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Loud Joy

Heaven is not a quiet place. It is a place of cacophony. These are no unpleasant noises in Heaven. There is no grief, no crying. “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” (Heb. 12:22).

In Revelation 5, we find that this noise is loud singing. This is so because God is rejoicing. “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: 'Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!'” (Rev. 5:11-12).

“The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph. 3:17). God Himself rejoices with singing.

“In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). Who is in the presence of angels? God! If God were not rejoicing, believe me, no one else would be rejoicing.

Thank God that He is the God of joy.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness” (Gal. 5:22). This is the joy that God gave to us when we received the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 13:52)

And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. (Isa. 35:8-12)
This joy has nothing to do with our environment or circumstances, good or bad.

Bad circumstances: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Hab. 3:17-18).

Good circumstances: “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Phil. 4:4)

Rejoice always. (1 Thess. 5:16)
These are commands. They are to be obeyed with the fruit of the Spirit, joy. It is not like pumping water from a dry well. The well is not dry.

Unbelievers cannot obey these commands. They only have a cistern, a broken cistern. “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer. 2:13).

If you cannot rejoice always, and you know that you are saved, it is because of unconfessed sin in your life. You are under God's discipline. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11).
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. (Psalm 51:12)

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