Lately at The Light, we have been hit with holy laughter.  As a church it has been our policy to allow God’s manifestations, however different they may be.  When this first broke out a few weeks ago, a number of people experienced holy laughter including Judy who was touched deeply in her spirit and Karl who was healed of pain in his stomach that he’d had for three years.  I asked Judy to write her own journey about this experience and you can read it in a separate article, “Laughter” by Judy Wilson.

Some have heard about the Toronto Blessing in the 1990’s which manifested holy laughter.  This was a revival in which a million people visited over the years.  The Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship website summarizes what broke out unexpectedly in 1994, and rightly puts the emphasis on the fruit—changed lives (“by their fruit you shall know them,” Mt. 7:16-20).  “The Toronto Blessing is a transferable anointing. In its most visible form it overcomes worshippers with outbreaks of laughter, weeping, groaning, shaking, falling, ‘drunkenness,’ and even behaviours that have been described as a ‘cross between a jungle and a farmyard.’ Of greater significance, however, are the changed lives.”¹

Looking back on 1994, John Arnott, pastor of Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, wrote, “It hadn’t occurred to us that God would throw a massive party where people would laugh, roll, cry and become so empowered that emotional hurts from childhood would just lift off.”²

Today, Georgian and Winnie Banov and Rolland Baker seem to be the modern day releasers of joy and laughter.  At the core of their ministry is a heart to reach the lost and they have seen thousands come to Christ.

I realize some may be critical or skeptical of this phenomenon believing it to be unbiblical, a psychological release, or even demonic.  The Bible does not give support to this phenomenon, but it does not speak against it either, it is simply silent on the matter.  Be careful of what you read on the internet where many simply condemn holy laughter without any research or first-hand experience.

Is this psychological?  I am sure that laughing has a lot of good psychological benefits.  Some may actually laugh because others are laughing and not necessarily because it is a move of God.  People can become un-balanced on any manifestation of God.

Can some laughter be demonic?  Evan Roberts of the Welch Revival witnessed holy laughter and also saw demonic laughter.  People who come out of occult practices and some Eastern religions can counterfeit holy laughter. 

Church history gives compelling testimony of holy laughter.  I do not know that all the events listed here are conclusive proofs that holy laughter is from God.  However, past occurrences do give us some understanding of the workings of God.

In the 1730’s during the revival called the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards describes people in laughter: “Their joyful surprise has caused their hearts as it were to leap, so that they have been ready to break forth into laughter, tearing often at the same time issuing like a flood, and intermingling a loud weeping.”³ Jonathan Edwards’s wife Sarah experienced many such manifestations, but it was the resulting change in her life that he elevated in his accounts.

In England, John Wesley, leader of the Methodist movement wrote in his 1740 journal, “In the evening such a spirit of laughter was among us that many were much offended. But the attention of all was fixed on poor L[ucretia] S[mith], whom we all know to be no dissembler (i.e. phony).  Most of our brethren and sisters were now fully convinced that those who were under this strange temptation could not help it.  Only E[lizabeth] B[rown] and Anne H[olton] were of another mind, being still sure anyone might help laughing if she would (i.e. keep from laughing if she wanted). This they declared to many on Thursday; but on Friday {the 23^rd} God suffered Satan to teach them better. Both of them were suddenly seized (with laughter) in the same manner as the rest, and laughed whether they would or no, almost without ceasing. Thus they continued for two days, a spectacle to all; and were then, upon prayer made for them, delivered in a moment.”⁴

Twenty years later, Wesley quotes from John Walsh, a reporter, about a young lady.  “On Monday, July 9, I set out, and on Wednesday noon reached Potton, where I rejoiced at the account given by John Keeling of himself and others. He was justified … on that memorable Sabbath, but had not a clear witness of it till ten days after; about which time his sister … was also set at liberty.  {In those days, when a person was justified, there was expectation of an outward sign of an inward change.  Not so today.}  I discoursed also with Ann Thorn, who told me of much heaviness following the visions with which she had been favored; but said she was, at intervals, visited still with such overpowering love and joy, especially at the Lord's Supper, that she often lay in a trance for many hours. She is twenty-one years old.  We were soon after called into the garden, where Patty Jenkins (also twenty-one} was so overwhelmed with the love of God that she sunk down, and appeared as one in a pleasant sleep, only with her eyes open; yet she had often just strength to utter, with a low voice, ejaculations (i.e. interjections) of joy and praise; but, no words coming up to what she felt, she frequently laughed while she saw His glory.”⁵

In the beginning of the 1800’s Charles Finney was a great evangelist during the Second Great Awakening and said a leader in the church: “fell into a most spasmodic laughter. It seemed as if it was impossible for him to keep from laughing from the very bottom of his heart.”⁶

Australian Keswick Convention of 1891 records holy laughter: “The Convention was marked by clean-cut surrender to God for all His will to be done at all costs, and by an overflowing joy which followed in hundreds of hearts, so that, as Mr. George Soltau wrote, “Literally `our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with singing.' . . . It was impossible to restrain one's heart, the Lord giving us such a foretaste of heaven. Talk of `fleshly excitement,' I wish to bear my testimony that it was nothing less than the fullness of the Spirit. We were verily drunk with the joy of the Lord, and with the vistas of the possibilities of faith opening up to the fully surrendered life of the believer. But it was equally manifest to us all that this joy and blessing is only to be received and retained and increased by the death to self and of self and the most painful crucifixion of self.”⁷

In 1897 A.B. Simpson, founder of the Christian Missionary Society, wrote that the “fullness of Joy so that the heart is constantly radiant. This does not depend on circumstances, but fills the spirit with holy laughter in the midst of the most trying surroundings.”⁸

The revival known as Azusa street is the birthplace of many denominations and over 500 million Christians can point their history to this event.  “At the Azusa Street Mission, people spoke in tongues, prophesied, preached divine healing, went into trances, saw visions, and engaged in other phenomena such as jumping, rolling, laughing, shouting, barking, and falling under the power of the Holy Spirit, that were highly unusual within the established religious community of Los Angeles.” ⁹

Oswald Chambers, a beloved Christian writer, wrote in his diary on April 19, 1907, “Last night we had a blessed time. I was called down by the teachers to pray and anoint a lady who wanted healing, and as we were doing it God came so near that upon my word we were laughing as well as praying! How utterly stilted we are in our approach to God. Oh that we lived more up to the light of all our glorious privileges.”¹⁰

In another encounter, he writes in his journal May 6, 1907, “It is an unspeakably blessed thing to see souls come out under the blessing of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire. Some simply laugh, peals of the heartiest and most blessed laughter you ever heard, just a modern edition of `Then was our mouth filled with laughter.'”¹¹

On May 27, 1907 Chambers also wrote, “Many souls cut loose, there were tears and laughter and all the blessed signs of those revival times the Lord brings so mysteriously and suddenly upon His people. It is a great business to open up all the windows of the soul to heaven and live on the Hallelujah side.”¹² 

Praying John Hyde, known as the great intercessor and a missionary to China, describes holy laughter. His friend shares this story: “How often has G_____, after most awful crying seemed to break through the hosts of evil and soar up into the presence of the Father! You could see the smile of God reflected in his face. Then he would laugh aloud in the midst of his prayer. It was the joy of a son reveling in the delight of his father's smile. God has been teaching John [Hyde] and me that his name is the God of Isaac—laughter… Rejoicing, laughing, the same word as Isaac. This holy laughter seemed to relieve the tension and give Heaven's own refreshment to wrestling spirits.”¹³

A.W. Tozer, a Christian leader, also talked about holy laughter, “Now I say that worship is subject to degrees of perfection and intensity. There have been those who worshiped God to the place where they were in ecstasies of worship. I once saw a man kneel at an altar, taking Communion. Suddenly he broke into holy laughter. This man laughed until he wrapped his arms around himself as if he was afraid he would bust just out of sheer delight in the presence of Almighty God. . . . So worship is capable of running from the very simple to the most intense and sublime.”¹⁴

Conclusion

In light of the above brief survey of holy laughter in church history, I believe we can offer some conclusions.  In the midst of revival and as people have an encounter with God, holy laughter often occurred.  The laughter was not the center of the revival but simply one of the manifestations of an encounter with God.  We do not seek manifestations, but we do seek God and all that He has for us.  History gives us a framework of the ways of God.

If you had been in our worship service on April 25, you would have seen people being “drunk in the Spirit” and filled with holy laughter.  Only a few people were manifesting this.  The night before, my daughter had a dream that proved to be prophetic.  She dreamed that a Christian woman who was a leader would come to the front of a church and break out in holy laughter and she would also get hit by this laughter.  She had never had a dream like this.  I knew nothing of the dream as I entered the service that morning.  A woman minister, Dr. M Houts, visited us for the first time and after I gave a short introduction and asked her to give a brief testimony, she started to get drunk in the Holy Spirit and could not stand.  A fountain was released and started hitting people.  Judy was one of those who were touched that morning.  If this is not in your paradigm, and you were simply to see Judy laughing, you might conclude this is strange and not from God.  But if you were to know Judy and hear the story about the death of her son you would see the hand of God working.  God’s laughter was touching her in a deep place as April 25 was the birthday of her son who had died many years ago.

Click for Judy’s Story

Endnotes

¹ http://www.tacf.org/about/revival/history

² (International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, ed. S. Burgess [Zondervan 2003], p. 1150.)

³Jonathan Edwards, “The Distinguishing Marks of the Work of the Spirit of God,” Jonathan Edwards on Revival (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1984), 91.

⁴  John Wesley, Journal, June 21, 1740.

⁵ John Wesley, Journal, July 29, 1759.

⁶ Charles Finney, The Autobiography of Charles Finney (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 1977), 22.

⁷ Mary N. Garrard, Mrs. Penn-Lewis: A Memoir (Hants, England: The Overcomer Book Room, 1947), 36-37.

⁸ A.B. Simpson, Days of Heaven on Earth (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1984), June 27.

⁹ Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., Azusa Street Mission and Revival (Nashville, Tennessee: Nelson, 2006), 12.

¹⁰ Oswald Chambers: His Life and Work (London: Simpkin Marshall, Ltd., 1947), 103.

¹¹ Ibid., 104.

¹² Ibid., 105.

¹³ Capt. E.G. Carre, ed., Praying Hyde: A Challenge to Prayer (Asheville, NC: Revival Literature, n.d.), 26.

¹⁴ A.W. Tozer, Worship: The Missing Jewel (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1992), 20-21.