Psalm 95:1-2 1O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. 2Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with Psalms.
Psalm 98:4-8 4Make a joyful noise **unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. 2\5Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a Psalm. 6With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King. 7Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 8Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together.
Psalm 100:1-5 1Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. 2Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Psalm 105:43 And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness:
Psalm 63:5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with JOYFUL lips:
Philippians 3:1 (CJB) In conclusion, my brothers: rejoice in union with the Lord.It is no trouble for me to repeat what I have written you before, and for you it will be a safeguard:
Philippians 4:4 (KJV) Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
Philippians 4:4 (CJB) Rejoice in union with the Lord always! I will say it again: rejoice!
Nehemiah 8:1-10 1And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. 2And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. 3And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. 4And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam. 5And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: 6And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground. 7Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place. 8So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. 9And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. 10Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
Leviticus 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first [day] of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He hath made every [thing] beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
Ecclesiastes 2:24 [There is] nothing better for a man, [than] that he should eat and drink, and [that] he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it [was] from the hand of God.
Psalms 137:1-6 (KJVS) 1By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 2We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. 3For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 4How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land? 5If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget* her cunning*. 6If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
Nehemiah 12:42b-43 …And the singers sang loud, with Jezrahiah* their* overseer. 43Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.
Witnesses
April 5, 1953 · Jeffersonville, Indiana
55 There was some people one time, the Jews; from the tribe of Judah, where they got their name. Because they wouldn’t walk after the ordinances of God, wouldn’t keep His commandments, God called King Nebuchadnezzar to come in and to take them captive, down into the land of Babylon. Many of us remember the famous old story of how they hung their harps on the weeping willow tree, and they could not sing the songs of Zion. All their victory was lost, not because that God wanted to take it away from them, but because of their sin, separated them from God.
56 That’s the reason, tonight, that many of the Christians hasn’t got the victory, is because their sins has separated them from the blessing; cut off, out in a desert place, alone. And our hearts are hanging on the weeping willow tree, because we can’t enjoy the songs of the church.
Jehovah of Miracles
November 26, 1959 · San Jose, California
49 One to what? What? D. [Tongues and interpretation given—Ed.] Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. The joy of the Lord is our strength, isn’t it? That’s our strength; that’s how we live, is by the joy of the Lord that’s in our midst.
Why?
January 25, 1961 · Beaumont, Texas
41 …But because that we do it, that’s the reason we’re cursed. That’s the reason God’s put this thing upon the church, this cold and dampness. We’re going to other places for pleasure, instead of coming to the house of the Lord for pleasure. The house of the Lord is the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is the joy of His people. He wants you to come to church, and worship Him, and be happy, and satisfied, giving praise, and honor, and glory, and wisdom, and might, and power to God. He wants you to do that.
Christ Knocking at the Door
March 30, 1958 · Middletown, Ohio
51 …Don’t you just love to worship? The messages sometime are so cutting with the Word. But then, you know, after we’ve all been corrected and stand guiltless in the presence of the Father, resting upon the grace of the Lord Jesus, I just love to raise my hands and worship Him. Don’t you like to do that? How many believes in that, raise up your hands? Oh, my, just worship Him in song.
The Patmos Vision
December 4, 1960 · Jeffersonville, Indiana
268 Do you love Him? You know, after the message is cutting and everything, I like to hear the people get into the hymns and go to worshipping and singing in the Spirit. There’s nothing more prettier than good ol’ singing. That’s right. I love good old-fashioned pentecostal singing; not them overtrained voices that holds till they’re squeaking and turn blue in the face, and don’t know what they’re singing. I like somebody that maybe couldn’t carry a tune in a basket but yet he’s got a Pentecostal Blessing, now he’s singing about it. Oh, how—how glorious those melodious songs of the cross! Oh, my!
The Restoration of the Bride Tree
April 22, 1962 · Jeffersonville, Indiana
207 Now, that’s another fruit he eat off of: joy of salvation. “Shhh! You people make too much noise. Oh, my! My!”
The Restoration of the Bride Tree
April 22, 1962 · Jeffersonville, Indiana
213 So this little ol’ palmerworm begin to eat that fruit of joy out. “Now, looky here. You people make too much noise. I tell you, all this crying, this saying ‘amen,’ and this shouting, that’s nonsense. There’s nothing to that.” See? First thing you know, you set in a big morgue, you know, set there, all of them dead. Some of these embalming fluids of so-called Doctrine, of creeds pumped into their veins where the Spirit of God ought to be running, where the old church creed pumped in there. No wonder they’re icy cold and dead. Spiritual thermometer, ninety below zero. Yeah. Somebody say, “amen,” everybody stretch their neck around like some kind of a goose or something, want to know what said that. It’s a shame. When, the Spirit of God ought to be joy, peace, love. But this little old bug started eating on it. He eat all the joy away.
I Am an Heir of Joy
Possessing All Things
May 6, 1962 · Jeffersonville, Indiana
95 I’m an heir of Divine healing. I’m an heir of joy, got a right to be happy. “So what makes you so happy?” I got a right to be. “How do you know?” Because I’m an heir to it. Amen! Whew! Now I feel religious. Yes. I’m an heir to the happiness. I’m an heir to joy. I’m an heir to peace. I’m an heir to Eternal Life. I’m an heir to the Holy Spirit. Amen. I’m an heir to every evidence It’s got. Amen. I’m an heir to the authority of God. Amen. “Who made you that?” Not me; He did. Every one of you is an heir to the same thing.
The Ephesian Church Age
An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages · Chapter 3
Revelation 2:4, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” To understand this you must realize that the Spirit is not speaking to the original saints of Ephesus alone. This message is to the entire age which lasted about 120 years. Its message, then, is to all the generations in that span. Now history keeps repeating itself.** In the generations of Israel we see revival in one generation, only to see the fires fading in the next.** In the third generation, embers may be glowing slightly, but in the fourth there may be no vestige whatsoever of that original flame. Then God lights the fire again, and the same process is repeated. It is simply the manifestation of the truth that God has no grandchildren. Salvation is not passed on by natural birth any more than is there any truth to apostolic succession. It isn’t in the Word. You start out with truly born-again believers, and when the next generation comes along they are no longer just plain Christians, but they have taken a denominational name and are now Baptists, Methodists, etcetera. That is exactly what they are, too. They are not Christians. You have to be born of the will of God, not the will of man, to be saved. But these folks are all coming together now by the will of man. I don’t say that some of them aren’t right with God. Not for a minute do I say that, but the original fire has died down. They are not the same any more.
The fervent desire to please God, the passion to know His Word, the cry for reaching out in the Spirit, all begins to fade and instead of that church being on fire with the fire of God it has cooled off and become a bit formal. That is what was happening back there to the Ephesians. They were getting a bit formal. The abandonment to God was dying out and the people weren’t too careful about what God thought of them as they began to be careful about what the world thought of them. That second generation coming on was just like Israel. They demanded a king to be like the other nations. When they did that, they rejected God. But they did it anyway. That is the history of the church. When it thinks more of conforming to the world instead of conforming to God, it isn’t long until you see them stop doing things they used to do, and start doing things they wouldn’t do initially. They change their manner of dress, their attitudes and their behaviour. They get lax. That is what “Ephesus” means: relaxed — drifting.
That cycle of revival and death has never failed. All you have to do is recall this last move of God in the Spirit when men and women dressed like Christians, went to church, prayed all night, took to street corners and weren’t ashamed of the manifestations of the Spirit. They left their old dead churches and worshipped in homes or old store buildings. They had reality. But it wasn’t too long a time until they began to get enough money to build fine new churches. They put in a choir instead of singing unto God for themselves. They put gowns on the choir. They organized a movement and ran it by man. They soon began to read books that weren’t fit to read. They let down the bars and goats came in and took over**. The cry of joy was gone. The freedom of the Spirit was gone. Oh, they kept on with a form; but the fire had died down and the blackness of ashes is about all that is left.**
Joy Shoes
The Lamb’s Book of Life
June 3, 1956 · Jeffersonville, Indiana
158 Now, believer, have you got your joy shoes on?
Slaves of Joy
All the Days of Our Life
June 12, 1959 · Chicago, Illinois
30 …But we who are bondslaves to Jesus Christ, we are slaves of joy. I’m so glad that I got shackles on me, that shackles me away from the things of the world, that I could become a slave to Jesus Christ, to serve Him in love. And you, my brethren and sisters, who are like precious faith, who’s been borned of the Holy Ghost, that’s had the Blood of Jesus Christ to sanctify and cleanse you from all the filth of the world, that die daily to the flesh, crucify it, putting it away, and becoming a slave to your own body to serve God, we look for a City to come. Blessed be the Lord.
The Smyrnean Church Age
An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages · Chapter 4
And how shall I prove my love to Him? By believing what He said, and by conducting myself with joy amidst the trials that He in His wisdom allows to come to pass.