Style of Worship

Ok, I am giggling as I write this first part of my post, because the word that I have been getting for a week or so now is a strange one. Prostrate. Sounds like prostate. HA! When I went to research different meanings of this, Google kept asking me if I really meant Prostate, so I had to laugh. Anyway, on a serious note, I have been getting this word, and also a picture. I kept seeing a man on his knees with head bowed and hands stretched forward cupped, ready to receive whatever from the Lord. This I believe is a significant form of worship.

Psalm 95:6
"Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker."
Nehemiah 8:6
"Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, "Amen! Amen!" Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground."
Genesis 24:48
"and I bowed down and worshiped the LORD. I praised the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road"

I think of getting on our knees, on our faces, or even completely laid
out prostrate before our God. It is the clearest expression of worship you see in the Bible.

There are so many times during worship, whether by myself or in the presence of others where I have this strong urge to fall to the ground before the Lord. Usually this entails me being very emotional and I am either on the verge of crying or might already be in the midst of the rain fall. Sometimes, I will be involved in worship and God will reveal something to me about Himself, or He will show me a picture, and from there I am lost in Him.

Take for example this last Sunday. I went to a new church to see if it was good and let me tell you the worship was awesome. I realize that you can feel the Holy Spirit anywhere, it doesn’t have to be anywhere in particular, but on that day I REALLY felt Him. For some of it I believe it was the songs they were singing, and for the rest I really really missed spending intimate time with my Father; I know I don’t do it enough. As I was standing there, I felt a strong pull to get down on my knees but because it was a newer church and I didn’t want to make a scene, I stayed standing. I lifted my hand and then the tears started to flow and I just absorbed His presence. At that moment, without knowing what was happening my body started to fall backwards and I had to catch myself with the chair in front of me and hold on for dear life. What an amazing moment that was for me to feel his presence and be enveloped in the essence of him; I was just there, with Him.

So, all that to say is this. Should I have just gotten down on my knees when I felt inclined to? Maybe. Or I could have chosen to just sit, which I did later because I know I couldn’t stand anymore. Ultimately, what I really wanted to do was speak to the Father in the spirit and cry out to him, not really caring what I looked like or what people thought. In a smaller church setting this is harder to do because let’s face it, you don’t want it to be loud and who knows if they encourage such things in public? Probably not. ;-) But man it would have been great. This brings to mind a moment that I had with God while in YWAM. We had a service in the middle of the day, and the music was loud enough to drown out anything out of the ordinary. There were many of us who felt the move of the Holy Spirit so we went to different parts of the sanctuary to pray. I did this as well and ended up laying prone on the floor crying my eyes out, snot flowing and really not caring. I was in the moment with my Father and no matter how messed up I looked or how much snot and tears covered my face afterword, I would never want to erase that moment of time. Everything within was drowning in His presence. Aahhh, what a memory! ;-)

How many times do we allow the presence of the Holy Spirit to envelope us like that? How often do we let go and let God? I know that is a cliche phrase, but really it works here. Do you fight with your urge to go deeper or is it easier to remain on the surface like you do every day and not really give in to the call of God? I feel so many times that I do this because I don't have time, or I don't want to mess up my makeup or I can think of so many other things worth my time to do. HA! What is worth my time is spending it with the Lord and being a subject to HIS will, and not my own. I am still working on this and I hope for the time where I can actually let God help me fill my time verses me trying to be the master of it.

So, going back to the style of worship that I mentioned before; to be prostrate or prone before the Lord. There's just something about being laid out prostrate before God in prayer and worship before Him. Why do you think that bowing down is so heavily linked to worship? What keeps us from bowing down before God in our Quiet Times/Personal Worship Times, or when worshiping with others? Should we be bowing down more in worship before God? Why or why not?

I am interested in hearing your views on this and also I would love to hear stories of how God has moved in your lives, whether it be through worship or prayer. Please write back, I would love to hear from you.