Holy Laughter???

Mmm... I'm not a bible scholar, but it's not in there.

I cannot picture our Lord and Savior, Jesus - or His Apostles or disciples - acting like that.

Have you seen the picture of Jesus laughing? I remember the first time I saw it, I was very offended. I wouldn't even look at it again. I was sure Jesus is serious all the time. But since that time, I learned it was a religious idea of mine. It doesn't take much to offend us - all of us.

Holy laughter has happened to me once and believe me I was as shocked as anybody could be. It was wonderful and later I thought the Lord knew I needed a good laugh. Based on looking out over the congregation sometimes, I think it would be great if the Lord would bless us in that way today. Because sometimes I see stress, pain, etc.

Wonder why we think it's ok to show joy and fun in just about any setting but a religious setting? It's like when someone becomes a believer during a service, what do we do? Later we say, "that's great." But during church we usually sit properly and in order and act like nothing much has happened while their names are being written in the Book of Life! Angels are rejoicing in heaven!

Hello.

You want scriptures to prove you are allowed to laugh?

Joyful people smile, then laugh. Is it not a physiological reaction to joy?

My view on laughing is that when people experience the supernatural joy of the Lord they will smile, laugh, jump for joy, then perhaps even weep?

The problem is that in the church when everyone is hyped up attention seekers and flakes try to mimic the gifts of the spirit to make themselves look good. Some people fake laughing through joy, the same as they fake tongues, healing, being slain in the Spirit etc etc.

The video posted above, you can see some folk are faking it. But fakes do not mean there is no genuine. Fake banknotes do not mean there is no money.

WileyCoyote said:

Can anyone show scripture which proves "holy laughter" to be a valid and biblical practice? Last week at church, some woman began laughing hysterically while people were at the altar being prayed over to receive tongues. My sister was at the altar to receive tongues and was scared away after hearing this lady laughing and causing a disturbance. She creeped me out a little as well.

Is there scripture to prove this? Or should I change churches to avoid being part of a group which allows scary (and mildly humorous) unbiblical behavior?

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Just a technical point here. When you say unbiblical it implies that the scripture teaches against the practice. I think extra biblical would be the correct term if the Bible is silent about the practice. The fact that the Bible does not say anything one way or the other is not the same as the Bible forbiding it.

There are hundreds (maybe more) of practices in every Church that are not mentioned specifically in the Bible. Is being at the altar to receive tongues mentioned in the Bible ? Are Church altars or altar calls even mentioned in the Bible ?

Of course the answer to these question is that Churches apply biblical principles , as they understand them , in a way that relates to their specific situation.

The defense of such a practice would likely be the application of the principle of the joy of The Lord. Joy is listed as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Therefore to say that someone would show extreme joy (laughter) when being filled with the Holy Spirit would not be that much of a stretch.

Of course , one might also say that patience is a fruit of The Holy Spirit. Something which should be exercised towards those who are laughing and disturbing others.

The Bible does teach maintaining order that all may be edifyed. So it is possible to apply that principle to forbid the laughing , as well.

My point is that the Bible is silent about the specific practice. One can find lots of occasions of disorderly behavior such as Acts 2 and on the other hand find passages promoting order such as 1 Corinthians 14. My conclusion , it is a judgment call on which principle to emphasis and when. So it kind of depends on the circumstances. The leaders of the Church should know their people well enough to discern whether this was an occasion of a person being disorderly or an occasion of a person experiencing The joy of the Lord that was much needed.

Bear in mind that the sword cuts both ways. Being critical of this person's altar experience could just as easially be disorderly , on your part , towards the person laughing , espeaically if you leave the church over it.

On the other hand this person laughing could be considered disorderly. I don't think the fact that someone is offended or the fact that the Bible is silent about a specific practice is the deciding factor.

When I first became Christian, I was at the front of the church because I immediately wanted to evangelize, and the pastor called up anyone who felt that. I came from a past of doing drugs every day, good old BC bud. When I was up there, I asked God about my work (when I was hired at the mill, they asked if I was Christian because the language there was bad (side note, I know that could be discrimination but it's only if they do or do not hire you based on that answer)) and my girlfriend Cathy (who lived with me at the time). I felt God say not to worry He'll guard my heart. I actually saw a picture of an old video game where a guy runs with a sword, kills zombies that pop up from the ground, jumps and gets a force field around him, and my heart had that force field around it. I started laughing and it was nothing like what I was use to, it was amazing and freeing, and I never used drugs again. Anecdotal I know, and I don’t preach it as gospel, but for me it changed my life.

But let's change the scenario, what if people were praying for salvation of others, and they started to cry, would it be ok because Jesus wept so that's the only emotion we're allowed to display?

I always disliked that video. He just seemed to just make stuff up as he went along.

I've been a drunk, and I've known quite a few drunks (many, many drunks in fact) and I've never ever seen that uncontrollable laughter (lots of fighting, yelling, passing out, doing stupid stuff that sober peeps don't even conceive of). There's a reason why most weddings are best if there isn't an open bar available to the guests. It isn't due to uncontrollable laughter breaking out.

All those people running out of a building, shouting and yelling in a number of strange languages, just like the story says, always seemed far more accurate of "drunk" behavior to me.

WileyCoyote said:

I have seen that video. And I am willing to embrace it (or reject it) depending on what scripture says (or doesn't say) about it.

Any scriptural proof for this?

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have you spoken with your pastor?

Psalm 126:1 When the LORD restored the fortunes of[a] Zion,
we were like those who dreamed. 2 Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.

There are numbers of places in scripture where joy was evident and it was expressed in laughter.

Too many churches have made it a religious commandment, sort of like courtesy drops.

I wouldn't let the actions of one individual mandate whether you stay at the church or not. I'd encourage you to speak with the pastor.

lismore said:

Hello.

You want scriptures to prove you are allowed to laugh?

Joyful people smile, then laugh. Is it not a physiological reaction to joy?

My view on laughing is that when people experience the supernatural joy of the Lord they will smile, laugh, jump for joy, then perhaps even weep?

The problem is that in the church when everyone is hyped up attention seekers and flakes try to mimic the gifts of the spirit to make themselves look good. Some people fake laughing through joy, the same as they fake tongues, healing, being slain in the Spirit etc etc.

The video posted above, you can see some folk are faking it. But fakes do not mean there is no genuine. Fake banknotes do not mean there is no money.

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Ah lis you sort of beat me to the punch on this one.

Laughter is an emotional reaction. Have you ever been somewhere where people are laughing uncontrollably about something really funny and you don't know what it is they are laughing about, but you find yourself start laughing with them?

Same thing.

It is a physiological and emotional response.

The presence of God (which produces a realization of grace and truth) being a supernaturally positive experience, it makes since that some people would emotionally react to it through laughter. Also it makes since that people are overcome with laughter because they are emotionally responding to someone else's laughter.

It is also obvious that people fake such things because they want to feel that same feeling as before and try to induce it or they try to manipulate others into a feeling or they do it to make themselves feel spiritual or look spiritual to others around them to help reinforce or relive the memories of a past occurrence or have never had an experience (realization of grace and truth) with God and try to fake it to feel accepted into the circle of their peers.

Emotional reaction is not proof of a spiritual experience, but it can be evidence of one.

The fruit of the Spirit: Joy, love, peace, kindness, self control, etc... are not the Spirit, but reactions to the presence of God's Spirit (the truth of God realized) in a person's life.

We realize we are loved and we then feel and exhibit love.

We realize we are at peace with God through what Jesus did for us and we then exhibit peace.

We realize the kindness of God through the truth of His kindness to us expressed in Jesus and we in turn exhibit kindness.

We experience a life of freedom where we are in right relationship with God and experience love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness which in turn produces self control in a person because they seek to nurture these things because they are desirably pleasant experiences and the natural goal of a relational creature.

lismore said:

Hello.

You want scriptures to prove you are allowed to laugh?

Joyful people smile, then laugh. Is it not a physiological reaction to joy?

My view on laughing is that when people experience the supernatural joy of the Lord they will smile, laugh, jump for joy, then perhaps even weep?

The problem is that in the church when everyone is hyped up attention seekers and flakes try to mimic the gifts of the spirit to make themselves look good. Some people fake laughing through joy, the same as they fake tongues, healing, being slain in the Spirit etc etc.

The video posted above, you can see some folk are faking it. But fakes do not mean there is no genuine. Fake banknotes do not mean there is no money.

Click to expand...

If there's no scriptural basis for it, then it has no place in a church service. We cannot prove that anything even remotely close to anything like what was shown in that video ever took place in the first century church, so why do we do it? Why puff up the flesh and claim it's of the Spirit? Why add to the Word...? Why act like crazy, mad-men and then think that this is somehow "normal" behavior? If I was not a Christian or if my only experience with Christianity had been as what was shown in that video, I would surely be an atheist by now.

Examples of fleshly behavior like that are a disgrace to the Name of God and His Body, the church. What a shame...

And there is a difference between joy - a fruit of the spirit - and manic, crazy displays of drunken stupidity. Although I'm inclined to believe the behavior in that video was hardly "drunken" but rather plain stupidity, disorderly conduct combined with a mass mentality. What place does that have in ANY God-fearing church...?

There is no possible way I could say that all laughter in church services is of the Spirit, neither can I say none of it is. Psalms 16:11 says in His presence is fullness of joy. I can't imagine that you could be in the fullness of joy and it never spill over into laughter. It is not the way the Spirit manifests in me normally, but that doesn't make it anti-Biblical. I don't believe the Spirit is ever out of order, and certainly on occasion there are works of the flesh, but you can't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Joy is one of the fruit of the Spirit. A person filled with the Spirit can experience and express joy through laughter.
But we also must remember that self-control is another fruit of the Spirit, so when we express our joy, we must express it with self-control. It seems that the woman who was laughing in the church service and putting others off was not excercising self control in what she was doing. She was not considering others around her. This may very well show that she may have started in the Spirit, but was going on in the flesh. Kindness and gentleness are also fruit of the Spirit, and that spooking others out with excessive behaviour is certainly not kind or gentle on others present.

So, a simple evaluation of the event from Scripture puts that into perspective. It is a pity that someone was put off receiving the gift of tongues through another's lack of self control. And it also a real shame that people have to leave a church because of it. I suggest you bring this to attention of the pastor, who I am sure would be very concerned about losing congregation members, and having the work of the Holy Spirit in his church hindered by the unwise and unspiritual conduct of one of his members!

When I minister to someone and they get baptised in the Spirit and speak in tongues, I get very joyful and I chuckle away. Also, in a conference not long ago I was ministering to people at the altar, and I was fairly joyful in the Spirit, and people came to me for prayer because they needed encouragement from the Lord and they saw that I had the joy they were looking for. So I prayed for them that they would be filled with the Spirit and filled with love, peace and joy. One lady started giggling and laughing and said afterwards that she hadn't had a good laugh like that for a long while. Another lady became unsteady on her feet and her knees started to buckle as I prayed peace into her. But there was no excess of anything. It all happened in an environment of self control. The laughter was natural and not forced or spooky, and it lasted a very short while and was not disruptive.

So, even though people get filled up with the Spirit, and experience love, peace and joy, everything is done decently and in order, and then people are attracted to the Lord and not repelled by excessive behaviour, which is not decent, nor is it in order.

I've had this happen to me twice...the first time I was at the altar with two other guys and all three of us, simultaneously, began laughing...for no apparent reason...our pastor said it was the joy of the Lord.

The second time, I was at a retreat, and someone prophesied to me that the Lord wanted to restore my joy...they prayed for me, and I had the same laughter again...

Good times.

Balance said:

have you spoken with your pastor?

Psalm 126:1 When the LORD restored the fortunes of[a] Zion,
we were like those who dreamed. 2 Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.

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Sorry, unless it's in the Bible, we can't use this. Granted we can drink juice during communion, but that's different, that should be in the Bible. And if you quote the Bible, please quote the verse that all things need to be done in order...well, not all things, all orderly things, nothing more.

Svt4Him said:

Sorry, unless it's in the Bible, we can't use this. Granted we can drink juice during communion, but that's different, that should be in the Bible. And if you quote the Bible, please quote the verse that all things need to be done in order...well, not all things, all orderly things, nothing more.

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then we need to stop weddings cause it's not in scripture.

And we need to stop instruments, because they are not in scripture

And childrens ministry is not in scripture

and youth ministry is not in scripture

and short term missions trips are not in scripture

and ushers are not in scripture

Svt4Him said:

Sorry, unless it's in the Bible, we can't use this. Granted we can drink juice during communion, but that's different, that should be in the Bible. And if you quote the Bible, please quote the verse that all things need to be done in order...well, not all things, all orderly things, nothing more.

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Granted, I've been up since 5 this morning and I'm tired, so maybe I'm a little slow tonight...but I've read this post 3 times and it makes no sense...are you saying that the scripture quoted is not in the Bible?

Big Drew said:

Granted, I've been up since 5 this morning and I'm tired, so maybe I'm a little slow tonight...but I've read this post 3 times and it makes no sense...are you saying that the scripture quoted is not in the Bible?

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It was sarcasm silly.