Live with Joy: Activating Your Inner Joy

Copyright © 2012 by Tupele Diffa, BSc, MA.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1   Choice

Chapter 2   Develop a Habit of Joy

Chapter 3   Focus Your Life on the Good Rather than the Bad

Chapter 4   Speaking Words of Favour in Your Life

Chapter 5   Being Expectant

Chapter 6   Live Your Life Free from Worry

Chapter 7   Be a Giver Rather than a Receiver

Chapter 8   Faith or Fear

Chapter 9   Plant Yourself around People of Faith

Chapter 10   Gratitude Every Day

Chapter 11   Divine Health

Live with Joy is dedicated to you.

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, kill and to destroy; I have come so that you may have life to the full, in abundance until it overflows.

(John 10:10)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, my gratitude to my dear mother, (Elizabeth Diffa) who’s my inspiration to this concept ‘live with joy’. She produced a musical CD titled Live with Joy, and through it, I received the revelation three years later to write a book that will open the eyes and minds of humanity. I am also grateful to Chenai Garikayi, who proofread my multiple drafts and manuscript and offered insights to improving the drafts. I want to extend my gratitude to Pheonie Cunningham for her constant support in proofreading my drafts each step of the way and offering words of wisdom to improve certain sections in the book. I am thankful for the support she gave me by identifying some key scriptural references in relation to joy. This indeed helped to solidify my statements in the book. I want to thank all my testifiers for your profound and inspirational testimonies and stories that will touch and change the state of consciousness of so many people around the world. I am profoundly grateful to my final editors who contributed in countless ways to the completion of this text, both in editorial and in your support. I really cannot thank you enough. Also, I want to show my appreciation to the editorial and production teams for their professionalism in seeing my work through to publication. Also, I want to thank the designers and stylists of my book cover; you are all more than blessed.

Thank you.

INTRODUCTION

I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy.

(Louise Bogan)

The Journey of Life with Joy Begins

Too many of us today live a life of worry, fear, and unhappiness, irrespective of our class in society. There are issues in life everybody experiences individually that can easily turn joy to sorrow, depending on a particular day or season in the year. But what we need to realise is that we have the power and the choice within us to disembark from the vehicle of past and present pains, worry, suffering, fear, and negativity in our lives in turn to re-embark on an enlightened vehicle of living with constant joy. This vehicle gives you absolute control as to how you react to your circumstances in life thereby sustaining your inner joy throughout your life. Begin to get ready for a lifting up in your consciousness.

Some time ago, I found myself deciding what to do with my life. Having just turned twenty-three and having recently completed my masters in human resources, there were endless opportunities and avenues that were open to me. At some point, it became clear to me, through different conversations and much soul searching, that what I wanted to do was reach out and help people during difficult times.

I remember one particular conversation with a friend where I shared how much I enjoyed counselling others and helping them to find solutions for their situations. It became apparent that I had overlooked my greatest strength—being a pillar to others.

So at that time, I began thinking of whom to counsel; perhaps schoolchildren or maybe undertake some volunteering at universities or charity organisations. The thought of writing a book crossed my mind—something that would act as a tool for changing mindsets with regards to dealing with the challenges of our daily lives. I struggled mentally with my sense and knowledge, trying to come up with a title and how I could possibly flesh out this book. I remember being at work when I got my first solid idea—overcoming the mountains in life. Now, all of it sounded great in theory, but the truth was that my material was limited.

I can’t remember exactly what day, but sometime in early 2009, I was on a train in the busy city of London, still and at peace, when a small voice came to my mind. It was very quiet but sharp and effective saying, ‘Live with joy.’ I had never experienced anything like that before—a message so quiet and yet so direct. At first the phrase had no meaning or relevance at that point in time, but something about it was so powerful, and I was struck by the way it came to me. I knew at that moment that something amazing had happened to me, but I had yet to comprehend what the message was for.

Some may say it was God speaking to me; others may say it was the Holy Spirit that came upon me. A few may say I was enlightened and something greater than me injected that into my mind. I tried to reason it out, wondering what that phrase ‘live with joy’ meant. The random nature of the moment and the lack of relevance caused me to question it deeply.

Initially, I thought I was meant to deliver some kind of message to my mother, who was in Israel at the time. My mother has a background in music, and having produced a song titled ‘Live with Joy’, I made the conclusion that somehow the message was really for her and not for me. A few days later, I realised that what had happened to me on that train was what many spiritual teachers talk about. I realised that the still small voice was for me, a message to write about joy, something that would, not to sound overly ambitious, counsel the world. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus Christ came so the whole world could live life to the full, and yet so many of us today are neither aware of this nor sure how to activate this truth or are completely in the dark and carry on blindly. The result of both these states is that we continue to allow problems and challenges to steal joy from our daily lives, so I believe that this message, this voice, came to me because of my passion for counselling.

That evening, I sat down in front of my computer and typed the words ‘live with joy’, and before I knew it, the revelation in relation to this book began to flow like the proverbial running tap. In fact, the next day, I purchased a writing pad to put down my ideas, because most nights, I would wake up in the middle of the night with amazing amounts of ideas that wouldn’t go away until I had secured them on paper. It wasn’t unusual for me to wake up more than once in a night to write, as the ideas were so frequent and persistent.

It seemed that even the speed at which I wrote was itself supernatural, particularly if I recall that it took me six long and painful months to write thirteen thousand words for my masters dissertation, and yet when this project began, it took a mere two months to write the same amount.

It’s at this point that I want to say—whatever is in your heart and mind that is not humanly thought of and simply occurs to you unannounced at a random place and time, do not ignore that voice. If you do experience this, I encourage you not to disregard it. Establish that this thought is consistent with the Word of God, and if it is, hold fast to it and don’t be afraid to act on it. Whether it is a word for your education, starting up a business, or finding a partner to marry, remain patient, and it will surely come to pass. Keep your faith steadfast, irrespective of what may come to steer you away from your dreams and aspirations in life.

This book, then, serves to enlighten you on how you can live your everyday life with joy and how you can employ the power within you to sustain that joy in your life. I believe that to live and sustain your joy, there are ten principles that one should live by. These are the following:

1.   Activate your choice.

2.   Develop a habit of joy.

3.   Focus your life on the good rather than the bad.

4.   Speak words of favour into your life.

5.   Be expectant.

6.   Live your life free from worry.

7.   Give more than you receive.

8.   Choose faith over fear.

9.   Plant yourself around people of faith.

10.   Show gratitude every day.

And lastly, as you drive these ten vehicles of joy, anywhere you go in your life, whether it be in your job, school, university, business, shopping centre, or wherever you are, I know that the ultimate benefit you will receive will be inner peace and happiness within you. Things like health issues such as stress-induced high blood pressure will come to an end, enabling you to live a richer and a more fulfilled life on earth.

This book serves to shed light on ways in which one can rise above life’s challenges and negative situations. It aims to illustrate that life that we can all live and should be living each day, because, unfortunately, most of us allow even just a minute of disappointment or anger or fear to weigh us down and take our joy away. The good news is that we are well equipped to sustain our joy, and it is possible to build a shield against varying forms of negativity. They don’t always have to get in the way of our joy, joy that we should be expressing here on earth.

I have come across many teachers and mentors who have greatly influenced me and contributed to the idea of transforming my thinking to having more joy right now, and now I feel that I can teach others what I have learnt. In these pages, I have brought these ideas and revelations and life lessons together to show how we can all make living with joy a habit to develop in our daily lives and how driving the vehicle of living in constant joy can become part of your character. I want to remind you that when life’s problems attempt to steal your inner joy from you, you are stronger and well equipped to activate it and sustain your joy throughout your life on earth.

Let me ask you:Are you living every day of your life with joy? How are you sustaining your joy amidst the stresses and burdens of life? Do you choose to allow those things to steal your joy and take control over you, or do you declare every day that whatever I encounter in my daily activities in life, I will remain in perfect peace?

This book lays out enlightened principles that I believe we should all practice. Some people may comprehend and grasp the concepts I use in this book as they are growing in consciousness as to how they live their life with joy. But others may not, simply because they are not yet enlightened or are not ready to be awakened. There is no judgement here; only acceptance of whichever description fits you. It is my aim that eyes are opened as the words in these pages take hold.

The words enlightenment and awakening can be derived from a religious sense.

Some of the history of the word ‘enlightenment’ can be found in south and east Asian religious experiences being used to translate words such as bodhi or satori in Buddhism or moksha in Hinduism and other Indian religious traditions. This concept also encompasses the other religions, such as Abrahamic religions, Kabbalah traditions in Judaism, Christianity, and the Sufi tradition of Islam. More so, in its secular use, the concept refers to the European intellectual movement known as the Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason. This led to philosophical developments related to scientific rationality in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A dictionary definition of the concepts broadly states ‘new wisdom or understanding’.

The word enlighten suggests to bring one from darkness, ignorance, or blindness to light and awaken. But irrespective of how long it takes before you are enlightened, this book still stands as a way to shine and increase your conscious light in how you live with absolute joy in your life.

Theologically, joy is a result of the recreated human spirit. Moreover, it is one part of the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22). The others include love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. A dictionary definition simply states that joy is a state of happiness.

Someone once said that this state is when you are the most creative and your true self comes out, a statement which I believe to be very true.

Other dictionaries state that joy is a feeling of gladness and great pleasure. And indeed, it is hard to remain in this state when we consider that most, if not all of us, lead lives full of stress and anxiety. Things that are familiar to most of us would be paying the rent, the mortgage, or overdue bills, threat of redundancy—the list is inexhaustible.

This book draws out ideas and concepts that will enable you to overcome those storms in life and constantly live and walk in joy. Irrespective of what country you originate from or your belief system, these ideas in this book can be universally applied to what you’re going through in life from childhood to adulthood.

Have you ever observed how our perceptions of the world are shaped by the media? Consider the news broadcasts on television and other outlets. It is important to know what is happening in the world, but to repeatedly observe the information perhaps by watching the same news or seeing it in other media formats can affect your consciousness and frame life in such a narrow and inaccurate snapshot which manages to capture only negativity. That kind of focus only serves to remind one of the problems in our society and limit our view of the world and humanity.

But the good news is that you have the power within you to not be passive to any form of negativity that you see or hear. You have the ability within you to guard your mind from the poisons of the world, both from critics or any situation that may give rise to negativity. Life is too short for you to be negative or upset. We have to be aware that our mountains are common realities of life, such as job loss, redundancy, health issues, marriage problems, or whatever you encounter that seems to be inconvenient for you in your life.

You have to be aware that they temporarily exist in your life and should be perceived by you as impermanent. So why is it that most people in the world panic and fear during downturns? The good news is that these problems have seasons that they operate in.

Take, for example, the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s. The United States experienced a tremendous economic downturn but eventually recovered from recession to a boom period. Christina D. Romer noted that this collapse was based on the fall of stock prices in October 1929, which generated an immense uncertainty about the future of income. This increasingly affected the consumer’s power in purchasing durable goods and providing them with no choice but to spend less on durable goods, while in turn spending more on inferior perishable goods in the late 1929. However, Robert Brenner in 2001 noted that the long stagnation of the world economy between 1973 and 1995 led to a significant transformation following the long boom of the first post-war quarter century.

The US expansion derived from the United States demanding goods from overseas, which led to their expansion. Hence, the United States was able to save the international economy to from a slump. This enabled the US economy not only to save the world economy from depression, but also to flare up a new vibrant international cyclical upturn. This short example illustrates how the present world economy had been shaken to its foundation in its own season of despair. You should have the attitude that says, ‘This too will pass’ to whatever situation in life. It’s only a matter of time when you will see things begin to turn around for the better, and before long, all will be well again.

The key is remaining in faith at all times, even when it gets tough. The former prime minister of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Gordon Brown, in his speech to the US Congress, said, ‘Every time we rebuild schools, we demonstrate our faith in the future. Every time we invest in infrastructure and support for our scientists, we demonstrate our faith in the future.’ Thus, being able to know this and activate your faith will enable you to walk, live, and sustain your inner joy in life on earth.

The focus of the book shows how you can live a life of joy and not be shaken by anything you face in life. It encompasses inspirational testimonies of children, men, and women of different backgrounds in how they are able to live with constant joy in life in spite of the situations in front of them. Their individual testimonies contribute to demonstrate the power of living with joy every day in spite of the common issues they deal with in life.

Each testimony attributes to the qualities we share as human beings on earth; this includes faith, forgiveness, gratitude, generosity, and love for mankind. The key to maintaining your joy lies not in material or physical efforts like drugs, sex, food, television, money, and shopping; instead, I firmly believe it lies in the renewing of one’s consciousness and meditation on the Scriptures of the Bible.

‘That’s it?’ you ask.

‘Yes, that’s it!’

We all have to realise that our worldly satisfactions only last for a while and fail to sustain our innermost joy in life. During my time writing this book, I came across an article which described a lady who realised that status and money had never really brought her the fulfilment she desired and craved for. It is incredibly sad that so many of us choose to turn to the aforementioned forms of distraction whenever we are faced with a problem.

The good news is that breaking this habit is simple. If you renew your thought process and get into a habit of observing how you deal with problems in your daily life, you will be able to see clearly and identify a higher level of consciousness that will enable you to walk out of any storm in life. Richard J. Davidson, PhD, adds to this saying that you find joy by becoming purposefully attentive to your thoughts and aware of each moment as it occurs. Transforming and renewing one’s thinking is a major stepping stone in preparing the journey to achieve inner joy through various difficult trials in life. Not enough of us realise that our world is shaped directly by our thoughts. How we respond and react to disappointments and obstacles in life begins from our way of thinking.

Throughout our walk of life, whether we know it or not, we absorb and digest various pieces of information from our families, friends, media, and culture. This all contributes to the positive or negative shaping of our thinking patterns and perception of life. So if we all consistently renewed our thoughts every day, by surrounding our mind with the words from the Scriptures, we would all, without a shadow of a doubt, be able to live and sustain our joy in life. I want to urge you, the reader, to take time to study, ponder, and really digest God’s Word. I know it will renew and transform your way of thinking and perception and, in so doing, help you to deal with any situation of life as it has and is still greatly doing for me.

This book sets out to create that awareness for as many people as possible. Are you allowing situations or people in your life to take away your inner joy? If you think that you are not living with joy every day, this book is for you! Are you ready to get on the vehicle of joy? Time’s up! Let’s go!

CHAPTER 1 

Choice

Strength does not come from physical capacity; it comes from an indomitable will.

(Mahatma Gandhi)

I once read a definition of choice that said choice is born of the opposites and that each choice you make is a creative act of the spiritual power in you that makes you responsible. Simply obtaining this power and right within you can enable you to decide how you want to control all your circumstances in life either by being calm or aggressive. We all make choices in our everyday lives, whether it is deciding on what clothes to wear to work or deciding on what food to eat.

Also, we have a choice to be on the vehicle of joy wherein lies our inheritance, or we can consciously choose to remain without the privileges of our inheritance. The inheritance I speak of here is a spiritual one, and it is for everyone that makes a conscious decision to receive this in their heart. Too many people are not aware of their spiritual inheritance; others may be aware, but are still living below their privileges. Our spiritual inheritance of life causes us to be joyous, peaceful, successful, healthy, productive, and prosperous. It also gives us a life of authority and dominion over all our situations in life. Being fully aware of your spiritual inheritance on earth should cause you to change your way of thinking towards your life and expect the best each day for your life. It does not matter if the circumstances do not look like it’s going to change and goes against your spiritual inheritance; it does not matter also if all the odds are against you; all that matters is that you have made a choice to believe in the very best for your life.

The Scripture in 1 Corinthians 3:21 says, ‘All things are yours.’ In other words, your spiritual inheritance as well as your heart’s desires are all yours. It is purely up to you to receive it by faith and meditate on it day and night until it comes to pass. The Scripture in Joshua 1:8 says, ‘This book of the law shall not depart out of their mouth, but thou shall meditate day and night, and thou shall observe according to that which is written, and then thou shall have good success and prosper.’

The key to achieving your spiritual inheritance is by meditating on the Scriptures day and night. To meditate means to reflect back on so that it becomes ingrained in your mind, thereby shaping your character and your destiny. When I had the revelation that studying, digesting, and surrounding my mind with the Scripture could change my character and—as a result—my destiny, I began renewing my mind solely with the Scriptures and nothing else. What I realised then was that most of us place much more emphasis studying and learning about the things of this world.

For instance, we study various academic subjects for years, but shockingly, we do so little when it comes to spirituality. We all miss the mark that success,