Let not your hearts become an enemy of worship — Clementia Pae

Clementia Pae offers guidelines for navigating heart wounds and preserving a heart of worship

She felt contempt for him in her heart
Then, as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter (David’s wife), looked down from the window and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she felt contempt for him in her heart (because she thought him undignified) — 2 Samuel 6:16

When the Ark of the Covenant was brought from the house of Obed Edom to the City of David, the Bible tells us that David was singing and dancing in celebration, but Michal, his wife, felt contempt for him in her heart. She despised him. To despise is to, disgrace, disregard, discredit, disrespect, ridicule, hate, abhor, shame, humiliate, drag through the mud, give a bad name, reject, undervalue, scorn, etc. This is a thought or a feeling of dishonour, which, if entertained in the heart, will lead to an action of dishonour.

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Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said: “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” — 2 Samuel 6:20

Michal went on to confront her husband for this dancing, for she felt “this was the most embarrassing thing to do”. Entertaining her own thoughts and feelings of pride and maybe even jealousy, Michal failed to see that this dance was before the Lord. She rejected the blessing, and the Bible tells us that, as a result, she became barren for the rest of her life. Her own heart became an enemy of worship. And unfortunately, this loss did not become hers only, but it was her husband’s loss also. For David could not have children through his wife Michal. It became their loss.

So David said to Michal: “It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and his entire house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord. And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honour” — 2 Samuel 6:21-22

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Time to completely heal, to warn and to comfort others
Just over a year ago, in a bi-weekly prayer meeting in Cape Town, which was led by a certain Messianic Jewish Pastor from Israel; as we were praying, and I had just read from Revelations 4, the Lord showed this pastor’s wife, a vision of a long stairway ascending to the heavens, and we were ascending on it, to appear before the throne of grace. The doors were open for us and we entered and worshipped before the throne. Then on another vision, the Lord revealed to this pastor himself, an incident that had happened in my life close to 10 years ago. “Something terribly wrong and unjust happened in your life, the Lord is showing me,” said the pastor. “This thing then brought a lot of harm, damage and loss in your personal life.” He went on to explain what he had seen in the vision. It was something that I had put away, with the hope of only speaking about it in one of my books, for the sake of equipping the church.

What happened some years prior to this prayer gathering
I was at a church where I used to fellowship in Cape Town. We were in a season where the Lord had said He is pouring His glory over His house and was releasing the prophetic. During worship, Holy Spirit led me to dance. I first resisted of course, because I had never seen anyone dance at this big church before, and I did not want to impose this on anyone. One day eventually, when I finally decided to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit, I took two steps forward, the wind of the Spirit of the Lord suddenly came and blew over me, and carried me, as I danced, and the Lord said: “I have now released My glory.” Little did I know however, that this would be the first and the last time I dared to dance in the church. The following week, as the power of God came heavily upon me, and the wind of the Spirit of the Lord carried me as I took the first steps to dance, I was suddenly blocked on my way, by one of the elders. At this moment my body felt the shock waves, as though I was being electrocuted. I felt a sharp piercing in my heart, and I fell down. I was then dragged out of the service to a separate room. This would be the beginning of turmoil, division and trauma, both in my life and that of my family. On two more occasions I tried to dance again, but the same thing happened. So I stopped.

At the time, this church was not very receptive to the prophetic word either, especially if it had to do with any kind of a rebuke. And as a result, many of the children of God had left the church, prior and post to this incident. At the time I did not know the history of the church, but I later discovered that there was a hurtful past of rejection, shame, dishonour and division that had taken place some years ago, and people were divided in their opinions about it. At that time of my incident, I also left the church for a couple of months. For four to five months, I stayed away. However, in His mercy and grace, the Lord ordered me to go back to the church, to submit and to pray. The Lord also revealed how darkness was busy creeping in into the church, not only in this church, but to the body of Christ in general. Deception, gossip, lies, accusations, unrighteous judgement, pride, jealousy and competition, were causing God’s people to resist the move of God and the true prophetic word. Indeed, as the Lord instructed, I went back and submitted and served in that church for four more years after that. In fact, we even prayed together with one of the elders who had stopped me from dancing, and we forgave one another. Of course I stopped dancing completely, and I decided to use my other gift to serve the Lord, I sang in the worship band. But I never released any prophetic song, because of the way the things were structured. I also stopped releasing any word of prophecy in the church during all those years. Just to make sure that I kept peace.

Four years later, I attended a prayer revival campaign in Johannesburg; and on the first day of the campaign, whilst we were praying with fivefold ministers and intercessors who had come from different nations; the Spirit of the Lord led me to dance. But of course I had now learnt to master the art of resisting the unction of the Holy Spirit. I knelt down and contained it all inside. I just moved where I was kneeling. I refused to stand up. Then the Lord gave a vision to one of the pastors from Botswana, who was leading us; that an angel had come in, whilst we were worshipping, and he had taken me by the hand and had danced with me around the hall where we were gathered. And the Lord said: “I have now released My glory in this place.” During that whole week, many prophecies came emphasising that the Lord is saying I must dance and I must sing before Him. But I still resisted. Somehow, I realised that I had now become fearful. I also did not want to offend anyone ever again. Even though I had thought I left the past, the past was still following me. However, this time, the Lord in His mercy, would not let me.

On the last day of the campaign, as I was lying down prostrate during worship, unable to move, because of the power of the Spirit of the Lord that filled the temple, the Lord, through one of His prophets, spoke and said: “Arise My intercessor and dance before Me”. “Arise My intercessor and worship Me.” This person literally ran to me and dragged me from the floor and took me to the pulpit and started running around the pulpit singing and dancing. That day I was released again to worship the Lord the way He had designed me to. Then the Lord continued to say: “I am now going to move you into a greenhouse; because the place where you are currently, is not conducive, and you are not being fruitful. You are My prophet and a seer, and I want you to speak and release My word.”

Only then did I receive a release to leave the church where I had been over the previous seven years. Indeed the Lord did move me into His greenhouse, where I served and ministered through dance for a season. And I also trained young children in the ministry, and ministered together with them.

But why did the Lord reveal this old thing to this Messianic Jewish pastor almost 10 years on? Firstly, it was because it was the time for me to heal completely, so that I did not carry this wound of rejection and dishonour with me, moving forward. Secondly, it was so that I would stay alert and beware not to reject God, His Spirit, His blessing, and His people, because of my own prideful heart, that might lack wisdom, revelation and discernment. Thirdly, it was so that I can help warn and comfort others, who have gone through similar situations as mine.

When the elders miss it; it’s not the time to take offence
Over the past year, I have encountered a lot of situations where people have called or wrote to me and shared how they had been hurt by the church. One lady, who is a worship leader in her church, called me crying and saying: “I was absent at church for two Sundays, because I travelled; and upon my return, my pastor had formed a new band, with a new leader, to replace us, without saying a word to me. I could only hear it when my pastor preaches, that things have changed and I am no longer needed.” This lady was crying and she was planning to leave the church, when the Lord said to me I must tell her: “No, you will not leave your church in that state. You are an intercessor, a prophet of the Most High and a worshipper. You are called to lead the people of God in worship and release the glory of God. The enemy is attacking this worship. You will stay, and you will cry before the Lord about this, and you will sing loud in your closet, in your car, and during worship, whilst you sit on the pews. It will be well.” I told her: “The enemy is also after your divine prophetic destiny. So be alert, do not be offended, stay put and submit, until such time that the Lord releases you to go.” The Holy Spirit then ministered to this lady, and she remained at her church till this day.

Worship is a weapon of warfare. If it is done in unity, in spirit and in truth, it confuses the enemy and it brings a blessing and victory. Many people get delivered during worship. The Lord once said to me: “if you cannot allow My people to worship Me, you are denying them their blessing and their deliverance.” If there is no unity of heart among the people of God, there will be no unity in worship, there will be no blessing and no victory. Instead, there will be confusion and harm.

One other lady said to me: “I believe that I am called to be a marketplace apostle, but my elders do not understand this. In fact, they do not even believe that I can have an apostolic calling upon my life. Let alone that, they are praying against my business.” This just saddened my heart. I did not know what to say to her, except to repent before God, for our errors, for the lack of revelation and for the misalignment in the church.

In his teaching on Protocols of Gates and Seasons, Apostle John Osa from Kingdom Heirs Assembly in Rivonia, talks about the compromised gates of the elders and strange women as some of the hurdles to the rise of the Issachar Company in the church. Below is an abstract from his teaching:

The Issachar anointing and the protocol for seasons
The Issachar anointing carries the grace and skills to lay foundations for new seasons and knows how to properly shut down the gates of old seasons. When accurate foundations are not laid for a new season for your life, family, ministry, business, institution, nation, it will be difficult to build well in that season to advance kingdom purpose. The scripture tells us that the Issachar Company knows what Israel ought to do. There is a know how grace upon them.

We must learn to respect the boundaries of grace and gifts in the body of Christ to allow people graced with certain skills do their job.

The Issachar anointing will help us come to appreciate the protocol of times and seasons and help us lay the right foundations to build to last.

Hurdles to the Issachar Company
Here are the three quick hurdles we need to pray off the emergence of the Issachar Company.

• Gates of elders
• Strange women (Jezebel) and
• Bad money

The gate of elders is the first gate of hell. Adam and Eve were the first elders gate on earth. The serpent took over this gate in the garden and has used this gates against the Lord ever since.

Jezebel hold sway over the compromised elder’s gate
So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders — 1 Kings 21:8 KJV

The elder’s gate authorised the death of Christ. The kings of the earth in Psalm 2 who gang up against the Lord and His anointed are from the gate of elders.

Many of us are still being held back by the activities of the gates of elders in our families, work place, institutions, etc. The gates of elders under the wraps of the gates of hell have already set jealousy, competitive spirit, upon the gates of elders to resist and sabotage the Issachar Company prepared for our generation. We need to pray into this.

Further on, in his teaching, Apostle Osa calls us to pray that the Issachar Company will not be taken by offence, because of what the gates of elders have done to them.

In this time when the Lord is restoring all things, it is time to be intentional in our forgiving. It is time to be alert, to unite, to observe and to pray, lest our hearts become an enemy of worship; and we end up staining our own garments.

Join the healing of the nations campaign by Vuka Africa Foundation on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/c/VukaAfricaFoundation. Let us partake on the 100 DAYS WORD TREATMENT, as we all allow the Lord to heal and restore us, our marriages, our children, families, relationships, the church, ministries, businesses, communities, cities and nations, in Jesus name.