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Tracing Our Ancestors
is a rare classic and essential reading for
understanding
your roots in Greater Israel.
Write me for a copy - I have several.
jack AT focushaiti.com
Topics
in this Essay:
Read the Whole Thing
Jackson Snyder Bio
Holy Laughter at Church This Week
The Day I Rolled Under the Piano
French Laughter Misunderstood by English Speakers
From the Nightclub to the Mass
Holy Laughter Found in Wesley’s Journals
Laughter as a Sign of Justification
“Jesus Never Laughed!!”
Hilarity in Mercying
Following the “Sons of Laughter”
The Meaning of ‘England’
Surprised by Joy
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Genesis 17:15-22. And Elohim said to Abraham, “As
for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be
her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her; I
will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples
shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed,
and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to
a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old,
bear a child?” And Abraham said to Elohim, “O
that Ishmael might live in thy sight!” Elohim said, “No,
but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name
Isaac*. I will establish my
covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after
him. As for Ishmael, I have heard
you; behold, I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him
exceedingly; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him
a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom
Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.” When he had
finished talking with him, Elohim went up from Abraham. * (Yitschaq,
qtcy, Isaak [LXX] - Isaac means “laughter” – Hitchcock’s)
Psalms 126 (Song of the returning exiles - Song of Ascents) When
Yahweh brought back Zion's captives, we lived in a dream; then our mouths
filled with laughter, and our lips with song. Then the nations kept
saying, “What great deeds Yahweh has done for them!” Yes, Yahweh did
great deeds for us, and we were overjoyed. Bring back, Yahweh, our people
from captivity like torrents in the Negeb! Those who sow in tears sing as
they reap. He went off, went off weeping, carrying the seed. He comes
back, comes back singing, bringing in his sheaves.
Luke 15:3-10. So Jesus told them this parable: “Which
one of you with a hundred sheep, if he lost one, would fail to leave the
ninety-nine in the desert and go after the missing one till he found it?
And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders and
then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying to
them, ‘Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep that was lost.’ In the same
way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner
repenting than over ninety-nine upright people who have no need of
repentance. ‘Or again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she
lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till
she found it? And then, when she had found it, call together her friends
and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, I have found the drachma
I lost.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels
of God over one repentant sinner.”
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World Wind Virtually visit any place in the world.
Elmo and Gang
{Names have been
changed to protect the anointed.}
I received a phone call from a pastor
Friday. He told me what’d happened at a small group prayer meeting the
night before. His group of about a dozen was
 sitting in a prayer circle.
Each saint prayed a nice prayer in turn then they had some quiet time.
What seemed like five minutes was actually a half an hour of silence,
while each remained in an attitude of unity and expectation. There was
certainly a lot to be praying about, since this small group was preparing
to move the whole church to a new location - an office building that was
offered to them free of charge for as long as they wanted to use it. But
they wanted the ‘for sure’ sign from the Heavenly Father Yahweh as to
whether their decision was right or not. They petitioned the All-knowing
One for a sign and waited for it to drop down.
The group included some brand new folks
who had limited experience in the faith community. The others had mostly
left denominational churches because they’d disagreed with policy or been
hurt. All decided to try again with a new church and a fresh start. One
of the founding couples, Elmo and Gladys, were sitting in silence that
night. Elmo is a very serious retired man. He’d worked hard as a border
guard for many years. He even took a gunshot wound in the line of duty.
Elmo doesn’t laugh much because, to him, ministry’s very serious business
- he sinks a lot of his time, money and prayer into it. It’s no laughing
matter. His wife, Gladys, is a charismatic Christian - she prays and
fasts a lot, chases demons out of the neighborhood, and is often sought
out for her natural empathy and counseling skills.
The pastor looked at his watch, and
just as he was about to end the season of silence with the “Lord’s
Prayer,” Elmo, completely out of character, began to chuckle some. His
chuckle turned into a laugh, and his laugh became a fit of laughter. Of
course, that ended quiet time and surprised everyone. Elmo hardly smiled
much less laughed so hard as to fall off the chair unto the floor. And
then still he laughed right there on the floor.
The equally seriously religious spouse
Gladys wasn’t impressed by her husband’s disturbed behavior in the middle
of a sincere, even grave, prayer meeting. So Gladys stuck out her finger
of prophecy and began to give Elmo a thrashing Jeremiad in front of the
whole group. But Elmo didn’t pay a lick of attention to his wife (as he
usually did). For Elmo was out of control, snorting and guffawing
more recklessly than he had since childhood - and he’d never rolled
on the floor in his life.
As Gladys continued her lecture, Harvey
- one of the new members – started to clear his throat, then coughed a
cackle that sent him off into laugh-land with the guy on the floor. Then
Harvey’s wife, another new believer, started giggling too. Gladys,
with her finger still pointed at her husband, who by now had rolled about
ten feet, tried to remain in the role of the prophet until she too
cracked up - and then there were four on the floor. The
sniggering eventually caught up with everyone left in the circle,
including the clock-watching preacher, and after many minutes of solid
cackling, Harvey’s wife Selma rolled under the table in the next room.
{OK, I’ll admit to the slight embellishment of this story!}
Everyone realized that the holy Spirit
was answering his/her prayer in a mysterious, unusual and somewhat
wacky way. Hey, these church members are always very serious about
their Christian duty, and they have to be - since theirs is a new
work, a frail work. Most new churches fail in the first eighteen months.
Maybe they’d been too serious, relying on their own way of doing things,
their own business acumen, their own sense of gravity or notion of
the importance of planting yet another church, as if there was actually
another church needed. But now the manifestation of ‘holy
laughter’ gave them something far more important to consider - that is,
the revelation of the holy Spirit’s will in regards to their
serious hard work that had sprouted from a sense of common mission and
such honorable intentions.
The prayer meeting came to sudden
conclusion when a lady with the gift of inspired speaking
(profhteiaV), spoke the words of Yahweh to those assembled there, words
not so unlike the Spirit used to provoke the assembly at Philadelphia:
Revelation 3:8,10. I know your works. Behold, I
have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. Because
you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour
of trial that is coming to try those who dwell upon the earth.
(And see
1 Thessalonians 5:20)
Remember, I mentioned that this story
was relayed to me on the phone. At this point, the excited pastor lost
his cell phone connection and the line went dead. He called right back,
and he said, “Jack, what do you think of that?” I replied with a bit of
my own witty humor,
“I think
that wireless technology needs to catch up with the cell phone revolution,
Don’t you?”
And now I point the prophetic finger in
your direction and ask you,
what do you think? Have you ever heard of holy laughter?
Piano Roll
In his book,
The Charismatic Gifts and Wesleyan Theology, the author
Jackson Snyder writes in the third person about his first experience
with the (so-called) “laughing spirit.”
[It was] 1968: Freddie was
in his early 20's and recently converted. He wanted to be “filled with the
Holy Ghost” and went to the altar of the Assembly of God church after an
evening meeting. As he tarried, several teen-agers knelt with him to “pray
him through.” After a long time in earnest prayer, one of the teens got
an anointing and laid hands on Freddie. He began immediately to speak
aloud in tongues, praising God. When this happened, a spirit of laughter
came upon all those who were around the altar (there were others there too
who were not involved with praying for Freddie). Everyone began to
laugh hysterically, unable to control it, nor want to. They all
laughed for a space of at least five minutes. The fellow that started it
all rolled down the aisle laughing and ended up beneath the piano.
{end quote}
That piano roller was me at age fifteen.
Can you imaging this refined Doctor of Theology rolling across the church
carpet and under the piano in fits and torrents? I’m in better shape
now to roll under a piano, perhaps as a barrel would roll. (Actually,
I’m not in that bad of shape.) No, I don’t have the strength now as
then. (Like when I asked the dear lady in Austin how fat she was, she
replied, “I do not yet take up two seats on
an aeroplane.” I thought that was really funny.)
French Laugh
The laughing spirit caught up with me again in a Pace, Florida a few
years ago. I was attending a prayer circle held in the house of the
apostle Ken Sumrall. We were all there to pray for the terminally ill. A
woman from France was visiting, who spoke very little English. In the
middle of the meeting, while we were all very serious and silently praying
for the healing of a case of ovarian cancer, this rude French lady just
started snickering right out loud. Unfortunately, we couldn’t understand
a cluck of it because she was laughing in French, which was somewhat rude,
so I recall.
The lady sitting beside her was known
as “the stone lady.” She was like the Norwegian missionary woman who
said, “Jesus never laughed” – the stone lady never laughed either. Hers
was a very rough countenance, almost frightening actually – not much to
laugh about for fear she might hit you one. But she
caught the laughing spirit from the French girl and started cackling like
a chimp. Quickly, the “anointing” caught on, and several ended up on the
floor. It was hilarity at a serious moment, but – I’ve got to tell you –
it was pretty glorious to take part in. I might add – the woman being
prayed over was healed of terminal ovarian cancer than night, so we heard
soon after.
From Nightclubs to Christ
Anyway, there was one other occasion
when I experienced holy laughter worth passing on. It was on a Sunday
morning – early. My partner in the music business and I’d just finished
up a lounge act. We were both young and single, trying to make a career
out of music. He was a Catholic and I was an AOG man, but neither of us
had been to church in years. We got back to our hotel room at about 3 AM
after the show. We were relaxing for a while then we looked at each other
and both of us started in laughing and couldn’t quit. We fell on the
floor, tears running down our faces, stopped for a while, and started up
again. What was religious or godly about that? Nothing, except that we
found ourselves attending Easter mass later that morning at the Catholic
Church miles away – and we were greatly blessed from receiving the
Eucharist together. I know I needed revival and am pretty sure he did
too.
That reminds me of the title of one of
Jack Van Impe’s first tapes he sent you if you made a donation to his
ministry at about that same time. The title of the tape was, “From
Nightclubs to Christ.” What took him thirty years to do, according to
that tape, took us only eight hours, for Mass was at noon the next day.
That Mass was an awakening for me, as a non-catholic, non-sacramentalist
backslider going forth to the altar in that mystery-laden place of
worship, receiving what they believed to be the very body of my
Savior from the hand of a Roman priest and his blood from a common cup.
Had we not laughed in the middle of the night, we certainly would not have
experienced HIS suffering, death and resurrection at the sixth hour. And
though this was in 1975, it was the first awakening in my heart of
the doctrine of the real presence, which I believe fervently yet today.
Laughter Wesley’s Journal and Exploration
We think of this “spirit of laughter” as some new manifestation, and,
like the baptism in the holy Spirit, folks don’t understand it unless it’s
happened to them. Wesley didn’t understand it when he first encountered
it in a prayer meeting in 1740. He wrote in his 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 23rd} 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
(Journal, June 21, 1740).
Wesley doesn’t make a judgment on “holy
laughter” one way or another, except to say it was irresistible, and those
who insisted it could be resisted went to laugh land for two days
themselves.
Twenty years later, Wesley reconsidered
“holy laughter” as he studied the journals of John Walsh, a Methodist
reporter, who was attending the Everton revival. Walsh writes and
Wesley quotes him in his journal:
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. (Journal,
July 29, 1759
http://www.evanwiggs.com/revival/history/riss3.html)
We might notice that, since Wesley
records Walsh’s sentiment regarding the “frequent laughing,” that he
agreed with Walsh - that laughing manifested irresistibly as the young
lady lay prostrate in adoration, beholding the glory of the Father. We
might wonder what’s so funny about G-d that sometimes even the staunchest
conservatives are made to fall on the floor, laughing in his presence.
But funny isn’t what it’s all about, except to those outside the circle.
Laughter as a Sign of Justification
Besides that of Yahweh laughing at the
folly of man, I can’t think of any passages in the Bible that actually
condone holy laughter. But I know that it is indeed holy, even though I’m
not naïve enough to think that the devil has no counterfeit. But consider
the passage in Luke 15 where, just after the parable of the lost coin,
when Yahshua reveals the moral of the story (v.10):
Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the
angels of God over one sinner who repents. In Wesley’s accounts,
the “holy laughter” followed someone’s justification or was an
actual manifestation of justification. (You Baptists say
“salvation” instead of “justification.”)
Remember Elmo? The last time I spoke
to him about his soul he doubted he’d been filled with the spirit even
though he’s a seasoned, gifted missionary. I can’t imagine he could doubt
any longer. He’s glad Yahweh made a laughingstock of him for the sake of
his justification, sanctification, not to mention for using him as the
unlikely catalyst for a prophecy revealing the answers the group sought in
prayer. When I was a youth and rolled under the piano, the whole shebang
started off when the fellow for whom we were praying received the gift of
the spirit for which he was tarrying. At that moment, I could no more
keep my soul from rejoicing over him than my lips and lungs from laughing.
I can tell you, when the spirit of
laughter comes upon people who are solemnly praying, there’s nothing funny
at all – the hilarity (Gr. cheerfulness)
is a response to something other than a good joke. Somebody is
justified, somebody is spirit-filled, someone is healed, someone is set
free, somebody gets to rejoicing in the spirit for the supernatural works
of grace that Yahweh has done through his Son of Man – and it’s a good
thing, a great thing, and it’s an awesome thing that it’s contagious.
Bennett Cerf, the writer and publisher (who you old-timers will
remember as a long-time panelist on What’s My Line)
was right on when he said, “The person who can bring the spirit of
laughter into a room is indeed blessed.” I don’t know if he was speaking
about holy laughter, but his words are nevertheless an impeccable truth.
No Laughing Matter for Teachers in the Judgment
I looked to the Internet to read what
the teachers had on “holy laughter.” Almost all the search engine results
were extremely negative – it’s unscriptural, occultist,
psycho-phenomenological or, of course, right out of the devil’s toolbox.
(For instance, see John Mark ministries article “Holy
Laughter and Company.”) The teachings
found through a Google Search remind me of the Norwegian missionary who
angrily cried out against some who were laughing during the service on
time – she shouted in her deep, heavily accented voice, “JESUS NEVER
LAUGHTED!!” It amazes me that Bible teachers want to tell you that making
a joyful noise unto Yahweh isn’t permissible because it isn’t biblical,
but eating foul unclean animals if just fine because, though such is
prohibited in the bible, that’s been annulled. No wonder the Teacher of
Righteousness warns us
James 3:1. LET NOT many of you become
teachers, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater
strictness.
I also noticed that all the teachers who
are against manifestations of the spirit consider themselves the pillars
of evangelical Christianity. One positive source I found on Google in
regards to Holy Laughter uses some scripture.
One source is Psalm 42:5 quoting it as,
“God has a smile on His face.” I didn’t remember that verse, so I looked
it up. Psalm 42:5 really says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why
are you disquieted within me? Hope in Yahweh!” – they just slightly
misquoted the psalm-singer.
Another positive source uses Judges
19:6. “Let your heart by merry.” But in checking the context of the
passage, an innkeeper and his daughter are commending a Levite and a
harlot to make merry as they drank wine. It’s amazing how the Scripture
can be used out of context to prove about anything.
The fact of the matter is, people were
praying earnestly, something happened to somebody spiritually, and that
person’s reaction to the supernatural goes around contagiously. It seems
to me in the contexts of the laughter I’ve mentioned, if the devil made
them do it, he’d rather have them writhing in torment or rolling upon each
other {in orgiastic fashion} as he has his own in Hollywood movies doing.
If the devil made them do something, the more authentic doings would seem
to be swearing a blue streak, cussing up a storm or engaging in a
Christian pugilistics (a fist fight).
Hilarity in Mercying
So let me conclude by giving you
scriptural authority for “holy laughter,” then give you some advice. I’m
not afraid of being judged with extreme strictness. Oh, I did find one
Scripture proof text on the Internet that might refer to laughing –
it was on my own site. Paul talks about the charismata
– the seven spiritual graces: prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation,
giving, leadership and mercy. Regarding mercy, the RSV has Paul saying in
Romans 12:8 “he who does acts of mercy, (let him do them)
with cheerfulness,” but literally, Paul says, “the
one mercying, (let
him do it) in
hilarity.” Hilarity means,
“with a big hardy-har-har.” That must mean with holy laughter. And
here’s one more – a bit more complicated though.
The Sons of Laughter
When the Angel of Yahweh promised to make a great nation out of the
child of Abraham and Sarah, they both laughed at Yahweh – in derision,
disbelief, or in joy – I don’t know. Abe and Sarah were too old for
fooling around.
(Genesis 18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, “Now
that I am past the age of childbearing, and my husband is an old man,
is pleasure to come my way again?” NJB)
Yahweh heard Sarah laugh and she denied
it, then Yahweh said directly to her, “Yes, but you DID laugh”
(Genesis 18:15). Well, Sarah didn’t mean
to; she just couldn’t help herself.
When that son did make his headway, he
was named Isaac, which means “Laughter.” I’ve heard of girls named “Joy,”
nobody in this country is called “Laughter.” Anyway, this Isaac surnamed
“Laughter” had a son named Jacob, who had twelve sons, known as the
Patriarchs. Jacob and his sons and his sons’ sons, and even his
daughters, came to be known as the Sons of Isaac or the Sons of Laughter
or “Isaac’s sons.”
Even after Isaac’s sons went into
captivity after 784 BC, some stuck together, ending up on the south shore
of the Caspian Sea, corresponding to modern-day north Iran. The place to
which they resorted came to be known as “Sakland” or “Beth Sak” – meaning
the land or house of the Isaac’s Sons – the sons of laughter. By King
Josiah’s time (6th Cent, BC), they were on the move again,
settling in and ruling Scythia, i.e. modern-day Ukraine. There
they became known as the Sacae, which means, “Isaac’s Peoples.” In
Scythia, the Sacae met up with kinsmen who’d been wondering for twelve
hundred years, known as the Angles. These people wore the horns of bulls
and worshipped calves, just as they had back in Samaria so long before.
Their tribal name betrays their origin – Angle (Engle) means “calf” in
Hebrew, as in “golden calf.”
The Angles, or “calves” and the Sacae,
now known as “Saxons” for “Isaac’s Sons” or “Sons of Laughter,” teamed up
as they had in Israel a millennium before and continued westward from
Saxony in modern-day Germany to northern France and, by 300 years after
Yahshua, to England, which still bears the name of the Anglo-Saxons –
“Sons of Laughter; People of the Calf.” England means “Calf-land.” It
could just as well have been called “Laugh-land,” since the Saxons were
there too.
The Anglo Saxon peoples, in the years
to come, spread through Great Britain, South Africa, the New World, India
and Australia by way of the British Empire. So you see today the origin
of our common tribe – every person in this room has descended from the
Saxons, the Sons of Laughter, the Sons of Isaac. It’s absolutely no
wonder at all that Yahweh should, in these end times, visit his people
Israel with the laughter of our birth mother and father – Sarah, the
laughing princess of the world, and Abraham, the father of many tribes –
who named their son – the one promised to become as prolific as the
sands of the sea and the stars of the sky – Isaac, laughter.
To my knowledge, this holy laughing
doesn’t happen in Christian worship anywhere else but in those
lands where the progeny of the Saxons now dwell, awaiting the return of
the one Elohim who spoke to their father four thousand years ago,
Genesis 12:1-3 “Go from your country and your
kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I
will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name
great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you,
and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the
earth shall bless themselves.”
You have something great to rejoice about. You have just received an
indication of your heritage and inheritance, and a reminder of a promise
made – that HE will gather you in like chicks to the hen.
Surprised by Joy
In the examples I had time to provide,
it means that when people of our heritage stand in expectation of a sign
then loosen up how we think it’ll manifest, something unexpected, new and
FRESH may come our way. I can tell you, Brother Elmo knows what it means
to be a “son of the promise” now – nothing more unexpected could have
possibly confirmed his justification in a more Scriptural sense than what
actually happened to him. And likewise, maybe the thing you want the most
for your ministry and assembly will come to pass in the way you least
expect it. Someone sows, someone reaps, someone partakes of the holy
food. All families of the land are blessed.
My hope for you is that in this next
year, the unexpected will break forth like the spring calves break their
fences – that Yahweh will smile on your efforts in such a way that you’ll
be surprised by joy. Amen.
Jackson Snyder bio
Jackson Snyder is available for your Motivational Gifts, Temperament or
Leadership Training Event.
Jackson has been a pastor, sacred musician, Bible teacher and missionary
for 27 years. He was called to preach as a youth in A. A. Allen miracle
ministries. Since that then, he has continued to work in and teach the
Gifts of the Spirit.
Jackson received his Bachelor degree magna cum laude from Indiana
University, Master of Divinity from Emory University cum laude and
Doctorate from the Wesley Synod. He also studied with the University
of Biblical Studies, Earlham School of Religion and St. Vincent DePaul
Regional Seminary.
Jackson has been offering Gifts seminars since 1990. He has a popular
Internet ministry that includes much information and assessment material
in Motivational and Spiritual Gifts at www.JacksonSnyder.com. He is
also a Certified Professional Pneumatologist (CPP). |
