Hello OCBC family,
I was reading in my devotional the words of Jesus to the woman at the well, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). This sentence from our Lord is very powerful in understanding what worship is.
First, it is telling us that God is spirit. This is easy to read but hard to understand. He is not a force like oriental religions try to teach. He is not an exalted man that gained deity like Mormons believe. He is not a distant God who doesn’t care about creation. He is spirit, which means He is eternal and beyond our comprehension. Did you see that Jesus didn’t say that we need to understand God, then worship Him? No, Jesus said God is spirit and we must worship Him. Yes, we can study theology and try to understand who God is, but when we have our moment of adoration with the Father it is just about our relationship with Him.
The second part said that we must worship Him in spirit and truth. To understand this I want Brother Paul to share a few words with us. In 1 Corinthians 14:15 he said, “What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.” This is so clear! When we worship our Lord we need to use our feelings and say to Him that we love Him, that He is so precious to us, that He is our all in all. But, we need to worship Him with our mind also, which means that we can say to Him that He is Holy, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, and every heavy word in the Bible that describes our God.
Worshiping in spirit and truth should be like when you learn a part for a drama, musical, etc. You learn the words, practice the movements (worship in truth), but at the moment of the performance you enjoy the presentation (worship in spirit), and you give everything you have for your audience (God).
Why am I telling you this? Jesus gives you the answer, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:23).
In His service,
Israel
I was reading in my devotional the words of Jesus to the woman at the well, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). This sentence from our Lord is very powerful in understanding what worship is.
First, it is telling us that God is spirit. This is easy to read but hard to understand. He is not a force like oriental religions try to teach. He is not an exalted man that gained deity like Mormons believe. He is not a distant God who doesn’t care about creation. He is spirit, which means He is eternal and beyond our comprehension. Did you see that Jesus didn’t say that we need to understand God, then worship Him? No, Jesus said God is spirit and we must worship Him. Yes, we can study theology and try to understand who God is, but when we have our moment of adoration with the Father it is just about our relationship with Him.
The second part said that we must worship Him in spirit and truth. To understand this I want Brother Paul to share a few words with us. In 1 Corinthians 14:15 he said, “What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.” This is so clear! When we worship our Lord we need to use our feelings and say to Him that we love Him, that He is so precious to us, that He is our all in all. But, we need to worship Him with our mind also, which means that we can say to Him that He is Holy, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, and every heavy word in the Bible that describes our God.
Worshiping in spirit and truth should be like when you learn a part for a drama, musical, etc. You learn the words, practice the movements (worship in truth), but at the moment of the performance you enjoy the presentation (worship in spirit), and you give everything you have for your audience (God).
Why am I telling you this? Jesus gives you the answer, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:23).
In His service,
Israel
RSS Feed