Reaping Joy

0:00:00 - Atmosphere prayer
0:53:11 - Talk
1:36:36 - Breakout groups

KEY POINTS

Joy Is the Gravity of God. The supernatural emotion of the Exhorter temperament is Joy, designed by God to flow through the spirit, into the soul as happiness, and into the body as pleasure. This means that feeding Joy and asking what is draining it is not selfish but acts of spiritual health.
Taking Back Your Exhorter Power. The Exhorter dimension is meant for physical expressions of praise, pleasure, enthusiasm, and movement in the world; but strands of Catholic and Evangelical culture distorted it into a martyrdom machine. We can invite God to extract whatever is holy from that old system and repurpose the engine of that power.
God Honors the Body. Religious purity culture has for too long caused us to turn against our own bodies, desecrate the feminine, and link sexuality with shame rather than intimacy. We are invited to renounce that system and invite Him to restore the body to its rightful place as the vehicle for worship, pleasure, and the expressions of power the Exhorter dimension was designed to carry.
Jesus Trades Up. In Luke 4, Jesus quotes Isaiah 61 to define His own purpose, and the heart of it is not just proclaiming freedom in a principled way but actually bestowing a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
Grief Is the Container for the Trade. Scripture is full of divine trades — beauty for ashes, mourning into dancing, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair — and these trades happen through the grief, not around it; when we grieve with God rather than alone, the crossing over into joy happens naturally without being forced, because intimacy in the grief is itself an experience of His presence.
Vision: Jesus Offering to Buy Our Worthless Trash. During a prayer session, Zia saw one of Dave’s child parts carrying a burden almost as big as himself, stuffed with trash that was not worth anything; and when Dave gave it to God, Jesus offered to buy it — paying him for junk and taking it away — which is a comical picture of how He receives what has no value from us so we can walk away lighter and richer.
The Lenten Portal is a Fire. The Holy Spirit burns everything we no longer need, alchemizing us from one kind of person into another — the way Jesus went through the desert, said no to the devil's false offers, and then emerged at the wedding celebration to perform His first creative miracle of turning water into wine.
The Prophetic Seed Has to Die to Multiply. Like a designer who has to ruthlessly throw out twenty drafts to get to the one design that can be handed off for multiplication, this season calls us to release our attachments even to what we built last season. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. The prophetic DNA, once surrendered, can multiply into far more than one apple.
Throwing Off Burdens Is Active. Honestly ask God what needs to go: what is draining our joy, what feels overcomplicated or boring, and even who is drawing on the energy we are getting from God without carrying their own load — because setting those limits is not selfishness but righteousness.
God Uses Seasons of Isolation to Break Our Codependency. Group Codependency — absorbing the collective unconscious vibe of a room instead of affecting it with the Kingdom — is a form of idolatry, and God sometimes puts us in isolation precisely to rewire our identity so that when we return into community, other people's drama lose their hooks in us, and we can let them have their emotions while still holding to what is genuine in ourselves.
Jesus Calls Us Out of the Boat. God invites us to stop idolizing the church, the Bible, pastors, and even family, and to actually mature into our own agency and Holy Spirit — because every person has at some point had to step outside the institutional framework to align with the Holy Spirit and their own spirit.
Vision: Jesus Confetti. One of the first visions Dave received in his 20s was of Jesus laughing and throwing confetti — and at the time he had to wrestle it free from religious programming — but it is a picture of the comedic, playful dimension of Jesus that the church tends to edit out, the same quality that makes little children both fun and funny —perfectly positioned to receive the Kingdom of Heaven.

EXPERIENTAL JOY

I am so proud of you. Let Me encourage you wherever you need it. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and your joy may be mature.” (John 15:11)

The Kingdom delights in you eternally. But where on earth is this? Where can we find more?

Remember that in any area where you are left to your own devices, you will never find authentic, lasting happiness. Material possessions by themselves will leave you thirsting. But trusting Me above all else will reveal the hidden, richer gladness I want for you in any and all of these things. Joy is certainly not limited to the pleasures of temporal existence.

My love for you saturates every situation—even in the midst of life’s trials. I will never disappoint, abandon, ignore, ridicule, deceive, or hurt you—ever. That’s a lot to rejoice in.

Even when you navigate suffering, I say, “count it all joy” (James 1:2), since managing these larger challenges together involves experiencing My depths. They can be transports to deeper communion—not merely in lectures, nor in taking another’s word for it.

This life is the story of you and I revealing our intimacy on earth as it is in Heaven, crafting it by whatever plot path necessary.

So do not lose sight of My smile by getting caught up in earthly gain. The path of life is strewn with My presence, and with it, the fullness of joy.

It is always you that I want. We can have more of that kind of loving relationship, more intimate than any earthly one. Face-to-face trust is key to the next heavenly pleasure.

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“In your presence is fullness of joy.” Psalm 16:11