John 15:11 – These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Jn.15:11 – NLT – I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
This is the very thing that the whole world is looking for, joy. In this promise that Jesus made the night before His crucifixion He talks about not only joy but what He called fullness of joy. Jesus is describing something that is literally other worldly, never experienced by anyone in this life before His death on the cross and the resulting inundation of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Jesus is giving His followers (and us) a promise of overflowing joy. Not only had none of the disciples experienced this kind of joy in their lives, they didn’t even realize this kind of joy existed. How could they? All of us were created in the image of God with literally an infinite, unsatisfiable longing for joy that could never be met, at least it couldn’t have been met before the Day of Pentecost. Now that the Spirit is poured out on all flesh supernatural joy is available for us, His joy is the only kind that can overflow and actually satisfy our longing for joy. Here is how JOHN TRAPPE described this phenomenon.
“The temporary joy, as it is groundless like weeds that grow on top of the water, so it is but frothy and flashy, such as may wet the mouth but not warm the heart, smooth the brow but not fill the breast, like a dash of rain or a handful of brushwood. The true Christian joy is full and firm, solid and substantial; joy in the present, joy in hope, joy in possession, joy in promise. They have still enough to make themselves everlastingly merry under whatsoever misery. They can turn into their countinghouse and find there enough to sustain themselves, as David did.”
This is the inheritance that Christ purchased for us at the cross, everlasting joy in the Holy Ghost. The unsaved have no way of understanding this therefore they snuff at us and say this is a religion for fools. This joy is the joy of the Lord Himself that comes from being loved by His Father. This was what He prayed for in Gethsemane, that all of us could be brought into this oneness resulting in joy that He has had with the Father from the days of eternity. We taste this joy when we surrender to Him and are filled to overflowing with His goodness.
