Agape happiness! You will not find this phrase in any dictionary, in the Bible, or in ordinary conversations. Agape is God’s Eternal love, which never fails, and Agape happiness is the blessed state of abiding in God and in His love and allowing the Most High to live in me. It is the union of Agape with my own self. I am speaking of the deep emotional experience that comes from knowing that God is present in my life and that I am in His heart—an awareness that fills the soul with unspeakable delight, joy, and gratitude. Although I coined this phrase myself, I believe it makes very clear what kind of happiness I mean.
When holidays, birthdays, or other celebrations come into our lives, it is customary to express good wishes to one another. Everyone wishes others happiness, but whether a person understands what happiness is or not is considered less important. He is left to discover somehow what it is and enter into that state of spirit.
I know of no school in this world that purposefully teaches happiness, examines every component of this process in detail, explains the laws of blessedness, and shows us how they work in life. I would very much like to take a course at such an institution so that I could then live in blessedness.
Someone may say that the Bible teaches happiness. Yes and amen! It is precisely there that all the laws of blessedness are found. Yet one distinctive feature of Holy Scripture is that many of its treasures do not lie on the surface, and if I merely read it as a book, I will not understand the depth and the principles of happiness. Take the Bible and tell a believing friend that it is the Book of Happiness, and he will gladly agree and support your statement. But if you ask someone to show you the laws and principles of a happy life, not many will be able to explain them. At best, they will read the Sermon on the Mount.
Happiness is present truth. It is the surest way out of the lukewarm condition of Laodicea. Happiness is preparation for the latter rain of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh, and He will give abundant growth and strength to every plant. But a weed will not become grain because of this rain, nor will a barren flower bear fruit.
Let the holy be holy still, and the righteous will become purer still, while evil people will remain evil. The final events will not change people’s characters, but they will reveal the true nature of each person, clearly showing the entire visible and invisible world what God’s seal is and how it differs from the mark of the beast.
Being happy is a science that must be understood and mastered in our time. Agape happiness is like oil that keeps the flame burning in my lamp. And this light shines for others as well. It is difficult to hide it from those around me. It will burn through my clothing and testify to everyone that I am happy. Such happiness rests on a Firm Foundation and on eternal principles. And I can put all of this into practice in my life.
Let us consider an example.
God’s part in my happiness is like the design of a car. I have been given this complex machine, which operates according to its own laws. I have been handed an owner’s manual and the ignition keys, and I have been offered a driving course. I can also study how this machine works inside and how it is constructed, but that knowledge will not affect how fast I travel. Where should I begin?
I think I should first learn how to drive, study the rules of the road, and understand the dangers that await me. When I complete this course, I am granted a lifelong right to drive a car, and I may legally travel in it. But once I sit in the car, I realize that it will not move by itself. It needs someone to start it and give commands to its mechanisms by turning the steering wheel and pressing the various pedals. The power steering will not turn the heavy wheels on its own, but it will respond obediently when I take hold of the wheel and turn it in the right direction. The engine will not accelerate or brake without my command, but it will precisely carry out the instructions it receives from my hands and feet. Unless it has automatic settings, every system inside the vehicle—from the heater to the lights—will not operate by itself, but will wait for me to press the proper control so that it can fulfill its intended purpose. Fuel has a way of running out, so I must make sure there is enough to reach my destination. The engine oil must also be at the proper level and suitable for the engine. All these principles are easy to understand, and anyone who thinks that a car should do everything by itself will be regarded as a fool.
If you decide to sleep while driving and entrust the car with complete control, an inevitable disaster awaits you, and other people may suffer as well. Even knowing the inner workings of the car will not help you avoid an accident if you let go of the steering wheel. There is an alternative to a car—a bicycle. It is much safer and sometimes better suited for traveling in pedestrian areas. There are rules there too, but they are simpler, and anyone, even a child, can operate it. Yet when riding a bicycle, you must do everything yourself and rely only on your own strength.
Now let us consider happiness in this light. God has already created this wonderful and complex mechanism, ready to obey its owner’s commands. A person who has never learned happiness does not even understand the purpose of such a complex car and decides to spend his whole life riding a bicycle and relying on his own strength. But happiness exists, and it awaits a trained driver who will start the engine and begin issuing commands, setting spiritual laws in motion. If the happiness pedal is called the accelerator, it will not slow me down when I press it. If I decide to switch on the light called ‘I believe,’ that is the very light that will shine. God’s mechanism of happiness is very complex in its design and can be studied for a lifetime, yet it is very simple to operate, and even children can drive it. As long as I hold the steering wheel and determine the direction of travel, I arrive where I have decided to go. Without me, happiness will do nothing. Parked in the garage of my laziness and ignorance, it will wait for me all my life and, while offering itself as an alternative, look with kindly envy at my bicycle. Every morning and at every opportunity, God provides me with unlimited fuel for my happiness. He pours the early rain upon me and opens before me the prospects and possibilities of a blessed life. But I alone decide whether I will be happy. My car will go nowhere without me.
Sometimes I grow weary of myself and ask my friends to take me for a ride in their cars of happiness. It is so wonderful and so much fun there that I would like to live that way without doing anything. Let them keep driving me around! But night comes, my friends go to sleep, and I am left alone with my own happiness once again, without even knowing what it is.
Out of boredom, I decide to start a family, but then I discover that my wife has a car of her own and prefers to drive it, sometimes taking me along on her journeys.
And I begin to realize that my happiness was created for me alone, and I alone decide what kind of life I will live. Happiness waits for my command so that it may obey.
Bible verses for this chapter:
John 17:21–23; Joel 2:28; Revelation 22:11; Jeremiah 29:11–14; Luke 9:62; 1 Peter 3:8–17; Psalm 1:1–3; Matthew 13:34–35; Mark 4:11–13; 1 Peter 1:6–8, 12–15