The other evening while half watching TV and thinking about our next life group and wondering what we would talk about, the words ‘wailing’ and ‘worship’ came to me so I wrote them down. Then the word ‘joy’ so I wrote this down too. As I did this I was reminded of a perfume called Joy I used to sell many years ago which had a very rich, sweet scent. So I wrote down the word ‘perfume’. It was the most expensive perfume in its day and reminded me of the nard Charles preached about last week. So I wrote down ‘expensive’ too. As I looked at these words I asked God if ‘joy’ was what He was laying on my heart. As SOON as I asked Him an advert came on the TV advertising this very perfume!

So I’ve pressed in to God this week about joy, especially during this difficult time and one of the things He gave me was a picture of a large circle of people deep in number, collapsed on their knees, heads down, crying and wailing in grief and hurt. But as I looked around the circle, there was a gradual change in their stance and they slowly began rising up, eventually standing tall, heads tilted upwards and arms outstretched. And they were singing. They had started worshipping instead of wailing. It felt like the circle was gradually being revived. And the reason for this revival was because God was pouring out an aromatic blessing of joy over them and the smell was so sweet and intoxicating that they could not help but tilt their heads upwards to see where it was coming from and cry out for more. Though in pain, they now rejoiced in this beautiful aroma.

But like the perfume, it feels like the Lord is saying that His joy is expensive and sometimes we have to experience a personal cost in our lives before we can take hold of it. And at the moment for some, that cost may be through grief and searing pain, fear, isolation and lack. But if we look to Him through this costly time of discomfort He will indeed pour out His fragrance of joy upon us. And for those of us who already have this perfume I feel like God is saying that we are to spray ourselves generously with it so that others will catch the aroma, ask us its name and where they too can find it.

The following verses from Habakkuk come to mind:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, 
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”
Habakkuk 3:17-18 English Standard Version (ESV)

From Jackelen Howe.

During worship I felt the Lord say He is pruning. Some pruning is relatively easy but some branches that need removing get stuck. They are more difficult to remove. Difficult but not impossible. I feel God saying that these branches are our unsaved family members, the prodigals and back sliders. We need to pray for the supernatural removal of the branches.

From Carolyn Nicholls: