June 25, 2026

(Arlington, TX) When the Founder and Lead Apostle of World Healing Church walked in to preach the sermon on June 21st, he didn’t know that this would be a Father’s Day to remember. Wearing a navy-blue suit, Ed Citronnelli was carrying a burden that day that wouldn’t be revealed to the congregation until nearly halfway through the service. He wasn’t only a husband to his wife of over three decades. He wasn’t only a father of three or a grandfather of four with more on the way. He was a man, carrying the sovereign weight of souls that God had entrusted him to steward. A heavy and holy responsibility that most spiritual leaders agree costs everything. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer penned in his book The Cost of Discipleship, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."

When Apostle Ed walked in, he found a room that had been moving with the ebbs and flows of the river of the Spirit of the Lord, but something else was about to happen. Like the voice of the Father cracking through the atmosphere at Jesus’ baptism (see Matthew 3:16-17) or speaking from the cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration (see Matthew 17:5), the affirming and comforting Word of the Lord was about to bellow forward toward the man of God.

One prophetic word, and then another, and another. The Good Shepherd had come to tend His undershepherd’s heart.

The Spirit of the Lord had apprehended the order of service and left a stillness hanging in the air that mingled with the weight of the deep work that those words had been sent forth to accomplish. The room sat quiet. Commanded to attention and attuned to heaven. Waiting. Suddenly, a laugh began in the front of the sanctuary. Pronounced and steady, the media team would quickly locate the source—Apostle Ed.

He laughed deeply and to the point of breathlessness. The more he seemed to try to contain it, the heartier the laugh became. And, the more the laughter grew within him, the more it seemed to spread through the room. That is one of the beautiful things about laughter. It is highly contagious, no matter if the laughter is birthed in the Spirit or in the natural.

Laughter begets laughter. This follows the Kingdom law of reproduction that fruit produces after its kind (Genesis 1:12). Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). If laughter is like a pressure valve that releases the overflow from within us, then Apostle Ed was at critical mass, and the congregation wasn’t far behind. The room was in an uproar. The more he laughed, the more the room laughed, and vice versa. He rocked in his chair. He hammered his knee with his fist, and at times he gasped for air.

Throughout the congregation, the same scene seemed to play out.

Some chuckled quietly. Some rocked and reeled in their seats. Some yelled. Loud and long ‘ah ha ha’s’ and ‘bwha ha ha ha’s’ rose and fell with playful syncopation. Some appeared to become weak and slouched in their seats, shaking with the silence only laughter can evoke. A security team member walked through the room, microphone in hand, hoping to amplify the sound of those encountering the joy of the Lord. However, due to his own laughter, it was a bit like using a kerosene lamp to examine whether the barn was on fire.

When the laughter subsided, another wave of congregational prophecy swept across the room.

When the Spirit of the Lord released the service into transition, Apostle Ed took the platform, bringing corporate unity with a congregational hymn. There was now a lightness in the air as the man of God addressed the service. “I know this is Father’s Day, obviously, but I want you to understand one thing,” he explained. “And that is that the Word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul said that ‘with many trials and tribulations we shall enter the kingdom of heaven’ (Acts 14:22). But within the tribulation there’s always the hand of the Lord to bring us through… On Father’s Day, the Father of Fathers gave me the greatest visitation today that any human father can ever receive on the earth. I’ve been refreshed today, and this goes beyond any gift…”

A Welcomed Fruit of Renewal
Although the scene at World Healing Church on Father’s Day was certainly a sight to see, it wasn’t the first time this had happened. The small local congregation has been experiencing what some in the charismatic movement call a renewal. Often marked by deep repentance, reprioritization of key pillars of the Christian faith, and shifts in the hearts of both leaders and laity, the experience at WHC has been no different.

Following a dynamic and rich outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Sunday, May 17th, the congregation was thrust into the labor room of a full-scale revival. Service flows, meeting times, and ministry priorities were all adjusted to better align with what the Lord had suddenly poured out of His Spirit. One immediate change was a return to the altar of prayer. The local church body began coming together frequently for times of corporate intercession. In the week immediately following the outpouring, they were gathered together daily.

On the fifth consecutive day of prayer following the initial visitation, something peculiar happened. Deep into the meeting, a prophetic word came forward. “I laugh at your enemies,” the Lord began to speak through a member of the security team. “Laugh with me,” said the Lord towards the end of the utterance, and the prophetic voice the Lord had been using began to laugh. It was not a giggle. This vessel of God was cracking up, and soon, pockets of laughter were popping up around the sanctuary. Quiet snickers gave way to deep guffaws. Some, by their own admission, began to laugh in the flesh, only to quickly be taken over by the Spirit of the Lord.

At the altar that evening, Apostle Ed, dressed in all white, struggled to contain himself. He later acknowledged, “I was trying to be strong, and I was fighting against the laughter that was happening inside of me. And in my head, I’m saying ‘no, you’re not.’ Obviously, I lost that fight.”

The following evening, the same manifestation of the Presence of the Lord gripped the room. Those in attendance spent their Saturday meeting laughing and rejoicing in the Lord's refreshing joy.

The Science Agrees with God
Both Scripture and modern science agree that laughter is a blessing.

On the benefits of laughter, Psychology Today reports that the physical effects of laughter include a boosted immune system, muscle relaxation, and improved circulation. The publication also asserts that “laughter can lower anxiety, release tension, improve mood, and foster resilience.” When people laugh, endorphins (feel-good brain chemicals) are released, and cortisol (stress hormone) levels are decreased. The Bible frames it this way in Proverbs 17:22: “A merry heart does good, like medicine.”

When addressing the congregation following the initial manifestation of holy laughter, Apostle Ed said this: “I’ll say what the Lord said to me. He said, ‘They have pleased My heart, and they have touched My heart. And whoever touches My heart,’ he said, ‘finds what’s in My heart. And one of the things that is in My heart is joy. So, they touched joy that was in My heart.’ What you just witnessed is one of the fruit of the renewal of the Spirit.”