Worship In Spirit And Truth

John 4:23-24 says, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The hour has now come because He has now come. The veil is taken away, and we can behold His glory (2 Cor 3:16-18). His sacrifice has cleansed our sin and given us access to His throne (Heb 10:19-22). We are seated in heavenly places (Eph 2:6). As the book of Revelation shows, much worship is occurring around His throne. This is the worship that He desires, born in Heaven, enabled by Heaven through Christ in us, and returning to Him in Heaven.

The next statement in verse 23 could be troubling, because if there is true worship, and true worshipers, then there must logically be false worship and false worshipers. Fortunately, a definition, and indeed a requirement, of true worship is provided: Worshiping the Father in spirit and truth. True worship comes from the spirit of God. The spirit of God guides us into all truth (John 16:13). To reach true worship, we must shed the influences of our flesh and brain, allowing Christ in us to develop His mind in us so the expression of Heaven will come forth. We must also shed the influences of religion, tradition, culture, and for that matter all of man's ideas and systems. We cannot stop in one place and say that we have found THE way of worshiping God. Yes, there is one Holy Spirit, one truth, and God is always the same, but He is always moving. We don't drop anchor in one spot, we always have our sails up and go where the wind of God blows. Furthermore, every person that is His is unique, and thus has a unique expression of Christ in himself or herself, and because people are being and will be born, there is a continual parade of new expressions of Christ coming to earth. For that matter, those that are already born are growing up into Christ (Eph 4:13-15), so new expressions of Christ are coming forth in each of us.

True worship is not static, but dynamic. We will never come to the end of discovering more and more of the riches of who God is (Rom 11:33), so there will never be an end to the richness of the true worship of Him. True worship is from The Eternal in us, is to The Eternal, and lasts eternally. Some say they want to go to Heaven, and others point out that Heaven is coming here, but Christ has declared that the hour has come for true worshipers, so a piece of Heaven has already come, not only in us, but through us in true worship, transforming the body of Christ and the earth into a habitation of God in the spirit (Eph 2:22). May true worship and worshipers keep arising, so that the fullness of Christ and our love for Him may grow in our hearts, the fullness of the bride of Christ may come forth, and the fullness of Heaven will come to earth through Christ returning.