An Invitation to the Dance of Life

It's interesting this one - I don't think Christians like dancing very much. Particularly Western Christians! And I must confess I'm not overly keen on it in church - maybe once a year at the Brighton conference during the offering night. But I do have a guilty pleasure - I like going out and dancing in clubs. If you assumed I got drunk when you read that - you assumed wrongly and shame on you. I just like dancing.

So I was at the gym yesterday and was listening to Madonna's newish song "Celebration" (I won't post the video - you can watch it only if you're bad like me!). Say what you like about Madonna and disapprove of her if you will but it was the lyrics that caught my attention. In particular;

"And if it makes you feel good then I say do it
I don’t know what you’re waiting for ...
But for now just come here, let me whisper in your ear
An invitation to the dance of life".

I love the song and have heard it and danced to it a number of times but surprisingly as I was running on the treadmill I felt the Holy Spirit remind me of a prophecy that Terry Virgo brought at the first Stoneleigh Bible Week I went to (2000) which said;

"As you come on your hands and knees, ground that you would have thought was outside your sphere that you were disqualified to get near, I've cleared the ground for you" says the Lord. "I've cleared it for you so that you can dance now. You can dance on holy ground. I've cleared the ground for you! I've provided grounds that are level and clear and steady. Even as I came to My servant Isaiah, undone and ruined by the revelation of My purity, undone forever, I've provided him a burning coal - clensing and purging so that he could be in the holy place. I want you to know that I have provided for you, my sons and my daughters out of My love. You will never stamp the ground to make it level, you will never clear the grounds of thorns and weeds. I have cleared the ground for you.

You are free to dance now because of my eternal grace to you, my kindness and my celebration over you. I celebrate in My finished work. I celebrate in embracing My sons and daughters running home. I invite and welcome the prodigal into dancing ground. I draw back the man whose head is hung low with a sense of inadequacy and failure and say, "This is dancing ground! This is dancing ground!". This, My son, was dead, he is alive again! He was lost and now is found. This is dancing ground! I welcome you into My heart and into My Presence as mercy and a gift to you", says the Lord.

"Out of My heart of love and out of My full embrace, I don't want you to come timidly. I don't want you to come wondering, can I accumulate enough worth, can I demonstrate enough merit that I am allowed in? I tell you, I have cleared the ground by My blood. Only there will you find fullness of mercy and because it is fullness, it is not simply ground to kneel upon but it is ground to dance upon for your welcome is complete. The ground is clear! Come My sons and My daughters - I welcome you to this very place. I am full of ambition for you, full of desire to bless you with My love. Full of tenderness and mercy because of the obedience of My Son that frees Me to bless you. Some come dance, rejoice, drink deeply of My love, says the Lord. Enter in, enter in to the mercy of God. The joy and favour and everlasting love of your God, says the Lord".

The two threads seemed so obvious.

A Christian + real grace = dancing.

Don't worry - this wasn't some legalistic charismatic way to force dancing. The impression I got was simply that when Christians really get grace, they will be so overflowed with joy and celebration that they will dance. The more I thought about it as I sweated on the treadmill, I became rather overcome with an image of nightclubs left empty - because the wonders of the grace of God were so thrilling the church and drawing the lost - that who needs a nightclub to dance in (and hide away) when you can dance and celebrate and rejoice in the church?

Whereas the void at the moment is that if you do dance in church (even many so-called charismatic churches) you will be seen as excessive and "showy". Maybe that's why many Christians do escape to secular music. Maybe that's why God can and does use secular music to speak to His people!

But a day IS coming when the wonder of the revelation of the New Covenant WILL break through to His people and the earth will shake in awe at a people who dance and must dance to express their joy!