Joy requires two entities–the servant and his Lord. It can be experienced by the servant only by maintaining a close, child-to-parent relationship with his Master. In a human relationship, the child must love, respect and obey the parent in order for there to be joy in that communion. If the child fails on his part, the parent has no choice but to discipline him, which leaves both parties lacking joy. Pleasure, on the other hand, is a single-facited sensation. One can have pleasure without the Lord’s involvement. It can be experienced in the midst of the most difficult, as well as the most evil of situations. Pleasure is not dependent on the Lord. I have known much pleasure during my short stay on this earth. For many years my greatest pleasure involved religion. Though I was extremely religious, the pleasure I received from the ministry blinded me to my lack of spirituality. Having heard a good sermon, or having preached one, I would come away on a religious high–a pleasurable “warm fuzzy.” I had reached the apex of religion. I was preaching, healing, casting out demons, etc. I was on top of the church world. Then, as suddenly as it began, it ended as the Lord began to show me His whole Truth– “all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). As I learned His Truth I realized that, though most of what I had preached was Truth, I had left out the most important parts. Like modern ministers who focus on what one can get from God, I was leaving out what we must do for Him. I, like my modern counterparts, preached that knowledge of and obedience to church doctrine was all that was needed to please Him. With knowledge of God’s Truth came the total loss of pleasure. I had not known joy since the early days of my conversion. Following that time I was sustained by pleasure. Then came the Lord’s command to grow up in Him. I would no longer be allowed to operate in Institutional Church religion. I had to give up the pleasure of man-accepted religion and enter the joy of man-hated spirituality–I had to obey God.

In retrospect I realized that I had been a victim of Satan’s Bait and Switch ploy. When one is introduced to the concept of the Godhead and Their call on one’s life, one immediately experiences joy. Then Satan steps in and diverts the God-seeker from His strait-gate-narrow-way track onto his (Satan’s) wide-gate-broad-way track. At this point he also substitutes pleasure for joy. The Biblically-ignorant seeker never notices the switch and spends the rest of his life being deceived by Satan (Rev. 12:9). If this condition is not recognized and corrected by intense and continuous Bible study and prayer, the person eventually matches the description put forth in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12. Following our introduction to the Lord we are commanded to grow up in the Lord by studying, learning, believing and obeying His Word–His Instruction Book (Heb. 6:1-6). However, being deceived into believing that we are on the right track, and being counseled by false prophets not to check out the other (God’s) track, the vast majority of religious people go blithely through life convinced that Satan’s lie is God’s Truth. Like Adam and Eve, convinced that Satan’s track leading to the forbidden tree was the right track, churchman heeds his call to partake of its fruit. Adam and Eve’s rebellion was against God and His Word. Their religious descendants have stayed the course.

There is only one source of joy–the Lord Himself. There is only one way to obtain that joy–obedience to Him (His Word). The difference between joy and pleasure is the difference between spiritual reality and religious fakery. A “great gulf” separates the two. Religious pleasure is man-generated through participation in religious observances. The age-old adage “Ignorance is bliss” applies perfectly to the religious realm. Spiritual joy is God-generated through a one-to-One walk with Him. Looking into God’s Word and knowing that one is in alignment with It/Him is the only source of Godly joy. Having experienced the joy of being in His presence, separation from Him is living hell–true spiritual death. He tells us how we become separated from Him in Isaiah 59:2: “Your sins have separated you from your God.” Having been so separated, I can tell you from personal experience that physical death would have been a welcomed reprieve. Spiritual death (separation from God) is a fate far worse than physical death.

It is in the arena of joy and pleasure that those in the Institutional Church (Catholicism/Protestantism) are in absolute spiritual darkness. Having experienced only the initial, introductory joy of coming into God’s presence, then having been lured into Satan’s religious system, the Scripturally challenged are satisfied with the pleasure offered by professing Christendom. And being warned not to delve deeper into God’s Word in search of His Truth, they spend the rest of their lives believing Satan’s lie. L.J.