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A few days ago, after a week of less than spectacular sleep, I finally awakened refreshed. It was dark, but I was ready to slip from beneath my covers before the sun slipped out from behind its own covers. I made my coffee, grabbed my Bible and phone, and settled onto my favorite couch, turning on my phone flashlight. I opened the Word to my next chapter in Deuteronomy, and I began to do what I always try to do with God’s Word: Seek Him. There, in the pre-dawn stillness, I heard God speak. Turns out, the question He asked me has changed my prayer life.
An Invitation from Scripture
Deuteronomy is one of my favorite books in the Bible. In it’s story, Moses retells his journey with ancient Israel. He recounts the Israelites’ high highs and low lows, their incredible moments and abysmal failures. He reminds them of everything God told them to do; of how God wanted them to obey Him and seek His blessings, and how God promised to discipline them if they chose not to obey Him.
I love the book of Deuteronomy, but on this particular day, God highlighted chapters 9 and 10 for me. In these chapters, Moses tells how he was up on the mountaintop watching God inscribe with his own finger the original Ten Commandments. For 40 days and 40 nights he was in God’s presence. What an unspeakable privilege!
At the end of that otherworldly experience, though, Moses’ life took a a drastic shift. God sent him booking down the mountain, saying, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them” (Deuteronomy 9:11).
When Moses went down and saw what his people were doing, he reacted in anger and shattered the Ten Commandments inscribed by God’s own finger. While that wasn’t the best example to follow, his next response gave me pause. Moses went back up the mountain and fell facedown in the presence of the Lord for another 40 days and 40 nights, AGAIN, this time on behalf of the people! And God responded to Moses’ facedown intercession and didn’t destroy the people.
God’s Question to Me
As I sat there pondering this Scripture in the wee morning hours, I asked God what He was saying to me through His Word. He responded to me with a question of His own: “Tosha, do you take prayer for your people as seriously as Moses did?” I know the truth of the answer to that question. I pray and pray and pray. But facedown? Hands and knees? Intense prayer for 40 days and 40 nights? Intercession of the deepest, most urgent level? Maybe sometimes, but probably, truthfully, mostly not.
And yet, the spiritual warfare for the lives of those we love is thick. All around me is see people who “have turned away quickly from what (God) commanded them” (Deuteronomy 9:11). The list of prodigals is growing. The urgency of bringing them home to Jesus from the gates of hell is more pressing now than ever. I pray for all of these. And I am sure you’re praying for all these in your life as well.
Yet, the invitation I heard from the Lord that morning was specific: “Go deeper, go lower, go facedown, and not just every once in a while, but for the next 40 days and 40 nights.” God named this calling for me: “Facedown Forty.”
Putting Facedown Forty Into Practice
And so I began leaning into this. On Sunday morning, I set aside my pride and I kneeled during worship at church. That evening, I knelt in prayer specifically for prodigals. Today, I made my way to the closet, out of the way of all the noise and motion of my household, to bow before the Lord. Tonight I’ll kneel again.
Already, I feel the powers of hell tapping on my shoulder to distract me, whispering in my ear about other prayers unanswered and the thousand ways I’ve failed.
These accusations are not the end of the story, though, because the success of prayer and intercession is not in my control. It’s not in my efforts or about my achievements.
The success of prayer is in coming to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, spending time in His presence and seeking His heart about those He has entrusted to me. The succes of prayer is in seeking His power and His authority for their lives. This is what Moses did for the people of Israel, and he wrote in Scripture that God listened to him.
Did you get that? God listened to him!!! In Deuteronomy 10:10, Moses wrote: “I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you.”
Moses’ facedown forty changed the course of his peoples’ lives, as God have them yet another opportunity to seek the Lord.
Our “Facedown Forty” Intercessions
I believe God will do the same as we pray.
Our lists of lost and prodigal loved ones matter so much to us, but they matter a million times more to the heart of God. He longs for people to return to Him.
So when He challenged me to pray in a new way, I said yes. I said yes to literally getting facedown and bringing their names before the God of the universe for 40 days.
What about you? Will you to join me in this?
Let’s pray down some strongholds! Let’s break through some barriers! Let’s fight the enemy for the lives of those people that God has entrusted to us! Let’s be willing to charge the gates of hell and do some serious spiritual warfare, because we want to see the captives set free in Jesus’ Name!
Oh God, give us the faith to petition You in prayer and intercession. May we pray like Moses did, in facedown forty, for Your glory and the good of all those You’ve entrusted to us. In Jesus’ Name, amen!
Be encouraged! ❤️ Tosha
