Welcome back to the podcast.

Well, God is happy in Himself, amen.

And God wants us to be happy in Himself, amen.

And if you start to apply biblical categories here to this topic, you begin to ask this question,

how does God's joy become my joy?

That's our question today.

It's a really good one from a listener named Heather in Chicago.

Hello, Pastor John, thank you for this podcast.

You're right.

My question for you is about the nature of who God is and how He relates to our joy.

Can you explain to me from the Bible the person and work of the Holy Spirit as the

love and joy shared between the Father and Son?

I don't quite understand this without making His person seem more like a force or a cosmic

energy.

And then how does the person of the Spirit enable us to experience God's joy within us?

It seems like those two realities connect to the person of the Spirit and the joy in

us, but it doesn't connect for me not yet.

Can you help me understand these two dynamics from the Bible?

I think it's crucial as we try to understand our relationship with the Holy Spirit that

we fix it firmly in our minds that we are dealing with a distinct person.

Just fix it.

So that whatever else is uncertain, don't let that be uncertain, a person, a divine person,

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