Exodus 7:8-12 “Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, (9) "When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, 'Show a miracle for yourselves,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent.' “(10) So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. (11) But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. (12) For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.”
This brings us to the discussion around people laughing from a demonic power. It is taught by some, that if you want to experience laughing in the Spirit, that you should begin laughing “by faith” in the natural, and the Holy Spirit will then take over eventually, thus causing the believer to begin laughing in the Spirit. That practice is not only completely unscriptural but it is also completely illogical. For it is the same as saying that if you want to prophesy, then just begin to prophesy “by faith” in the natural, and eventually the Holy Spirit will take over and you will begin to then prophesy in the Spirit. The faith message is scriptural, but taken to the extreme, it becomes unscriptural. Prophecy is initiated by the Holy Spirit not by man, and laughing in the Spirit is also initiated by the Holy Spirit and not by man. And so those who would try conjure up laughing in the “spirit” by starting out in the natural, open themselves up to unclean spirits that will accommodate them by causing them to laugh in a spirit that is not of God. You say how is that possible? The above passage of scripture describes how the Egyptian sorcerers were able to perform the same miracle that Moses performed. Make no mistake, unclean spirits have very real power and can easily produce a similar manifestation of laughter in those who would yield to them, even though the individual may think that they are yielding to the Holy Spirit. Believers should stay away from meetings where this sort of behaviour is encouraged, because those who don’t, will come away from that experience with a demon attached to them that they never had before.
Michael E.B. Maher
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