Holy Laughter??

[Gregory Thompson]

Good joke. That has absolutely nothing to do with the experience I shared which means you didn't read what I wrote. What you shared is just regular laughter from having fun.

It has everything to do with it. When holy laughter started as a phenomenon, it was because people were dancing to worship music, and people would fall down, and this caused the laughter.

It's just like how when the ministry kicks up the A/C to make it seem like there was a rushing wind, it's just smoke and mirrors.

As far as laughing for no good reason, comedians make use of this psychological effect that once you start laughing, the smallest thing can just keep the laughter going, it's all psychological.

 

[Blade]

God our Father has always been and we compared to Him are still babies, Children. Does anyone one here have kids? Yeah not all act perfectly huh no matter what you try to do haha. Praise GOD we are not all the same. Some people can really get excited about GOD and can do things you or I would never do. What we think the sweet sweet holy Spirit has to act, move like we personally believe? We have an idea how the sweet sweet holy Spirit is to move. That also is not written. We as man in a fallen world know how He really should move? God said which one of you if your son asks for bread you give them a rock?

So from your heart and mean it ask the sweet sweet holy spirit to have His way to do what ever He wants. But we don't because we care more about what those around us will think. Fact if we want to see Him move then WE have to get out of His way. He moves as He wants not as we believe He should. We question so much based on what we see happening around us with other people. I know its not the enemy since I give no place to him. Catch that one. Give no place to the devil. Yeah he has no room unless we let him have room. Give no place. So when I ask my Father.. He as the word says gives me what I asked for. I am asking for Him to move as He wants. Were in a fallen world and can not see since its all foggy.

Romans 1 "Ungodliness and unrighteousness.". Is He talking to us? Well I know I am righteous because I believe in Jesus Christ aka righteousness. I am in right standing with the Father. I am not unrighteous Righteousness is not some cloak I can put on or take off. Well when I was born from above (born again) I put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. That's me.

Falling under the power, slain in the spirit. I believe its of God. I read for just what is written as soon as He said I am He they feel backwards to the ground. I have a old book where the young people are praying and the man up front opens his eyes to see this girl just fall. He goes over asks if shes ok she says "I open my eyes and looked over at the door way and Jesus walked in". I was a bad kid and..anyway asked my mom if I could go with her to Church that night. So at one point the man up front asks if anyone wants to experience the power of God. I thought sure if Hes real. I was already saved but.. was still doing my own thing. So I go up front..there were so many people there that night at Glad Tidenings Church. This was 40 years ago.

So all the people were about 5' away and the mans back was to me. He turns and takes one finger and lightly touches my forehead. The next thing I know is I wake up I am on my back ..haha how I got there no clue. I only remember his finger touching me and.. nothing else. How long on my back? No clue. I start to get up.. the power of God hits my feet shoots up into my chest.. oh PRAISE GOD.. PRAISE GOD. NEVER felt something so wonderful. It was so awesome I went up more times to have that happen again and? lol never did. I think people fall because they believe thats what you do. Yet so many times its the power of God hitting people and they fall. Really people? Is it not written where two or three are gathered in my name He is there? If He chooses to have His presences show up you will fall.

Now know this..if you do not believe in the gifts and things like this you will not see it. Every time anything like this happened.. I am thinking wanting HIM and it only grows. Self is not there..its all about Him. Don't believe me in any of this. You ask you pray you seek. Luke 11:13..if you believe John 3:16-17 then just do what God said in Luke 11:13. He said it not me not anyone else. One you ask.. KNOW you got it no matter what you feel like. Your free choice

 

[Victor E.]

Have you ever experienced 'holy laughter' in a church? Its not biblical as I looked it up but, the church i was at which is a very charismatic church said that holy laughter comes right before there's a revival and that's when the holy spirit is working deeply in people. But, for me, it was the strangest and Most Extremely Uncomfortable experience I've ever had bc of everything I was hearing all around me. It wasn't just laughing, but hysterical laughing and hysterical screaming, moaning, 2 people behind me were saying these words repeatedly (Hey Hey, Ho, Hey, Hey, Ha, Ha, Ho), and then giggling and repeated continuously for over an hour. 1 person almost sounded demon possessed bc of the noises they were making. They were laughing but it was like an evil/maniac laugh. That all lasted about 1 hour during worship. What do you make of it? What kept me put w/o running out the door during that was that i strongly felt the holy spirits presence in me during that time + I did experience a healing touch which I explained in my previous post.

Has anyone else experienced holy laughter and if you have, can you share your own experiences of it because I don't understand it.

Holy laughter is a real thing because those who are born-again have joy in the Holy Spirit.

'For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' (Romans 14:17).

This joy is the 'new wine' of the new covenant (Acts of the Apostles 2:15)

I also remember the Lord Jesus speaking a parable about new wine-skins (Luke 5:33-38) which points to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Genuine holy laughter is infectious (in a good way) and it's a pure and calming kind of sound.. it has love (1 Corinthians 13:1)

'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.'

(James 1:17)

However, I know this uncomfortable/unsettling feeling you speak of.

Unfortunately, this can happen when someone is insecure in their God-given identity through Christ, or feels the need to 'fit in'.

The weird and unsettling laughter (and other weird manifestations) are from the flesh (it's not holy).. your gut instinct is bothering you for a reason.

Sometimes in spiritual immaturity, one can feel pressured or influenced to fake something authentic in order to fit in or appear to others like they are 'real Christians' or 'spiritual'

In my experience, these things tend to happen within Churches/groups with unhealthy cultural expectations, paradigms of doctrine, or misguided leadership.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

This is the danger of the power of the Mob. When people get together in large groups, they can be induced to act in ways they would not when alone, powerfully moved to feel and think things that are often quite irrational and - in some tragic cases - very destructive. What I suspect you felt wasn't the Holy Spirit but the psychological effect of the Mob (or group, if you prefer) disposing you toward an unusual experience that the leaders of the Mob, using the power of the Mob mentality, were urging you to expect. There is a reason why the person writhing about on the floor in a so-called "spiritual ecstasy" only has such experiences at revival meetings and weekend conferences, usually in careful isolation from any dissenters, where everyone is confirming and encouraging the individual person to indulge any wild impulse that takes them. Very fleshly, very demonic stuff, sister. Beware!

In the record of Scripture, we can read of many ways in which the Spirit acted: convicting people, empowering them, illuminating their understanding, comforting them, and even disciplining them. Being the HOLY Spirit, his chief work however is to make you and I holy, confronting us about our sin and urging us toward a life more and more set-apart unto God. To this end, when the Spirit "moves" upon the Church, conviction of sin, not feelings of warmth or electricity, or bizarre, uncontrolled behavior are the result. But people laughing hysterically, or chanting as you've described, or crying uncontrollably don't want changed lives, holy lives set apart from the World, the Flesh and the devil; they want sensual experiences, sensational moments, stimulating events.

Sensual Faith: Oh, God, You Make Me Feel Sooo Good!



Amen! Exactly. Craziness is not listed among the Fruit of the Spirit. If, though, you remain in the company of people telling you that this is not so, that craziness is a normal part of spiritual living, eventually you will conform to their influence. Peer pressure is a very potent thing.



Actually, God judges and disciplines by giving people what they want without His constraint upon them. He has warned that falsehood and sin always, sooner or later, produce death - death of fellowship with Him, death of joy, of peace, of contentment, of inner stability, and so on. When people insist on following false and sinful ways, God uses the bitter consequences of these things as the means of His discipline.

Read Romans 1:18-30 (or so).

Way back in 1969, during an Easter conference, the Holy Spirit fell on the Saturday night meeting, and many got right with God. There were no kundalini manifestations, just an intense sense of the presence of God that got people off their seats and on their knees weeping their hearts out to God, repenting and getting their lives right with Him. Some of the most hardened men's hearts broke before God that night.

After the meeting, a group remained in prayer, and they started laughing. My friend said that it bubbled up from with him him and he laughed so hard that his sides ached. One week later, the same small group plus a few others, including me, met for a Sunday service in the old house adjoining the large double garage where the convention was held a week before. We started the service, but started laughing. Then we would calm down, sang a hymn, started to praise the Lord and the laughter happened again. In the end most of the service time was spend laughing and praising the Lord. It was not kundalini (we didn't know the meaning of the word back then). It was joy in the Holy Spirit and we wanted to laugh to express our joy. No one was out of control or rolling around the floor. It was just that every time we started praising and worshiping we got filled with joy and laughter.

The interesting outcome of that time was that the leader's ministry changed. Up until then he was putting out a Gospel magazine to a mailing list within our country, limited to the towns where he had preached. Then he started to get requests for his magazine and Bible correspondence courses from the Pacific Islands, then from parts of Africa. Then he was invited to be the key speaker at a large conference in South America. After that he began getting invitations to speak in the U.K, Italy, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and India. His Gospel ministry exploded to the point where he was able to give up his normal employment and to be funded full time through donations that were coming in from his ministry. His ministry developed into a world-wide ministry and continued without interruption for the next 50 years, until he sadly passed away early this year.

All that happened from a Sunday morning church service in which the Holy Spirit filled us with joy and laughter as we praised and worshiped the Lord. That experience bore fruit that resulted in multitudes coming to Christ in the 50 years of the ministry that took flight after that.

There may be counterfeits out there, but we must not forget that the Holy Spirit can do the real thing, and cause ministries to be charged and empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring thousands to Christ as a result.

 

[Wyatt A.]

Have you ever experienced 'holy laughter' in a church? Its not biblical as I looked it up but, the church i was at which is a very charismatic church said that holy laughter comes right before there's a revival and that's when the holy spirit is working deeply in people. But, for me, it was the strangest and Most Extremely Uncomfortable experience I've ever had bc of everything I was hearing all around me. It wasn't just laughing, but hysterical laughing and hysterical screaming, moaning, 2 people behind me were saying these words repeatedly (Hey Hey, Ho, Hey, Hey, Ha, Ha, Ho), and then giggling and repeated continuously for over an hour. 1 person almost sounded demon possessed bc of the noises they were making. They were laughing but it was like an evil/maniac laugh. That all lasted about 1 hour during worship. What do you make of it? What kept me put w/o running out the door during that was that i strongly felt the holy spirits presence in me during that time + I did experience a healing touch which I explained in my previous post.

Has anyone else experienced holy laughter and if you have, can you share your own experiences of it because I don't understand it.

Get out of that church.

 

[sk8brdkd]

Way back in 1969, during an Easter conference, the Holy Spirit fell on the Saturday night meeting, and many got right with God. There were no kundalini manifestations, just an intense sense of the presence of God that got people off their seats and on their knees weeping their hearts out to God, repenting and getting their lives right with Him. Some of the most hardened men's hearts broke before God that night.

After the meeting, a group remained in prayer, and they started laughing. My friend said that it bubbled up from with him him and he laughed so hard that his sides ached. One week later, the same small group plus a few others, including me, met for a Sunday service in the old house adjoining the large double garage where the convention was held a week before. We started the service, but started laughing. Then we would calm down, sang a hymn, started to praise the Lord and the laughter happened again. In the end most of the service time was spend laughing and praising the Lord. It was not kundalini (we didn't know the meaning of the word back then). It was joy in the Holy Spirit and we wanted to laugh to express our joy. No one was out of control or rolling around the floor. It was just that every time we started praising and worshiping we got filled with joy and laughter.

The interesting outcome of that time was that the leader's ministry changed. Up until then he was putting out a Gospel magazine to a mailing list within our country, limited to the towns where he had preached. Then he started to get requests for his magazine and Bible correspondence courses from the Pacific Islands, then from parts of Africa. Then he was invited to be the key speaker at a large conference in South America. After that he began getting invitations to speak in the U.K, Italy, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and India. His Gospel ministry exploded to the point where he was able to give up his normal employment and to be funded full time through donations that were coming in from his ministry. His ministry developed into a world-wide ministry and continued without interruption for the next 50 years, until he sadly passed away early this year.

All that happened from a Sunday morning church service in which the Holy Spirit filled us with joy and laughter as we praised and worshiped the Lord. That experience bore fruit that resulted in multitudes coming to Christ in the 50 years of the ministry that took flight after that.

There may be counterfeits out there, but we must not forget that the Holy Spirit can do the real thing, and cause ministries to be charged and empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring thousands to Christ as a result.

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing that story. Your experience sounds extremely different then what I experienced and definitely sounds like pure joy

Being that I had a negative sensation made me think it wasn't of the Spirit, bc if it was, I think I would've felt peaceful instead.

But, besides that one night, I had always felt a strong sense of the spirit in that room and I was often filled with peace.

 

[ViaCrucis]

The phenomenon of "holy laughter" is just an example of mass hysteria.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[seashale76]

Have you ever experienced 'holy laughter' in a church? Its not biblical as I looked it up but, the church i was at which is a very charismatic church said that holy laughter comes right before there's a revival and that's when the holy spirit is working deeply in people. But, for me, it was the strangest and Most Extremely Uncomfortable experience I've ever had bc of everything I was hearing all around me. It wasn't just laughing, but hysterical laughing and hysterical screaming, moaning, 2 people behind me were saying these words repeatedly (Hey Hey, Ho, Hey, Hey, Ha, Ha, Ho), and then giggling and repeated continuously for over an hour. 1 person almost sounded demon possessed bc of the noises they were making. They were laughing but it was like an evil/maniac laugh. That all lasted about 1 hour during worship. What do you make of it? What kept me put w/o running out the door during that was that i strongly felt the holy spirits presence in me during that time + I did experience a healing touch which I explained in my previous post.

Has anyone else experienced holy laughter and if you have, can you share your own experiences of it because I don't understand it.

It's Satanic. Your initial gut feeling is correct.