Translation
the secrets of his heart will be made clear and thus, after falling on his face, he will kiss toward God,
Go to footnote numberdeclaring that “Surely, God is in you!”
Paraphrase
and those doing the exhorting will describe this newcomer’s spiritual need in a way that makes it seem like they can read his mind and his heart (it is not them but the Holy Spirit who is doing that), and then, after responding by falling to his knees in repentance, he will worship God, in part because their exhortations convinced him that “Surely, God is present here among you.”
Footnotes
1
“Kiss toward”: This word is made up of the preposition “toward” and the verb to kiss. It referred to someone falling down at the feet of a superior and kissing their feet or the ground in front of them. This level of humility and submission is at the heart of worship and therefore this word is often rightly translated “worship,” but it comes from “to kiss [the ground] toward.”
WHAT WERE THE RESULTS?
The exhortations to live a godly life will pierce the sinner’s soul and he will feel like he is being interrogated, or that his mind is being read, not by the believers, but by the Holy Spirit. The precision and power of this conviction will persuade the unbeliever that God is at work in that place, and that He knows everything about him, and yet wants him to repent and receive forgiveness. In order for these exhortations to have that kind of effect, they need to be done in love. When a person hears the truth presented in love, it has much more of an effect on him than when truth is presented alone.