I used to go to various meetings with my folks back in the early seventies. I was not even born again at the time. I went, and I might add not joyfully. I found in some of the meetings that we attended my heart was always pulled in areas of worship. My heart was so hard and rebellious though that I could eventually resist this pull on my spirit. I know now that it was the spirit of God trying to break through my hard heart. I remember a particular time that I went with my parents to a Tennessee-Georgia CFO meeting. The worship there was like nothing I had ever heard in my entire life. It was as if angels were singing. There is still one song that stands out in my heart very clearly. We were singing "Seek Ye First The Kingdom of God". There is a part that all the women were singing A-le-lu-ia, and it was coinciding with the verses of the song. It was and still is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard in my life. I have never forgotten that.
Over the years the Lord has taken my heart and taught me to worship him. In John 4:23 Jesus says: But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The spirit of God began to lead me through the scriptures and reveal to my heart about worship. I saw that every person that came to Jesus and worshipped him received what they asked. Being the intelligent person that I am (Ha!), I thought this is the way a person needs to go. Well, by believing this simple little thing, the spirit of God began demonstrating this in my own life. Worship and praise are a very vital part of my prayer life. I never dreamed that the Lord would take me where he has by overcoming in the area of worship. I was very content to worship God in the tub or in my car, or even around my house. When I still lived at home with my folks, Dad would hold bible studies, and Mom and I would help him lead a few songs. I could hear the spirit of worship in my Dad's heart. Then one day after marrying Terry, it was decided I would help him lead worship in the services. This was definitely an overcoming in my life because I had a lot of fear of man in my heart. You know what though? The Lord met me where I was and Dad began to teach Terry and I to worship God. You say, "What?!? Terry was a trained professional singer!" You got it. There is a lot of difference between a singer and one that can worship in spirit and in truth. It is another thing to be able to lead people into praise and worship. You not only have to fight your own doubt and unbelief, but you add theirs to it. Thank God, we are all learning, right? As time moved on, I began to gain confidence in this area. I will tell you why. I realized Jesus is my praise. If we are yielding our members to the spirit, we will worship the Father. To worship in spirit and truth will require a decision of your soul.(Psalms 103:1-2 and Psalms 146:1-2) You will have to want this and put everything else out of your little thinker. I had a heart that could easily be distracted by things going on around me. So, one day Dad was talking to us, and he said, "Close your eyes, and set your heart on the Lord. Forget everyone around you." That obviously was by the spirit because that made a big impact on me. I have overcome now in leading worship where I can open my eyes and be in tune with the spirit. I have learned to rule my spirit and not let it rule me.
You know the Lord always has a way of pushing you on out there where you have to trust him. Well, that is one of the purposes of serving the creator of the universe. He is our Father, and we are his children. When he tells us to do something, we have to have confidence that we are obeying him. As I was strolling along becoming more comfortable in the area of worship and praise, the Lord began to prompt me to sing alone. This was not something that I desired. I have shared with you on several occasions how I couldn't even speak in front of people, much less, carry a tune. Somehow though, I knew that this was the voice of God prompting me to do this. So, I trusted what I heard in my spirit, and as all of you that know me know the story of how God sent me to my only women's meeting. There I heard "Holy Ground". Thought that was definitely a song Terry could sing, and the Lord said, "You sing it." Well, the rest is history. During this time frame, the Lord began to put in my spirit to dance before him. Being the brave soul that I was, I began to dance in the privacy of my home. (Which I suggest, brave or not) We danced at church, but it was collectively. There was a couple that came to our church. They were considered worship leaders. I was sitting about mid way back in the sanctuary with my eyes closed, and suddenly I felt a lift in the spirit. As I opened my eyes, I saw this lady gracefully moving across the front. My heart jumped within me, because this was what I had been seeing in my spirit. I still kept quiet for sometime and continued to look up in the scripture about the dance. Psalm 149:3 says: Let them praise his name in the dance: Psalm 150:4 says: Praise him with the timbrel and dance. Then the Lord led me to Exodus 15:20-21 which tells of Miriam: And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and the rider thrown into the sea. In II Samuel 16 the Lord showed me where David danced before the Lord with all his might. It is also referenced in verse 22 how he played before the Lord. I am sure the religious community would not consider this a form of worship, but I am telling you I have overcome some very strong things while dancing playfully before the Lord. God looks on the heart. He looks at what is coming out of the heart toward him. I have never had the Lord say to me, "Your worship or praise is not acceptable to me because you missed a note or your toes were not pointed." Quite the contrary, he just encourages me to keep believing and stepping out in the spirit. He has brought me to a place in the dance where I have quite a bit of liberty in my heart. I thank him for it. One day I finally mustered up enough courage to tell Dad I believe God wanted me to dance. His comment to me was, "You do dance." I said, "No Dad, I am not talking about dancing in place. I am talking about that graceful freestyle kind." He really did not comment any more, and I did not push it. I thought if this is God, he will show Dad. One night we were sitting in a meeting, and the spirit of God began to minister to me about the dance. There was a lady there with her husband who walked over and said, "That's intercession." I thought to myself, "Lady you don't have any idea what you are saying. This is the spirit of God setting me free." My Dad agreed, he knew this was not intercession. When the ministry stopped, Dad turned to me and said, "Obey God". I rose to my feet and began to dance before the Lord like I had done in my living room many times before. As I finished God began to minister to people. Dad said, "Lay hands on that woman." As I did, a spirit cried out. Since this time, I have sat down for a period and not danced anywhere but at home. Then one day, my Dad approached me and said, "Are you ready to dance again?" I said, "Yes." You see, I don't dance to be seen of men. In fact, I am a person that will shun attention. I dance to worship my Father and my Lord. If I be found pleasing in his sight, that is all that matters to me. If he chooses to heal or deliver someone while I dance, that is his business. Or, if we simply overcome principalities and powers, whatever, I just worship God. The Lord gave me this heart, and I am so grateful that he did.
If you want to overcome things in your life, you can do it by worshipping and praising God. Psalm 106:47 tells us we can triumph in thy praise. Also Psalm 50:23 states: Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. We are worshipping quite a bit at church right now, and I come out of there every single time having overcome something in the spirit. If you feel oppressed and heavy, you need to put on the garment of praise. (Isaiah 61:3) As you set your heart upon Jesus, mixing faith with the gospel, you will overcome the spirit of heaviness. You say to me, "Kathy I am not a singer." You don't have to be a singer, you just have to make a joyful noise. One time Terry was struggling with his voice, and he made a comment to the Lord about the way he sounded. The Lord's response to him was, "I said, Make a joyful noise, not a pretty sound." Well, do you know Terry believed that, and he overcame that spirit that was attacking his voice. We don't have vocal problems, it is spirits, and when we overcome the spirit during worship, our voices totally clear up. This goes totally against the flesh. The world tells us the longer you sing, the more the voice tires. We have found the longer and the harder we press, the stronger we become, both vocally and physically. That makes no sense to our flesh, but after all I Cor. 2:14 tells us: But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. We can not figure out with our heads how worship and praise can still the enemy, so don't try. Just believe. The key to overcoming anything that has come against you is believing and mixing faith with the gospel. I just happen to be simple enough to believe what the spirit of God said to me in this area. There are times that I worship and I shake, sometimes not. There are times that all kinds of things are going on in my body. If this happens to you, don't be alarmed, just keep pressing, and you will overcome. Sometimes, I just feel the heaviness lift off of me. You can overcome anything by trusting in the power of God and praising God. After all, that is the way Jesus came out of hell, by praising the Father.(Psalm 89) Jesus is our example. If it was good enough for him, it is definitely good enough for me. We have all learned to do what is spoken in Ephesians 5:18-19: And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; So when you fill up with that spirit, just keep on singing, press in the spirit, and you will overcome.
I encourage you to believe when you worship and praise God. There is nothing like living in the presence of God. We don't have to be in church to do so. Acts 17 says that in him we live, and move and have our being. Are you doing this or your own thing? There is nothing more rewarding than being led by the spirit of God. God bless you and I will see you soon.
Last week, we were eating a meal together at our house. We were having a good time fellowshipping and talking about the things of the Kingdom of God. We finished eating and Terry began to talk to a young man that is a friend of ours, and teach him some things about walking in the Kingdom of God. The girls and I got up and began to clear the table as Terry was ministering to this young man. I was putting things on the cabinet and those of you that have read my previous testimonies know that we have a flat top stove. I was listening to what the Spirit of God was ministering, and I wasn't watchful. I did not realize that one of the burners was still on, and I put my hand right on it. That burner was like a magnet attacking my hand. I said, "Terry!", and I began to pray. Everyone in the kitchen began to join their faith with me, and Terry said, "Give me your hand." The heat coming from my hand and the power running from him was almost more than I could bear, but I did not dare say a word. I knew I must get my heart on the power of God. I will tell you now, I have never experienced anything like this before, and I have been burned many times and healed many times. I was so grateful to see how the Lord has changed my heart. Immediately, I was reminded of what Jesus took on his body. He took all pain, all sickness, all disease, everything at once on his body when he was on that cross. This was just one thing I needed to believe, and Jesus healed this when he rose from the dead.
We finished cleaning the kitchen and Terry said, "Would you like to get in the car and pray?" I said, "Yes". I knew that I must get to the throne of God so I could overcome the pain that I was experiencing. Like I said I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I was pressing with all I had to overcome. I was reminded of the woman with the issue of blood, who said, "If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole." We prayed fervently for quite some time when Terry said, "Put your hand in mine." I tried to stretch out my hand, and I said, "I can't!" I was holding a bottle of cool water in my hand, and he said, "Leave that in your hand, and put your hand in mine." I did, and the power of God began flowing once again into that hand. It felt like waves, and the pain would come and go. Terry prayed like this for several minutes, and I was so excited to see it move that I began to lift my hands and praise God. That pain all began to subside and left my hand. I had touched the hem of his garment.
We happened to have two hours of worship that night, and those of you that follow this ministry know that I dance with a tambourine. The hand that was burned was the one that I play it with. I started out playing with the opposite hand, which I was excited to see that I could. Later in worship, I knew in my spirit that it was right to dance, and I just jumped up, and grabbed my tambourine in my right hand. There was no pain, none, and I have been going strong ever since. That is the power of God folks. That is why we believe this gospel. There is power in the gospel. If a person will just try to believe, the Lord will meet you. I have seen this in my own life. There have been times when I could only utter the name of Jesus, and his power manifests on my behalf. So I encourage you to believe what Jesus accomplished on the cross, when he descended into hell, and when he rose from the dead. It is a powerful revelation, and I thank God that he has granted me the amount that he has. I definitely know that I haven't arrived, but I know that I do believe to a degree. How do I know that? It works! So, I encourage all of you to set your heart on the things of the Kingdom in God and mix your faith with this gospel. It will bring you salvation.