Psalm 16:11 NASB
You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever
Colossians 3:3 NASB
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Ephesians 2:5-6 NASB
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), [6] and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
Psalm 16 is not saying that being in God’s presence will cause you to experience great joy, but it is saying that God’s presence is infused with joy, and pleasure. Can you imagine the kind of pleasure, and joy, that the Father, Son, Holy Spirit experience in their eternal inner communion with each other. It can only be described as fullness of joy, and everlasting pleasures. The One God exists in three persons, and the three persons of the Godhead love loving, and enjoying each other. I know that when we think about God we usually think in terms of words like Holy, perfect, and righteous, and our God is all those things, but he also experiences and celebrates fullness of joy and the eternal pleasures of the relationship the three persons of the Godhead share with each other.
We know that being a new creation is a result of our union with Christ, and because we are in him, He is now living his life in and through us, and has made our story His story. He lives in us overcoming the power of sin, and overcoming the effects of the fall on our minds, emotions, and will. He also lives His life of compassionate servant love in power, through us overcoming the oppression of the enemy in the lives of others. But, there is more, and it is really big.,
That verse in Colossians 3 tells us something else mind blowing about our new life in Christ. Because of my inclusion in his life, my life is hidden with him in God. He not only lives his life in and through me victoriously, but I get to participate in the life that he lives in fellowship with the Father, and the Holy Spirit. I’ve been seated, or placed in the heavenly’s in Christ and therefor I get to share in the Spirit in His relationship with the Father. Mike Bickle refers to this as the fellowship of the burning heart. The burning heart that the triune God has for each other, and the joyful, playful, fellowship they share with each other, that brings them such great eternal pleasures, I get to participate in because I am in Christ. That is a mind blower. Jesus did not just come to teach us about the Father, take us to the place of crucifixion, and in union with him participate in his resurrection life lived out through us on this earth, but he also invites us into his relationship through the Spirit, with the Father. Jesus shares with us his experience of joy, and the pleasure that he enjoys in his relationship with the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine the emotions that Jesus feels for the Father, and all the things he feels and knows coming from the Father and the Spirit towards him. We get to participate in this. Because I’m in him I get to experience His sense of the Spirit, and The Fathers presence, and fullness of joy, and holy healthy fellowship, and all the eternal pleasures that come in the mutual exchange of affections within the triune God. We aren’t God. We are very human, but we are in Christ, and we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ that we might enjoy what he enjoys in the fellowship of the burning heart.