Freedom to Dance!

This week I'm going to take a bit of time to update you on what I've been up to in the dance ministry so far.

For many years I've had a burden to dance and move before God in prayer, intercession, prophesy, praise and worship. Thanks to God I was living in Brighton during many of these years, where an international ministry known as 'Movement in Worship' is based. Movement in Worship consists of a team of worshippers who move and dance before God in anointing, freedom, maturity and power. This team travels internationally to events to aid in worshipping God, prayer, prophesy, and equipping others to do the same. Dance and movement before God often has a powerful effect in setting people free and receiving from God in ways they hadn't been able to do before. Being a part of this team over the past few years has afforded me the glorious opportunity to practice and grow in a gift that has brought tremendous blessing and freedom to my life and the lives of many of those I've had the pleasure of sharing it with. Dance and movement brings me into new realms of expression and communication with my Daddy God that I'd not experienced before, and just being able to be with God in this way is often overwhelming to me.

During our time in Mexico I've been running movement in worship classes for children and adults across three different areas of the city in four weekly workshops. I was initially helped by Mario, who's also skilled in movement in the presence of God, so I'd have help with demonstrations and translation. Fortunately my Spanish is now good enough for me to run classes alone and my descriptions and demos sufficient for everyone to get the gist of what I'm trying to explain! It's necessary for me to teach without Mario as he's preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ in as many houses as possible each day.

In our classes we've covered various areas including 'worship and why,' 'how God made us to move individually,' 'moving as a group,' 'prayer and intercession,' 'prophesy,' 'self-image,' 'the biblical significance of movement and colours,' 'moving with props, e.g. banners and staffs,' and 'moving to scripture.' There are still a number of areas to cover in the remaining weeks.

Many people wanted to 'copy' a style or 'learn steps.' However, I desired to bring a freshness and spontaneity to dance and movement that involved a focus on being sensitive to the Holy Spirit so that new interpretative and worshipful dance would be embraced. For this reason I've had to avoid lengthy demonstrations and continually reiterate that God has made each of us to move in beautiful and unique ways, and we need to each find the style that God has individually planned for us.

During our sessions, particularly the session on prayer and intercession, we saw a lot of liberation and old paradigms broken. There are various things that I mean by this. For example, many people received answers to prayers that they had been praying for a long time. Others were set free from addictions, shame, fear of man, fear of intimacy, religiosity, and other problems. Others were healed of emotional pain and broken dreams. All received a deeper level of intimacy with one another and the Lord Jesus Christ. Each were also therefore equipped to continue to reach this level in future both alone or with others.

I've also had the privilege of dancing in various worship services across the city during my time here, and have witnessed a greater freedom in worship as a result. I've heard a number of prophesies that the Lord has given to people during a dance, and people have also been set free and healed of various things, including marital problems while watching this movement in worship. I'm pleased to say Mario continues to dance with me on Sundays, along with dear friends from the workshops who are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and move with a heart of worship. Together with the team we've already ministered some specific dances in our congregation, and this weekend we'll be ministering at a three day outreach in Wisla, some six hours away. I expect our update next week will be all about the miraculous things God does on this outreach!!