainer. “Lord you are more than enough, I can be happy with you alone the rest of my life.” This was a huge change in my life. I hate to admit it but up until that time, all of my ministry decisions were based on what would work, you know, church growth was really God. That was all finally done away with. I had discovered that God Himself could be the source of my happiness. I finally began to recognize that the joy of The Lord was my strength. The joy of The Lord, actually experiencing the joy that The Lord enjoys. Here is Jonathan Edwards talking about this joy that God Himself enjoys.

“He is independently happy. ‘Tis a thing that shows the imperfection of the most glorious and blessed of creatures, that their happiness is dependent; they are imperfect beings, and so are not self sufficient, but are altogether insufficient for themselves and in themselves, and so are wholly depended for all their happiness. But God is not happy by deriving any good from any other. His happiness is not bestowed upon Him. He is not obliged to any for it. He is not dependent on their power or on their counsel and conduct or their love for any of His happiness. Nor does His happiness consist in the enjoyment of any other being beside Himself. His happiness is not complex or made up of many different kinds of enjoyments, or the enjoyment of various objects and various kinds of good, or that which comes partly in one way and partly in another way.”

Edwards can be quite hard to understand, this is what he is basically saying. God’s happiness is not dependent on circumstances. He is happy anyway, happy is His nature. How does that effect me? Through the relationship of intimacy we share with Him, His joy becomes our joy. That means my happiness is not effected by my circumstances. That brings us back to His original question, ” Am I enough for you?”.