CONSIDERING QUESTIONS
As I have already shown in previous pages, the main reason behind us experiencing dryness and depression is the exertion of self. When self has unreasonable prominence in our thinking and motivation then God is pushed out.  If we push God out we reject the Holy Spirit.
Take a cut flower out of water and it shrivels and dies, take a Christian away from Living Water and he too will shrivel and die.
The need is to crucify self. To live as a living sacrifice given over to God's purposes but within the life 'in the world' that He has given.
There are also other spiritual reasons and we will deal with these later in the book.

Let  us consider the second question I posed. Jesus tells us that He wants His joy made complete in us (John 15:11). Not just a little bit of merriment, but a joy that is complete, absolute, total, full and abundant.  Overflowing joy that leaves no room for more, and certainly leaves no room for the more negative emotions we tend to suffer with.
Despite the difficulties that may be involved in the Christian walk of life, this IS how He would have have us be. He would never tell us to do anything that we are not able to do.......therefore it must be possible.

Another question I suggested that we should ask ourselves was in regard to the witness we present to non-believers. Whenever people go shopping, whether it be in a supermarket for food, or at a garage for a car, they invariably buy those that are most attractively packaged.
Foods in bright colourful packets or tins with colourful labels, cars that have shiny  paintwork and chrome.

The 'church' has, for such a long time, been packaged in so many different hues of matt black and grey and has been totally unappealing that men and women who have sought the Truth, who have been seeking to satisfy that yearning in their souls for enlightenment and spiritual satisfaction,  have drifted into cults and the occult because they have been more attractively packaged.

The Krishna's have offered their promises of love, peace and harmony, the Jehovah's Witnesses offer their promise of salvation (of some form or other) for all, and the various occultic organisations offer promises of power over people and circumstances.

What has the 'true' Christian  'church', manifest through many varied denominations and church groups, been able to offer? Boredom, jealousy and back-biting, variable 'Truths', powerless lives, fatalism?

The most potentially appealing, attractive, 'value for money' church (the true church of Jesus Christ), has failed miserably at marketing itself and what it really has to offer those who need (and would willingly accept) it most.

IDENTIFY THE BLOCKAGES
Any blockages of sin, negative hang-ups, demonization (not necessarily possession), or the like will not permit a free flow of the Spirit of God in our lives.  These hang-ups, or whatever is causing the blockage, act like a dam, holding back the flow of Living Water.
Whilst we can, with increasing difficulty, maintain our relationship with Jesus, blockages need to be swept away and dealt with.
It is sometimes possible to just ignore or forget depressions. We may attempt to gloss over our dryness, and that is a favourite ploy of the deceiver, but it is important we deal with root causes.

Walking in the light, in this context, is allowing Christ's joy to be made complete in us, not hiding under a veneer of falsity, but allowing our weaknesses to be dealt with according to the loving counsel and work of the Holy Spirit.

Human pride is probably one of the biggest obstacles to rooting out these blockages. we need to come to the place of revelation that we have nothing of ourselves that is worth anything in the Kingdom of God, ALL our attributes must be from God, including our joy.
Rather than face the pain of exposing our true selves we are sometimes tempted to fake what is missing.  However, we cannot fake pure joy, the fruit of victorious living.  A false, or manufactured veil of 'joy', however well intentioned,  will be noticed by any discerning person.

We will also discover,  that those we witness to, thanks to the work of those opposed to man's salvation, will also know that we are putting on a front, wearing a mask. 

The pain of change and demolition of our pride is well worth the end result.  The whole purpose of living victoriously is that we might be pure and holy channels through which Christ can exercise His authority and move in great power.

IT IS NOT JESUS'S FAULT!!
We cannot claim that because the joy we should be expressing is of Christ then it is He who is to blame if it is not evident.
God has promised to answer every prayer made in the Name and will of Jesus, and there are two commands in particular that we have been given that we should pray to be fulfilled in our lives.

We know (as they were commands to us) that they must be within the will of our Lord, and that He will answer.  If they fail to be manifest in us, is God wrong?
Those commands are;
    1..Be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18)
    2..Be joyful always. (1 Thessalonians 5:16)
If we find that these commands are not being manifest or becoming a reality in our lives, then there must be something that is robbing us of the blessings that are rightly ours, in Christ.

Whatever is causing these prayers to not be answered must be exposed.  The lack of answer is never Jesus's fault, so they must be dealt with.  Trying to lay blame and fault at someone's doorstep is a manifestation of pride and should be resisted. Humility and seeking prayerful help from Spirit filled Christians will bring about deliverance.
If pride is allowed to manifest itself in bitterness, 'blame laying' and resistance, then the gradual but inevitable result will be a falling away from a potential life of faith and victory to a life of depression, defeat, and regret.  I doubt if there is anybody who really wants such a negative life-style, so we must overcome our natural anxiety, diffidence and fears, and set about identifying the difficulty we face, and dealing with it.

DEALING WITH THE ENEMY
 When we realise that something has come between ourselves and God, and we discover that answers to prayer are not being received, we need to discover why. We must declare war on our enemy, the Devil (but let's not blame him for the weakness of our flesh).  It is only he that wants to separate us from God.
There is only one person who would want to be a stumbling block to us in our faith, and we must declare the authority which Christ has given us, for the ground on which we stand.
We must bind the works, schemes and devices of the enemy, and then start, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to sort things out in our life.
A one man army does not last very long on the battlefield under the onslaught of legions of enemy troops.  We must join with others, stand as part of a great and mighty army, allowing others to support us and stand in the breach for us when we are weak.
The process of identifying blockages and unblocking them can then begin.  The result is that we are pure channels for the Lord to speak and move through, and a recipient of many answered prayers and blessings.

We are not playing spiritual mind games, nor is this an exercise in spiritual / philosophical / theological / intellectual gymnastics.  We must declare war and mean business, and come to the realisation that this is reality!!!

Lack of joy, spiritual dryness, depression, whatever form it is being manifest in, has many different causes. Prayerful and positive meditation and counsel will reveal these.

In seeking to identify difficulties we need to protect ourselves with the Blood of Jesus so we will not be led astray nor will the enemy cause us to see problems where in actual fact there are none.
There is no shame in discovering something wrong. The only time it becomes a problem is when we refuse to put matters right.

BUILDING AN ARMY
  It is important that we get our lives straightened out because Christ is building His Church. It will be an army that will be holy, disciplined and dedicated. In these times He wants to strengthen and unite us, so  that, in His power we can resist the works of the enemy and stand for what is right.
Our loving Father wants to equip us so that we can resist apostasy and all manner of devilish devices that would seek to detract us from the Way.

He will build an army whose light will shine brightly, with nothing marring the purity of that light.  We cannot fight if we are laden down by spiritual sickness and depression, and if we want to be a part of that army we need to be willing to actively pursue godliness, self-discipline and submission to His purposes.

Let us not forget that Christ is coming again, and when He does I want to be sure that my light is shining brightly, not darkened by sin drawn  by my  concern  with worldly matters.

Nor do I want my light to go out because I am so taken up by the worries of the world.

When I meet my Lord and stand before Almighty God I don't want to have to say,"well sorry God, but I could never get going, I always felt so lethargic and under attack".

I want to be able to confidently state "This is what I did Lord and this is what Jesus did" and have Him say to me, "Well done my good and faithful servant, enter my rest and and enjoy your reward!!".

WHAT DO YOU WANT HIM TO SAY TO YOU???

The rest of this book highlights some of the problems I have  witnessed in churches and hopefully wise counsel to bring wholeness and revival.
Please read it without casting judgement, as you judge so you will be judged, but read it for insight into into your situation. Remember, the person who sees the faults everywhere else - is blind!!

This is the end of this series for now. 
More articles from My book A Happy Church in Christ? will follow in future.  In the meantime do check back as new articles on various subjects will appear here daily :)