The Gospel leaves us with one option: to partake, receive, drink, and eat! It is time to open wide and drink in the everlasting waters of God’s gladness. David said that we are to “drink from the river of God’s pleasures” (Psalm 36:8). Randy Alcorn, author of the book Happiness, wrote that the “wonderful responsibility” of the gospel is “like being required to eat Mom’s apple pie!” We must feast!

The reason many people struggle to experience God is because they are looking for a God who is distant, boring, lifeless, aloof, silent, and completely focused on moral failures. The funny thing is, this God doesn’t exist! This is not what the real God is like! So, if you’re looking for the God who is keeping track of your sins up in the sky, you are certainly going to struggle to experience “him.” That’s a non-god!

Now on the other hand, the living and real God is filled with infinite energy. He has more energy than a million kids with ADHD. He is more active than we can comprehend. This God is playing and laughing (Proverbs 8:30-31) all around us in billions of ways. He is literally holding every little thing together right at this moment (Colossians 1:17). And he does not hold everything together begrudgingly. He is rejoicing to sustain all things. The psalmist declared, “Praise God forever! How He must rejoice in all His work!” (Psalm 104:31 TLB)

When we begin to look for the Father who Jesus reveals—the God who is anointed with the oil of gladness above all his companions (Hebrews 1:9), the God who rejoices with his friends when his children return home (Luke 15), the God who prays for his joy to be made complete in us (John 17:13)—we begin to find him very easily. he is not far. He is in us, with us, and in everyone and everything around us.

We also tend to rely on our own minds when trying to experience God. We think that we will only experience God once all of the thoughts in our head line up in some perfectly logical way—like God is some math equation that we need to figure out. But God’s peace and his happy presence are experienced beyond our understanding. “You will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand” (Philippians 4:7 TLB).

Joy is the frequency of what it is like to experience God. When we simply look for the God whose very presence is joy, we begin to discover the rhythm of joy. Experiencing God is often more like listening to music, or dancing with a partner, than having an intellectual conversation with a philosopher. His presence is easy and light. (Matthew 11:29) Experiencing him is like drinking from a river (Psalm 36:8), feeling the wind (John 3:8), or drinking wine. (Proverbs 9:2-5) Being “filled with the Spirit” is like music, water, wine, or wind filling your entire being, silencing all of your fears and anxieties. His peace is tangible and can be felt just like anxiety can be felt; but His peace is way more powerful. Above all, he is a Family; a Father and Brother, and a Comforter who wants you to feel at home in him.

This is an excerpt from Dylan’s upcoming book “The Happy Trinity”. More details on its release coming SOON!