One of my friends said this on his recent video: 
“If you are happy all the time then you are of the devil”

A commenter on his video who disagreed with him replied his assertion with this: 
“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” – Philippians 4:4

I thought some people might like to read my response to the commenter and be edified by my opinion, so I’ll post it below for anyone bored enough to read it:

“You’re mistaking ‘rejoicing in the Lord’ with happiness. One can rejoice in extreme suffering; for example, when when Job lost all his children, livestock and home, his first reaction was to get on his knees and worship the Lord.

Someone who is happy all the time is not at all engaged in the spiritual war, which is a certain indication that person is not even born again. The Lord chastises those He loves, which is grievous to the one being chastised… when He reveals new levels of sin to us on a personal level, this isn’t something to be happy about, but something to deny and overcome as His Spirit sanctifies us.

There seems to be a misconception between the joy of the Holy Spirit, which is continually available, and is a blessed fruit of knowing Him personally for all who those are born again of the Spirit, and the emotion of ‘happiness’. 
Jesus wasn’t happy all the time; He wept, He lamented over Jerusalem’s rejection of Him, He was angry with the money changers and frustrated with the disciples… those who know Him have joy even in dark times, but what I’m saying is that if you are always ‘happy’, something is very wrong.

Is the world situation honestly anything to be happy about? Thousands of people perish to eternal damnation every day; even within myself, my own tendencies to listen to darkness grieves me, it doesn’t make me happy! Should I be happy with the way satan has such an influence when Christ has given us all authority over him, yet baby Christians argue about whether believers can even be afflicted by demons and go on social media spreading lies about deliverance ministers etc? No, it actually frustrates me. 
There are many things to be happy about, including persecution and being counted worthy to suffer for Jesus, but if happiness is ever present, you’re either completely blind and purposely ignorant of what’s going on, or you’re not human.

Happiness is not something that is ‘dictated’ to someone by another created being, if it’s genuine. One experiences happiness as an emotion because it is a response to external circumstances that are pleasing and deserving of the emotion; maybe someone’s behaviour makes you experience happiness, or getting paid at the end of the month for all your hard work, or your sports team winning a tournament.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against happiness, and regularly experience it myself.

But, as a human being, I have many other valid emotions, that are also based on external stimuli, which happen genuinely as a response with whatever happens. Sadness is a very legitimate response to sin, when someone is resisting it and coming short, or when others neglect holiness in favour of it. That is nothing to be happy about.
The fact that there’s so much division in the body of Christ causes me to be sad, not happy. I am not currently happy I have to explain this to you right now. I’m frustrated by it, in fact; but if you are still happy about my frustration after I tell you that, then I’d question whether you have any compassion at all, because it seems that you’re enjoying something that bothers me. Why does it bother me? Because with everything going on in the world, and with the way things are in the churches, it’s not bothering YOU. That bothers me. I even believe that bothers the Lord, tbh. There is a time and a place for happiness; and we can have happiness in the smaller common gifts from the Lord like our spouse, friends and children, or a nice meal etc, at the same time as lamenting the fact that the mark of the beast is upon us and NO ONE is ready for it.

How can born again believers be happy about satan’s domination over the minds and hearts of people? How can they be happy to know that so many people perish every day, and do the bare minimum to make a difference over it? I respected the fact we always have access to the joy and peace of the Lord in my last comment; but that has very little to do with the emotion of happiness.

It’s no crime to be happy over things that deserve to be responded to as happiness. For example, children are a wonderful gift from the Lord that bring me and many others great joy, and it makes me happy when they are happy. 
But If as a father I was grieved over something very serious, and I was in spiritual agony over the loss of my child who had been kidnapped or something, and my other children were happy about that, it would certainly perplex me, and I’d be very hurt by it. How can they love their lost sibling if their response to the sibling being missing and being in a very real danger is happiness? 
There is a place for happiness; it accompanies celebration, victory, loving actions, success. But it’s entirely inappropriate imo to be happy about things that GOD is grieved over. How can one know His Spirit if they are also not grieved that He is grieved?

Does the fact that many of us have to be murdered and tortured for our faith bring you happiness? Are you happy that brethren all over the world are being incarcerated for professing a faith in Christ? It makes zero sense to me.

Of course, having said all that, ignorance is bliss, right? Burying one’s head in the sand is probably a perpetual happy place for many, for they never have to confront reality, until they are forced to. When they are forced, will they still feel perpetual happiness?

Remember, I’m saying the JOY of the Lord is different to the response emotion of happiness; this is really the source of the confusion here.