worship in Spirit and truth

“Yet a time is coming and now has come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in sprit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24


When Jesus talked with the woman at the well (verse quoted above), He was comparing the old worship style of giving grains and animals to the new worship style done in spirit and truth. “God is Spirit” and desires to be communicated with in spirit because that is the way we can understand and become like Him.

In the Old Testament we find that worship is often accompanied by acts of sacrificial giving (Deut 26:10). Men and women came to the temple prepared. Sometimes we find in ourselves the attitude that our worship is a spontaneous pressing into the Holy Spirit, and an uplifting participation of music and songs. Although God loves our spontaneous expressions of gratitude and love, the worship He seeks is not something we can press into during a short worship session at church; it is a life style filled with His preparations.

New Testament worship requires us “to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Rm 12:1). Instead of offering grains and animals to God, we now offer ourselves. This new style of worship is powered by the enabling of the Holy Spirit in our lives and is only possible to those who are willing to leave their own image behind to become like God.

There are 3 sets of verses which tell us what our sacrificial worship to God looks like;

• Do not be conformed to t his world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Rm 12:2a)

• Put off your old self and put on the new self, becoming God-like (Eph 4:22-24)

• Put to death your corrupt earthly nature and put on your new self (renewed by the knowledge of the image of the Creator) (Col 3:5-10)

This preparation allows us to enter into the kind of worship God is seeking, where He reveals those things which are of Him to us, through His Spirit (1 Cor 2:9-10). And here is where worshipers in the Spirit are separated from those who have not walked with God throughout the week by His Spirit; “the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor 2:14).

God wants communion with His people during worship. If we walk with Him daily, laying our bodies down as a living sacrifice unto Him, we then can enter into meaningful worship of the Lord at any time. But if we do not give the Lord our sacrifice in our daily life then our songs sung in church on Sunday will not bring communion with Him, because we have not been yielding ourselves to Him.

God is seeking a people who want Him, more than they want to be themselves. He is seeking people who love the truth about Him and desire to be in His image. And He is seeking those who yield to the nudges and leadings of His Spirit in their everyday lives, laying aside their own preferences for His. These are they who worship God truly and He delights to find them.