Saturday, August 10, 2013

Lifting Your Face in Prayer

Does your posture or the direction you look in during prayer really matter?  I believe it does, as I've written about previously in my post called Lifting Hands in Prayer. I believe the Lord honors every act of faith, and certain postures open you up to receive from the Lord more readily. One of those is lifting up your head and eyes to God in prayer.  Here is the Scriptural basis for it:

David lifted his eyes to the Lord in prayer
David lifted his eyes to the Lord in prayer. “To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens!” (Psa 123:1)

David also wrote of the generation who seeks the Lord’s face.  He spoke metaphorically to indicate that we are like gates or doors, which have the ability to open up and let the Lord come in or remain shut. “This is the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face--even Jacob. Selah. Lift up your heads, O gates, And be lifted up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, And lift them up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah.”  (Psa 24:6-10) If we gates want the Lord of hosts, the King of glory, to come in, then we are invited to lift up our heads.

Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” (Rev 3:20)

Jesus told us to lift up our heads in expectation of His return. "But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (Luk 21:28). This is a way of loving the Lord with your strength, as well as your heart and mind.  You change your whole posture to open up with joyful expectation for the Lord to come.

Sin Keeps Men from Lifting Up Their Face to God
Ezra told the Lord it was sin that kept him from lifting up his face to God.  “And I said, ‘O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.’” (Ezr 9:6)

This was the reason the sinful tax collector would not lift up his eyes to heaven.  "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'  (Luk 18:13)

If there is sin in your life, you should not lift your eyes proudly to the Lord. You should humbly confess your sin, repent, and ask the Lord to forgive you. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1Jn 1:9)

Then you can lift your eyes once again in prayer, and come before the Lord with clean hands.  Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  (Heb 4:16)

Nebuchadnezzar raised his Eyes Toward Heaven
When king Nebuchadnezzar was judged by God for his great pride, he experienced seven years of living outdoors like an animal.  He had the mind of an animal and could not rule his kingdom.  The Scripture says, "Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws.” (Dan 4:33).  I assume he could not even speak normally, but maybe grunted or growled or even howled.

But notice what happened at the end of that time.  He himself testified, "But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. “ (Dan 4:34).  He said, “I…raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me.” The Lord honored that one, simple act of humility and faith on his part.  Then he blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him. 

Our God is awesome.  And when we will raise our eyes to Him in childlike faith, adoration, and total dependence, He takes notice.

Jesus Lifted His Eyes in Prayer
Jesus lifted His eyes to heaven in prayer.  "Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them, and broke them, and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the people." (Luk 9:16)

He didn't look down or stare at His navel when He prayed. “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You…’” (Joh 17:1)

Putting it All Together
Let me encourage you to lift up your face when you pray.  This is pleasing to the Lord, when you come to Him with clean hands and a pure heart.  As I've written about in my article called, The Link Between Two Realms, there is a definite link between the physical and spiritual realms.

Lift up your eyes to the Lord.  He's the One from whom your help comes. David prayed this way, Ezra did also, and so did Jesus.  The Bible teaches us to lift our heads up to God in prayer, and to love Him not only with all our heart and soul, but with all our strength, too.

Attribution notice: Most Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. "Seek My Face" and "My Beloved Son" paintings © 2012 Danny Hahlbohm, all rights reserved by the artist.

Author's note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Lifting Hands in Prayer and The Link Between Two Realms.  You may also access my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master."

Now I'd like to ask a very important question.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"
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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.

5 comments:

  1. This post has been so helpful to me! Although it seems strange that by just lift our eyes and our head to God in heaven above, our prayers can change. I have recently been struggling in prayer, constantly distracted, with literally my head (as usual) facing downward while I pray. When I get tired, my face just falls into bed cover in front of me and I eventually give up! Maybe I should try and lift my eyes to God Almighty and see the difference when I lift up my head and face my Lord in heaven above. Thank you so much for the post, brother Len, and glory to God for His unfailing love and holy Word!

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    1. Amen, Bro RJ. You're welcome. Let us know how that works out for you. Also consider reading "Lifting Your Hands in Prayer" at http://len-seekingthelord.blogspot.com/2013/08/lifting-your-face-in-prayer.html.

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  2. Thank you for this article, it is the only one I have been able to come across that makes sense to me. Every once in a while I have been feeling like the Lord has been saying to me to look up, and I have looked up, not understanding what it meant (thinking I am hearing things or just in my mind). Last night while partly asleep Psalms 123 came to me and I could not understand it? But the beginning of Psalms 123 says "O God-enthroned in heaven, I lift my eyes toward you in worship. The way I love you is like the way a servant wants to please his master, the way a maid waits for the orders of her mistress. We look to you, our God with passionate longing to please you and discover more of your mercy and grace". (Passion Translation version). I was also asking the Lord for some understanding and what resonated with me is do we look away from people when we speak to them, or do we look at them when speaking and I thought to myself, so why would I look down when praying as my Father, my friend sits in heavenly places and I felt looking up shows respects. Anyways, this is just my version of things, but I noticed after finding your web site and comments here that I am not far off with how I am feeling, perhaps my heavenly Father is calling me to lift my head in prayer to Him as His beautiful son Jesus did...amen!! Thank you for your post.

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  3. This awesome article, "Lifting Your Face in Prayer."
    Reminded me of when Jesus raised his head and looked up towards heaven and prayed for Lazarus to rise from the dead.
    John 11: 38-44. says.
    Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. "Take away the stone," He said. "But Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days," Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said, this is for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus come out!"
    The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
    Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
    This reminds me of when I was in agony and I lifted my head automatically and I prayed, crying out to the Father God to save me, and my prayers were answered, God saved me, I died and went to heaven and Jesus sent me back from heaven. It was a miracle, just like the raising of Lazarus.
    Concluding.
    So when we lift our face up to God the Father in prayer and with thanksgiving, we give honour and glory to God and our prayers are answered and sometimes miracles happen as we pray in faith to our Lord.
    Thank and praise the Lord.
    Thank you.
    Bless you.
    From Sister Catherine Atherton.

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    1. Yes, the example you gave of e Lord Jesus lifting his head in prayer was a good one. God bless you!

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