In 2021 whilst I was in a season of being called away by the Lord, I was also in one of the most difficult seasons in my life. After much spiritual warfare came against me, I was in the fire, and so I did the only thing I knew, I sought the Lord with all that I am and all that I knew. He faithfully met me and spoke so clearly to me in this season. I knew the Truth, I knew His voice. I knew the purposes of God for my life, and I knew the power of the Gospel and truly when we go through seasons like this, our only good option is to cling to Jesus, and that I did.
It was in this season that I saw vision of me dancing on a stage in a big church with silver flags. It was very unusual, considering I don't think I knew anyone at this time who danced like this with flags, and I hadn't really seen this all that much. The Lord told me, "You will dance, and as you dance you will bring redemption", and as a sign to confirm He would have someone gift me silver flags.
I had had small glimpses of God using me to dance before this, but I didn't realise the power of dance, nor how God would use this.
About a year later, I met a woman who made flags in Australia. I started to get repeated prophetic words about people seeing me dancing. Then a few months later, I was gifted silver flags by the woman who was making flags. This was the fulfilment of the word God had given me.
I remember the first time I felt God ask me to dance with flags, I felt it so strongly, but I was so scared! What would people think of me? I don't know how to wave a flag! What if I hit someone? What if I do not look gracious!? So, I did not do it. I let fear win that night. That night I went home and repented, and decided I would never again not dance if God told me to. I said, "Lord, tomorrow I will". I was so scared that I even considered waking up at 4am in the dark to practice. The next day, God gave me another opportunity, and so I took it and started dancing with others to see.
In this season I felt God show me He was going to send me to North America to get more training in worship. In this season I was singing more and starting to lead worship this way, so I expected this to be in vocals. Within a few more months, I was in the USA for a friend's wedding, and God spoke through a prophetess that I would do Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM). Here was my very unexpected season of deeper training in worship! I found opportunities for singing were not open to me, but they had dance classes, and I knew I needed to join! God wanted to teach me a greater depth of knowing that worship is about heart posture.
The first months of dance class I did my best to hide, to avoid dancing, and to go right at the back so less people could see me. I felt very uncomfortable, but I kept pressing in, and stepping out because I knew God was leading me to, and I felt His delight. In this season I felt God show me that this next revival that will come will have a lot of dancing with flags, because God will use it to break religion off the global church and He will use it to humble and purify the church.
A few months later I found myself on my spring mission trip in Alabama, USA dancing for the first time on stage in front of hundreds of people. On one occasion it was in a room of hundreds of women who were in recovery programs from abuse and addiction. The purity of the Lord moved through the dance. One of these women said to me that she wanted to start dancing after seeing me dance.
After this I danced a couple of times on stage in front of our first-year class. I felt scared and danced as far back as possible to hide! Fast forward a few more months and I was asked to help lead a BSSM revival trip to Australia where the focus would be on worship and encouraging the Australian church. I felt strongly we needed a dance team at each worship encounter night, and so I started voicing this and collaborating with leaders and churches and their existing dance teams to join with them. Some of our team had also never danced on stage before.
So, there I found myself dancing on stage at the first official Bethel Church conference in Sydney, Australia as we joined with some local dancers. I felt totally unequipped and inexperienced, but I just said "yes". At this conference, one of the days a friend prophesied over me that I received eagles' wings. In that moment I felt led to pick up my two silver flags and dance. Later that day I received an envelope with 'Eagles Wings' written on it and inside was a poem about dance. That night I danced for the first time on stage with my silver flags. It felt like a powerful and significant moment of fulfilment of the vision I had around two years earlier. The flags being my eagle wings, that prophesy redemption.
For the next three weeks I danced nearly every night, sometimes for 2-3 hours straight. As our teams danced, the glory of God came and so much freedom came in the room. On one occasion I felt to invite some of the kids on stage to dance. Initially they were shy but with some gentle encouragement they became excited. As the worship leaders moved to the side, the young kids took centre stage. The whole room was captivated by the childlike faith, freedom and purity.
Now I am part of the second-year dance team at BSSM and regularly dance on stage in front of hundreds. Often, I still feel uncomfortable, and know that I don't have the skill and experience that many of the other dancers have. Yet I don't dance to perform or to compare myself, but to worship Jesus and release whatever He wants to release in the room.
As I think back to my childhood, I realise now that God put the desire to dance in me from a young age. As a child I was a gymnast and incorporated dance into my floor work, but I always had a desire to do ballet dancing. Yet, because of the intensity of my gymnastics training, I couldn't do both. I also remember as a young girl dancing like crazy, as fast as I could in my living room. I also remember dancing to English 'pop' music in my room. I did not know the Salvation that comes through Jesus and as I became a teenager, the enemy used the pure desire God had given me to release sin through my dance. I had much shame and fear, so I would get as intoxicated as possible on alcohol and then dance in nightclubs and on stage in these clubs, even taking regular sinful dance classes whilst at university.
When I got saved at 19 years old, I stopped dancing. A few years later, in 2013 I did a year-long part-time course based on BSSM. One night they gave us the opportunity to step out in faith and dance together in worship to God. It was honestly something I did not want to do because of fear and shame, but I felt an invitation from the Lord to step through my fears.
In 2016 when I went to Mozambique, I found myself dancing in church. In 2019 I moved to central Australia to be a missionary in the desert, ministering the love of Jesus to the Aboriginal Australians. I experienced such intense spiritual warfare at times, and I found that when it was the most intense, the only thing that worked to break it was to go into my room and dance! Dance became my secret weapon of warfare.
I have heard it said that what you cultivate in secret with the Lord will be used in public, but it was not by my idea to dance in public, yet instead God has used it through continual obedience and stepping through fear.
In early 2021 before receiving the vision with the silver flags, I went to Tanzania to preach the Gospel and organise mass Gospel crusades. We would go with local church dance teams into marketplaces, villages and bus stations wherever we could find a crowd. As we arrived, we would play worship music and dance, soon a crowd gathered. We would then preach the Gospel. We saw hundreds of thousands of people come to Jesus through our large team as we did this. It was in this season that I felt like I received an unusual impartation to be able to dance in rhythm with others, which I did not have before.
I have heard countless testimonies of people getting healed, delivered and even stories of salvation linked to dance. It seems so foolish that something as simple as moving our bodies in worship in response to God would bring so much freedom, but I think that is exactly why God uses it. Dancing to the Lord is worship, when our heart is postured towards the Lord.
Dance is mentioned in the bible many times. I believe God uses dance to bring humility too as it is such a vulnerable thing to do in front of others. We hear in 2 Samuel 6 how David danced and leaped before the ark of the Lord. Some despised and mocked him for this, but David's response encourages me.
David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” 2 Samuel 6:21-22 NIV
May we become undignified and unashamed to dance before the Lord. May we celebrate, not just with our mouths in singing but in dancing before the Lord like David did. It's time for the global church to dance again like David.
I see dance ministries being raised up across the world in churches and prayer and worship centres. I see flags of many colours. I see men and women dancing, young and old. I see the children leading the way dancing in purity. I see dance taken into the darkest regions of the world and strongholds breaking. I see nations being redeemed through the power of praise and worship. I see the Lord preparing the way for the Great End Time Harvest through dance worship.
Consider how uncomfortable you feel dancing. What I have found is where we have the greatest fear is usually the thing that holds the greatest power when submitted to God. You may not feel you look gracious or have rhythm to dance, nor may you feel it is your gift, desire or it fits your personality type, but despite all this I encourage you to take a step of faith and courage and find freedom in dancing before the Lord in worship.