Spirit and Truth Worship: A Lifestyle

When I first heard someone preach about the passage in John 4, where Jesus tells the woman at the well that "the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him," I was a bewildered 19yr old. I had never heard that passage before, and for a very long time, I didn't understand what it meant. I would ask people who had knowledge of the Word of God to explain that passage to me, but every single one would give me an unsatisfactory answer. I would ask, "What does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth?" They would reply, "It's spirit and truth worship." Huh? I was confused and no one seemed to be able to help me. You see, I LONGED to be a worshiper of God. If He was looking for a certain TYPE of worship and worshiper, then I wanted to BE that type of person and offer Him the kind of worship that He took delight in.

Rather than continuing to confer with man, I began to ask the Lord what He meant when He said that, and He began taking me on a journey through the scriptures to help me understand His meaning and intention. The Lord's desire has always been for a kingdom of priests; a people who would draw near to Him in love and adoration for who He is and out of that understanding walk in right relationship with Him and with others. He called the nation of Israel to stand before Him in that priestly role. He chose for Himself the tribe of Levi as those who would stand continually before Him and minister to Him. They would also minister to the people, teaching them the ways of God. Israel, in turn, would teach the nations what it meant to walk in righteousness, for the nations of the earth did as they pleased, walking in the imagination of their evil hearts, serving gods made of created things: Sun, moon, stars, water, wood, stone, etc. They did not realize that they were really serving demons, not gods.

Yahweh patiently taught the children of Israel His ways, so they would be careful to walk in them. Not doing so would produce disastrous results. He desired to bless them abundantly with His life and His peace, but He also would not violate their free will. He could not FORCE them to walk in agreement with Him. He, therefore, set before them a choice. Life or death. To choose life meant doing things His way. To choose death meant walking in opposition to Him and His ways.

The children of Israel, however, were stubborn and stiff-necked. They kicked against anything that looked like restraint. They looked at the nations and wanted their kind of freedom, not realizing that all along the nations were looking at Israel with jealousy in their hearts, greatly desiring what Israel had. Who had a god that provided for, cared for, nurtured, protected, and defended them like Israel's God? Not one nation on the earth had that kind of relationship with their god. What god made their presence known like Israel's God? None. There was and is no one that compares with Him. Yet, Israel could not see that they were special. They just saw that they were different, in a negative sense. Throughout their time in the wilderness, they groaned against God and ached for the comforts of Egypt (though life enslaved in Egypt was by no means comfortable). That sort of attitude eventually kept them from entering the land that God promised them. Their evil heart of unbelief and their slavery mentality was more than God could stand.

The interesting thing to note is that not EVERYONE in that generation was kept from entering the promised land. There were two, out of an entire generation, that believed God. These two, Joshua and Caleb, were those who actually drew near to God. Long after Moses departed from the tabernacle, it is said that Joshua remained behind to seek the Lord. The scriptures say that Joshua and Caleb were of a different spirit. They carried themselves differently. When God said, "Draw near," Joshua and Caleb did not hesitate. They did not stand in their tent doors at a distance and tell Moses to hear God for them. They wanted direct communication with their Maker. The proof of this is found in their response to God. Their actions communicated their love(worship) for God.

Many generations later, God would speak through Isaiah the prophet words that still ring true to this very day. "This people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their fear of me is taught by the precept of men." With each passing generation, God felt the ache for a people who's hearts were closing themselves off to Him. A growing list of rules and regulations to be strictly observed by the people, taught by scholars, teachers of the Law, and Elders took the place of heartfelt devotion and sincere worship. Relationship with God became mechanical and legalistic. With each passing year, God's wife became more distant, rigid, and unresponsive to His voice. They performed all the rituals that God had written in the Law, but it was with a cold and unyielding heart. They were just going through the motions of devotion. Behind the scenes, they were actually committing adultery. Religion (legalism) always quenches the fire that Love has ignited within the human heart, which eventually leads to living a double life, full of hypocrisy.

In Ezekiel 36, God gives a promise to Israel. He says, "I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My Holy Name's sake which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went... I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them."

The coming of Jesus was the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise. He came to show us the Father. He came to reveal the thoughts and intentions of the Father's heart toward His people. He violently opposed the religious Pharisees, who placed a stumbling block before the people, preventing them from entering the kingdom and living a life of true and heartfelt worship. This stumbling block was the traditions of men. By these traditions, they made the word of God of no effect. For example, in Mark 7, the Pharisees gathered to Jesus after seeing that His disciples hadn't washed their hands before sitting down to eat. They asked Him why His disciples didn't adhere to the traditions passed down by their fathers but ate with hands unwashed and ceremonially unclean. Jesus stunning answer was, "Excellently and truly did Isaiah prophesy of you, the pretenders and hypocrites, as it stands written: These people [constantly] honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far distant from Me. In vain do they worship Me, ordering and teaching as doctrines to be obeyed the commandments and precepts of men. You disregard the commandment of God and cling to the tradition of men [keeping it carefully and faithfully]. You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition (your own human regulations)! For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and, He who curses or reviles or speaks evil of or abuses or treats improperly his father or mother, let him surely die. But you say, A man is exempt if he tells father or mother, 'What you would otherwise have gained from me [everything I have that would have been of use to you] is Corban(a gift already given as an offering to God),' then you (Pharisees) no longer are permitting him to do anything for [his] father or mother [but are letting him off from helping them].Thus you are nullifying and making void and of no effect [the authority of] the Word of God through your tradition, which you [in turn] hand on. And many things of this kind you are doing." Mark 7:6-13 They had placed their traditions above God's word, thus stripping the Word of God of its life-giving power and blessing.

Essentially, what Jesus did throughout His ministry, was to call God's people back to the two greatest commandments, "Loving God with everything and loving others." He even said that all the law and the prophets hung on those two commandments. How did He call them back? He taught them that it wasn't about "the letter" of the law, but about "the spirit" of the law. "You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whoever so much as looks at a woman to LUST after her has committed adultery with her in his heart." Living by the SPIRIT of the Law was very different because it literally forced people to examine their motives and attitudes. In the epistles, Paul teaches that if you walk in the spirit you will not gratify the lusts of the flesh. This is worship that is acceptable to God. Paul told us to "present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship."

When speaking to the woman at the well, Jesus said, "A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem." God was about to do something significant and unprecedented. He was about to make His dwelling place the spirit of man. To all those who believed on Jesus and put their trust in Him, the Father gave them the right to become His children, sending His very own Spirit to live within them and witness with their spirit that they are indeed the children of God. Man became a temple for the Holy Spirit, and the kingdom of priests that would fulfill the great longing of God's heart to disciple every nation in the ways of God by living a life of love(worship) toward God and love(honor and service) toward one another. This would prove to be the most powerful demonstration of God's presence with His people. "By this, all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35

Therefore, to worship the Father in spirit and in truth is simply having a living and vibrant relationship with God by allowing His Spirit to perform His work in you that will bring you into proper alignment with His truth and reveal the depths of His love to your heart. By allowing His love and His truth to take root in you, you will begin to walk in agreement with what He says is true about Himself and about you and about others, essentially causing you to walk in the Spirit. When we choose to walk in opposition to the truth revealed to us in God's word by His Spirit within us regarding His identity, your identity, and the identity of other people, we close ourselves off to the life of God, and we slowly begin to die.

I firmly believe that this is why many of God's people are not flourishing like they should. There are still places within that are walking contrary to God's love and His truth. John writes in 3John 1:2, "I wish above all things that you would prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers." Walking in the Spirit will lead us into life and peace. He will reveal the truth to us, which always liberates, heals, and restores our soul. If we are not flourishing, we need to examine whether we are living the lifestyle that marks true worshipers.