Released to Dance!

A popular Christian worship song boasts "I'll become even more undignified than this" in reference to how David wildly danced before the Lord in adoration.
All, who worship in accord, express a desire to worship God in more of an abandoned way than even David, who forsook his own pride and dignity. The lyrics acclaimed are a commitment to let go of one's own inhibitions and perservations, in order to move into extravagant worship --expressing passion and love for God. Committing to exceed David's exhibition of passion is a big aspiration, because David was the ONLY one throughout Scripture that God, Himself, coined as  "A Man after My Own Heart."

Of course, not all venues and occasions are appropriate for dance or elaborate physical expression --

but such reckless abandonment is never appropriate for many who are more concerned about dignity and propriety.

Regardless of individual's nature,  personality types and preferences-- the God of Glory deserves uninhibited worship of our entire beings--for glorifying Him is  the very reason that we are created.

Though the enemy has usurped dance for secular venues and acquainted it with mere entertainment, true dance is for the Lord because it's an optimized expression of joy and gladness. He is the God who fills His people with joy and sets our feet ablaze. 
God doesn't want our passion and zeal for Him to be snuffed out due to traditional composure.
Jesus rebuked those who sought the honor of men, esteeming it more than the honor of God (John 5:43-45). And He even insists that we exhibit the humility of little children in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:2-4).

When David brought the ark of God up to Zion, the dwelling place of the Lord was no longer aloof from Israel, separated behind a veil, but His abiding Presence was in their MIDST and they jubilantly worshipped day and night. The same Holy Spirit that empowered Israel to win battles, dwell safely, and possess abundance is still giving His people Victory today! In the Old Testament we read how Amos prophesied of a future day when God would restore the Tabernacle of David --because He still desires to be in the MIDST of His People and receive the glory that's due His Name.
Today we are seeing this restoration fulfilled because, through Christ, the same glorious Holy Spirit is abiding in His people.

And the more God's people surrender to a greater aspiration of worship, the more room God has in hearts to manifest Himself.

Consequently, the more God shows up in our midst --- and that's something to get excited about!! 

That's all the more reason to release our hearts and souls into full expression of worship.

And that's all the more reason to-----------DANCE!

Poem and Song Dedicated to my Mom, Ruth Anne--

Unspoken "I Love you's" they were bottled up inside,
I didn't know how to pour them out
So I hoped they were implied.

Til I felt an Outpouring...
Of a Love--so much greater than mine
Spilt Out Unreservedly
A Love that Bled Upon a Tree

So Much More than I can Ever Say
So Much More than I have to Give Away

So my Love for you ---I Pour it Out for you
At the Feet of Jesus
Praying you'll hear HIS  "I Love you's"
Spoken so Personally
Praying you'll know the Power of HIS Love
That's So Enveloping

Often, when the term "emotions" are mentioned by Christians, the statement is accompanied with a caution, implying that they are unreliable. While it is true that emotions can vacillate and should always be in sync with Truth---we don't need to shut them off in fear of vulnerability. Rather, we need to max them out for God because God is a God of EMOTIONS!! Being made
in His very image, we have the amazing ability to release our hearts. God
doesn't want us to supress our emotions, but rather He desires us to align them with His own.
Jesus expressed passionate emotions on Earth that were aligned with the Father's heart.
He wept, steamed with righteous indignation, and loved vehemently.  Jesus' didn't supress His
emotions but expressed them, even publicly at times, because of the freedom that He walked in.  Free people are liberated with their emotions.  It's those who have been wounded and hurt that often supress their emotions as a protective measure. For example, by not opening their hearts so wide, they conclude that the pain of any heart break won't be felt as much.  But Jesus came to set the oppressed free. He wants to remove those shields of defense off of our hearts so that we can align them with the One whose love never fails us.

Through prayer and intercession, directed by the Holy Spirit, God will open our
hearts wider than we ever thought possible. Our emotions of love, hate, sorrow, joy etc.
will soar to greater heights than we have ever known as the Holy Spirit guides us into the  heartbeat of the Father. To explain, the ectasy of revelling in His Presence, the indignation against sin, the sorrow of a broken world, and the joy of our salvation will be expressed with God's propelling passion into astronomically diminsions.
And as  we deeply intercede for others, the Holy Spirit will guide us to tap into God's desires for their needs to be met. Consequently, our emotions will burn with passion that will press the prayer through to victory in the Spirit realm; asthey flow in God's heart and compel His  intervention. Our emotions move the heart of God, because the Holy Spirit prays through our emotions expending them on Kingdom pursuits. Instead of a warning accompanied with being too emotionful, perhaps the opposite should be true. A dead person doesn't express emotions. Emotion's are the release of the heart and through the power of the Holy Spirit, even God's heart. Therefore, we need to encourage Christians to be MORE EMOTIONAL  for God, opening our hearts as wide as possible, so we can throb with His heartbeat.

Keep Not Silence

I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night, ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give Him no rest till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isa 62:6,7)

It's Biblical to keep on ""keeping on"  --to keep praying and crying out --because the more we insist, the more God will come.  

God does answer single prayers, but sometimes it takes persistency to get His attention. That's how it was with my Mom, especially when my sister and I decided that we needed an adorable yellow duckling. After all we didn't need hamsters, mice, cats, dogs--we had our fair share of those. So, it was time for a baby duck.  So, in unison, from the backseat of the car, we chanted our request and insisted over, and over and over again!  Before long, we were enjoying watching our yellow duckling waddle around.  

In Luke 11, we can read a parable that Jesus spoke in relation to importunity and how the door was eventually opened for the man that refused to leave and kept knocking, and knocking, and knocking. Jesus related this to the importunity that we need to demonstrate in prayer at times too.

Last year, I had the opportunity to attend a house meeting where the mayor of Jerusalem was speaking. He shared an amazing revelation of the Hebrew language. He said that there are two Hebrew word for "watchmen" and one of them is the same word for "Christians".  Isaiah 62 speaks of --us--it's Christians that  God has called to be watchmen, not holding our peace, upon spiritual walls. God wants us to cry out for Jerusalem, in the Spirit realm,  to be a praise in the Earth.

Jesus told the woman at the well who was looking for confirmation about the right place to worship;" Woman, Believe me the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain , nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father....But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.( John 4:21,23)  
So, while the natural Jerusalem is significant, Christians understand that
Jerusalem is in the Spirit realm--the definition is "City of Peace" and God wants  the "City of Peace realm" to be a praise in the Earth.

John the Revelator saw the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev 21:2)
The more we cry out,  the more this realm of peace will lower from the heavens to the Earth and the more others will enter this peaceful city. Jesus
is the Prince of peace and there are millions through out the nations that don't know Him. Instead of a descending city of peace hovering over their land, there is chaos, darkness and massive spiritual strongholds occupying the heavenly spheres over vast territories. But as watchmen on the wall, we have cries that will change the spiritual atmospheres. That's why we can't hold our peace--we have to pray, cry out, and intercede more--many are suffering in darkness and souls are at stake daily. We can't afford to hold our peace--We need the Peace of Peace to Come, to Bring His Dwelling--to Bring His Presence and Descend in Glory that will shatter strongholds, save masses, and manifest His Glory in the nations.  

The more we cry out--the more His Glory will Descend--will you cry out as God's watchmen?  Don't hold your peace day or Night--keep on "keeping on" --keep not silence and we will see Him make Jerusalem a Praise in the Earth!!  The City of our Great King in the Spirit will manifest globally in the Nations. And it will be a Purely Glorious Praise!!

Worthy to Receive Power

Rev. 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for
thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

We know when we worship and serve God that we are giving Him the glory
and bring honour to His Name. But how does He who is all Powerful, receive Power
from those who are impotent without Him?
God is a God of multiplicity. The devil subtracts, man adds, but God multiplies.
It's not that God needs to receive power, because He is omnipotent but He is worthy
to multiply His Power. And that is exactly what happens when we press wholeheartedly
to desperately seek and worship Him in Spirit and Truth. As we abandon ourselves, and focus all our attention on glorifying His name in deep, intimate worship--we are magnifying (extoling .lauding) His Presence and consequently; He is magnified (enlarged, increased)  in the heavens and earth. His immediate Presence travels and expands as it breaks out on the north, south, east and west. Though God is  not limited to time and space, He funnels His power and inhabits vessels that occupy both realms-- and the more vessels He inhabits --the more He receives power, honour and glory.  Just as sound and light travel, so as His people revel in prophetic sounds of declaration, prophecy, throne worship accompanied with instrumentals --so the Light of God's presences prevails and displaces darkness. This is how God's people take over the spiritual atmospheres of neighborhoods, cities, states, nations and manifest God's Kingdom on the Earth.  As we invoke the Lord of Host to arise-- God's  light devours darkness.  He flexes His spiritual muscles, and He receives power. We revel with Him in His Victory and  His Power! We receive His power too---Christ in us--the Hope of Glory!!

Crying out for others:Holy Spirit Empathy Results in Holy Spirit Victory

For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities....(Heb4:15a)

Contrariwise, He was touched with the feelings of our infirmities. And His heart is still throbbing today for His people that are spiritually and physically  infirmed--He longs for the victory that He won to be received and manifested --for His Body (the Body of Christ) to be completely whole---spiritually and physically whole!  We know that Jesus was our vicarious sacrifice. He paid the price that we deserve, taking our place as a substitutionary sacrifice in judgment; so that we can have life and life more abundantly in and through Him.
As Believers, filled with God's Holy Spirit, we are the members of His Body, and as a whole, we are the Body of Christ and Christ is the Head.

Just as every member of our individual physical bodies operate and  flow together as one living organism, so we are called to be ONE spiritual  living organism as the Spiritual Body of Christ on the Earth; flowing and functioning together in unity.
If one member hurts, the other members feel the pain. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to emphathize with the needs of our spiritual family members, as we take time to intercede for others.  The deeper we go into the heart of God seeking His intervention on the behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ; the deeper the need becomes our own.
Just as Jesus gave Himself as a substitute; taking our place before God, so we will find ourselves standing in desperation for others.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the love and commisseration for our spiritual brothers and sisters dire needs to be met, is much stronger, than mere human sympathy.  Because  this heavenly, sacrificial love from the Father's heart already proved to gives it's all when it flowed through the wounds of our Savior. It's God's Love for His own; through the residing power of His Holy Spirit, that moves us to intercession so that His victory can manifest within His whole Body.
The urgency of the need will become as if  it's our own and the Holy Spirit will lead us to intercede: plead, groan, mourn, travail and wail on behalf of others.
As Jesus laid down His life for others, so we are callled to do the same. As Jesus gained the victory for others in the spiritual realm;  so we called to do the same
through intercessory sacrifice. This means denying ourselves and carrying the cross that's  laden with burdens and agonies of others---carrying it all the way to Calvary
where the Finished Work manifests in resurrection power that brings spiritual and physical Victory.   Every member will feel the victory.