Prophetic Dance
By Mary Jones
Prophetic dance and movement today
After almost disappearing from the church for over two hundred years, dance has seen a revival along with the movement of the Holy Spirit during the 20th century. Some would see the re-emergence of dance to be in itself a prophetic sign of Israel and the church moving towards the culmination of the Messianic era when Jesus will return for his bride. Jeremiah prophesied that with the regathering and rebuilding of Israel tambourines and dance would express the new found joy (Jer.31:4, 13). Today dance is used in a wider variety of ways than in biblical times as an expression of the gifts and callings of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.12). One of these is prophecy. In spoken prophecy there seem to be a number of ways in which the prophecy can be initiated. Some people have a few words and as they speak these the rest come; others see all the words in front of them; some have a sense of the thought or theme that God is conveying; others see a picture or symbol and speak from that. Movement can also be one of the starting points in prophecy and can flow in a variety of ways.
Following the leading and inspiration of the Holy Spirit the dancer or more than one dancer may feel led to move to a particular song as part of the worship that is directed to the people, encouraging or exhorting them. The first time I was conscious of using dance in a prophetic way was at a conference in New Zealand where I was teaching. Several people were dancing at the front of the auditorium but I felt God was indicating to go up on the stage to dance to a particular song. In thinking about it afterwards I realised that the song was one that was speaking encouragement and as the dance would be directed to the people they needed to see it.
Another way is to speak the prophecy and use movement along with the words. Or the dancer may move at the same time as a prophecy is being spoken or sung by someone else, not just interpreting the words but sensing the direction of the Spirit so that the movement may sometimes lead the words. At other times this may happen at the same time as the words or may come just after as a response. It takes faith and courage to move out in prophecy not knowing exactly what is going to happen and I have found it very encouraging when I have realised that the movement I have found myself doing exactly suited or predicted what was being spoken or sung. Sometimes the musician or speaker and dancer can be very aware of flowing together, at other times it can happen more independently. The dancer may also be led to do a movement by itself that does not have any connection with words or music and may precede something that is to follow later, both prophesying it and interceding for it. This happened to me on a tour of Italy when I lay on the floor of the stage with my hands outstretched in supplication for a very long time, waiting for God to indicate when to get up. At the end of the service, some time after I had got up, one of the pastors on the team felt led to come out of the congregation where he was sitting and to invite people to come forward to give their lives to the Lord. He said in particular that there was a man who needed to come. It was a long time before the man came. The pastor mentioned several times that he was felt it was important for us to wait for those God was calling to respond and I felt there was a definite connection between the call and my previous action.
At other times the prophetic movement may flow out of a choreographed dance we have performed. On the same tour when we were in Sicile I had such an experience after a dance about the tabernacle of God that uses a silk tent to represent the Tabernacle. The meeting was in an old-fashioned dance hall where the stage was unusually high and the only way I could process with the tent onto the stage was to build steps up to the stage out of the boxes the sound equipment and instruments were packed in. It was quite precarious climbing up the pile of boxes, holding the tent above my head, and then balancing on the rather wobbly shelf before stepping down onto the stage proper. At the end of the dance I felt a leading to go back into the tent and stay there to express God's love and acceptance of us and give a visual invitation to come into the tent of his presence. Later the worship leader gave a call for salvation and more than thirty responded, many of them young people, and I had a sense that my movement had again been both prophetic and intercessory.
At an Arts conference in Cartegena, Colombia, which included the formation of the Christian Dance Fellowship in that country, a group of us were moving spontaneously with flags and dance. I felt the Lord wanted me to lay down the flag and start to dance. I found myself at one point moving as if I were planting seeds all over the stage and realised that this was making a prophetic statement about the planting of the Dance Fellowship all over the country. Later that year I was in western Kenya at a conference held under a shelter in a field as part of the process of starting a Christian Dance Fellowship there. Dance ministry was something new to those present and I was teaching a first session in prayer and prophecy. The CDF Co-ordinator became very excited when he found as he was using the movement from my demonstration in his prayer that he received an interpretation - he sensed the movement was expressing that the CDF would grow from a seed into a big tree. He said he felt his hands just moving to the music in a way they had never moved before. Often in prophetic workshops I will ask people in pairs to pray for a prophetic movement to share with their partner and it is exciting to hear how these are often so pertinent and helpful.
The most important thing in all of these experiences is learning to flow both with the Holy Spirit and those in leadership. Prophetic revelation and declaration need to move out with humility, unity and discernment and those who have prophesied need to receive wise, encouraging feed-back and correction from the leadership where appropriate (1 Cor.14:29-43). It is important that the glory for all this is given and directed to God.
Footnotes:
*1 Umim and Thummim
References:
Hamon, Dr. Bill Prophets - Pitfalls and Principals, Destiny Image, Shippensburgh PA, 1991
Kovacs, Aimee Verduzco Dancing into the Anointing Destiny Image, Shippensburg PA, 1996
Rock, J & Mealy, N. Performer as Priest and Prophet Harper and Row, San Francisco, N.Y., 1988.
Swan, David The Power of Prophetic Worship Tabernacle of David, Kuala Lumpur, 1997
Ruth Ward Heflin in Glory, A Jerusalem experience describes an incident in 1973 at a prayer meeting. She was speaking about China and there was a prophetic word that God would open a door to China. They were so excited they started to dance. Two people made a door and before they realised what was happening they were all dancing through the open door (p.33).
Heflin, Ruth Ward Glory, A Jerusalem Experience Destiny Image, Shippensburgh PA, 1990.
Copyright 2002 Mary Jones 11 Amaroo Cres., Mosman 2088, Australia
