Get Up and Dance

I was at my chiropractor's office yesterday, waiting for my turn to be adjusted, when I saw a sweet elderly lady also getting an adjustment. It was very hard for her to get up on the table. She was very stiff and I discerned that this was her 'state of being' not a recent injury. I began to pray for her in the Spirit and I heard the word 'settle.'

I saw that her sins (thoughts that don't align with the Word of God) had 'settled' into the joints of her body. And the Lord began to impart to me the value of exercise.

Even though we are three parts: Spirit, Soul (mind, will, emotions) and Body - we can not separate these three in reality. What we eat affects us spiritually, what we believe affects us physically, what we do affects us mentally, etc.

If you don't do another constructive thing this summer, I want to encourage you to listen to  Dr. Caroline Leaf. I linked to a message of hers on my last post. She is a Christian neuro-scientist who has proven that 'as a man thinks, so he is.' She teaches that our thoughts have 'mental real estate.' Our thoughts actually create neurons in our brain. When our thoughts are pure and in line with God's Word, they bring Life and health. When they are sinful, they bring sickness, disease and mental illness.

She teaches, in her books and videos, how to renew our mind in the Word and change our health. Even things we are born with are a result of sin. The Bible tells us that the sins of the father are carried to the fifth generation. She teaches through renewing our mind in the Word, we can 'heal' those generational curses.

I have been listening to her teachings every chance I get and I've gotten two of her books to read. The Lord added to this teaching as I was sitting watching this dear lady.

We know that exercise releases endorphins that affect our moods and mental health. What God showed me is that exercise can keep these sinful manifestations from 'settling' into our joints as we get older and causing us to 'stiffen.' All physical ailments are rooted in these truths.

I love to start my day with Praise. Praise is declaring  Who God is. It is declaring that He is perfect in all His ways. I love to declare my love and devotion to Him with music and dance and movement. If you haven't read my post on the Seven Hebrew Words for Praise, please do. You'll see that movement is a very important part of praise.

When I start my day like this, I am incorporating both praise and exercise. I am blessing all my three parts - Spirit, Soul and Body. When I start my day like this, I hear God's voice all day long.

Some people love to commune with God as they walk. This is also a wonderful way to incorporate exercise with worship.

I truly believe that God wants us to understand that exercise is part of His design to keep us healthy Spirit, Soul and Body.

love and blessings~

Increasing Your Faith (Part Two)

If you have not read, "Increasing Your Faith - Part One" yet, please read yesterday's post.  

As I shared yesterday, to know God, we first need to know His Word.  He and His Word are One. His Word establishes a 'boundary' in our hearts and minds as to the character and nature of God.  




As we spend time in His Word, we begin to recognize God's voice. (John 10:27) His Word begins to rise up on the inside of us and lives. His living Word begins to easily expose the lies in our mind and thought-life that disagree with His Word and then we tear them down with the truth of God's Word.

And as we begin to get a picture of Who God is, the natural outcome is love and praise.  Praise and thanksgiving begins to rise up on the inside of us. We begin to praise Him for Who He is and thank Him for what He's done..

Praise is declaring Who God is!  The Seven Hebrew Words for Praise. Praise comes out of our mouth and is expressed with our bodies. Praise causes us to sing, to raise our hands, to dance, and to shout. Praise is not praise until it comes out of our mouth. Our hearts may be filled with all kinds of good thoughts toward God but that's not praise.  Again, praise is not praise until it comes out of our mouth.

I love the words to Matt Redman's song, "Dancing Generation."

"Your mercy taught us how to dance

To celebrate with all we have

And we'll dance to thank You for mercy

Your glory taught us how to shout

To lift Your name in all the earth

And we'll shout to the praise of Your glory

It's the overflow of a forgiven soul

And now we've seen You, God

And our hearts cannot stay silent!!

And we'll be a dancing generation

Dancing because of Your great mercy, Lord

Your great mercy, Lord"

It's the overflow of a forgiven soul and now we've seen you God...and OUR HEARTS CANNOT STAY SILENT!!  That's praise!

Praise is the guy at the football game with no shirt on, his chest painted and a cheese on his head. Praise is the woman who answers the door and finds out she won a million dollars and can't quit rejoicing.  Praise is being so overwhelmed by the goodness of God that you can't contain it. Praise is finding out that even though you deserve to spend eternity separated from God that He paid the price and you get to spend eternity with Him!

Hebrews 4:16 tells us to 'come boldly into the throne room.'  That word 'boldly' means 'with confidence.'  Confidence born of faith. Confidence that comes from knowing we're forgiven and washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. Confidence that comes from knowing that Our Father loves us and gave up His life for us so that we might have perfect fellowship with Him.  

He wants us to come into the throne room!  He wants us to spend time with Him. We were created to praise Him and fellowship with Him! If anything is stopping you from doing this, go back and destroy that lie with the Word! If there's habitual sin in your life, give it to Him - put it under the blood and destroy the guilt with the truth of His forgiveness.  Get washed clean with the Word.

God wants us to KNOW Him. This word does not mean that we know everything about God.  He is infinite.  It means 'to know' someone like a bride knows her husband. It means 'to be intimately acquainted with.'  This word means 'to intercourse' with God.

The Bible says that marriage is a mystery that is an illustration of the Bride of Christ and Jesus, the Head of the Church.  Ephesians 5:32  

We are to be the intimate Bride of Christ. When we come before God with praise, His Presence is drawn to us. James 4:8 says that when we draw near to God, He draws near to us. As we begin to get lost in His Presence, we enter into worship.  In this place of worship, Spirit touches spirit, and we are satisfied and made whole.  We cannot be made whole without this intimacy with God.

It's in this Holy of Holies that we are transformed into His likeness. We are changed from glory unto glory unto glory as we behold Him. (2 Cor 3:18)  It's in this place that He fills our hearts with His Love and His Nature and we become Christ-like. It's in this place that He speaks to us and makes His heart known to us.

When I get up in the morning, I don't have a 'quiet-time.'  I don't DO devotions. I come before God with praise. I enter into the Presence of God through praise and I worship Him. That's not to say that I'm never quiet before God.  I'm often quiet before God - after I get into His Presence.

I typically get my Bible, (a cup of coffee), my journal and pen.  I turn on praise and worship music. And I go to God with praise.

Sometimes when I enter into worship, God will speak something to me that I need to write down. Other times He will show me something in His Word. Sometimes He will 'download' revelation and understanding into my heart.  He will show me visions and pictures of people.  He shows me how to pray.

Sometimes, God will direct me to 'declare' the things He's telling me. At times, I will become overwhelmed with the victory that God is showing me and I have to dance and shout and wave a banner. (This is spiritual warfare - following God's direction and speaking His Voice into the earth... praising God with dance and banners that summon the angels to do God's warfare. I'll try to share some teachings with you on this in the future and the language of color.) 

It's in this place with God that I get healed and restored and washed. God convicts me of sin and I ask His forgiveness and He empowers me to change, to repent. I can't change myself just because I decide to - that's humanism. And it doesn't work.  I need God to change me on the inside. I need God to judge me and correct me and to empower me.  I need God.  I need God, the person!  

I need on-going, life-changing encounters and intercourse with the One Who created me.  It's through these encounters that I begin to understand who He created me to be and I begin to walk in it. 

And that's faith! 

I have gone through seasons and times in my thirty-some years with the Lord when I have not been faithful to do this. And I get weaker. I stop growing.  I become stagnant.  But when I set my heart to seek Him and do what I  know to do, He is always faithful!  He always receives me and restores me and sets me free. He has restored the years the locust have eaten.  He has set me on a rock and I cannot be shaken. He has taken me out of the pit and put me in a wide-open place.  

If I need healing, I often receive it, just by being in His Presence.  Spending time with God will cause all the gifts of the Spirit to rise up in you.  You will become sensitive to His leading all day long. You will hear His voice and His direction.  God will drop things down into my Spirit during the day as I'm doing the laundry. Sometimes the things He will give me during the day are so huge that I will have to drop to my knees next to the washing machine and thank Him and praise Him again.

This is abiding in Him.  This is seeing the world through His eyes and knowing with confidence that He has heard me and is answering my prayers.

This is walking by faith and not by sight.

love and blessings~

A Time to Dance

Bill Johnson, the pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, tells the story about a woman who came into their church one day and through the Holy Spirit he discerned that she was demon possessed. He went to their church’s “main dancer” and asked her to begin to minister in dance and as soon as she began to dance across the platform, it was if this demon possessed woman was a marionette and the strings were cut. The woman crumpled to the ground, the power of darkness broken over her life. Bill Johnson’s wife, Beni, then bent over the woman praying for her and ministering to her and the woman received salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

While we lived in Alabama, our church was blessed with revival that lasted over five months, during which over 700 people received Christ. The power of God during those five months was so wonderful that we had church six nights a week and stayed many nights until midnight, worshiping and ministering to those in need. 

Several months before the revival, I had started a dance ministry, by God’s direction, and we had done a medley of songs that included the words, “cast out your nets all you fishers’ of men, In the power of the Spirit revival begins.” The Lord instructed me that before we danced, to get up before the congregation and repeat these words. It was not until about a year after the revival, that the Lord told me to go back and watch the tape and reminded me of this. I had even forgotten that I had done this and had never connected this with the revival, yet I had sensed that freedom of worship and dance had been a key part of bringing revival and God had used the prophetic words of this song.

In Ecclesiastes 3:4, we see the scripture ”a time to dance, a time to mourn.” The Hebrew word for dance here is “raqad” and is translated “to dance, skip, to skip about, leap and jump.” 

In 2 Samuel 6:14, we read the story of David dancing with abandon as the Ark of the Covenant is brought back to the people of God. This time we see a second Hebrew word “kara” and this word is translated “to whirl, whirling, dancing. “

But in Exodus 15:20, as we read the account of Miriam leading the women in dancing after God had delivered the Children of Israel from Egypt and they had crossed the Red Sea, we see a third Hebrew word for dance. It is “m@chowlah” and means “dance, dancing, company.” The root word of this word is “machashabah” and means “thought, device, purpose, work, imaginations, cunning, devised, invented, means.” It took me a couple of days of thinking about this meaning unto the Lord before it was revealed to me that this was a choreographed dance! It still had all the spiritual power of the first two dances but was pre-planned by the Holy Spirit!

But the word used in Psalm 149 and 150 is fascinating and confirms everything the Lord has taught me over the last 20 years. The word used in Psalm 149 and 150, “Praise Him with dancing” is “machowl,” a fourth Hebrew word that translates in English, “dance.” However, the root word of this word is “chuwl” and pay attention to the meanings. It means pain, formed, bring forth, pained, tremble, travail, dance, calve, grieved, wounded, shake.
The following is copied directly from Strong’s concordance as the definitions of this word:

1) to twist, whirl, dance, writhe, fear, tremble, travail, be in anguish, be pained
1a) (Qal) 
1a1) to dance 
1a2) to twist, writhe 
1a3) to whirl, whirl about 
1b) (Polel) 
1b1) to dance 
1b2) to writhe (in travail with), bear, bring forth 
1b3) to wait anxiously 
1c) (Pulal) 
1c1) to be made to writhe, be made to bear 
1c2) to be brought forth 
1d) (Hophal) to be born 
1e) (Hithpolel) 
1e1) whirling (participle) 
1e2) writhing, suffering torture (participle) 
1e3) to wait longingly 
1f) (Hithpalpel) to be distressed 

The word dance here in Psalms 149 and 150 means to offer up praises to God, to intercede, to prophecy and bring forth - all through dance! Through worship dance, we intercede, we birth and bring forth, we travail and we prophecy!

Now here’s something amazing. If you look up the in the Strong’s the Hebrew word in Ezekial for “Army” it is chayil or chuwl! The root word of army is to” to twist, whirl, dance, writhe, fear, tremble, travail, be in anguish, be pained.” The same word!

Consider the words of Psalm 149:
1 Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, And His praise in the assembly of saints.
2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. 
3 Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp. 
4 For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.
5 Let the saints be joyful in glory; Let them sing aloud on their beds. 
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand, 
7 To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples; 
8 To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron;
9 To execute on them the written judgment-- This honor have all His saints. Praise the Lord! 

We are to praise God with singing, with the dance, with instruments, because the high praises of God in our mouths, and in these forms, bind the enemy’s kings with chains and his nobles with fetters of iron. This is spiritual warfare. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal – they are the beautiful praises of the saints expressed to God – spirit, soul and body!

Acts 15:25 says that while Paul and Silas were in prison at midnight they were praising and singing hymns to God and suddenly there was a great earthquake and all the doors were opened and everyone’s chained were loosed! Not just Paul’s and Silas’ chains – but everyone’s! Praise and worship will break the chains the bind us and a good twirl and kick and the chains can be cast away for good! I know it sounds silly, but there is power in twirling!

The Word tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:27. “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” Many “wise” men have despised the dance thinking how could God use such a silly thing as this as a form of warfare. But the dance was created by God as a form of worship and all worship is warfare. The Word tells us that in His Presence is fullness of joy and the joy of the Lord is our strength. Where God is, there is salvation, deliverance, healing and strength and He is enthroned on our praise. 
Many people have received healing and deliverance during praise and worship without anyone praying for them or laying hands on them. 

And the dance is an important key in worship. The enemy has perverted this form of worship and the world and some sections of the church think of it as evil. The world uses it to glorify the body; to glorify the creation instead of the creator. But God is compelling the Body of Christ to take back the dance and the arts and understand that they are powerful in form and image. 

God is a creator and He created us in His image. He created us to be creative and God intends that we use this creativity to glorify Him! He has blessed us with an imagination and dreams and when our whole heart is submitted to God, the natural outcome of a renewed mind creates new ways to glorify God! He wants us to glorify Him through dance and music, through drama and art. He wants His Spirit to flow unhindered through us with new spontaneous forms of praise and worship. This releases His power and majesty here on the earth that all may see Him. Through the dance, the spiritual is birthed into the natural. This brings the “experience” of God to others that they may know that He is real and alive and not just print on a page. 

As in all things of God, we will not gain understanding of this through our natural mind. The things of the Spirit are understood by the Spirit. We learn as we step out in faith and seek to operate in the things of God. The same thing happens with dance ministry. As we obey the Lord in faith, even without understanding, the Lord begins to impart revelation knowledge. This is an area that the Body of Christ needs to “renew their mind in.” 

We are spirit, soul and body. We cannot separate where our spirit stops and where our body begins – our body is the saturated dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. We live in the spirit realm and our sensitivity to the things of God will determine our awareness or unawareness of this realm we live in. When I move my physical body, I move in the spirit realm and when I move by God’s divine direction, I dramatically affect the spiritual atmosphere. 

God first commission to man was to take dominion over the earth. He created the earth for us to rule over and handed the keys of His authority to us. If this were not true, Adam could not have given them away to Satan. But when Jesus conquered sin on our behalf, He handed these keys back to us. I always think it's interesting that even before His resurrection He give His disciples power and authority over all the demons and to cure diseases and sends them to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick (Luke 9:1,2.) 
And yet even after Christ’s triumph over evil many of us do not understand our authority on the earth. The Host (Army) of Heaven has been given to us to assist us in this rule. They are also under our command. Jesus came to the earth to do good and to destroy the works of the enemy. This is also our assignment and every spiritual blessing has been given us to take back the earth for Christ. (Eph 1)

Our churches are full of ministries that don’t need the power of God to operate. They accomplish their goals through good planning, marketing and human determination. They are training people to never expect to see the Holy Spirit move, to never see a miracle, to never expect to be healed in a church service. They have a form of godliness but deny the power within. The dance is not meant to be a form of entertainment. It is beautiful, as beauty was created by God and all things that come from Him are beautiful, but it is a powerful form of worship and warfare. 

Heidi and Rolland Baker are missionaries in Mozambique, Africa www.irisministries.com and in the last several years have, through their ministry, seen over 70 people raised from the dead. Right now, Heidi is going into African villages and calling specifically for the deaf to be brought to her, because she is seeing the deaf healed 100% percent of the time through the laying on of her hands. She spends hours in worship and has gained this tremendous anointing through the intimacy of worship. Heidi and Rolland Baker started with a dance ministry! 

God is raising up a joyful Bride that will operate in these Keys to the Kingdom and one of these powerful keys is worship! Unashamed, abandoned love for God that cannot be contained but must be expressed with a shout, with hands raised high in love for Him, with feet that crush the enemy’s head with dancing and joy, with a banner raised up in His name! A worshiping Bride washed in His blood and His Word, empowered by His Spirit and operating in His gifts. A Bride that will obey God’s first commission: to take dominion of this earth and present it to Her Saviour. A Bride that will obey the last thing He told us to do – “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature…And these signs and wonders will follow those who believe: In My Name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; …they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. “

Jesus said, “ Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

Stretch Out Your Tent Stakes

My daughter, Laura Myers

Twenty one years ago my family and I left our home in  Denver, Colorado and moved to Auburn, Alabama for my husband to get his PhD in Economics.  During most of the five years we lived there we attended Auburn First Assembly of God; a church of about 600 people.  

I have always been involved in Worship Dance Ministry, thanks to Nina Korsen who pastored our church with her husband, Jeff,  in Denver.  When we began attending our church in Auburn I was so blessed that the Praise and  Worship was wonderful but disappointed that no one was dancing.  After attending there a while I couldn't stand it anymore and one Sunday walked to the back of the sanctuary and began to worship My God with dance.  


After a few months the Lord put it on my heart to start a Worship Dance Ministry with the young teen girls that were part of the Missionettes group that I was leading. He also put it on my heart to join the choir of about 40 people.  He gave me the scripture Isaiah 54:2,3,

     "Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords, And strengthen your pegs, For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your descendants will possess nations and resettle the desolate cities."

I asked the Worship Pastor if I could join the choir.  He said, "Yes." 
I said, "May I dance?"  He smiled and said, "Yes." 
I asked if I could always stand on the end so that I would have room.  He said, "Yes. 
I started going to practice.

The first Sunday that I was up on the platform I began to feel the Holy Spirit moving in me and convicting me to respond.  Remember - I was in front of about 600 people and that none of them ever danced!  I remembered the words of God to Jeremiah, telling him not to be dismayed but to obey what God was telling him to do.  I turned my back to the congregation, faced the wall, and began to dance.  

About two weeks later I was dancing on the platform during praise and worship when I saw a man in the back of sanctuary weeping.  He came up to me after church and told me how convicted he was of the sin in his life when he saw me dancing.  

We were now also doing choreographed worship dance.  We did a wonderful medley of songs during an evening service.  The Lord told me to go the front before the song and to say the words to one of the songs we were dancing to.  "Cast out your nets all ye fishers of men!  In the power of the Spirit, revival begins!"

(Months later the Lord would remind me of this and tell me to go back and look at the tape because I had not made the connection.)  Because revival broke out at our church.  For over 5 months we had church every night but Mondays and we would stay until midnight sometimes, worshiping and dancing and ministering to those in need.  

And now everyone was dancing!  The minute praise and worship would start the young people would hurry to the front and begin to praise.  People would arrive every night already shouting and singing their praise to God and the only purpose of the praise and worship leaders was to get them to sing the same song!  

I saw God do things in that season that I had never seen before.  I saw Him move in the most beautiful ways. The gifts of the Spirit were flowing with love and power and one of the most amazing things was that brand-new believers were speaking with beautiful revelations that they had received from the Father.  

Over 700 people were saved in that 5 months and the young college students were standing on the corners at Auburn University preaching the gospel!  

I learned so much in that season.  I learned so much about the intercession and the spiritual warfare of the dance.  I learned that there are different kinds of dance; intercession, warfare, celebration, praise and worship.  

Over the years in my walk with Jesus He has brought a special anointing into my hands just a couple of times.  My hands VIBRATE.  It has happened twice in Denver, once or twice in Auburn, once about 4 years ago and then again this Sunday!  

But the wonderful part to me - the reason I'm really paying attention and rejoicing - is not only did God bring that 'special' anointing again but this Sunday a guest pastor visiting and preaching at our church, quoted Isaiah 54:2,3 and today Marsha Burn of Small Straws in a Soft Wind also quotes Isaiah 54:2,3.  

"Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords, And strengthen your pegs, For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your descendants will possess nations and resettle the desolate cities."

Dancing for joy!  

Love and blessings!

"Praise the LORD!

Praise God in His sanctuary;

Praise Him in His mighty expanse.

Praise Him for His mighty deeds;

Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

Praise Him with trumpet sound.

Praise Him with harp and lyre.

Praise Him with timbrel and dancing;

Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe."

Psalms 150

Praise Him with Dancing!

Bill Johnson, the pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, tells the story about a woman who came into their church one day and through the Holy Spirit he discerned that she was demon possessed. He went to their church’s “main dancer” and asked her to begin to minister in dance and as soon as she began to dance across the platform, it was if this demon possessed woman was a marionette and the strings were cut. The woman crumpled to the ground, the power of darkness broken over her life. Bill Johnson’s wife, Beni, then bent over the woman praying for her and ministering to her and the woman received salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

While we lived in Alabama, our church was blessed with revival that lasted over five months, during which over 700 people received Christ. The power of God during those five months was so wonderful that we had church six nights a week and stayed many nights until midnight, worshiping and ministering to those in need. 

Several months before the revival, I had started a dance ministry, by God’s direction, and we had done a medley of songs that included the words, “cast out your nets all you fishers’ of men, In the power of the Spirit revival begins.” The Lord instructed me that before we danced, to get up before the congregation and repeat these words. It was not until about a year after the revival, that the Lord told me to go back and watch the tape and reminded me of this. I had even forgotten that I had done this and had never connected this with the revival, yet I had sensed that freedom of worship and dance had been a key part of bringing revival and God had used the prophetic words of this song.

In Ecclesiastes 3:4, we see the scripture ”a time to dance, a time to mourn.” The Hebrew word for dance here is “raqad” and is translated “to dance, skip, to skip about, leap and jump.” In 2 Samuel 6:14, we read the story of David dancing with abandon as the Ark of the Covenant is brought back to the people of God. This time we see a second Hebrew word “kara” and this word is translated “to whirl, whirling, dancing. “

But in Exodus 15:20, as we read the account of Miriam leading the women in dancing after God had delivered the Children of Israel from Egypt and they had crossed the Red Sea, we see a third Hebrew word for dance. It is “m@chowlah” and means “dance, dancing, company.” The root word of this word is “machashabah” and means “thought, device, purpose, work, imaginations, cunning, devised, invented, means.” It took me a couple of days of thinking about this meaning unto the Lord before it was revealed to me that this was a choreographed dance! It still had all the spiritual power of the first two dances but was pre-planned by the Holy Spirit!


But the word used in Psalm 149 and 150 is fascinating and confirms everything the Lord has taught me over the last 20 years. The word used in Psalm 149 and 150, “Praise Him with dancing” is “machowl,” a fourth Hebrew word that translates in English, “dance.” However, the root word of this word is “chuwl” and pay attention to the meanings. It means pain, formed, bring forth, pained, tremble, travail, dance, calve, grieved, wounded, shake.
The following is copied directly from Strong’s concordance as the definitions of this word:

1) to twist, whirl, dance, writhe, fear, tremble, travail, be in anguish, be pained
1a) (Qal) 
1a1) to dance 
1a2) to twist, writhe 
1a3) to whirl, whirl about 
1b) (Polel) 
1b1) to dance 
1b2) to writhe (in travail with), bear, bring forth 
1b3) to wait anxiously 
1c) (Pulal) 
1c1) to be made to writhe, be made to bear 
1c2) to be brought forth 
1d) (Hophal) to be born 
1e) (Hithpolel) 
1e1) whirling (participle) 
1e2) writhing, suffering torture (participle) 
1e3) to wait longingly 
1f) (Hithpalpel) to be distressed 

The word dance here in Psalms 149 and 150 means to offer up praises to God, to intercede, to prophecy and bring forth - all through dance! Through worship dance, we intercede, we birth and bring forth, we travail and we prophecy!

Now here’s something amazing. If you look up the in the Strong’s the Hebrew word in Ezekial for “Army” it is chayil or chuwl! The root word of army is to” to twist, whirl, dance, writhe, fear, tremble, travail, be in anguish, be pained.” The same word!

Consider the words of Psalm 149:
1 Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, And His praise in the assembly of saints. 2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. 3 Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp. 4 For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation. 5 Let the saints be joyful in glory; Let them sing aloud on their beds. 
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand, 7 To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples; 8 To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron; 9 To execute on them the written judgment-- This honor have all His saints. Praise the Lord! 
Praise God with singing, with the dance, with instruments because the high praises of God in our mouths and in these forms bind the enemy’s kings with chains and his nobles with fetters of iron. This is spiritual warfare and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal – they are the beautiful praises of the saints expressed to God – spirit, soul and body!

Acts 15:25 says that while Paul and Silas were in prison, that at midnight they were praising and singing hymns to God and suddenly there was a great earthquake and all the doors were opened and everyone’s chained were loosed! Not just Paul’s and Silas’ chains – but everyone’s! Praise and worship will break the chains the bind us and a good twirl and kick and the chains can be cast away for good! I know it sounds silly, but there is power in twirling!

The word tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:27. “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” Many “wise” men have despised the dance thinking how could God use such a silly thing as this as a form of warfare. But the dance was created by God as a form of worship and all worship is warfare. The Word tells us that in His presence is fullness of joy and the joy of the Lord is our strength. Where God is, there is salvation, deliverance, healing and strength and He is enthroned on our praise. 
Many people have received healing and deliverance during praise and worship without anyone praying for them or laying hands on them. 

And the dance is an important key in worship. The enemy has perverted this form of worship and the world and some sections of the church think of it as evil. The world uses it to glorify the body; to glorify the creation instead of the creator. But God is compelling the Body of Christ to take back the dance and the arts and understand that they are powerful in form and image. 

God is a creator and He created us in His image. He created us to be creative and God intends that we use this creativity to glorify Him! He has blessed us with an imagination and dreams and when our whole heart is submitted to God, the natural outcome of a renewed mind creates new ways to glorify God! He wants us to glorify Him through dance and music, through drama and art. He wants His Spirit to flow unhindered through us with new spontaneous forms of praise and worship. This releases His power and majesty here on the earth that all may see Him. This brings the “experience” of God to others that they may know that He is real and alive and not just print on a page. 

As in all things of God, we will not gain understanding of this through our natural mind. The things of the Spirit are understood by the Spirit. We learn as we step out in faith and seek to operate in the things of God. The same thing happens with dance ministry. As we obey the Lord in faith, even without understanding, the Lord begins to impart revelation knowledge. This is an area that the Body of Christ needs to “renew their mind in.” 

We are spirit, soul and body. We cannot separate where our spirit stops and where our body begins – our body is the saturated dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. We live in the spirit realm and our sensitivity to the things of God will determine our awareness or unawareness of this realm we live in. When I move my physical body, I move in the spirit realm and when I move by God’s divine direction, I dramatically affect the spiritual atmosphere. 

God first commission to man was to take dominion over the earth. He created the earth for us to rule over and handed the keys of His authority to us. If this were not true, Adam could not have given them away to Satan. But when Jesus conquered sin on our behalf, He handed these keys back to us. I always think its interesting that even before His resurrection He give His disciples power and authority over all the demons and to cure diseases and sends them to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick (Luke 9:1,2.) 
And yet even after Christ’s triumph over evil many of us do not understand our authority on the earth. The Host (Army) of Heaven has been given to us to assist us in this rule. They are also under our command. Jesus came to the earth to do good and to destroy the works of the enemy. This is also our assignment and every spiritual blessing has been given us to take back the earth for Christ. (Eph 1)

Our churches are full of ministries that don’t need the power of God to operate. They accomplish their goals through good planning, marketing and human determination. They are training people to never expect to see the Holy Spirit move, to never see a miracle, to never expect to be healed in a church service. They have a form of godliness but deny the power within. The dance is not meant to be a form of entertainment. It is beautiful, as beauty was created by God and all things that come from Him are beautiful, but it is a powerful form of worship and warfare. 

Heidi and Rolland Baker are missionaries in Mozambique, Africa www.irisministries.com and in the last several years have, through their ministry, seen over 70 people raised from the dead. Right now, Heidi is going into African villages and calling specifically for the deaf to be brought to her, because she is seeing the deaf healed 100% percent of the time through the laying on of her hands. She spends hours in worship and has gained this tremendous anointing through the intimacy of worship. Heidi and Rolland Baker started with a dance ministry! 

God is raising up a joyful Bride that will operate in these Keys to the Kingdom and one of these powerful keys is worship! Unashamed, abandoned love for God that cannot be contained but must be expressed with a shout, with hands raised high in love for Him, with feet that crush the enemy’s head with dancing and joy, with a banner raised up in His name! A worshiping Bride washed in His blood and His Word, empowered by His Spirit and operating in His gifts. A Bride that will obey God’s first commission: to take dominion of this earth and present it to Her Saviour. A Bride that will obey the last thing He told us to do – “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature…And these signs and wonders will follow those who believe: In My Name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; …they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. “

Jesus said, “ Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Hiim for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals!

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!

Love and blessings!