Called to Weep & Laugh in Intercession

By Hazel Holland

Several years ago as I was praying for people God had placed on my heart, I was suddenly overcome with great joy. The weeping I had experienced as I sought God’s heart on their behalves was replaced by a tidal wave of exuberant laughter that felt strangely warm and wonderful. It was like nothing I had ever known before.

Immediately the Lord directed me to turn to Psalm 126. As I read the following verses I sensed that God was giving me a foretaste of the anointing of joy that will come upon the bride of Christ as the final harvest comes in.

“When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, O Lord like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:1-6).

Many months later I realized that God had also given me these verses of Scripture as a prophetic word for the book I was writing ("The Naked Truth: Exposing the Deception of Adventism" ). He was giving me a foretaste of His joy in order to encourage me to stand at my post as a “watchman on the walls” of the church, particularly the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church. He had called me to pray and intercede for the “release of the captives” that He had shown me in a vivid prophetic dream in the spring of 1996. Although weeping would last for a night, I knew abundant joy was coming in the morning.

At times over the past twelve years when I was tempted to lose hope of getting the book finished, I would remember this Scripture and I would be driven to spend more time on my face seeking God’s heart. In some of my most difficult moments of discouragement, it seemed like the oil of joy would be poured over me again, and I would be filled with that same exuberant laughter as I remembered that “the joy of the Lord is my strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). The Lord is going to bring back the captives to Zion. Many hurting, broken and discouraged people who have been in bondage to old covenant teachings will be delivered and set free. By the power of His Spirit God will fill their mouths with exuberant laughter, and loose their tongues with songs of great joy.

Although I previously knew nothing about intercession, God began to teach me through His Word how He wants to release the life-birthing energies of the Holy Spirit through our prayers of intercession in order to bring into being the desires of His heart.1 As I daily submitted myself to His love and immersed myself in His Word, God began to give me more of His heart of compassion and love for His children, especially His SDA children.

I was amazed to discover that in the New Testament every believer is called to be a priest. Every believer is called to come before God on behalf of someone else as an intercessor. Intercession is not a special gift that God gives a chosen few. No. It is the privilege of every believer in Jesus Christ to intercede as we experience the heart of God toward those for whom He calls us to pray.

Down through the ages the Scriptures reveal how God has continually sought to find intercessors through whom He could share the secrets of His heart for His often-wayward, yet beloved children. Through many prophetic voices that have spanned centuries of time, God has consistently sought to guide, instruct, encourage, warn and bless His people.

Somehow through our intercession, God’s Spirit continues to be released to shatter the strongholds of the enemy that continue to dull and blind many people’s minds and hearts to the gospel of Jesus Christ. People who formerly walked in “darkness” are now being called to walk as children of light (1 Peter 2:9; Ephesians 5:8).

Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah as he expresses God’s heart for His children to be freed from bondage. “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch… I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give Him no rest till He establishes Jerusalem and makes Her the praise of the earth” (Isaiah 62:1, 6-7).

As intercessors we are being called to grab a hold of God's promises and speak them back to God as we stand in the gap on behalf of others. For those who have no voice, for those who don’t know that God loves them, for those who think they don’t need God, we are being called to lift up our voice like a trumpet and proclaim the truth of God’s love over them. The light of His presence will shatter the dark strongholds of the enemy that blind many minds to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We already know that God is faithful to perform what He has already promised because He already knows those who are truly His.

Over the past twelve years I have continued to experience loud crying or soft weeping as God’s heart of compassion and love is poured out through my prayers of intercession. At times I double over like I am in pain when I experience a yearning in the heart of God calling me to intercede for a particular person or to pray for an entire group of people. Often these physical manifestations of the Spirit are not understood by the people around me. Sometimes people think I am upset about something and cannot control my sadness, but that is not what is happening.

The anointing that comes upon me when God gives me His heart to pray for a particular person or situation is not something I have any control over. It is totally outside of me. Sometimes His presence on me is manifest in weeping travail and at other times in hilarious laughter. Neither of these manifestations of the Spirit are something I have sought after or am particularly comfortable with, especially when God uses them in a public setting.

The weeping (travail) that comes upon me at times is because I am experiencing God’s tears, or God’s heart of compassion, or God’s words for those He wants to touch with His healing presence. As broken as we are, we have been broken for blessing so that He can use our bodies as His living sacrifices through whom He can pour out His heart so that someone else can receive God’s heart of love for themselves personally. If we as intercessors obediently give ourselves to God for His glory, He will be found by those He desires to draw to Himself.

Initially, the manifestation of laughter that would come upon me at times when I was called to intercede for a given situation would totally catch me off guard. I would be embarrassed to death by my hilarious uncontrollable laughter. To the casual observer it sometimes appeared that I was trying to get attention. Sometimes it appeared to others that I was being irreverent and disrespectful to God, as well as to the people around me who were all so seriously engaged in quiet prayer.

But all I could do was break out in absolute side-splitting laughter. I couldn’t utter a word of explanation as to what was going on in my spirit. But I knew that while I was laughing, God was proclaiming that He had already won the victory. I was joining Him in His celebration of deliverance even before I saw it manifest in the lives of the people I had been called to pray for.

Then God began to reveal to me through the Scriptures what this manifestation of laughter was all about… What a relief! Because so many of God's beloved children continue to trust in the bondage of their “good” works that are motivated by old covenant teachings, God is actively seeking to draw our attention away from the old order of things to the new order of things—the victory of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

“Show and Tell”

In order to get our attention and help us understand the difference between these two covenants that are spoken about in Galatians, God, is using a very familiar teaching technique. I used to use it frequently with my learning handicapped students when I was a special education teacher. If they could “see” it as well as hear me “tell” about it they had a better chance of learning what I was trying to teach them, especially because of the element of surprise that always accompanied my lessons. I’m talking about “show and tell.”

God is doing a similar thing here with these covenants. He’s contrasting Ishmael (representing the old covenant) with Isaac (representing the new covenant). He’s pitting children who are born of the flesh and destined to be slaves (Ishmael), against children who are born of the Spirit and destined to be free (Isaac). In essence Paul is saying, “Which covenant would you rather be under”? Do you want to be a slave or do you want to be free?

To bring the message home even further I learned that Isaac means, “laughter.” So the laughter that God is bringing upon His children is the laughter of His promised blessing in the new covenant! It’s the laughter that comes from the throne of the Son of God who has conquered the enemy and won the victory for all of us! It is the hilarity of the new covenant gospel that tells how His victory has become ours!

Have you been unknowingly living under the Ishmael blessing for most of your life like so many of us have? Would you like to experience the freedom that comes from entering into the Promise of the new covenant gospel…the hilarious laughter of Isaac?

You cannot manufacture the laughter that is born of the Spirit. You can only receive it as you choose to receive Him and enter into His new covenant promise of rest. Then He will fill your mouth with laughter, and your tongue with songs of great joy as you shout about the great things that God has done for you. His laughter will be good. His laughter will be like good medicine to your weary soul!

1 Dutch Sheets, Intercessory Prayer: The Lightning of God, p. 33.