I
will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed
you with the heritage of Jacob, your father (Is. 58:14).
We
live in times of restoration of all things. God restores all things
which must be restored before Jesus (in Hebrew: Yeshua) comes back.
Peter announced in his first sermon on Shavuot (Pentecost): Repent
and turn to God, so that he will wipe away your sins, so that times
of refreshing
may come from the Lord‘s presence, and that he may send Jesus, who
is the Messiah he has already chosen for you. He must remain in
heaven until the times of
restoration of all things,
as God announced by means of his holy prophets of long ago (Acts
3:19-21).
The
understanding of our Jewish
foundation and inheritance, the understanding of the biblical symbols
and of dance as praise, worship,
intercession and warfare belong to those things, which must be
restored. The
understanding of the Hebrew letters, which declare the glory of the
Lord and speak about our story and the story of the world, is a part
of our Jewish
inheritance.
The
first letter is Aleph (a, Alpha in greek), the last letter is Tav
(t). The ancient word picture
for Tav was a cross. The
symbols used for praise dance are doors in the spiritural world and
they correspond to letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The
mantle,
Aderet
in Hebrew, corresponds
to Aleph. The
ancient pictographic meaning of Aderet
is the
first door for a person of the cross.
I
will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God;
for he has clothed me with the
garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of
righteousness
(Is. 61:10). The
mantle is a symbol for salvation, redemption, righteousness,
anointing and calling. The
mantle is a symbol for the threefold anointing: The anointing with
blood, water and oil (1. John 5:6-8). God
wants to give us the oil
of joy
instead of mourning, and the garment
of praise
instead of the spirit of heaviness (Is. 61:3). You
turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed
me with joy,
that my heart may sing to you and not be silent (Psalm 30: 11-12).
God
wants to turn our mourning and our sickness into dancing. We can
receive this promise by faith and start dancing before the Lord even
while we are still in the midst of sorrow or pain. By taking a dance
step we can activate our faith so God‘s healing power can be
released. I
have seen it in my own life and also in the lives of others. I don‘t
feel my pains when I dance for God. Worship
and praise are the best medicine for depression or for any anxiety or
fear. We would surely have less people among us with psychical
disorders, if
there would be more freedom in the churches and people would feel
free to dance for God. More people would experience healing for their
bodies, minds and souls.
Aderet
does not only mean mantle, but it also means glory
and splendour.
The prophets wore mantle as a symbol for their calling. Joshua
received the
mantle of
Moses. The mantle of Elijah fell
on
Elisha. The mantle
of Messiah
is too big to fall on any one person. On the Day of Pentecost the
Spirit of God fell on his disciples and they received the mantle of
Messiah. Everyone
who is born from God receives a part of Messiah‘s
mantle. It
is in his mantle that our calling and ministry are found. There
is
a
calling for the ministry of praise dance. In June 2016 we danced with
Movement in Worship on the streets of Augsburg. We danced with staffs
as a testimony for the visible and unvisible world. While
we were dancing a
sister had a vision:
She saw Jesus sitting on a white horse and he had a very long mantle;
and we all praise dancers were inside his mantle. This means we all
were fullfilling our calling! The
mantles of the prophets were made of animals´
hair like the mantle of John the Baptist. The mantles were big, great
and heavy. The mantles we receive often seem us to be too big and too
heavy. They are greater and more glorious than we are, who wear them.
Our mantles are not meant to fit who we are now.
They are meant to fit who we are to become. Our
mantles must be beyond us, that we can grow into them and rise to
them. We
should appreciate and respect our mantle, our calling and the mantles
of our brothers and sisters
as a part of the mantle of Messiah!
We
can use mantles for dance as a form of surrender and honour
like the people who spread their clothes on the road before Jesus
(Luke 19:36). We
can also use the mantle as a weapon against the powers of darkness:
Let
my adversaries be clothed
with shame and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as
with a mantle
(Psalm 109:29). For
though we walk in flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for
pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every
thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2. Cor, 10:4-6).
