Is your joy dependent on circumstances? Does your well-being fluctuate in the day to day? Believe it or not, Christ made an instantaneous deposit of joy in your heart when you became ‘born again’ but many believers are not experiencing joy in their daily lives. Right now, approximately 11% of Americans are on some sort of anti-depressant. This is frankly disturbing and a sad reflection of the psychological condition of our nation’s psyche. Join Carl now to learn about how to press into Jesus and mitigate the need for chemicals which only numb your senses…
Here is a complete transcript of the podcast…(below)
Friend, welcome to this broadcast. Today I’m going to start a four-part series today called Living in Supernatural Joy. Is it possible to experience the joy of the Lord despite circumstances? I would present to you that it is possible. Is there a difference between happiness and joy? This will be discussed. Do you have to seek it out or is it found intrinsically within you? Friend, in these last days, we need to be able to draw upon the joy of the Lord, and in doing so, we’re given strength. It is absolutely imperative that you get a hold of this message. We are not victims of our thought life, friend. We can change it. Did you know that emotions follow thoughts, not the other way around? Our emotions can actually impact our physical body also if we don’t get a hold of this message. Friend, join me now live in session at DHOP. So, tonight we’re talking about supernatural joy. I say supernatural because it’s not in and of ourselves. Amen. Well, I don’t feel particularly joyful, pastor. Things haven’t gone that well this week. Friend, tonight I’m talking about a joy that abides within you regardless of the circumstances. Please get that. Regardless of the circumstances. There’s a joy accessible.
We must access it. It’s one of the gifts under the Christmas tree. If we don’t unwrap that gift, we may not partake of it. Amen. So, we have to have a concerted effort to be joyful. I want you to be focused on joy. Amen. I want you to be smiling tonight. No, no, no, no. These are things that God’s going to do through us as we get out of the way. Right. As we get out of the way of Him, a joy is going to flow through us. Amen. Mark Twain said, “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened to me, “Right? The focus is on the worry aspect of life. How much of our life has been inundated with things that could happen, and then we actually get to the next day and none of those things happened. In fact, it could have worked out for us. And then we should be praising the Lord. Amen. Some people are more natural worriers than others. That’s something that is almost like it’s a tendency you have to fight. Some people are more prone to it. Some people couldn’t care less. But regardless of where you are, God can turn your situation around. We’ll get into how do we experience this joy? How does it come to us? How can we increase the feeling of it? We’re going to discuss this. Some of the questions. Is it possible to experience the joy of the Lord despite the circumstances? Is there a difference between happiness and joy? Do we have to seek it out or is it found within us? Are we victims of our thought life? How can we change it if we are? Do our emotions impact our physical body? If so, how can we turn them in our favor? Amen.
You know, many times we see ourselves as victims. Victims of things that happen to us. Setbacks, circumstances, traumatic things that occur to us. And we think, you know, I’m never going to get over that. The more we focus on those things, the more we’re going to gravitate towards that feeling of helplessness, right? So the mind plays a predominant role in the way we feel. And in fact, the Bible talks of that. I’m just sharing some statistics with you tonight, which are pretty sobering. Right now, 11% of Americans are on some kind of antidepressant or psychiatric drug. Now drugs are needed in some cases. We’re not anti-drug here, okay? Drugs control symptoms and they allow our body to heal, all right? So we’re not preaching anti-medicine and anti-drugs tonight. We’re just sharing some stats. It’s not, however, God’s best that we be on this concoction of drugs, right? It’s not God’s best. Some believe that one in six people in the very short future are going to be on those drugs. One in six, 16% of this nation. Between 1998 and 2008, the number on these drugs increased by 400%, okay? You could argue that was coincidental with the internet being more readily available, right? Just a thought. What’s even more disturbing is that nearly 70% of the people taking these drugs have never suffered from any depressive disorder or have never met the criteria for obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, social phobia, etc. In other words, there’s no clear diagnosis for these people being on the drug.
They’re just taking these drugs to feel better daily. They’re just taking them. I just feel better when I take them. I get that instant fulfillment and I’m going to keep on doing it, you know? And some people get hooked on painkillers after some surgery and they can’t get off them. So we’re not pointing any fingers here. We’re just showing statistics, all right? But it’s a concern in our society. We, as part of the body of Christ, should be opposing that flow. We should be entering into the river of joy, amen, and allowing the Lord to flow through us, amen? It’s time to laugh. Nicholas Chamfort, does anybody know who it is? He may be French. The most wasted day of all is the one without laughter. Wow. We’re going to talk about the impact of laughter tonight. What is the impact on our physical body of the giggles, right? You’d be surprised how instant it can be. By understanding the tenets of God’s Word and appropriating His promises in our life, we’ll be better equipped to experience supernatural joy that abides within us. How can you say that, Pastor? How come there is joy within us? Friend, Jesus in John chapter 15 talked about giving joy to you, right? Remember that parable? Remember John 15? I’m the true vine, you’re the branches.
He talks about Him abiding in you and His Word abiding in you, right? John 15:7. But then He goes on to talk about the joy that He’s giving to us, that it might remain in us. Might, not will. Notice might. Conditional promise. How might the joy of God remain in us? How might it be full? He also talked about that. We’ll talk about that. So joy is a supernatural byproduct of God’s indwelling presence. And it’s our job to align ourself with the way He sees us in His Word. Amen? My name’s Dave. I was born in Denver. This is how it’s gone for me. This is who I am and this is how I’m going to die. What a sad story. You can change the course of your life by seeing yourself as God sees you, by speaking as God sees you, by imagining as God sees you, okay? And allowing the power of God to flow through you. These are all things that require your complicit obedience, okay? God’s going to give grace to you in these areas. If you struggle with depression, if you struggle with just feeling down all the time, it could be heaviness. It may even be a spiritual battle over you that you need to take control of and start going against the current, amen? How many have noticed that there’s a current in this world that just is negative all the time? And we have to oppose that. We have to consciously oppose that. And we do so by meditating on the truth over the situation, right? So we have to conform to God’s Word. And if so, our capacity to experience this joy will be increased. Joy is tied to your spiritual, mental, and emotional strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Where is that in scripture? It’s in Nehemiah, right? Heard that before, right? There’s a strength that comes with joy, okay? Now, that sounds bizarre, but it’s a truth front. We’ve got to get a hold of this.
Unchecked emotions can be deadly. Let’s get into the stats again. In a 10-year study, individuals who could not manage their emotional stress had a 40% higher death rate than non-stressed individuals. If you don’t think stress is having an impact, friend, every study is telling us, even by Harvard, that that is not the case, okay? There’s a tendency in life to get up, get out of bed, get on with it. Just, you know, I’m pressing, I’m pressing, I’m pressing. I got my to-do list, okay? I come home, I kick the cat, I watch TV, I go to bed. Is that a routine some people are in? You don’t have to kick your cat. I’m not sanctioning that, amen? Love on that cat. But the point is, there’s a routine here we need to break up, amen? And how do we break this routine up? It’s about focus. That’s a hint. Your focus is key. A Harvard medical study of 1,623 heart attack survivors concluded that anger brought on by emotional conflicts doubled the risk of subsequent heart attacks compared to those who remained calm. It’s good to be calm, amen? If we keep responding to everything emotionally, we’re going to be a train wreck. We’re going to upset ourselves. Then we’re going to be in difficulty emotionally. We’re going to pass it on to our spouse. We’re going to pass it on to our children. Our children are going to look at us and go, man, dad’s just always ticked off, man. He is never calm. And that environment brings a stress in the home, amen? There’s some truth there, right? So we’re going to break this cycle, amen? So Harvard School of Public Health conducted a 21-year study that involved more than 1,700 older men. The study found that the men who worried about social conditions, health, personal finances, had a significantly increased risk of heart disease.
Again, it’s the worry aspect. Like Mark Twain said, some of the things, you know, you’ve seen the quote, some of them really did happen to me. In other words, a lot of these things are postulations about tomorrow, right? When Jesus said, take no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow will take thought for the things in itself. Sufficient under the day is the evil thereof. Wow, he actually used the word evil in the context of a day. We don’t want to be going forward in our minds in worry, and then we don’t want to be going backwards with regret, right? Forwards with worry, backwards with regret. We could actually be a tormenting machine by ourselves, sitting in the chair going, oh no, what’s going to happen tomorrow? Man, I really regret yesterday. What’s going to happen tomorrow? Man, I really, you know, it’s like, stop that already, amen? I’m passionate about this topic, friends, because there’s some physical manifestations here that are hurting people. We don’t want to be one of these statistics.
In an international study of 2,800 folks between 55 and 85, it found that the individuals who reported the highest levels of personal mastery of feelings under control, kids, had a 60% lower risk of death compared with those who felt helpless or victims in the face of life’s challenges. Friends, as Christians, we’re not victims. We’re not victims. We are victors. I don’t feel like a victor, pastor. That’s okay. You can change the way you feel by changing the predominant thoughts in your mind. I’m going to park the bus right there. You can change the way you feel by changing your thought life. 15 minutes of sitting in the chair worrying about your debt isn’t helping anybody, but after 15 minutes, you’re not going to feel too good about it, right? It’s about the focus. Where is our focus? If we think of ourselves as the ones who are doing everything every day by ourselves, it’s going to be tough. But if we get out of bed and say, Lord, I thank you for today.
I know, Lord, that it is in your hands and you’ve given me grace to do whatever is required of me today. How many are willing to even try that? Friends, on the days I’ve done that, I felt so much better because I’ve invited the Lord in and said, it’s too hard for me, Jesus. I’m going to cast it on you. Amen. 1st Peter 5:7 says, you “cast your care and he, what? He’s going to take care of it. “You cast your care. It’s in his hands. He cares for you. Oh, that applies for Peter. No, it applies for you. It applies for anybody who’s willing to believe it. So the outcome of this slide, I don’t want to try and freak anybody out, but obviously there are actual manifestations of worry, anger, stress that can come on board. And if they remain unchecked, can start developing physical symptoms in our body. And then, you know, we’re on the road to more difficult things. And we’re going to have to visit the doctor routinely, et cetera.
Ephesians 4:26 says, “be angry and sin not.” Let not the sun go down on your wrath. Is anger a sin? No, but it says, don’t let the sun go down on it. If we do, we give a foothold to the enemy. You know, if you’re in an argument with your spouse and you go to bed angry, man, you’re going to wake up angry. Round two. Anyway, as I was saying eight hours ago, you know, it’s like, dude, I mean, it’s a new day. Let’s resolve this. Amen. It’s just hurting both of us. Like I said before, if you’re married, having an argument with your wife is like punching your leg, going leg. I can’t stand you. You suck. Right. Because you’re punching, you’re punching your own flesh, right? You’re beating yourself up. And it never feels good because at the end of it, you’re like your head spinning like, wow, I don’t feel good with this arguing with my spouse stuff. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. So Ecclesiastes 7:9, “be not hasty in your spirit to be angry for anger rests in the bosom of fools.” Oh, man, that’s rough. It says there, if the anger is resting in your bosom, you’re a fool. I didn’t say it. You know, Solomon said it. Friend, join us tomorrow for part two of this message. Until tomorrow. Good night. God bless. And remember to spread the good news.
Title: Living in Supernatural Joy: Part 1 (LIVE)
https://carljosephministries.com/podcast/be-strong-in-the-lord/
https://www.compellingtruth.org/joy-of-the-Lord.html
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Six Frequently Asked Questions:
1. How can I experience true joy when my circumstances are overwhelming?
Yes, you can experience supernatural joy even in hard times — not because of circumstances, but because of Christ within you. This kind of joy isn’t manufactured; it’s a fruit of God’s indwelling presence (John 15:11). As you shift your focus from fear and worry to God’s promises, His joy becomes your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
2. What’s the difference between happiness and joy?
Happiness is circumstantial and fleeting. Joy, on the other hand, is a supernatural force that comes from God’s presence and remains even in adversity. Joy is a spiritual reality that can be accessed by aligning with God’s Word and cultivating His presence in your daily life.
3. Are we victims of our thoughts and emotions, or can we change them?
We are not victims of our thought life. Thoughts lead emotions — not the other way around. According to Scripture and science, you can renew your mind (Romans 12:2), control your emotions, and change how you feel by intentionally focusing on God’s truth rather than your circumstances.
4. Is it wrong to take medication for depression or anxiety?
This ministry is not anti-medication — drugs may be necessary for some situations. However, it is not God’s best for us to rely on substances that only numb symptoms. The goal is to press into Jesus, experience His peace, and allow Him to address the root causes — not just the symptoms.
5. How does unmanaged stress or emotional pain affect the body?
Uncontrolled stress and emotional turmoil can lead to serious physical consequences, including a higher risk of heart disease, immune breakdown, and early death. But the Bible teaches us to cast our cares on the Lord (1 Peter 5:7) and avoid the downward spiral of worry, anger, and regret.
6. What is one practical way to start breaking free from emotional heaviness?
Shift your focus. Begin each day by inviting the Lord in and declaring His promises over your life. Practice gratitude, meditate on Scripture, and refuse to dwell in fear or regret. Joy increases when you align your thoughts with God’s truth and let go of emotional clutter that weighs down your soul.
Carl is an authority. He is a biblical scholar, minister, author, husband, father, and life coach. In his mid-twenties he had a powerful encounter with God and saw miraculous healings as a result. Carl is a unique researcher who investigates current affairs, societal trends, prophecy, technology, cults, and end time events, all through a biblical lens.
Carl holds a Doctorate in Theology (Th D). His Alma Mata includes: Salford University, Manchester, UK, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK, Rhema Bible Training College (Tulsa), and Southwestern Christian University (Oklahoma City).
Carl Joseph Ministries empowers believers in Christ to fulfill their God given potential. Join Carl every other Monday on the Lions Unchained Podcast, available on Spotify, iTunes and other mainstream platforms.
He currently resides in Colorado, with his lovely wife Amy, and their three children.
