Son, how long will you choose to live under this cloud of oppression? You have been waiting for your joy to return. It will never come because joy comes from my presence alone. Any substitute you devise will be temporary and unsatisfying. You must break through the dark clouds that have hovered over your life. Do it by faith, son. Choose to step into a new place. Call things that are not as though they are. Believe my best for you is already accomplished in the Spirit realm. Stand upon my covenant promise for you. Begin thanking me for it and it will manifest in the natural in my time. Through all of this, there are two things I want you to grab on to - you must entrust outcomes to me; and you cannot determine your joy based on your circumstances. Can I not give you joy even in your circumstance? Do I not give you my power to have joy in the midst of your sorrow? Step into this place by faith, not by what you feel. The joy of THE LORD is your strength. It is not YOUR joy that gives you strength. It's MY joy. Grow up in me, son. Like my son Paul, I desire you to understand the secret of true joy: "You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of joy in Your presence"(Acts 2:28). Step into MY joy son, not your joy. Then you will break through the storm cloud that has hovered over your soul for too long.
Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10
...sorrowful, yet always rejoicing... 2 Cor. 6:9
God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Romans 4:17