Healing Through the Creative Arts
Continuing our series looking at healing through the Creative Arts it is interesting to try and fathom one of the Lord’s great mysteries!
Movement and Dance in Worship (No.2 Testimony)
Heather’s story………………
Heather felt the call to dance some 20 years ago. Not long after she was saved the Lord began to give her dreams and visions regarding dance. With no previous experience to draw upon she felt inadequate, fearful of man’s acceptance and of being misunderstood in the normal framework of church for what He was calling her to.
The Lord impressed on Heather that dance is an instrument of blessing which brings healing, restoration and the truth of the promises in His word. It brings scripture to life, is a tool in biblical storytelling and has a prophetic outworking.
As a child, although on the surface Heather had what would seem to the world to be a normal family unit, she felt only conditional love, no sense of belonging or security, felt isolated and alone. She lived in a toxic environment where her spirit was constantly being wounded and crushed by negative words of abuse. Even from an early age this caused her to have an arthritic condition.
Proverbs 16 v 24 “gracious words are a honeycomb sweet to the soul and healing to the bones”
Proverbs 17 v 22 “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones”
School life was hell for Heather because she found learning difficult. Ridiculed, mocked, bullied and an inability to cope with the 3R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic) led Heather to have a lack of self-confidence and an overwhelming sense of worthlessness.
It was not until she was 33 when she came to the know the Lord that her healing and learning journey began. As a child Heather found some release from her pain through the art of drawing with her ‘crayons and little tin of paints.’ It was her way of escaping the reality that she found herself in.
Joel 2 v 25 “I will repay to you the years the locusts have eaten”
When Heather saw two separate dance presentations at her church it touched her deeply and had the effect of making her feel like all her previous brokenness was being poured out before the Lord. For the first time she was having such a powerful encounter with the Father and began to experience His unconditional love and deep inner healing.
Isaiah 61 v 1-4 “He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim freedom for the captives” “beauty instead of ashes” “a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair”
Her journey into movement and dance had begun. An introduction to Sacred Dance Ministries International run by Paula and Bill Douthett taught Heather, in her vulnerability, to engage with scripture through movement and to come into full relationship with the Lord. Dance and movement in worship is Heather’s prayer language which brings her into her full identity as a child of God.
Over the years Heather’s passion for dance has led her to attend many dance conferences and is a local co-ordinator of Christian Dance Fellowship International. She has organised several workshops on how to interpret the scriptures through gesture and movement. Her desire is to teach people how to come into a newfound relationship with Father and find their healing through movement in worship. She currently runs a team of untrained believers called ‘Healing Rivers Dance Ministries.’ Heather has a heart to see lives healed, transformed and delivered, to see people come into the freedom that only He can give and to see the next generation serve the King through the art of creative expression.
We have learned then that the ability to move and dance in worship is not confined to the trained. Do you remember the first time you dared to put out your hand in worship to the Lord
or maybe you had the courage to raise your arm? Well, what happened? That’s how we can start to engage with God in our heart. It is how we can begin to move away from self-consciousness, man’s approval and develop the freedom to move as God leads. We are all precious to Abba Father, He loves it when we reach up to Him.
1 Tim 2 v 8 “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer”
Remember: God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called. Amen!
Heather Collett: Co-ordinator: Healing Rivers Dance Ministries.
If you have a testimony of how God has used your creative gift in healing, and you believe it will encourage others please get in touch by email: nk.