Thursday 22 May 2014

Laughter in the Spirit

“…the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 13:52).
I’ve learned that when a believer laughs in the spirit, there’s often more going on than meets the eye.
Some years ago I visited a church and quickly observed that many of its members had some real problems. Some were going outside halfway through the service to light-up a cigarette. Others I heard were selling drugs to pay their way through college. And other worse behaviours were going on toobehaviours which I don’t even wish to mention.
So I decided that if I had the opportunity to preach in that church, I would preach against sin.
But God said to me, “I want them to experience the joy of the Lord”.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure whether some of those people deserved to experience the joy of the Lord yet!
But then I recalled the Scripture where it says, “… the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
Many of us are familiar with that verse, but perhaps fewer are familiar with its context. Ezra had just finished publicly reading the book of the Law, and all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law.
We would think that’s a good thing, wouldn’t we? Sinners weeping when they heard the words of the Law.
But instead Nehemiah told them, “… mourn not, nor weep… neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (verses 9,10).
Even though the people were convicted of sin, Nehemiah didn’t want them to mournhe wanted them to rejoice. That’s opposite to what we would think, isn’t it!
So when the time came when I was invited to the platform to minister, I said to the congregation, “God wants to fill you with joy”.
We proceeded to sing a rousing songbut I still felt God had something more in mind, even though I didn’t quite know how to go about it.
So I stepped off the platform, laid my hand on one of the women in the congregation and said, “Receive the joy of the Lord”. Straightaway she started laughing and ended-up rolling around on the floor.
I thought to myself, “I guess that’s the joy of the Lord.”
I pointed someone else out and said, “You too”and that person started laughing.
“That worked,” I thought to myself.
So I pointed to someone else, and simply said, “You’re next”and he got filled with joy.
The laughter spread almost to the whole congregation. After 40-minutes my allotted time as a guest-speaker was up, so I handed the meeting back to the chairperson.
The chairperson immediately invited people forward to share testimonies. What they shared showed me that laughing in the spirit was only the outward, visible part of a deeper, unseen work that God was doing.
For example, one lady testified that she got healed of a physical ailment while laughing.
Another lady shared that she’d come to the meeting depressed, “…but it’s hard to feel depressed when you’re laughing….” she exclaimed.
In subsequent meetings the joy of the Lord continued to spread in the church, first with the youth and the women, then to the children and the men. After several weeks an innumerable number of people had laughed, cried, repented, been delivered of demons, forgiven one another and been reconciled to one another, been filled with the Holy Spirit, spoken in tongues, interpreted tongues, seen visions or prophesied.
The revival then spread to other churches in the city, and to schools and universitiesthen to other cities. Souls were saved. Young people began volunteering themselves for full-time Bible college with a view to future ministry. Giving in the churches also multiplied.
All of this came to pass simply as a result of the people experiencing the joy of the Lordeven without any direct preaching against specific sins.
There’s more to laughter in the spirit than meets the eye!
Laughter in the spirit is both an outward expression of a deeper, inner work of the Spirit (“…the fruit of the Spirit is…joy…”Galatians 5:22)and because rejoicing is an expression of faith, laughter also seems to lead to further inworkings and to additional manifestations of the Holy Spirit (“…the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost”Acts 13:52). Joy is both an effect and a catalyst of the Spirit’s work.
Perhaps you are feeling convicted of sin; or perhaps you are facing some present challenge to your faith. You might be involved with helping others; or you might lead a meeting of some kind… let the people experience the joy of the Lord, if the Lord wills. You are a minister of the Spirit!

In your own heart, receive the joy of the Lord right now. There it is.

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