“God is Spirit.”
These are the infamous words that Jesus spoke to a thirsty woman at a well. But what does that statement really mean? In Jesus’s day, was this word “spirit” a nice, religious term? Was it a church word?
No. The word meant a “breeze” or “blast” or “breath” (“pneuma” in the Greek). Possibly the best word that we use today that is closest to what Jesus meant by “spirit” is energy. Jesus could have easily said, “God is energy.”
God’s presence carries a force. It’s not that God is an impersonal force like in Star Wars. He is a Person. But He does have a force. He does have an energy. His Person carries a substance. He’s not nothingness. He’s not pretend. He’s not imaginary. He’s not an idea. He’s a living Person and when you spend time with Him you can feel His energy. He is Spirit. He is wind. He is a blast.
What is His energy like?
“In your presence is fullness of joy,” King David declared (Ps. 16:11). David knew what God’s energy is like. In the completely pure and open presence of God is uncontainable happiness. God certainly has emotions of sadness and anger when it comes to His children hurting themselves and each other; but that was decisively dealt with at the cross of Christ. It was at the cross that we realized God is not counting people’s sins against them (2 Cor. 5:19). He is simply calling us back into the Presence that will set us free. This presence – or energy – remains a pure and freeing happiness. According to Strong’s Concordance, the Hebrew words behind “fullness of joy” mean abundance of exceeding happiness and glee ! ! !
In the Emphasized New Testament, Paul describes the gospel to his spiritual son Timothy. He says that it is “the glad message of the glory of the happy God” (1 Tim 1:11).
To experience this amazing God is incredibly uncomplicated. It’s to experience pure joy. A joy that is filled with hope; a joy that is forgiving towards self and others; and a joy that desires to live holy and do the right thing.
A character in C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce asked God this question: “What are we born for?” And God replied, “For infinite happiness, you can step out into it at any moment.” In one of his other Psalms, David wrote this: “To know you is to experience a flowing fountain” (Psalm 36:9 TPT). The presence, the breath, the blast of God is always flowing. God never stops existing. He never stops being Himself. At any moment you can experience His explosion of happiness by faith. Simply believing in His power is all it takes to experience. Your faith doesn’t make God move. Your faith acknowledges the God who’s already moving in glee and joy.
David also wrote that God gives his people “drink from His river of delights” (Psalm 36:8). God is like a flowing river of joy–and we were created to swim in Him!