On a mission trip to India, we taught in a two-month crash course Bible school. The goal was to equip the indigenous believers to take the gospel of Jesus Christ into all parts of India. Some were going into remote regions where the gospel had never been preached. As a part of that trip, a team of us went into the Garo Hills in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. This entailed a five-hour jeep ride going high into the mountains to the villages in which we would be holding the conferences. The people of that region looked like Chinese, with China lying just on the other side of the mountains. The people were a very stoical people, very proper and self-controlled, saying few words and showing little or no emotion. I was in a meeting teaching the believers on evangelism. As I spoke, I noticed one gentleman on about the third row appearing to be trying to hold back laughter. As I continued to speak, he continued to try to control himself from laughing. Soon, those on each side of him appeared to start trying to hold back laughter, also. The others around them were ignoring them -– for a while. Soon, they too, were trying to hold back laughter. I observed all this happening as I continued to teach on evangelism. Soon, one man fell out of his seat, bowed over with muffled laughter. Then another, and another. I recognized what the Lord was doing. He was refreshing His people with His presence. He was giving a season of unbridled joy. I gladly gave place to what was happening and allowed the people to experience a liberty in the Lord they had never known, nor even heard about. Psalms 126 talks about the Lord turning the captivity of His people with them experiencing “joy” and “rejoicing.” The Hebrew words for “joy’ and “rejoicing” mean “a creaking shrill shout of joy” (Strong’s Concordance H7440). In Luke 10:21 Jesus “rejoiced in spirit.” The Greek word for “rejoiced” means “jump for joy, exult” (Strong’s Concordance G21). In the second chapter of Acts when the people were filled with the Holy Spirit, the onlookers thought they were drunk. Peter quoted Psalms 16:8-11 explaining about the people whose “tongue was glad.” “Glad,” again means “to jump for joy, exult.” Peter wrote to the church how through believing, even in the midst of trials, we have “joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9). A lot of us justified believers in the Lord Jesus need to have our “souls” saved. We need a good dose of the Holy Ghost. We need to experience a season of joy by the power of God’s Spirit. This is the rest and the refreshing that comes by yielding to the fullness of the Spirit of God (Isaiah 28:11-12). When our tongues get liberated with God’s joy, Jesus is proclaimed in the power of the Spirit.
A Season of Joy
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