15-5

Facedown

It seems like I've been having many conversations about postures in worship lately. What is appropriate and what isn't? I think it can be summed up pretty simply by just saying that "when it comes to expressing our worship, what we do on the outside is a key reflection of what is taking place on the inside." I don't think that there are a set of "moves" that we need to learn to worship God. We should react in the way that we feel lead to react. If that means raising your hands or falling facedown, follow the Spirit's lead. We do see many more people raise their hands then fall facedown don't we? Maybe it is just because of the way we set up the rooms we "worship" in, but maybe it is because we really don't comprehend that we are coming into the presence of God. Throughout scripture when people come into the presence of God, they fall on their face! Ezekiel, Daniel, Peter, James, John, the elders in Revelation, this list goes on and on. Why the reaction? Because they understand one thing, "when it comes to worship, the throne sets the tone." When you fully grasp that you are in the presence of the Almighty God of the universe, there is only one response.

Falling facedown isn't just something that people who love God do. When the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines, they put it in the temple of their false god Dagon. The next morning when they came in, the statue of Dagon was lying facedown before the Ark! They didn't get the message, so they put the statue back in it's place. The next morning they came in and it was facedown before the Ark again, but this time it had it's head and hands broken off! Seriously, if you find that your god is bowed down to God, you might want to rethink who you worship!

The presence of God is both exciting and terrifying. In Leviticus the glory of the Lord appeared and fire came out from His presence. The people responded with shouts of joy and they fell facedown! Again I can't help but notice that we have the shouting down but we really don't spend a lot of tine facedown these days. Sometimes it can be pretty wise to humble yourself this way before God. The truth of the matter is that one day everyone will find themselves facedown before God. When Christ returns no one will have a choice! We should choose to lie down before it becomes impossible to stand up! On that day everyone will confess that Jesus is Lord and it will be impossible to stand before Him.

Enjoy the Journey