I’ve always wondered about the line “dancers who dance upon injustice” in the song “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?” by Delirious?. As a dancer for most of my life, I’ve often asked, what does it mean to dance upon injustice? I understand dancing to express something, but how can dance actually trample something down?
A few days ago at IHOPU, we held a 24 hour “prayer burn.” Live student worship teams rotated around the clock for a full day of continuous worship and intercession for the church in the middle east. During the second set of the burn, at 6:00 pm on Thursday, I was in the room doing homework when my friend Deni asked me to pray. I agreed and she put my name on the board to be third in line to lead intercession on the mic. I closed my textbook and opened my Bible to find a verse to pray. I was going to pray the good ol’ Ephesians 3:16 “might in the inner man,” but before it was my turn someone started playing the old favourite “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?”
I was already in the back of the room pacing with my Bible trying to get God’s heart for the church in the middle east, but for some reason I didn’t feel I was quite there yet. Then as the song progressed, something in the room started stirring. People started jumping. Eventually I set down my Bible, took off my boots and cardigan, and let loose in the back corner of the room.
About fifteen minutes later, while we were still dancing to the same song, I heard God speaking to me.
“This is what I want for My church in the middle east. Pray for joy out of Romans 15.”
Romans 15 is one of my favourite passages to pray for unity, but as I flipped to the page, I wondered, is Romans 15 even about joy? I couldn’t remember.
Found it.
“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
(Romans 15:5-6, 13)
When it was my turn to pray, I got on the mic, read this passage, then began asking God to give the church in the middle east a supernatural unity for His glory, and the joy and peace that comes from the hope of the gospel. Echoing the words of the song, I prayed, “Let their streets resound with singing, and let there be dancers who dance upon injustice, who prophetically proclaim victory over injustice!”
That’s it.
Dance is more than self-expression. It’s also prophecy. When I dance in intercession, I am prophetically proclaiming what God wants to do in a region or situation. Sometimes my movements express something pouring out or springing forth. Sometimes nothing specific is discernible, but when coupled with a heart of prayer, dance prophetically proclaims our victory in Christ (both in the already and not yet) over every form of injustice and every scheme of the evil one.
That’s what I want to see in the middle east. In the midst of oppression, persecution, and injustice, I want the dancers to arise who will declare the hope, joy, and peace found in the confidence of our victory in Christ.
Maybe you need victory in a certain situation in your life. Maybe you feel crushed by injustice. In fact, any form of oppression, be it emotional, spiritual, circumstantial, etc, is injustice, because you were not made to be kept down.
You want a breakthrough? Dance. Proclaim your victory in faith. Seize joy. Celebrate your hope with confidence in who Christ is.
Dance upon injustice.
NOTE June 15, 2018 – 3 years later, this is still the most popular post on my blog. Wow! My name is Caitlyn, and I am a full-time missionary at a house of prayer in Dallas. That means I raise support to worship and pray in a prayer room. (Well, I also run a ministry school and do a few other things, but it’s mostly all about prayer and worship!) Check out My Story to get to know me, and please feel free to browse and explore the rest of the blog! I’ve also written a more recent blog about prophetic dancing for justice that you may be interested in: Dancing Justice. Blessings!
Injustice. We experienced it as a friend, guiltless, is now sitting in a prison.
We will not let the devil think he has won over us! We will sing! We will dance! We will proclaim the goodness of God! And we will decree freedom for our friend as we fight the good fight of faith! All things work together for our good when we love God. He loves God!
Come on!!! That’s so good! I’m agreeing with you for justice to be done!
Beautifully written! I went through a Sozo recently and when it came to the wall of fear around my heart, Papa told me to climb up on that wall and dance and dance upon it! I’m ministering at a women’s gathering tonight and the topic is worship through dance! This was a beautiful read! Thank you so much! ~ Joyful
Wow, that’s incredible! I’m so glad you experienced that breakthrough! Thanks for sharing!
This is so good Caitlyn. I happened upon your blog today. You see, I run an NGO that rescues and restores women trafficked in the sex trade in the Philippines. We do what you say here, and go into the bars and actually dance on the dance floor and stages, and we have seen girls set free! We have over 70 girls in our care now who are being restored here at Wipe Every Tear. Freedom is here! Revival has come to precious Filipina women, and God is so good!
God bless you so very good today.
That’s amazing! Praise God, and bless you guys for what you do! What is your organization called?
Yesterday, with my sister, we have danced outside, in a public place, just
in front of mountains and a lake. Just because we felt to put music and worship. It was short, something like 2 or 3 minutes. But, I felt overwhelmed, felt His presence there.
I thought : “wouuu let’s do it more often”. Dance in the street, just to let the presence of God flows there… And this verse just popped up in my mind “dance upon injustice” and I remember how this song always struck me by the past…
And this morning, in my devotional, I wanted to dig deeper and find your article. Wouuu thank you, it’s such a blessing ! Let continue to dance, and more : dance upon injustice in every places.. thank you !
Blandine (from France^^)
That’s amazing! Thank you for sharing your story. I’m so glad you had the opportunity to encounter God through dance like that.
Hi Caitlyn! Thanks so much for sharing this! Today, I was reading about Hagar and Ishmael in Genesis. My heart became burdened for these real descendants of Abraham. Clearly, they were blessed by God out of His compassion and mercy for Hagar and her son. I began praying for these descendants, and 30 minutes later, I got a vision of dancers dancing over the land, which I thought was America. Then I remembered the words from the song you mentioned in your article. I appreciate you sharing this insight, and I will continue to mull this over. Thanks again for your powerful ministry! God is great!
This is incredible! Thank you so much for sharing. God is doing great things!
Wonderful! I am the farthest thing from a dancer, but perhaps because of that I am sure this is a powerful tool. I have heard drum warfare at worship, why not dance? Everytime we sing this song at church I have wondered about that line.
I love drums as warfare! I’ve done a fair amount of tap dancing, so sometimes I like to think of my feet as my drums. 🙂