Its Joy Time

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Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. To all of our Truth Network, Truth Talk Live friends and listeners, it's a joy hour. Because we have with us the founder and the president of Joy Time Ministries. Dr. Joy herself is in the house.

And Robbie, I don't think we can handle all this joy. What do you think, man? I said when I sat down, the inner presence is fullness of joy.

You guys are too funny. She's bringing the joy today. I'm telling you. And joy is not just a Christmastime thing, Dr. Joy. It's not just when you have the fuzzies and you're having a happy day and the sun's out. Joy is something deeper. It's deeper of soul. And this is what you have found in ministry with Joy Time Ministries, right?

Absolutely. So joy is a gift that we only can find through Jesus. But what I love to think about with this word joy is it's an emotional pattern of being sure. That no matter what we're going through, no matter how hard life is, we are sure that things are going to work out okay because we put our confidence in Jesus. That's what joy really is.

Well, and I'll tell you what else it is. Men, if your wife just came home from Ashboro, North Carolina, or last month, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, from a big conference or on the coast somewhere down there, Wilmington, if she came home with her joy tank full on fire for God, it's because she spent the weekend with this lady here. And what happened to these Joy Time conferences?

Oh, my goodness. We love, love, love to go and encourage women. That's really what our mission is all about, to encourage women in their faith to Jesus through the teaching of God's word. We focus on God's word.

And so these conferences we have in different areas. Let me tell you what we do. First, we worship.

Amen. That's the first thing we do. Second, we laugh. Third, we hear some good Bible teaching. And then fourth, we eat cupcakes.

Let me tell you, we have cupcakes and they have little blue flowers on top and they are fabulous. We have a great weekend of encouragement. All I know is my buddy Parker Webb, we were talking about you six months ago about your ministry, and he was just telling me, he just lit up, he says, this is just, it was right before your Richard Childress racing event.

Oh, back in September. Yes. Because Guilford, his ministry does the worship. And I'm just telling you, there's just, it's a contagious kind of joy. Robbie, it's contagious.

We've just spent a half hour even before the show with her. And there's something exciting about being someone who has the joy of the Lord. Amen. Amen. And enthusiasm, right? That sense of the Spirit that brings all that, you know, to light.

She's got so many different things that she's doing for women and so many different ways that people can be engaged, you know, with the whole idea. And it's a resource. Huge. So, Dr. Joy Green. Yes. You're also a professor, a college professor. Yes.

Yes. So the doctorate I have is in pharmacy. And so I graduated way long ago. Like even when I was in pharmacy school, this is going to sound crazy, but there wasn't even anything called the internet. Oh, wow.

I know, I know. I practice as a pharmacist for many, many years, and then I've helped start three new schools of pharmacy, including High Point University right here in North Carolina. So combining joy with medicine, your favorite verse has to be, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.

No, I can't say that that's actually my favorite verse, but it would make a lot of sense, I guess, if that were my favorite. I was just trying to connect a whole lot of things. But, you know, the thing about being in medicine is we see people at their worst. People go to the pharmacy when they don't feel well. They're getting their medicine.

They're achy. And so to be a pharmacist is someone who has an opportunity to really lift up another person and encourage them. And so I try to look at my life like that as an opportunity.

Can we go back and just ask you briefly your testimony? We're going to get into all kinds of things. Anxiety, mental health, all kinds of folks struggling right now. We'll go deeper into what is joy. What is the biblical view, God's view of joy? How can we all be contagious joy dealers like you? And more about your ministry, too, and all the amazing stuff you're doing.

But tell us about, like, who is Dr. Joy? How did you find the Lord? And then how did he call you into doing what you're doing now?

Right. So I had great parents growing up, but my mom was the spiritual leader of our family, not because she wanted to be, but because she had to be. And my dad was not a believer throughout most of my life.

In fact, he wasn't even saved until he was in his 70s, like mid 70s. But my dad was just always a great guy. And I was very close to my dad. My mom took my sister and me to church and I found the Lord through Vacation Bible School like a lot of kids do. But I wanted to live for him. I wanted to go to heaven and I wanted to do what was right. I can remember as a little bitty girl being in my room, writing a letter to the Lord, like on construction paper with a crayon. I would write, Dear God, I love you. And I would throw it up in the air to try to get it to heaven because I loved him so much.

I just loved him. My mom had a really hard delivery with me. She had a really hard pregnancy. She was on her back on bed rest for six months with me. She had a baby before me who died at birth. They told her not to have any more kids. Of course, she got pregnant with me and had complications very early on. And so for six months, she laid on the couch and she prayed for me.

And she told the Lord if he would allow her to have me, that she would give me back to him. But that was in the 70s. I was born in 74. That was before ultrasound and all of those things. So when I was born, I didn't breathe at first. And so my mom and the doctors, they were panicked again, thinking, oh, no, not again, because my brother was the same way. So the doctor rushed me around and my mom was going to name me Dee Dee. That was going to be my name, Dee Dee. So finally, after the doctor had worked on me a little while, I started crying and breathing and he brought me to my mom. My mom tells the story. She was so happy that I was I was breathing.

And he said to her, Miss Bowers, that's my maiden name. I've delivered a lot of babies in my lifetime, but I think this is the most joyful baby I've ever delivered. And she changed my name to Joy right then. Isn't that just so sweet that she had prayed for me? And so I was saved when I was nine years old and tried my best to live for the Lord. But it wasn't until I was in my 20s that God began to convict me about how much time I spent with him. I remember going to a Bible study at my small church and really listening to the it was a DVD driven type of Bible study. And I was listening to that speaker on the television through that DVD thinking, man, there's so much about the Bible.

I don't know. That teacher knew so much about God's word. And I felt the Holy Spirit whispered me. What if you studied your Bible as much as you studied pharmacy?

Why do you not love me the way you loved pharmacy? And he got a hold of me. And I started studying more and I began to feel God call me into a more formalized ministry, just of encouragement to encourage women to love on women and to meet them where they are in their faith journey. So that's kind of how what kind of propelled you in a joy time? It took a long time from that moment in my life before God opened up the doors of ministry.

But that was really the heart of it was me trying to listen to the voice of the Lord, encourage me to know him more. Wow. And so, Robbie, I mean, this is and she has a feature like a what's your radio feature called? It's called Joy Time. So we're having major FOMO because we're not hearing that a lot on the Truth Network. We need to do something about that. Absolutely. Absolutely. We need joy time. And we'd love the testimony and that, you know, it's so clear how God worked through life. You can't help it just go that name. Right.

Because that doctor would see that. And then, you know, it becomes all that has become over 15 under radio stations, from what I understand, are carrying joy time. And you've got your you've got books, you've got that. What are kind of give us a little a little overview of all the different resources that listeners can get to support your ministry, too. But also just great little resources like the Gratitude Journal and whatnot.

Yes. So I have a lift. I guess a line of joy time merchandise. There's books. I wrote a book about anxiety and overcoming anxiety with God's help, called A Prescription for Joy, because I'm a pharmacist.

And so it's a prescription after each chapter. I have a gratitude journal. I have a joy journal. I have a devotional.

There's all types of Bible study, different resources you can have. Then I have a lift, really a lot of things for gifts and things, you know, quilted Bible verse bags, things like that. And hats, too. I bought one of your hats for my daughter, Joy, which I want to share this podcast with her. Don't touch that dial, friends. A lot more joy coming up on the other side of this break on Truth Talk Live. We're all in the studio.

Robbie, the Christian car guy. I'm Stu Everson and Dr. Joy is in the house. More joy time with you after this on Truth Talk Live.

Bingo. Hey, we are so grateful here on Truth Talk Live to bring you joy every day made possible by our friends at vinetastic.com. Dr. Joy, I hope I gave you a bottle before the show. You did give me one. I'm excited about that, Stu.

The Christian car guy is over there salivating. I am. As I hold this bottle up. My bottle, Robbie, my bottle.

We're so grateful. If you just read the bottle, it'll tell you there are over 300 parts per million of antioxidant polyphenols in each bottle of vinetastic. And I think one of the three of us knows what that is because it's not me. But Dr. Joy, she studies this.

She knows about all that. But this is a beverage that our friends at Le Bleu Ultra Pure Bottled Water and Mighty Muscadine created to help people have a healthy alternative. Especially folks battling diabetes. Over 138 million folks that are prediabetic or have diabetes. Ensure there's synthetic solutions.

Ensure there's medication. Ensure there's diet drinks, which aren't so good for you. But then there's Vintastic, which has zero sugar, zero carbs, zero calories and no artificial sweeteners.

So that's just reading the label. We're grateful for them. That's my favorite part of it. Man, if you're thirsty and you want something other than water and you don't have to feel guilty. Oh my gosh. That's awesome. Everyone's like, have a drink or something.

Like a little pick-me-up. So we're just thankful for them. Information is available at vintastic.com. Promo code TRUTH. Thank you, Vintastic. Thank you for bringing us Joy. Dr. Joy Green is in the house. Joy Time Industries.

We're talking to her about something that I heard. One of my mentors told me that who does a lot of speaking to athletes and the number one challenge that athletes face. The number one issue from the locker room to the field to training to home, whatever, is mental health.

This anxiety, suicides on the rise. And this, I guess, drove you, as you mentioned in the first segment, Dr. Joy, to write this book, a prescription for Joy. Is that right? That's right.

Yes. So I have had seasons of anxiety in my own personal life. A couple of experiences where our house was hit by a tornado with me inside the tornado that sent me into a spiral of anxiety. I mean, the wind picked the house up. It was a house that my great grandfather built 100 years ago and it set the house back down. I just was sitting in the spiral of worry and what if and nervousness and anxiety where I just could not sleep. I could not eat.

All those types of things. And then another time in my life where I went through a terrible illness that almost took my life and it took me forever to get better. So I've lived through anxiety and through it, God has taught me some really important key strategies from his word on how we do have the power within us through the Holy Spirit to overcome the effects of anxiety. Now, listen, anxiety is normal. No one is going to live a life where you don't worry about something. I mean, it's normal to be worried about going in and having a medical test done. It's normal to be worried about taking a physical test, like if you're in college or high school. Right.

That's normal. But anxiety comes and goes and we usually overcome it. But sometimes we get sent into this spiraling that we can't get out of it.

And that's what the book's about. How to overcome it. Dr. Joy, how do you handle verses like Philippians 4-6, kind of our go to verse, be anxious for nothing. How do you take that and how do you develop this addressing anxiety, mental health, the real struggle, biblically, but not too surfacely. Not to just take a Bible verse and call me in the morning.

Take us deeper to how you... Well, you have to finish that passage of scripture. Okay, thank you. Good.

Right. So you can't just say, I mean, Paul didn't just say, oh, don't be anxious. Don't worry, man. Don't worry. Don't worry.

Be happy. He doesn't say that. He said, but by prayer.

Right. And supplication. You want to present your request to God. So first of all, prayer is key. That when we're nervous, we're anxious, we're worried, we need to pray.

And then if you keep looking in Philippians chapter four, he goes on to tell us to think on these things. Here's the deal. Here's the secret, Stu. You want to hear it, car guy?

Here's the secret. We don't realize that we have control over what we think about. We think that if a thought comes into our head that it has just completely taken us hostage and that we have to think about it. We don't. When a thought comes into our head like this.

Well, what if you don't get that job or what if you go get your mammogram and it comes back and there's something there? Then that thought, we allow it to just take up residence in our thought life and we just work it to death. We think and think and think and we what if and what if and what if. But what if we did this? What if that thought came in that said, well, what if you don't get a job?

What if you lose your house? What if X, Y, Z? What if we said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I know that that thought is not from God because that's a spirit of fear coming over me.

And the book of 2 Timothy tells us that a spirit of fear is not from the Lord. So what if we kick those thoughts out and say, I'm not going to think about that. Instead, I'm going to change the channel like those old TVs that you used to have to get up and change the channel because we didn't have remote controls.

Robbie still got one with the twister on the wall. You just reach up and love your bed. It's called a tuner. They've forgotten what that is.

You know, we didn't have remote controls in the late 70s, early 80s had to get up and change the channel. The same thing's true with our thought life. What if we take those thoughts and say, wait a minute, I'm not thinking about that. Here's what I'm going to say. My God is faithful. My God loves me. My God is never going to leave me. My God has a good plan for my life. My God has a purpose for my life.

He's promised to work all things together for my good when I'm called according to his purpose. And that's what I'm going to think on instead of all the bad things that might happen. What if instead of focusing on what's wrong with our life, we change the channel to focus on what's right with our lives? It will absolutely change your life because the Bible says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. And if you want to change your life, you need to change your thoughts.

And I've heard many a doctor say, I've heard many a clinician, I've heard many a mental health expert, I've heard many a shrink psychologist, psychiatrist, whatever. I've heard many a pastor say, your mind can only think one thought at a time. So you're either going to think about this or that. And that can be a secular coach telling his linebacker, get that stinking thinking out of your mind, forget about that mistackle, come back in. Or it could be allowing the Holy Spirit or thinking about a scripture, just instantly going in like, I woke up at 3 a.m. this morning and I just started cranking down hard on Romans 15, 13. In the hope of, you know, the God of hope filling you. And I just started meditating on that verse and it really helped. And I can't really remember what happened after that because I went back to sleep. But I had to just make that, you're talking about making a choice, right, Dr. Joy? And I'm talking about obeying the Word of God where Paul says, think about these things, things that are true and righteous and noble and of excellence, things that are of good reputation, though he tells us what to think about.

So we can start asking ourselves the question when those thoughts come in. Wait a minute. Is that thought even true? Oh, it's not true.

So I should kick it out. Oh, wait. Is that thought a noble thought or is that thought something that's taken me down into the pit?

Wait a minute. I don't even think about that thing. We have to listen to what Paul says in Philippians chapter 4.

Yeah, and Robbie, it gets kind of the rubber meets the road because it gets down to idolatry. Now we're getting into some strong words. We don't like to use the word sin.

We'd rather use, you know, nicer words, you know, struggle, whatnot. But at the end of the day, either God is big enough to take care of this problem or I got this and I'm going to play God and I'm going to let it ruin my health. I'm going to let ruin my mind and I'm going to figure my way.

I'm going to figure my way right into my grave. Well, and the other part that is so beautiful about the whole thing is apart from me, you can do nothing. And so prayer is a gigantic part of all that. Yeah. Right. And so even when you're using those scriptures and all those things, you know, turning your heart towards getting your eyes, you know, towards like God help me. Absolutely. That's what the verses say.

Right. And getting some humility in there to go, you know what? I can't necessarily do this all on my own. I could really use your help right now, Lord, you know, and help him guide you. Bring me a scripture into my mind.

Bring me someone that can encourage me, exhort me. What he said about prayer, Dr. Joy, like that's something just so powerful about prayer. It's just fundamentally saying, help God.

Am I wrong about that? I mean, talk about how important that is to this whole thing. Yeah, I mean, I think prayer is a two-way street, right? I mean, prayer is when we are pleading and asking and petitioning God. But prayer is also when we're quiet and we're listening to God speak to us.

The listening side of prayer. More on that. Robbie, when we come back, that's a good setup, though, for the next segment, isn't it?

Two ears and one mouth. That's exactly right. I still need to learn that word. Hey, more Truth on Life coming back. Be sure to download the whole podcast in case you don't get the whole show. But we'll be right back with Joytime Ministries. Dr. Joy, after this quick break. Hang on.

Well, you're in for a treat. All hour long, we've been celebrating Joy with Dr. Joy, the founder of Joytime Ministries. And just to come back for folks that maybe are just joining us, Dr. Joy, encapsulate again your ministry.

Give us a little overview for everyone listening about what all you do, kind of how you got into it, just real quick. Yeah, so Joytime Ministries is one that I founded back in 2012. It started with radio. So there's a radio syndicated little one minute feature called Joytime.

It's on about fifteen hundred radio stations, which just blows me away how the Lord has used that small little feature. We do women's conferences all over the place. We just had one in Wilmington.

We have our big conference coming up in Lexington, North Carolina at Richard Childress Racing. I do a Sunday Night Live Bible study on YouTube Live and over on Facebook. We're reading through the Old Testament. We have five chapters a week and then I come on live on Sunday nights at eight thirty p.m. Eastern and I review all of those five chapters. We really are growing a Joytime sisterhood. Joytime is all about faith and it's all about friendship that we want you to know you belong with us at Joytime. And we come together to remember who Jesus is to grow in our knowledge of the Lord and then to live a joy filled life because the enemy comes to do three things, 110 says he comes to kill, steal and destroy and he tries to destroy and steal your joy.

And so Joytime is there to help us remember the goodness of God. And so when I hear about these packed stadiums for women's events, I mean like our own Alicia Grimes who's guest host here with Oasis Ministries, she packs out Pinedale, this church in Winston-Salem, packs it out. You pack out Richard Childress Racing every time you're there.

It gets like you post sold out and then you're down in the coast of North Carolina. You had a big event and then you had one recently even this past weekend. What is it that's happening? Talk about the hunger for... And I'm intentional about this question because Robbie is grinning ear to ear because he's got this ministry masculine journey, he does these boot camps and we're seeing the same thing on the male side here, okay? There's a hunger, there's men repenting, getting right with God, these male athletes. On the women's side, there's a life, there's something happening. Dr. Joy, can you talk about what that is?

Give us a little context and insight into that. Well first, all glory goes to God. I mean if He is not in it, you are not going to have success in these events. I mean His Spirit has got to be in it and with you and I truly believe that He places callings on people's lives to go and do the work. But He is the one that brings the harvest. He is the one that brings the growth.

So all glory to Him. But I would say this, I think women are tired of surface leveled, fake, phony baloney, not deep into the Word. I think women are hungry for genuinality. They want the real deal.

They want women speakers and people who feel called to go and teach and encourage. They want those women to be real. I mean nobody's got a perfect marriage.

Nobody's got a perfect life. None of us are on the mountaintop of faith all the time. And also women want to know what's in the Word of God. Help teach me the Word of God. Help encourage me to be in the Word.

And let's stop being so phony baloney, just surface leveled. They want deep, rich, let's study the Word of God and not just pretend like we're looking at it. What is it about God's Word that's so important but also so foundational to all of this? Because I know when they come to your events, they're not just getting a bunch of TED Talks. Not at all.

That's right. Well first, they know that I'm teaching them how to study the Word. You know, not to just open up the Bible and pick one verse and make that everything you're going to do. But to know who wrote it, what was the culture, and that every page you need to look for Jesus because it's His story, front to back.

It's His story. And I think when you can help teach women that you are so excited about God's Word and that it's not just some ancient document but that it's alive, it's breathing, it is separating the bone from the marrow, it is helping you live and it's your lifeline. And when you can present it from a place that you're trying to live that out, they catch on to that and they want to live it out in their lives too. And you've seen that lived out in your conferences, in your writing, in your speaking. Like you're seeing this all the time. I'm seeing God's Holy Spirit do an amazing work.

Absolutely. And like I said, all glory to Him because of it. But Robbie, you can see why 15 years ago this Christian radio guy in, was it Mississippi? Where was this? It was Jackson, Tennessee.

In Jackson, Tennessee. Yes. Where he, she comes on the radio, does an interview and he says, hey, we need her voice on the radio. I mean, we're kind of like not saying that out loud.

I guess we did kind of say it out loud. It's just a national radio program. Dr. Joy, don't be nervous. The millions of people listening, they can't see this. Listen, I love the opportunity to be here.

Thank you. But Robbie, is it refreshing to hear a female voice, a balanced scriptural biblical approach, doling out solid biblical encouragement? Yeah, I couldn't agree with her more that the Spirit of God is clearly equipping different people in such a time as this, right?

Because he's got to get his bride ready and as Jesus is doing the work and he's doing it through some amazingly gifted people. And for those of you who are watching this on YouTube or on my channel or on Facebook or whatever, you can see, man, she is just right on it. Like, here it is, here it is, here it is.

And who's doing that? God is clearly, you know, speaking through her. And when you see that anointing, you know, it's a beautiful thing.

And it's also such an encouragement to me to see that, you know, God is coming for us. And she's also, by the way, if you're watching this on StuTube or YouTube, is it your channel or Truth Network's channel, Robbie? It's mine. Okay, we've got to figure this out.

I've got to get you up for one or two likes. I mean, come on, folks, get involved here. Share it with your friends. Hey, get Dr. Joy. Tag her in this thing, wherever it goes. Oh, my soul.

It's going to go crazy viral because people, you've got a lot of followers on your different social media, but that's just a whole other world. Talk about mental health, people scrolling. It's like, stop scrolling.

Listen to what God's going to say. And then you speak to them, and that's what we need to make a short. We'll get Cousin Randy in there to make a short of me saying, stop scrolling and start listening right now to this whole program.

And then they listen to Dr. Joy just pour the Word of God, the joy of the Lord, into their souls. So YouTube, Instagram, let's get some clips for that of all this. We were with a social media kind of a digital consultant all day yesterday, Dr. Joy. So the timing of you being in here, because you're getting, talk about some of the stuff you're hearing from these social media pages, from your Facebook, Instagram.

What are some of the things you're hearing? Well, I mean, women reach out to me regularly, and they thank me for being real with them. And I do these watercolor scripture posts that I do a few times each week. And women will reach out and say thank you for that.

They'll download it, put it on their phone. With the Bible study that I do love, we just had our last one this past Sunday night. You know, women will comment, and they'll just tell me of how this is accountability for them, being a part of this joy time sisterhood that we meet on Sunday nights at 830. It keeps them accountable to read their five chapters every week.

And the women communicate with one another. And God began to take those watercolor scripture designs, and he began to really grow the reach of it. And I tell you, I was so blown away over Christmas because I have a professional account on Instagram. I couldn't even believe it.

I even took a screenshot of it. And over Christmas, the joy time post in like a 30-day period reached like 1.8 million accounts. I was like, oh my gosh. Which one was that on Instagram?

That was Instagram. I just like this post right here, Deuteronomy 3188. I was like, thank you, Lord. What an amazing... Praise the Lord. It is such a blessing to my life that I have any ounce of influence to encourage women or people on Instagram to dive into God's Word. I mean, what a gift.

It's such a gift to me. Not to put you in the hot spot and not to drag you into the battle we had yesterday, the battle royal on this show, which I lost. But what about the folks that say, oh, social media, get rid of it, get the kids off of it, get young people, they don't need to be on there. I mean, they're on there anyway. But what about, is it possible to redeem that? I mean, if 1.1 million people are looking at God's Word, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

That's right. I think just like anything that you do, like, you know, I love sweet tea, okay? It's okay to have some sweet tea a little bit, but I can also abuse that, and I can drink way too much.

That's how everything is for us, so we need to just have control and some balance and make sure that our feed is filled up with things that are pleasing to the Lord and not giving the enemy a foothold. Okay, and if you take your sweet tea without lemon, purgatory is coming your way, I'm sorry. I do, I do.

Sorry, Stu. No lemon. My husband loves lemon. He likes lemon.

Does that help? There you go. You got right back out there.

He's a half and half and then a lemon guy. There's nothing wrong with that. Okay, okay. But the thought of that, the fact that you can touch a soul.

That's right. What a blessing and a privilege. You can post, you can click, and of course radio, people are listening right now that may not be on all those things. So hey, please keep listening and please keep sharing by telling the guy in the car next to you at the stoplight, hey, check out this radio station. May it be a blessing to you. I do this all the time.

I don't do it if I'm going to threaten someone or make them feel intimidated or like a single lady, I'm not going to yell out to her and I'm not going to do it if the light's green and they're trying to get in gear and don't want to create a traffic jam. But inviting people to be encouraged, and social media is very good for that. Robbie, you found that to be true yourself, haven't you?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, you know, I've been invited to some amazing things of my Twitter account, you know, I got all those followers on Twitter and churches reach out to me to speak and do car events and all sorts of blessings that are amazing. And so do you make your events available on social media as well or do you play highlights of them later after your event's over? I play highlights of them later, but I'm growing in that.

Boy time has been a lot of just me trying to figure a lot of things out. But this past year, God has brought some new people to my team who just want to volunteer their time. Some of those people are event people.

They are agents in Nashville and promoters. I have a wonderful friend, Richard, who is a promoter who's come alongside to teach me some things and help me learn. And so we're going to be doing more and more of that in the coming months and year to make it a little more available.

Wow. And we want to have you at some point sit in the Truth Booth and host this show. Oh, I would love it so much.

That would be such a blessing. And you can have guests or you can just open the Bible and go. We haven't really invited callers because we just want people to get to know you a little bit.

Oh, thanks so much. And our guest, I'm Stu Epperson, alongside Robbie Dilmore, the Christian car guy right here. Our special guest is Dr. Joy Green, and she is the founder and the head of Joy Time Ministries. And when we have someone like you as a guest, it takes two hosts just to keep up. Right, Robbie? I mean, this is next level. I'm telling you. The ratings, I mean, they're already calling me. Management's like, keep it going. Try to have her on the air another hour.

The ratings are coming in. It's blowing up. I don't know what we're going to do. You are a mess. Let me tell you.

You are a mess. But it's just so much fun encouraging people. I mean, this is something.

Joy is something. You've heard that acronym, and we're going to do the prayer acronym last. This is beautiful, because I think it's what you share with law students. We had a little devotion that night, which was sensational. My daughter, Joy, shout out to her, who's a law student at HPU. She was a part of a Christian council that had you come in and speak. And I had the privilege of introducing you.

Parker Webb was there, did music. But Jesus, others, and you. Well, will you address that one?

Absolutely. Is that just a trite little cliche sermon for Christian, or is there something deeper there to probe? What is true biblical joy? How can you leave this show today with your joy tank full and overflowing? We'll ask Dr. Joy that when we come back on Truth Talk Live.

Don't touch that dial right back after this. Hang on. The good book calls it Unspeakable Joy. We talk about joy a lot at Christmas time.

We hear this analogy. I heard it today on a sermon, where the gentleman said, the pastor said, happiness is so often based on happenings. But joy is something deeper, something that hits the soul. And so who better to put on the spot, Robbie Dilmore, than our special guest today and ask her, what is joy? Dr. Joy. We know who Joy is, now we need to know what Joy is. Dr. Joy Green, who is the founder of Joy Time Ministries. Many of you have been to her conferences, or your wives have. Maybe you've read her book, Prescription for Joy.

Maybe you've been on her website and been blessed through her many different outlets. Dr. Joy, I know you get this question a lot, but will you take us down to the bare essence of joy? We talked about Jesus, others, and you.

I love that, but again, I don't want to sound like I'm just Mr. Cliché Factory here. I think the first thing we have to do is look to the scriptures to figure out what joy is. Joy is a part of the fruit of the Spirit.

I think that's where you start. The fruit of the Spirit is something that is supernatural. Joy is supernatural. So you will only experience true joy through a relationship with Jesus Christ, knowing that you have been redeemed through His blood and His Holy Spirit lives in you. When you are living your life filled with the Spirit, joy is the product of that filling.

I love to look at the Greek language and the Hebrew language. And what you see about joy is you do see that there is a connection to having like a happy spirit and having this joyful spirit. But more than that, it's deeper. It's assurance. It is an emotional pattern of assurance, knowing that you can trust in Jesus no matter the circumstance of your life. And when I say trust in Him, I don't mean that you trust that He's going to answer your prayer with yes and that your circumstance is even going to change.

I'm talking about trusting in His character, trusting in who He says He is. He is with you always. He will never leave you. He has a good plan for your life. He loves you.

He died for you. And when you focus on Him, going back to your J-O-Y, when you focus on Jesus, not what He can do for you, but who He is to you, there's a difference. When you focus on relationship with Jesus, then joy is going to spill out of you as a product of that relationship. And you have a joy journal, but you also have a gratitude journal. Connect the thread, the joy thread, the Jesus joy thread, to gratitude. Robby, jump in. I want to jump in, because she said something really neat, that in the original language, the Hebrew or Greek, it's a fantastic word.

But one of the things I discovered is that the word anointed, mashiach, is the same letters as the word joy, only in a little different order. Oh, wow. It's going deep now. I love this.

Yes, detail. Keep talking. I love it. So you just change the position of the first two letters, and the word mashiach starts with the mem. Well, the word joy, which is shemach, which starts with a shin, you switch those two letters. Well, clearly, in His presence, in other words, Jesus is joy.

Yes, absolutely. And so when you really, you see somebody that's full of joy, guess what? They're in His presence. And if they're not, then it's an opportunity for us to encourage them to say, oh, I bet this person could use some encouragement, right?

Because you can see that they don't have it. So a life devoid of Jesus is a life devoid of joy. Absolutely. Those two are connected. And I guess the outgrowth of that is gratitude, then, going back to, you have a joy journal and a gratitude journal.

Let me tell you something I heard years ago that I loved. OK, you think about two mountains that are separated by chasm. OK, and there's a bridge that connect the two. If one mountain is misery, sadness, depression, feeling downtrodden, and the other mountain is joy. Do you know what the bridge is from the sadness and downheartedness to joy?

The bridge is called gratitude. When you choose to be grateful every day, writing a gratitude journal, write it on a board somewhere. Keep your mind set on what am I grateful for today? Today is a blessing. God has given me the air in my lungs. He's giving me a beating heart that says to me, I've got purpose today. I've got a reason to live. He wants to use me today.

He's not done with me. If that's all we have in that day, then we have gratitude. And we also need to be thinking every day about what Jesus did for us on the cross. And the cross wasn't the end of the story, right?

The empty tomb gave us resurrected life to be with him forever. And I love the verse that says you're going to suffer for a little while. Some of us really do suffer.

Some of our listeners right now, they're going to suffer. They have suffering, real suffering in their life. But you know what they can have through Jesus? They can have the hope of heaven to be with him forever.

And that's something to have gratitude about. Which gets us from this mountain of misery to this mountain of joy. Now this guy suffered a lot more than many people I know. He's like a walking, talking book of Job.

I'm not saying he's accident prone, but you know, he had some incidents in his life, but God has kept him here. But you think about that verse that we don't like so much in James one, count it all, joy, when you fall into trials, when tribulations, struggles. I lived that, you know, a dear, dear family member of mine attempted suicide. And I usually get up every morning and I write out all the things I'm grateful for. That's my normal, I mean, one of the very first things I do. Oh yeah, every morning it's in my journal. It's a gratitude journal. Absolutely. We need to get him a real one though.

If it's not a joy type gratitude journal, I'm sorry, Robbie. Officer, pick him up. This particular morning, I hadn't had any sleep for two days.

I get home, there's no power. And so it was like in the middle of the winter, it was 20 degrees, man. And I am upset because of the suicide attempt and everything else. And I've really had a bad couple of days. I'm like, really, God, I can't have some heat in the middle of all this stuff? And so I'm sitting there with my journal and I'm going, all right, God, the gloves are off here. I mean, I'm not full of joy right this minute. I'm not happy about this.

I'm literally like letting him have it. And all of a sudden, it's like the war, the fog of war started to come off me. And I went, wait a minute. They lived.

Like, duh, Robbie, idiot. How could you not be grateful that God allowed this dear family member that the whole thing was about to live through the situation and all the things that have come since then, I'll never, ever forget that moment that without gratitude, you see, I was in that mountain of despair and maybe legitimately from some people's standpoint, but not in not in one iota compared to what was really like duh. But until you set your heart right on looking for the gratitude and looking for God in it and his goodness, you may not have found your way back over to joy. That was just a beautiful moment to see. But it's real.

And I love the fact that the deep cries out to deep. And I love that part of your ministry that it's not, you know, let's. Hi, I'm fine. You're fine.

Everybody's fine. Right. Right. It's right.

It is real. Can I say this to you about the fire, the fiery trial? I did a little post on Instagram with this little candle.

I did this on I guess it was Sunday. You know, when God allows us to go through the fire, you know, fires are bright and they're they have a lot of light to them. What if we transferred our thinking from, man, why are you putting me in this hot fire that burns and feels so awful? What if we transferred it over to say, who you are really setting this as a light to the world?

This trial could be the light that brings somebody else to Christ because they see the joy in my heart, even going through the fire, that it's a light to shine instead of the heat for us to bear. I love that difference and think about it. So good. And I love the the idea of a vertically driven gratitude where you start if I start by comparing myself to him. Well, he's had it worse than me. I'm grateful. How about I start looking at Jesus?

Oh, wow. And start looking at my life before Christ, my life now, like this guy over here doesn't have the Lord. He's got a lot bigger problem than I do. I'm going to heaven and I'm a little boohoo and navel gazing with my issues.

I need to go love on him and bring him to Christ and help him solve that problem as opposed to worry about my own thing. But something about going back to prayer. We're out of time. We could spend more and more hours and we're going to have you back on. And next time you're here, you're going to be sitting right here. Oh, my goodness.

I mean, Nick, our awesome producer, Cousin Randy, and they're making things happen with these reels and shorts. But Dr. Joy, prayer real quick. Give us the acronym as time ticks on here. If you have a hard time praying, let me give you this acronym. Pray, P-R-A-Y. Start your prayer by praising God, just like Jesus and the Lord's Prayer.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Remember to praise him before you start taking your needs to him. R, repent. We don't talk about this in our culture, but we need to repent of our sin. We need to confess it to him and turn from it.

It will change your life when you start to repent of your sin more frequently. A, ask. Go to the throne of grace and ask God boldly, but with humility. You can be bold and humble at the same time, but boldly approach his throne and ask. And then Y, yield to his will. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane did not ask once or twice, but he asked the Father three times for the cup to pass if it could. But he ended that prayer to the Father by saying, but not my will, but yours be done. So before we get up off the floor, off our knees, let's yield the situation to God's will. I love it. Robbie, I don't think there's anything else we can say.

I think, pass the plate, if we can get the ushers up here, but we're out of time. I would love to ask Dr. Joy, Joytime Ministries website. Yes, joytime.org. Go to the site, order the stuff, order the Joy swag, share it with someone else. I have a dollar named Joy, so I'm like an eternal investor with you, okay?

Thank you so much. It supports our ministry. Well, we love that. We love supporting this message. Will you pray us out of here?

Oh, I'd love to. And just ask the Lord, so many people coming. Maybe someone doesn't know the Lord. We just pray real quick. We just have about 10 seconds. God, we're grateful for today. I just pray for blessings over our listeners.

Thank you for this awesome opportunity to share your son. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Dr. Joy. Joytime Ministries. Look her up. Follow her social media pages. Go to her website and share this podcast with everyone, especially everyone and anyone that needs a little bit of joy, the joys that can only come from Jesus.