How to Find Joy | Spiritual Leadership Podcast with Landon Schott

Today, I'm going to be teaching you on what I call joy-based warfare. I'm going to show you how joy is spiritual, how to choose joy, and how to use joy as a spiritual weapon. I'm going to give you some practical advice and answer your questions on joy. I'm Landon Schott. This is Spiritual Leadership, where we're helping leaders become spiritual leaders. Let's get after it. Spiritual warfare is one in the joy of the Lord. Today, I'm talking about spiritual warfare. What is spiritual warfare? Spiritual warfare is the war over the will of man, or free will. Ephesians 6.12 says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of the present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. So, I want to let you know, for years, I struggled with this topic of joy. I didn't realize it was spiritual. I thought it was emotional or part of my character. Heather would say to me, I mean, I've lost count how many times. She would say, Landon, you need more joy. And for years, I struggled with joy. And if I'm honest, I really didn't hear it from her. It took God speaking to me and showing me that I needed to learn how to war in joy. The truth was, my wife was right the whole time. I was just slow to see it. See, the enemy wants to steal your joy to keep you from fighting and winning in spiritual warfare. Now, some of you guys are all in for spiritual warfare, and you know how to get after it, but you don't know all the right strategies. Today, I'm going to give you this strategy to win in spiritual warfare, and you win through

joy. Do you realize the depression stats in America are insane? It's estimated like 332 million people worldwide are affected by depression. Over 13% of adults are clinically depressed in the United States. About 30 million people in the USA lean on medications for their depression. Here's what we realize in this. Joy is spiritual. And today, I want to show you how I learned how joy was spiritual. So here's the story. I'm in a church service, and once a year, we bring in prophetic voices and apostolic elders to come and prophesy at Mercy Culture. And so I'm sitting there. It's a first Sunday back. I'm back from my sabbatical. I'm so excited for this prophetic service. And one of our apostolic elders gets up, and here was the prophetic word. He said, I see 18 to 24 months of unprecedented resistance at Mercy Culture. And I'm sitting there, and I'm like, great, thanks. What a great prophetic word. For the next two years, it's going to be harder. I'm like, maybe he missed it, because it's been pretty tough and challenging up to this point. It's been harder. So I was like, whatever, okay, Lord, that's a word from you, then we'll steward it, we'll figure it out, bring it on. So the next Tuesday, we're at Staff Chapel, and we're just praying and worshiping, and I have a vision, or I have a spiritual daydream. And in this spiritual daydream, I see this timeline. I see 18 to 24 months. I see this unprecedented resistance moving on this timeline.

And then all of a sudden, I see this sticker, and the sticker comes over the timeline and puts the sticker, and the sticker said joy. So then I see moving on the timeline, 18 to 24 months of unprecedented joy. And I heard the Lord speak to me and said, joy is your weapon, and joy will be your warfare. There's a significant number of words in the Bible that have been translated to joy. The most common ones are gladness, happiness, celebration, even grace. In the Bible, the Hebrew word for joy means shouting, singing, dancing, or celebrating. And joy is a result of choice. That's really important. I want you to hear that again. Joy is the result of choice. See, joy is the state of loving God and being loved by God. First Peter 1.8 says it like this, though you are not seen in him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and you are filled with an inaccessible and glorious joy. My personal definition of joy is the result of encountering God's mercy and the evidence of abiding in him. This word joy is used over 300 times in the Bible, and I'm going to say this again, joy is spiritual. Luke 10.17 says this, 70 to the disciples of Jesus. Jesus returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. When they encountered demonic forces and they saw the power of God, it released this joy up inside them. This is one of my favorite scriptures on joy. Romans 14, 17, you know it. It says this, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking, but of what? Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

According to scripture, joy is our strength. Nehemiah 8, 10, I know you know this one too. It says, and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is our strength. And one of my favorite things about joy is that I experience deliverance in joy. And if you know this about me already, Deliverance Day is my favorite day of the year. This is the day where God lifts something off me, a burden, a heavy, something that's been bound on me. And when you encounter the joy of the Lord, you will experience deliverance, I promise you. Jeremiah 31, 13 says, then shall the young women rejoice and dance, the young men shall be, and the old shall be married, and I will turn their mourning into joy, and I will comfort them and give them gladness for their sorrow. I'll tell you one of these cool moments about this. So in that first vision I had about the timeline of joy moving, after that I saw a vision, spiritual daydream, of us dancing from our conference, our Mercy Culture Conference, throughout the rest of that year, or that entire season that we were under unprecedented resistance, that we would have joy and we would dance in joy. So our Mercy Culture Conference was wild that year. It was in the convention center, thousands of people,

and there was quite a few moments of just wild celebration of joy. And I don't know what one of those moments I experienced deliverance. I just know that I experienced deliverance. Our church was growing. We were involved in political issues that we believe are spiritual issues. One of our elders had ran for mayor. We became public enemy number one by the left-wing woke psychos in our city. And we had hundreds of attack messages constantly, news articles, media articles, nonstop attacking us. And when I would read those articles and I would see the personal attacks, I would feel anxiety, I'd feel witchcraft. I remember one time I went in the church and we were being attacked by a national news outlet. And I went in the sanctuary and I laid on the floor and I can feel my heart hitting the floor of the sanctuary. That's how much pressure I felt in my body from the warfare and the witchcraft that was coming against us. And so typically when someone would send me an article and pastor's defying this and pastor's disobeying the law, pastor's doing this, I would feel those effects. So we'd go through the conference, we had these moments of joy, and my wife and I were on a marriage retreat. So we're in another city and she's shopping

and I'm at a coffee shop just sitting there and someone sent me a text of an article. And the title of the article says, Pastor Defies IRS. His response is big whoop. That's what I said from the pulpit. When I read the title of this article, I literally start belly laughing in a coffee shop with tears running down my face. And as tears are running down my face, I realize I've been delivered. Where I used to look at personal attacks and attacks on our ministry, and I would feel oppression, I would feel anxiety, I'd feel witchcraft. I see one of the biggest attacks from one of the biggest news outlets we've ever seen, and I'm laughing with the joy of the Lord. I'm gonna say this again, it's in the meaning of joy. Joy is a choice. Romans 5.3 says, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that our sufferings produce endurance. See, there's so many people that live in this spiritual, immature state that you think that if you only had this, if you only had that, if your ministry was only here, if your marriage was like this, if this happened with your kids, if you only had this or that, then you would have joy.

And I wanna let you know that that is a lie that you have found yourself in. Because the only thing that you need to have joy is relationship with the Lord and his wonderful presence. Out of the 326 occurrences of the word joy that are in the New Testament, 131 of them are found in the 10 letters that are usually ascribed to the apostle Paul. Paul was known as the theologian of joy. Did you know that? And in Philippians 4, verse 4, Paul writes, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Don't be confused with the word rejoice, because that word rejoice means to have joy. Paul says again, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. The apostle is teaching us how to have joy always. Watch this, he's writing it from prison waiting to be executed. Ah, sometimes we read the Bible. and we're ignorant to really what's going on. He's not just randomly telling you have joy because you had a bad day. He is in prison where he spent majority of his ministry incarcerated. I've been in Rome in those prisons. I've literally been in the prisons where he was held. And the Bible says that in those places he worshiped, in those places he had joy,

and in those places he's encouraging others. This is wild. He may have been facing the executioners while writing Philippians, his most joyful letter. And Paul was declaring in prison, I choose joy. He's in jail, but he chooses joy. He's going through attacks, he's choosing joy. He's going through trials, but he says this, I still have joy. What is the apostle Paul teaching us where the Holy Spirit wants to teach you today? Listen, you can have joy no matter what your situation is because you can have his presence no matter what the situation is. You can invite the presence of God into any situation no matter how hard, and you could bring the joy of the Lord into the hardest places. I learned this firsthand experience going through one of the most challenging, difficult situations I've ever gone through in my entire life. A couple of years ago, we had one of our pastors have their infant child die in the first week of being born. We stood, we believed, we prayed, we contended in faith, and the child went to go be with the Lord. We're at the funeral. If you've never seen an infant baby casket, it's one of the worst things you could ever see. No one has words, no one has answers. We're just loving God and loving each other. And in the middle of the funeral,

the older sister of the baby that died was dancing at the altar. I get goosebumps telling the story. Was dancing at the altar in the middle of the funeral during worship. No adult knew what to do. No adult had the right words. All of the pastors in the room, no one knew what to do, but one little girl knew what to do, and that was to worship her God. Do you know what her name was? Her name was Joy. And Joy led a room full of mature pastors, leaders, and elders, and worshiping God, and dancing in the presence of God in the hardest situations. See, when you encounter the presence of God, joy is the result. In John 15, five and 11, Jesus says, "'I am the vine, you are the branches. "'Whoever abides in me, I abide in him, "'and he bears much fruit.'" Verse 11 goes on to say, "'These things I have spoken to you, "'that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be full.'" When we encounter the presence of God, and we abide in Jesus, we remain in his joy. So you should be aware, if you are finding yourself not having joy, it's probably because you are not

in the presence of God enough. You're not spending enough time in the presence of God. And guys, going to church once a month is not enough. Going to church once a week is not enough. We need the daily bread. We must find ourselves in the presence of God on a daily basis. At Mercy Culture, we call this daily encounters. If I'm honest with you, like I said at the beginning of this teaching, I've struggled with joy. I've struggled enjoying myself. I've struggled enjoying the journey. I remember one time when I was really growing in my daily encounters, I was living in Arizona, and I'd go climb this mountain. And when I'd climb this mountain, I would play this weird game with myself where I wouldn't let myself look at the view or enjoy the view until I got to the top. So the reward of the mountain climb was seeing the view. And one day I was there, and I happened to look at the view, and I'm like, man, it's beautiful. I was about a quarter of the way up. And then all of a sudden I was like, oh no, I can't look. And I put my eyes down. And as soon as I put my eyes to the trail, I heard the Lord speak to me and say, isn't that your problem in life?

You don't enjoy the views on the way up. The Lord was correcting me, saying, Landon, you're not remaining in my joy. This is something that I was struggling with, and I struggled with it until I found breakthrough. And let me teach you the breakthrough I found. I found the joy wasn't in my feelings. The joy was in God's feelings. So watch this. The joy was in his pleasure. See, when I get the focus off of me, what I want, what I'm believing for, and I put my joy back in Jesus of like, Lord, what pleases you? What do you want? What brings you joy? And when I really. I utilize what brings God joy, and I partner with what he wants. In return, it brings me joy. Ephesians 5.10 is one of my favorite scriptures in the entire Bible. That and 1 Samuel chapter 3. Ephesians 5.10 says this, find out what pleases the Lord. Because here's the thing, everything I did for me, I didn't find joy in, but when I live for him and in him and abide in him, when I make my goal pleasing him, all of a sudden I constantly had joy because it wasn't about what pleased me, it was about what pleased God. And then all of a sudden, this joy started erupting in my life when the focus came off of my life and went on what God. See, I didn't discover joy by changing my attitude or my circumstances. I found joy by finding out what pleases him.

And not only did it change my life, but also it taught me a new strategy of spiritual warfare because there's so many people that put so much focus on what the enemy's doing instead of what God's doing. Then you end up getting beat up and losing spiritual warfare. You get discouraged and like Elijah, you want to give up in quick instead of seeing what is God doing. I remember one time I was so frustrated. We planted a church in Waco. We were two years almost behind on building our building. We're in a tent and it's hot in Texas and believe it or not, it's cold in Texas. And so, you know, it went from 17 degrees to, you know, 107 degrees and it was challenging. And finally one day I was so frustrated and we were about a year behind construction. I just said, Lord, you're in charge of everything. What's going on here? Why are you allowing this to happen? I heard the Lord speak to me and said, I'm preparing the pastor to lead thousands. All of a sudden I had this joy rise up in me. I was like, ah, like the Lord's doing something. And so many of us get so frustrated. We give up our joy because we're frustrated with what we want's not happening. Instead of Lord, you're in charge of everything. What are you doing? And how can I partner with what pleases you and receive the joy of the Lord? Guys, when you partner with the joy of the Lord, it changes your disposition. It changes your feelings. It changes your outlook to everything. When your focus isn't on what you want or what the enemy is doing, but your focus is on what does the Lord want, what is he doing, and what is pleasing to him. Here's what I'll tell you. If you want to win in spiritual warfare, if you want to make it through the race of this

spiritual journey, you're going to have to focus on the joy of the Lord that is your strength, not your own personal joy. Because warfare is won in the joy of the Lord. So let's recap. Joy is spiritual, and joy is a weapon against the enemy. Joy is found in the presence and the pleasure of God. And spiritual warfare is won in the joy of the Lord. Let me pray for you. So Lord, I thank you for what you're teaching me on joy. And Lord, I pray what you've done in my life, I pray you would do in my friend's life even to a greater degree. So Lord, I pray right now, any spirit of heaviness, that Acts 16 spirit of divination or frustration that is on people, I pray it breaks off them. I pray that demonic discouragement, that Jezebel spirit that says, give up, quit, abandon the call of God on your life, I pray that breaks off them and I rebuke every voice of the enemy right now. Holy Spirit, we want you, we want your voice, and I pray we receive your joy. If you're listening to this right now, just say that out loud, I receive your joy. Just tell the Lord, my joy is in you, my strength is in you. Right now, just start thinking about how good God's been to you, how kind he's been to you. Start thinking of all the things that he's done over the course of your relationship with him. We say, Lord, we won't lose our praise, we won't lose our gratitude, and we are so thankful that you saved us. So Lord, I pray that we would rejoice and we would walk in your joy. Teach us how to do this. We need your help, empowered by your spirit, in Jesus' name, amen. There is one way to God, and it's through Jesus, but in Jesus, there are many ways to connect with him. You can commune with him while creating, denying your flesh and feeding your spirit, ministering

to his heart through adoration, meditating on his scripture, getting alone to be with him, meeting him in creation, asking him questions and listening for his response, learning something new about him, moving into an encounter with him, making the crooked way straight, serving his people, and remembering what he has done. Personal encounters with God change everything. Discover how you connect with God. Text ENCOUNTER to 59090 to take your assessment today. Let me give you some practical advice. I got six things for you today. Number one, stay in the presence of God. Guys, church is not enough, but a lot of people don't even go to church. Didn't they say the average person goes to church once every four to six weeks? That is not enough time in the presence of God. Then after you're in church, that's not enough. That's the gathering of the saints and those are amazing times, but you need to be in the presence of God every day. We call those daily encounters. And so it's really important that you make a lifestyle that you're committed to the house of God and you're committed to your daily encounter. Number two, guard your joy like it's a treasure. Treat joy as something the enemy wants to steal first. John 10.10 says the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. Know this, he's always after your joy. So pay attention to what drains your joy. Negative voices, distractions, comparisons, all of those things, make sure you cut those things off.

Stay in the presence of God, focus on what God is doing, not what the enemy's doing. When you feel joy slipping away, stop, re-engage and focus on God's presence. Invite the Holy Spirit to come and watch what happens when you invite his presence, you'll feel that joy come back. Number three, practice the joy of the Lord. Physically and spiritually. So don't just think about joy, express it. Laugh, clap, dance, shout, the Psalms talk all about this. Express your gifts, physically love on the Lord. I know some people are like, hey, this isn't for me. I'm not naturally like that. I know, and we're naturally carnal. So I'm trying to encourage you to engage spiritually. So when you're in church services, engage. You're like, ah, you know, I don't really express myself. I'm not asking you to get on the dance floor, do the Dougie. I'm asking you to worship God with everything you have. I'm asking you to begin to lift your hands higher, to sing louder, to when your pastors say shout or worship the Lord, engage. Watch what happens to you spiritually when you engage with God physically. Number four, have people that operate in joy pray for you. When I was struggling the most with joy, I would run into people, whether it'd been traveling in DC or in church services or different people. I remember one time I ran into Pastor Will Ford. He wasn't even pastoring the East Campus of Fort Worth yet.

And I ran into him in church service. He started jumping up and down with the biggest smile on his face when I saw him. And as soon as he started jumping up and down, smiling, I said, Will, would you pray for me? The joy that is on you, I need on me. When you see people that are walking in the joy of the Lord, have them pray for you. Number five, put on gratitude and thanksgiving. This is something that we lose so much. The children of Israel modeled this, where God did so many miracles in their life and so quickly they forgot. I mean, they're literally in the wilderness making a false God while Moses is up on the mountain meeting with the God that delivered him from slavery. So easily we forget about the goodness of God. So make a list, write it out. Put it in your daily encounters. Thank God every single day for the blessings in your life. When you're in meals, your food doesn't need you to pray over it, depending on how bad the cook was. But what you could do in those moments is thank God for his provision. Thank him for providing for you. Allow those moments to be moments where you're thanking God. It will keep joy in your heart. Number six, this may be one of the hardest ones,

but rejoice even in trials. Like Paul in prison, exalt God and praise God despite your circumstances. These are what we call sacrifices of praise. I'll never forget this one moment where Heather and I were so excited to be pregnant. We get pregnant, we go to the doctor and the doctor tells us the baby's not growing. The next week we go back to see if the baby is alive and growing. We prayed, we fasted, we believed, and we got there and they said, we're sorry, your baby's not alive. In that moment, I dropped to my knees in the doctor's office and I began to love on the Lord and thank God that he was gonna bless us with a child. In the middle of losing a child, I began to thank God for blessing us with a child. And our daughter Peyton wasn't far beyond that. In those moments, I remember thinking in the doctor's office I'll have few times in my life that I could praise him in this circumstance. Some of you don't realize the opportunity you have in the middle of trials, in the middle of hardship, in the middle of persecution is some of the greatest moments to praise God you'll ever have in your entire life. Use that joy warfare. Asking questions is a great way to spiritually grow. I'm gonna answer your questions

about joy-based warfare today. First question, what is the difference? between happiness and joy? Great question. Happiness is circumstantial, while joy is rooted in God's presence and his pleasure. We see this in John 15 and Romans 14. So your happiness can change with your circumstances, but your joy in the Lord remains the same despite your circumstances. Next question. Can a lack of joy cause your burnout in leadership? Absolutely. You can stop praising God. You can stop thanking God. And just like the children of Israel, you can lose your gratitude, or another word for it is you could become familiar. You can forget about everything the Lord has done. And guys, it went from the children of Israel, God begging them 40 years wandering in the wilderness, a whole generation didn't make it in, till they get in the promised land. And again, they forget about God and then they get led into captivity. And there's not much of a difference between the children of Israel and the people of God today, how quickly we forget how good God has been. I cannot tell you how many people that are in church crying out for God,

needing miracles, and then God blesses them, turns their life around, and then they stop coming to church and lose relationship with God. And all of these things fall away. Their entire relationship with God begins to fizzle out because in his blessing, they forget about God. So yes, you could lose relationship. You could burn out. So it's really important that you keep gratitude in your heart and life. Next question, why does the enemy target joy first in spiritual warfare? Because joy isn't just an emotion, but a source of spiritual strength. I already read to you Nehemiah 8.10, where it says the joy of the Lord is our strength. So if the enemy comes after your joy, then he will come after your strength and you won't have the strength to fight him. So you need to understand when you feel your joy wavering or weighing, that this is a strategy of the enemy to keep you weak so that you cannot fight him. Because when you fight with joy, you're unstoppable and the gates of hell can't prevail against a church that has the joy of the Lord. Last question, what should you do with your joy around people that aren't joyful? It's a great question.

Here's the answer, don't hold back. When people are full of doubt, fear, pessimistic, struggling with different depression, do not let them set the atmosphere or the tone. You be the ones to set it. Do not hold back your joy. In fact, those people need the joy that is on you to provoke things inside them. I'd even say it like this, your joy can minister to people that are struggling with depression or anxiety. Let the joy of the Lord minister through you to them. The goal of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast is that you will spiritually grow. With every episode released, you'll be equipped with a leadership guide. In every guide, we will review the information that was covered, reflect by asking questions to yourself, to God, and your teams, and apply what you've learned. It's gonna be short, sweet, effective, and to the point. I don't want you just to listen to this podcast, I want you to be able to immediately apply it to yourself and the people you lead. So text PODCAST to 59090 and download the leadership guide with every podcast episode we drop. If you desire to spiritually grow, I wanna invite you to join me on this journey. Subscribe to Mercy Culture

or follow me on socials at at Landon A. Schott. If you value this content, I would really appreciate it if you would share it with a friend. I'm Landon, thank you for joining me on Spiritual Leadership, where we're helping leaders become spiritual leaders.