Son, you have been learning the difference between my kingdom and the world’s kingdom. There is a kind of joy you have been learning about that is not a “happy” kind of joy, but a joy that resides deep in your soul. It is a joy born out of mourning and suffering like my son. It is rooted in obedience that has a cost to it. This kind of joy comes when you offer praise during these times of great heaviness. My presence comes into these places. It is an entirely different dimension of my presence that can only be accessed through the deep pain of the soul. You have been there. You know what it is. There are few words that can express this kind of joy. It will lead to your growth into one of my oaks of righteousness. Oaks can only become great trees when their roots are required to go deep into the soil to get the water they need. Mourning takes you deep into the soil of my grace. Few have learned to appreciate this place, but it leads to knowing me intimately and glorifying me.
To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. Isaiah 61:3
