Ps.126:1-3 – The Message – It seemed like a dream, too good to be true,
when GOD returned Zion’s exiles.
We laughed, we sang,
we couldn’t believe our good fortune.
We were the talk of the nations—
“GOD was wonderful to them!”
GOD was wonderful to us;
we are one happy people.
I hadn’t had a really good belly laugh for a long time, I suppose church work had become a serious business for me. In those early days of my ministry I was unaware of the attitude of C.S. Lewis, “Joy is the serious business of heaven”. In August of 1994 I was shocked and overwhelmed by supernatural joy when the Holy Spirit fell on me in a revival service. To say I was caught by surprise is a huge understatement, I hadn’t laughed like this for years, truthfully I had never laughed like that. For weeks I laughed while I preached, I laughed when I prayed, I laughed when I worshipped, I was even laughing in my sleep. It was the laughing in my sleep that finally got my wife Parris, after several nights of laughing in my sleep she was all in. Here is a quote from Spurgeon making an observation from John Bunyan about Mercy laughing in her sleep.
“I would have all those that hear of my great deliverance from hell, and my most blessed visitation from on high, laugh for joy with me. I would surprise my family with my abundant peace; I would delight my friends with my ever-increasing happiness; I would edify the Church with my grateful confessions; and even impress the world with the cheerfulness of my daily conversation. Bunyan tells us that Mercy laughed in her sleep, and no wonder when she dreamed of Jesus; my joy shall not stop short of hers while my Beloved is the theme of my daily thoughts. The Lord Jesus is a deep sea of joy: my soul shall dive therein, shall be swallowed up in the delights of his society. Sarah looked on her Isaac, and laughed with excess of rapture, and all her friends laughed with her;
and thou, my soul, look on thy Jesus, and bid heaven and earth unite in thy joy unspeakable.”
So here I am thirty years later thinking about those supernatural outbursts of laughter that changed my life and ministry permanently. The joy outbursts seem to always be accompanied by an overwhelming sense of God’s presence. So if you suddenly find yourself caught up into the presence of the Lord don’t be too surprised by the joy of the Lord, this is only the beginning of the endless and infinite joy that we will be consumed by at the coming of His kingdom. The joy of the Lord is absolutely the serious business of heaven.
