The Path to Joy

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. —Psalm 143:10

Nearly every person God uses a great deal has broken through the betrayal barrier before they were mightily used. It is not in the pulpit or on a stage or being seen by thousands when you break the betrayal barrier. It is what happens when you are alone. It happens when you have nobody to comfort you, when you are being misunderstood, when people are pointing the finger at you, when everything seems to go wrong, and yet you say, “Yes, Lord.”

Here’s how you can break through the betrayal barrier:

1. Affirm from your heart that what is happening is God’s idea. What is designed to get your attention may be a turnoff, yes, but it is God’s idea to do it this way.

2. Realize this is possibly the greatest opportunity you will ever have to know Him intimately.

3. Pray more than ever. Spend every minute you can in secret with Him without the television on or people interrupting you. I don’t mean for you to become a recluse or retreat into a monastery, but seek Him with all your heart.

4. Walk in the light God gives you. Confess any sin God brings to your attention. Accept any form of new obedience He puts before you.

A person may be in the spotlight before thousands or behind the scenes as a quiet, self-effacing intercessor. In either case, such a vessel of the Holy Spirit will have had to discover God for himself or herself during the hardest of times. This is so that you will believe in God even if nobody else does. To discover God for yourself means that you believe the Bible and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead even if your hero or mentor denies the faith. And what brings about this kind of maturity is breaking the betrayal barrier. This is the path to pure joy.

Excerpted from Pure Joy (Charisma House, 2006).