“What Happens When We Bow Down in Worship Before God?” (341)

0:00 Do you understand what happens when you prostrate yourself before the Lord? You are setting yourself up for something supernatural, whether you see it or not, whether you feel it or not, whether you experience it in your understanding, something is happening when you reduce yourself before the Lord. God promises in Joel 2 .28 to pour out of His Spirit on all humanity. Welcome to Global Outpouring, where we contend for that promised outpouring, we equip for that outpouring, so that we may engage in that very outpouring.

0:40 I'm Philip Buss. And I'm Sharon Buss. Welcome to the podcast today. We're so glad that you're with us, and we're going to look into some scriptures and look into even the nations to learn about worship. Learn about bowing down to the Lord and how even our worship before him is setting us up for contending for the outpouring and equipping and making us ready to deal with whatever comes. Stay for the whole thing. You're going to be amazed. Thanks so much for joining us today. We are so excited about what God is doing in our lives and in your life. We're excited to see that God is moving in your life, and we want to help equip you to contend. We want to help equip you to engage in the outpouring that is upon us and is getting bigger all the time. Before we get started, we want to encourage you, if you haven't already done so, to go to our website, globaloutpouring .net. and subscribe to our email lists so that we can stay in touch with you.

1:55 Sometimes things happen on platforms that, you know, if somebody doesn't like what you're doing, something can happen. And we can stay in touch with you best this way if you get on our email list. So please avail yourself of that opportunity and look at the other things that we have to offer on our website and enjoy. the lots and lots of content that is there and the bookstore that's there. And there's even a donation button that's there if you feel led by the Holy Spirit to help us out with this podcast. And if you're enjoying this content, please share it. with your friends. Please, if you're watching, especially if you're watching on YouTube or on Spotify, share this and make comments. When you make comments, it helps to get this out for more people to see when you comment. And so we'd love to hear from you. We'd love to hear back if you want to send us an email, feedback at globaloutpouring .org, or there's a feedback form on globaloutpouring .net. So let us hear from you. Let us hear what nation that you're listening from. Let us hear what's going on in your life. Is there some way that we can pray for you? How can we serve you?

3:09 Is there some way that you'd like for us to come even to where you are? We do minister in person as well. So let us know if there's some way that we can serve you. So today, let's look at bowing down to worship the Lord and see what the scriptures say about it. You know, we grew up in kind of denominational churches. My youngest childhood, I remember in the Baptist Church, and my dad was Dutch Reformed, so we were sometimes in the Reformed Church of America Church, and then Evangelical Free Church. And Philip, you were in, what, the Nazarene Church? Yeah, the Nazarene, and then in the Swedish branch of the Assemblies of God.

3:52 Yeah, okay. Which is more... They're a little more starchy. Spirit -filled, but a little starchy. Yeah, a little starchy. So we never ever saw anybody prostrating themselves in worship in those churches. Ever. Never. But we saw, when we started traveling the nations, we saw in Tibet, it was a part of their worship and they bowed down. especially in Tibet, they would make these pilgrimages and they would prostrate themselves all the way from home to the temple or wherever they were going to, the shrine. So it was like an inchworm. They would get down on their knees.

4:39 I think they put their hands up above their heads. with their hands together, put them above their heads, and then they bring them down, and then they prostrate themselves, and then they get up. All the way down, put their hands all the way. Yeah. Like you're sliding forward. Yes. And pull back and do it all. Yes. I remember looking. It was the Jiao Kung Monastery. That's one of the monasteries in Lhasa that you could see in the stone. Oh, yeah, that's right. I mean, in the stone for hundreds, hundreds of years where people have been. Frustrating themselves the same way. Yeah. Wearing a pulse in the stone.

5:20 Yikes. Yikes. It's merit. Yes. It gives you more merit. Yes. They're trying to work their way into whatever they call their version of heaven. You know, is it nirvana? I'm not sure what they call it. And then Hindus also. prostrate themselves in front of their gods. And I did a little research to find out, well, who all is doing this prostrating? Because that's a kind of worship, right? I found out that the Buddhists do it and the Taoists do it. And the Jains, you may not have even heard of Jains, but they're in India. And the Sikhs, they're also in India. Of course, the Hindus. And I didn't realize that Muslims actually prostrate themselves. I knew that they bowed with their head. to the ground. You know, they're on their knees, they squash real down close. And you can tell a devout Muslim because they develop a callus on their forehead from putting their head right down on the stone or on their prayer rug, I suppose it would be. And so they do it, what do they do it, five times a day? Oh, a devout one, five times a day. Five times a day, they're bowing like that. And if you're real devout, even more.

6:35 Yeah, probably. So I had no idea how many different cultures and even there are African cultures, African religions that do this bowing. And it's not only just to gods. They also bow to people who are important. It's a form of honoring, like, you know, the king of the tribe. You're going to prostrate yourself in front of this king because it's a cultural. way of showing respect. And so you're showing submission. So it is seen in Christianity that there is the occasional bowing down and prostrating yourself in the Roman Catholic Church when someone's being ordained. There's some in the Eastern Orthodox churches and even in the Anglican Church and Lutheran Church. There are times when this is appropriate, especially during ordination, ordaining as a pastor, ordaining as an elder, ordaining as a bishop, these kind of things that it's a sign of submission. But I didn't realize, I did kind of, I knew that there's a word in the Hebrew and there's a word in the Greek that when it's referring to worship, it refers to prostrating yourself. But I didn't realize how much. It's there until I got into this study. So I stumbled on this, started stumbling on this when I was reading Genesis 24, 52. This

8:09 is when, you know, Abraham had sent his servant to go and get a wife for Isaac out of his kindred. And so he goes and he's looking for this damsel that is going to be the wife of Isaac and he gets to the well. And he's praying. And he says, Lord, let the woman who, when I ask for a drink, that she'll say, here, drink and let me water your camels too. And camels can drink. They can drink a lot. Like 30 gallons of water a piece. And I don't remember how many camels he had, but it was at least, I think it was at least 10. I don't know if it was 10 or 20. I didn't look that part up, but it's a lot of water. So the servant, Abraham's servant, when he realizes that Rebekah is the daughter of Bethuel, and he realizes that he has found the kin of Abraham, and here she is, and she's doing what he prayed in his little fleece, you know, Lord, if this is the one, let it be. And he bows himself down to the ground. Genesis 24. Philip, would you read that in the King James? And it came to pass that when Abraham's servant heard their words, he worshiped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth. And in the ESV, it also says that he bowed himself to the earth before the Lord. And I began

9:41 to imagine now, what's the deal about bowing yourself to the earth? Is there something about... our connection as earthlings to the earth itself, that our worship includes connecting ourselves physically to the earth. So I'm still pondering that one. I kind of think there is some kind of connection, but I haven't gone any further in finding more about that, but that's how this got started, was wondering, is there some kind of connection that causes us to worship as earthlings, connecting ourselves, prostrating ourselves to the earth itself because we were made from that ground. Interesting thought, isn't it? So this word in the Hebrew for prostrating yourself is sacha. And it means, this is the outline of biblical usage that I see in the Blue Letter Bible app that we use. And it first means to bow down.

10:53 And in most of these times, there's a certain kind of conjugation of the verb in Hebrew that actually means to bow down and prostrate oneself. And you might be prostrating yourself before the Lord or to a superior, you know, you're giving homage to the superior, or bowing down to false gods, or bowing down to angels. You know, these are things that you're seeing in the scripture. Yeah, don't you, in royalty, a lot of times the king, you get on your knees before the king and kiss his hand or his ring. Right, there's different things. It's a way of showing. humility and respect and humbling yourself before the superior and saying, okay, I'm here, you're a loyal subject.

11:42 And so we are loyal subjects to our father, right? I mean, we should be. And if we're not, we should fix that. So the Strong's definition, and it comes from a root that means to depress. So you're sinking down, you're depressing, you're showing yourself low. in order to show your honor and your loyalty. And sometimes in the presence of God, you know, like Daniel, I fell at his feet as dead. Exactly. And Ezekiel and John. And Moses. Right. Moses. I read that this morning. Moses, he just fell face down, which is prostrate before the Lord. Exactly. 40 days and 40 nights. Right.

12:27 I ate no bread. I ate no... Drank no water, but it says, I fell down before the Lord. Yes. Because when you see the Lord in all his glory, you can't do anything else but fall down. Exactly. It's something, you know, and people that have had this experience, you know, we've heard of many people that have visits to the throne room, and, you know, when they see the glory, they fall on their face, and some they feel is dead. It's just like the glory just drains. It's draining your flesh life out of you. Yes. Maybe that's a good way to say it. That is a good way to say it. And this is worship. I think that as Christianity went west and Christian culture developed, I think that there was a kind of a pushback from prostrating yourself. Because the pagans do that without realizing that they are worshiping. And, I mean, it's scriptural to fall down before the Lord in this same way. I mean, it's even New Testament. John did it, right? In the book of Revelation, he fell at his feet as dead. It is a real thing. And that's actually, I think the Greek word is proskuneo. It's often interpreted worship, but it really means to prostrate yourself

13:58 before whatever you're prostrating yourself before, whether it's a false God or whether it's the real God. And we should be prostrating ourselves before the real God. And I do want to say this, that once in a while, we go to a Spirit -filled church where somebody has the revelation that when you're in the presence of God that... You fall down on your face. Yeah. You just take time to get low because he's so great. Yeah. I know a lot of people do that when they're like soaking. Put on worship music. Yes. You know, people get a lot of times they'll get on their face. Yes. You'll see it in worship when the presence of God is very strong. People will just come up and do that because it's just like it's what's in them to do. Yes. God builds that in to worship him. And though maybe it's not in the program you're reading for the morning service, the Spirit of God falls. It was in Pensacola. It was in 1995. I think the Toronto move had been going on for maybe about a year. And all of a sudden on Father's Day in Pensacola, because they were praying for revival, maybe because their denomination didn't get picked. You know, they're probably thinking if the Spirit of God should fall, it should be on the AG. You know, because we're the ones that, you know. We came from Azusa Street.

15:20 We came from Azusa Street. Therefore, we got dibs on the glory of God. You know, it has to hit us first. Well, when it hit Toronto, I think there was a surprise. Here was the old hippie church. Right. It came out of the Jesus movement. Right. There wasn't earrings a lot, all that stuff then, but there was jeans with holes in them and wild mod clothing and all this, this and that. And the glory is falling on them. Right, because they prayed through. They prayed through, and John Arnott and his wife, they prayed for a move of God and the people with them, and it happened. So it's about a year later, I guess, Father's Day, that the presence of God, they said the doors were almost blown off the sanctuary, off their hinges. The power of God came into the sanctuary on Father's Day, and people hit the floor. Exactly. And that revival lasted for...

16:13 I don't know. Quite a few years. About three years. I don't remember. You know, so when the presence of God comes in there, you know, there's times, I mean, you stand in worship when you pray, you know, praising. But when the power of God comes like that, there's nothing you can do but hit your face because, and I remember our founder, Sister Gwen, it was in Toronto, 1945, Bible school. And the move of God was going on there. And she came out of the classroom where it was like one in the morning, goes down the hall and hears this prayer meeting going on and walks into the room and the intercessor says, China, China, won't you go to China? And she says, well, I wonder who the Lord's calling to China. It's not me. And so she sits down. The teacher says after a while, why don't you get down and pray about that? She did out of obedience, not that she wanted to. And then she started feeling the burden of China, sits up. And the teacher said, did you really pray through? Because the call is still going on. China, I'm calling you to China. She gets on her knees again, starts feeling this burden of China. And she gets up on her chair and says, Lord, if you're calling me to China, you're going to have to put me on my knees. Put me on the floor. Put me on the floor because I'm not going down again. And that's just what happened. The power of God came to her and threw her on the floor and it pinned her. And she screamed, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go and start having vision to China. So maybe God has to put some of us on the floor in a mighty

17:45 move. You know, first, this really is me. And I really do have power to do this. And you are powerless. I'm showing you right now. Yes. And that's the kind of move of God we need right now. Yes. That is the move that we are praying for, where the power of God will come in, the Holy Spirit will come down so strong that people will know this is what Christianity is really all about. It's not three songs picked out two weeks or maybe three weeks ahead of time, you know, and then you have a short sermon and everybody goes home, have a prayer. But when the power of God comes down, it's... And I remember Evan Roberts when he was going in Wales and he showed up at a church, denominational church on a Sunday morning unexpectedly with two women with him traveling with him. And that was unheard of in those days. And the service started. He's crying up there. And I got this out of the book. I saw the Welsh Revival, which we used to publish.

18:48 And these two women start singing their experiences in God. Which whoever heard of that before, singing in the spirit. And the man that wrote the book, he was a musician. And he says they're singing and suddenly they're going into a minor key. They didn't do that back then. But he said because he was a musician, he caught that. So things happen in a move of God. Whether you fall on your face, you know, you're on your knees, you're repenting. When the presence of God comes down. Things are going to happen, and that's what we are praying for. Because when you look at the world situation today, that's what has to happen to change these, you know, change the atheists, change the agnostics, change all these that are gods unto themselves and musicians are gods.

19:38 Because when the presence of God comes down like Daniel or like Isaiah, all of a sudden they're caught up and they can't do nothing. All they can do is fall on their pace and repent. Amen. Because in the glory, you have to repent because you feel like you're going to die. I mean, we've heard hundreds of experiences, though I've not had that myself. I don't know if I want one that severe like what they had, you know, because that's pretty intense. But God, if I need it, do it. Amen. Amen. Amen. Okay, well, that was a bunny trail. Well, no, it was a good bunny trail. And it started with the next scripture that we were going to do about Moses. So you've already brought that. So let's go on and talk about what happened when Joshua fell on his face.

20:27 because, you know, they had just had a wonderful success in Jericho, and they just took a handful of soldiers up to this little town called Ai, and they were routed because Achan had sinned and, you know, carried off these things that God said not to take. And Joshua didn't know that, but it says in Joshua 7, 6, that Joshua tore his clothes and fell face down to the ground before the ark of the Lord until the evening, as did the elders of Israel. They all put dust on their heads. I mean, this is an act of humility and an act of, you know, what are we going to do now? And threw himself on the ground, you know, before God. Sometimes that's all we can do, not necessarily because God has showed up in such a big way, but even because, The circumstances have gotten so bad. That's a good time to bow before the Lord and submit yourself to him because you are not going to succeed against your enemies when you're proud. And they kind of went up with an attitude. We just got a handful of us. We'll take care of it. Here's another example from the scriptures that when David numbered the people.

21:47 And he was given a choice. There's three things that you can have. And David chose, I would rather fall into the hands of God than into the hands of man. So he chose this pestilence that for, I think it was for three days. And would you read 1 Chronicles 21, 14 to 16, please? So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel and 70 ,000 men of Israel fell. And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. But as he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, and he relented from the calamity. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, It is enough, now stay your hand. And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

22:34 And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. So I'm sure they all saw it. Oh, yeah. Wow. They fell on their faces. So when you're in the midst of calamity, fall on your face. Fall on your face in worship. You worship the Lord. You're humbling yourself before the Lord. So it can happen when he comes in his glory, and it can happen when circumstances are just bad. And just step up to the Lord and humble yourself. Prostrate yourself in his presence.

23:22 Fall on your face. Because what else can you do? There's nothing that you can do when you're standing there looking at this slaughter angel with a sword in his hand, and he's just slaughtered 70 ,000 of your people, and he's just about to go to Jerusalem. What do you do? You fall on your face. You fall on your face before him. Give him your worship. Give him your humility. So then you have the situation. I love this story. 1 Kings 18, 36 to 39. This is where Elijah and the prophets of Baal have gone up to Mount Carmel.

24:05 And they are, you know, the prophets of Baal have done their thing and it didn't work. And Elijah steps up. And he prays a prayer. Would you read that for us? At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, Yehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God, Yehovah in Israel, and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Yehovah, answer me, so these people will know that you, Yehovah, are God. and that you are turning their hearts back again. Then the fire of Yehovah fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood and the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. And there was a lot of water poured in that trench on that altar. Yes. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, Yehovah, he is God.

25:05 Yehovah, he is God. So if you can imagine now you're outside, you're having a tent meeting or a camp meeting outside. Yes. And you're praising God. And all of a sudden, the fire of God falls from heaven. We've not seen that. Right. Yet. Yet. The fire of God falls from heaven and it burns up the sacrifice. It's like, wow. Yeah, we think, oh, yeah, we'll stand and rejoice and praise. No, I think we'll be on our face because our God is a consuming fire. Yes. And that consumes our flesh, you know, and it'll consume our ideas, our little mind and the ways that we think it will burn it off. Yes. You know, there are things that are going to happen that's just going to be so awesome. Pray into these things, you know, the book of Acts on steroids. They saw the fire that happened on the Temple Mount. They saw the fire of God come down. Yes. And people that have seen this in vision say it wasn't. We look in the pictures in our Bible or in the hanging in the cathedrals and all that, the little flame about three inches high in their head. No, it's a couple feet high. It's burning. It's fire coming down. It's not a little mamby -pamby flame on top of a candle. The fire of God is the fire of God, and it's going to be powerful. Amen.

26:32 And we can't wait till it happens. Right. And remember what it was like before this confrontation. The majority of Israel was worshiping idols. The majority, they were following these prophets of Baal. So, you know, this confrontation. was to show the people of Israel who is really God. And I feel like we're going to be having some of those kinds of confrontations in the days to come that are going to make people wake up. It's time to wake up. And sometimes I think maybe if we would participate in... Prostrating ourselves before the Lord and humbling ourselves before the Lord, whether you get down on the floor or not, it's about your heart attitude that you bow the best you can. Maybe you can't get down on the floor and then get back up again. But if you can, you maybe should. Maybe you can't get on your knees anymore, but sit in a chair and bow your head. Do something that's bowing before the Lord, that's showing him your loyalty to him, your submission to him, and giving him place. Because the more you draw him with your worship, the more he's going to be activated in the earth. You are an earthling. Remember, you're an earthling. And whether you can get on the ground or not. You are connected to the ground, even if it's just your feet that are

28:04 on the ground. You are connected to this earth and you have authority in this earth because God gave the authority to the children of men. That's what it says in the book of Psalms. So the heaven of heavens belongs to him, but the earth he has put under the authority of man. And so the reason why there is so much trouble going on and so many people that are way off. in the wrong direction, they are operating with reprobate minds that are not able to think correctly. Anybody who's in their right mind is going to serve the Lord. And if you're not serving the Lord, maybe it's because you're not quite in your right mind. So those of us who are in our right mind, in our spirit, I'm not saying that we're perfect in our minds. in our thinking because we're still being worked on to help us get where we need to be. We're still in the process of maturing in the things of God, and we always will be. This is an eternal thing. We're going to keep growing in God all of eternity, even when days stop being days, right? But as we have the revelation in our spirits of who the Lord is, who... Who is the great God? Who is the magnificent king of the universe? As we worship him, as we submit ourselves to him, this is bringing his

29:37 power into the earth. We're submitting ourselves. And I believe that there are going to be some more of those Mount Carmel confrontations in these days that are going to show people who's really God and wake them up. and get them out of wrong thinking so that they can be restored to relationship with our Father, which is what He's after. That's what He's after. So as we worship Him, as we bow down before Him, this is bringing His power into the earth. We become carriers of His power as we worship Him. Yeah, where's that scripture found? Was it, Ereth not heard? I has not seen the things that God has prepared for His people. For them that love Him, yes. Just go into heaven. Right. This is earth, what God's going to do on earth. Yes. And it's quoted in the New Testament. I think it's Ephesians.

30:32 Yeah, I can't look it up in my Bible because I'm using my phone's camera. So it doesn't work. So my phone is a camera at the moment too. What's going on is Paul is quoting Isaiah. Because Isaiah said it in the first place and Paul is quoting him. But then he goes on to say, Eyes not seen, ears not heard, neither is it entered in the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him, but they are revealed by the Holy Spirit. See, that's the part that Isaiah didn't see. And he didn't realize that there's going to be this marvelous, total outpouring on all flesh, which we are seeing in part. And it's coming, it's coming, it's coming. So this is what the Lord is trying to help us develop as worshipers. We are worshipers on the earth, on earth as it is in heaven. So I just want to bring us to where I was this morning in my devotions.

31:30 I picked up a book from our bookshelf. It was one of our founder's books that, you know, she had a reference book she had on her shelf. It's an anthology, a Jewish anthology, and it's going verse by verse through the Psalms. And as I was reading it, I saw that it was translated a little differently. This is Psalm 95, verse 6. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Okay, that's the way we've learned it in King James or in most of our English translations. But in this one, it says, come, let us prostrate ourselves and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.

32:16 It goes on to talk about prostrating ourselves is a thing that was done on a regular basis in the Hebrew scriptures in the Old Testament. And the author describes how you lie down on the floor and you stretch out your arms in front of you and your legs behind you. And this is something that we haven't seen a whole lot of. We visited a few synagogues and we've never seen this. But this man was talking about this is something that's in the scripture, right? And so let us prostrate ourselves and bow down. So there's another bowing that they do from the waist, that they bow down at the waist and they bow their head and then let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. And so that reminds us of Solomon.

33:08 When he was dedicating the temple, he had this massive platform built. And this is a rather large chunk of scripture, but his prayer, and we're not going to read the whole prayer. The prayer is magnificent that he prayed before the Lord. So if you would read, Philip, 2 Chronicles 6, verses 12 to 33. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands. For Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and half set in the midst of the court, and he stood on it, knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven. And he said, That's it. Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what you promised your servant David, my father, saying, You shall not fail to have a man sit before me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their

34:39 way, that they walk in my law as you have walked before me. And now, O Lord God of Israel, let your word come true, which you have spoken to your servant David. But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built. Yet regard the prayer of your servant and his supplication. O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which your servant is praying before you, that your eyes may be opened toward this temple day and night, toward the place where you said you would put your name, that you may hear the prayer which your servant makes toward this place, and may you hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive. If anyone sins against his neighbor and is forced to take an oath and comes and takes an oath before your altar in this temple, then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head, and justify the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness. Or if your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you and return and confess your name and pray and make supplication before you in this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive

36:10 the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land which you gave to them and their fathers. Bring them back to the land. Yep. Wow. They got exiled because they didn't follow these laws. It's true. He's prophesying. When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, that you may teach them the good way in which they should walk and send rain on your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance. When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone or by all your people of Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief and spreads out his hands to this temple, then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive. And then what happened when he was done with that prayer?

37:41 Well, wait a minute. There's a really cool part that's on the next page. Oh. So what I love is that there's a place for us. As Gentiles there. Yes. Okay, here we are. Moreover, concerning a foreigner who is not of your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple, then hear from heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, that all peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel. That all the peoples of the earth may know your name. We're all invited. Yes. Yeah.

38:28 Come on. Your people, Israel, and that they may know that this temple, which I have built, is called by your name. Yes. And he goes on and prays a whole bunch more. And then in the first three verses of the next chapter, what does that say? Yeah, this is verses 2 Chronicles 7, 1 to 3. Yes. When Solomon had finished praying, Fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. And the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord because of the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. When all the children of Israel saw how that fire came down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endures forever. The last time the fire fell was Mount Sinai. It also fell when they dedicated the tabernacle.

39:30 Okay, they dedicated the tabernacle. So this is the third time then. Yeah. That the fire has fallen and they all saw it. Yes, they all saw it. And they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement. Yeah. I'm thinking they prostrated themselves, wouldn't you think? Yeah, some may have just collapsed. Right. So then go on within chapter 7, a little further on, verses 12 to 16. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain or command the locusts to devour the land or send pestilence among my people. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house. that my name may be there forever, and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually. And when he says praying into this place, we are this earthly tabernacle.

40:51 So wherever we are praying from this place, from our heart, we are this walking two -legged tabernacle that we have the presence of God in us, and the fire can fall on us anywhere we are at. And the Holy Spirit can come on us. anywhere we're at, to do anything he wants us to do. Amen. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. So we look forward to this humbling of ourselves before the Lord. And I just want to comment about one of the things that Solomon prayed was, if the heavens are shut up and there's no rain. Yeah. And when the Lord appeared to him in a dream, he said, if the heavens are shut up and there's no rain. Mm -hmm. It's interesting that it's there twice. And what happens when we have drought? We've been in a drought quite a bit right here in Arkansas. There are areas of our country that have drought. Is it because there's some wickedness going on? Is there something that God wants to... There's a reason for this to happen. Is it because there's sin in the camp?

42:05 Is it because there's... Iniquity that hasn't been dealt with. Yeah, we look at that again. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain. When I shut up heaven. Exactly. Or command, it's him, Jehovah, I command the locusts to devour the land. That's right. Or I send pestilence among my people. I mean, we have to get over the fact that we think God is not going, we don't want to offend anybody with God. Or we're so seeker -friendly that God would never do anything to hurt his people. Right. It's all the devil. No. This is God's chosen people that he has blood covenant with. Right. That says, I will send pestilence. I will send no rain if my people disobey me. Right. So why don't we hear this preached? Well, we're preaching it now. Yeah.

42:57 Yeah. It's important. It's important that we recognize. that our humbling ourselves before him. Remember this key verse, verse 14, 2 Chronicles 7, 14. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves. Get on your face if you can. Humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I'll hear from heaven. Lots of times we have prayer meetings, but we don't always turn from our wicked ways. Or we don't confess the sins of our nation. And we've had a lot of those kinds of moves. And I'm really blessed to see how different ministries have stepped up to do community repentance. Repentance for the nation. There have been several events in Washington, D .C. that have been... prayer meetings that have said father we repent we repent on behalf of our nation for all of the things that are going on and and you know the repentance has been wonderful and i think it's made a difference but there's still more to do yes and i just want to recommend that you go back and find the episode that we did and we'll put a link to it in the show notes the episode that we did on redeeming the land because that is also a huge key in bringing redemption to the land and bringing the blessings of God back to the land, breaking the curses.

44:27 You break the curses by the power of the blood of Jesus. And so I recommend that you go back and listen to that. If you're in any way involved in intercession for your area, for your community, for your state, for the nation, whatever nation you're from, get a hold of this principle of using the blood of Jesus as a covering, as a washing away, because it's... Sin is only cast away by the blood, by the blood of Jesus, right? So I just want to comment that I've talked about not much prostrating of yourself being done in most churches. But, you know, in our conventions, we've always had people that it's not like everybody does. But there's almost always somebody that during worship is moved by the Lord to humble.

45:19 themselves and prostrate themselves before the Lord in worship. And some worship songs call for that. Sometimes people do and sometimes people don't. I want to also comment about our dear friend Dean Braxton, who's been with us numerous times on our podcast. He wrote this book, Deep Worship in Heaven. And you can see all my little markers here. He talks about how there's prostrating. of people, of beings in heaven. And I just want to read some paragraphs here and there that will give you a picture because we're here on earth and in answer to the prayer that we've been praying to our Father for centuries and centuries, millennia, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As we understand our part in doing on earth as it is in heaven, It's bringing heaven closer and closer and closer. So I just want to read a few paragraphs here and there.

46:25 One thing that he says in chapter two, worship is only for the true God. And he's talking about, I can't read the whole book to you. I wish I could, but you need to get this book if you don't have it. And it's also available on Audible because that's where we first heard it. We heard it first before we read it. It says, as Jesus moved toward the throne of my father, I could still look at him, and oh, how I knew I loved him. I knew that everything about him loved me. Even as he moved toward the throne, I just remember how much his presence still had love for me. Even though he moved away from me, I still could say that everything about him loved me. I looked at everything else, and everything else seemed to be having the same experience that I was having as he went past them. He loved each of them like each was the only one he loved. Just let that sink in. He loves you like you're the only one he loves.

47:26 Let that sink in. All I could do as I watched him move away from me was experience a sense of great anticipation for what was about to take place. I had sensed great joy coming from Jesus. I experienced the gladness of everything around me. I knew that this blissfulness we were all in was because of a huge moment that was about to happen. Now, I'll just give you a background that while he was there, he was hearing this beat, continuous beat. And then all of a sudden, there was silence. And so he's in this silence time. Let me just go on. As I looked at my father, I saw the glory that was coming off of him. His glory looked like streams of red, white, blue, orange, yellow, green, purple, violet, turquoise, and more. There were also so many other colors of lights coming off of him that I could not name. He was creating new colors every moment.

48:25 Imagine that. All of the colors were alive and bounced around. They reminded me of birds that I had seen jumping up and down as they looked for food in a field of grass. These colors also were indwelled with great love for everything that they came in contact with. I remember them coming and swirling around me as I was on my hands and knees looking toward my God as Jesus was about to enter into his Father's glory. I read that part to say, okay, at this point, he's on his hands and knees before the Lord, on his hands and knees. And he goes on to tell how Jesus just went into the Father. He enters God's glory.

49:07 And that's just kind of amazing. Then the next one is, and I'm skipping pages and pages and pages, so you'll have to get the book, but just to catch a little bit of the positions in heaven that people were taking in worship. So prostrated before the throne is the next little section. It says, I saw everything in creation that was already before the throne of God on their hands, knees, and faces. They were lying on the holy ground in the direction of the throne. Reclining on this blessed ground was their natural position when they were not actively praising God. Wow.

49:51 So they were either on their hands and knees or they were on their faces, just getting ready for the next thing. So then skip another 20 pages, and he's talking about knees to prostrate. As I fell on my knees and placed myself face down, the joy I had in going down cannot be put into words. I remember the motion of moving to my knees and from my knees to the point of my chest touching the ground. In that action, I felt like I was experiencing a different area of glory in God. I would not come up the same. As if I were being baptized into something new or different for me for that moment. Finally, I placed my face into my hands with a great anticipation of how much love I was going to receive from my father. Then I took my hands from my face and extended my arms before me in a prostrated position with palms up. I knew my palms were to receive a gift of love. To give love in praise.

51:04 Isn't that amazing? Yeah, it's beautiful. Wow. Wow. And a few more pages. We're going to skip some pages here. This is such a good book. So the next thing that happened was a beautiful angelic being that looked feminine, but very, very, very tall, got up and began to praise. And it was calling all creation or all. All of the beings of heaven, all the creatures and plants and mountains and everything, calling them to come and worship. Then the beat started again. After that, angel made that sound of praise and calling for praise. Then the beat started again.

51:49 So now as a new beat was called forth through the angel of God, this beat seemed to become greater every moment that I was in heaven. Again, everything was connected to it. Once the beat had started up and the beautiful angel of God had fulfilled its purpose, all I knew was that everything that made me a living being was vibrating and crying out now in praise to my mighty Father. My connection to everything in heaven was still there, but it seemed like I was the only one getting ready to worship God. I knew, however, that all of heaven was preparing to praise the Creator. We, every living being and every living creation, came willingly to praise the Lord with everything we had. Then it happened. I sensed to my right a great multitude of the creations of God. I looked to the right of me and a great number of God's creation came out of their prostrated position and stood up on their feet. Others, like trees, just rose up to a vertical position.

52:53 along with all plant -like creations formed by God. And the word like is all in caps, plant -like. They weren't plants, but they were plant -like. Plant -like creations formed by God. Mountains rolled up to a higher position as if they were being pushed up from the ground. Animal -like creatures stood up on all four of their feet. Now everything that made this great multitude to my right rose up to sing praises to God Almighty. Oh, how beautiful it looked to me to see them rise in unison. They rose from a prostrated position. So you prostrate yourself and then you rise to praise. And he goes on talking about the joy that was there, that was being expressed. And then he says this, all I saw through my eyes is what he, my father, saw through his eyes.

53:49 I saw his glory. Our praise and worship all coming together inside of us. His creation in heaven. As it came together, I remember experiencing a power that was accelerating and was building up to a point where it seemed like I was going to explode in praises. I had known that each one of us before the throne of God was going through the same experience. All were going through this event of becoming a part of his holy glory. We were all becoming his glory, but at the same moment, we were individuals. Each of his creation had to take on his glory in their uniqueness and in their own way. Do you understand what happens when you prostrate yourself before the Lord? You are setting yourself up for something supernatural. Whether you see it or not, whether you feel it or not, whether you experience it in your understanding, something is happening when you reduce yourself before the Lord. And Dean goes on talking about how he got up from his position of prostration and stood before the Lord and then raised his hands and began to worship. And all of these colors and things, waters began to participate in what he was doing.

55:16 Our worship, our praise, our humbling ourselves before him, our prostrating ourselves, if we can do it physically or whatever we can do, when we humble ourselves, something happens. Now, just to wrap this up, I want to get one more shot in at what happens when we do this on earth. So this is really interesting. On the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Islam has been in control there for 1400 years. Jews have not been allowed to worship there. Christians have not been allowed to worship there. Muslims alone could worship there. And about 12 years ago, a group of Jewish men went up there and they got bold. And they shouted the Shema at the top of their lungs.

56:15 Shema, Israel, Adonai, Eloheinu. And they pray the whole prayer. And then someone, some young man comes out with an Israeli flag. Well, that's forbidden also. I mean, we've gone up on the Temple Mount and we had hats that had a U .S. flag and an Israeli flag. We were forbidden to wear them on the Temple Mount. So all of that's very, very forbidden, right? So these guys get the flag out there, and then they begin prostrating themselves before the Lord on that Temple Mount, and 13 of them were arrested. Okay, it was very serious. Then three years ago, they started prostrating themselves at the entrance to the Temple Mount.

57:04 And then two years ago, they started prostrating themselves on the eastern side, right near the eastern gate, that gate that's closed up, but facing towards the Dome of the Rock, because that's where they feel that the temple was. And they've been prostrating themselves over the last two years, and now they're even allowed to take prayer books up there, and they're praying up there. Yeah, and we went up there last year. Yes. And there was hardly anybody there, hardly any Muslims. But we saw Jewish people prostrating themselves. Yeah, I remember the one got down and prostrated himself, I thought. Yes. Wow.

57:47 And I saw a video on YouTube a few months ago that this rabbi who's going there all the time, he spoke to one of the Muslim kind of overseer kind of guys. there's hardly anybody up here to worship, you know, the Muslims. And the guy said, I don't know. It just seems like since you guys started coming up here and prostrating yourselves, hardly anybody wants to come anymore. It seems like they're afraid. Wow. And that's not a Muslim mindset. No, no, no, no. I mean, that's what this whole intifada over and over, intifadas and even October 7th, they were. They were complaining it's because of the Al -Aqsa Mosque that's up there, that the Jews were coming up there and desecrating it. But they're not.

58:43 They're not coming. They don't come nowhere near it. Right, right. They're not participating in anything that's going on in the mosque. But for them, the whole Temple Mount is the mosque. So something happens when we worship God, when we give Him place, when we are giving Him the glory due His name. So would you read for us in closing Matthew 4, 8 through 11? Again, the devil took him, which was Jesus, to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to them, All this I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, Jehovah. and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. Okay, this is at the end of his fast. This is the third temptation.

59:43 Catch what he said. The devil said, fall down and worship me, and I'll give you all this stuff. And obviously he's a liar. He doesn't have the authority to give him all that stuff anyway. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness of the world. Exactly. It's all Jehovah's. So Jesus answered him. by saying, be gone, Satan. Be gone, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God. In other words, you're only going to prostrate yourself before the Lord your God, before the God of Israel. Yeah. And him only shall you serve. Then what happened? The devil left him. Yeah. Boom. Boom. Just like that. He submitted himself to our Father. Jesus submitted himself to our Father and declared, I'm only going to worship him. I'm not going to worship you. Be gone. Be gone. Get the hints. Exactly.

1:00:44 And the devil left him and angels came and ministered to him. So know, just know this in your knower, that when you worship the Lord, you... are putting yourself in a position where the angels can come and minister to you also. And how do you do that? Submit yourselves to God. Yes. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. This is James 4, 7. Yes. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Yes, absolutely. But it starts with heartfelt submission. And so submitting yourself by prostrating yourself is one way to do it. Don't do it in a religious way. Do it. In love to the Lord. Remember what we just read Dean Braxton's word. He was prostrating himself before the Lord in love for the Lord because he was receiving love for the Lord. He's got his hands out so he can get the love that God's going to give him so that he has the ability to give love back. Yes. And that's where we are going to have our victory. over the enemy of our souls. He's the enemy of God, and that's what makes him the enemy of our souls. As we submit ourselves to God, we can resist the devil.

1:02:03 We can say, be gone, Satan. Be gone. I am only going to worship the Lord my God. I'm only going to worship Jesus. I'm only going to worship the God of Israel and watch him run. Hallelujah. Father, we thank you. for this revelation. We thank you for helping us to get a new sense of worship before you and submission to you and giving you our love and giving you our praise so that you can operate through us, through us earthlings, that we will be your servants and handmaidens on the earth, doing on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. You can also browse our web store for life -changing anointed books. Until next time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm Philip Buss. God bless you with His overwhelming, loving presence.