Our praise and worship leader, Celeste Herbst ignited this truth in my spirit again on Sunday morning when she taught us about praise and worship.
What does it mean to worship the Lord in spirit and truth?
The Samaritan woman: “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
In her mind worship is something done at a certain place, “on this mountain” or in “Jerusalem.”
She was basically asking: “where must I go to worship God?”
But Jesus said : “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem worship the Father.
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. “
Some believers just associate worship with singing and making music in the church service on Sundays. But worship is in no way limited to song.
It is a lifestyle, a way of living!
Worship is a response to the object of our worship.
When we worship something, it affects the way we live.
Some worship their work, bank accounts, fashion, celebrities, politics or politicians.
It affects the way they live, for example: Those who worship celebrities, they study them, read up about them. They copy their fashion and hairstyle. Any view that the celebrity has on diet, politics or fashion is embraced as the truth and adopted by the worshiper.
Worship is a lifestyle, a way of living.
Jesus said that we must worship in spirit and truth.
Is this our spirit or God’s Spirit?
Jesus said in John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
It is not either-or, but both-and.
For those who are new creations in Jesus Christ, our spirit is made alive by the Holy Spirit. In the past before our salvation, we were dead in trespasses and sins. The act of God where by He makes us alive from spiritual death is called regeneration. Regeneration is accomplished by the working of the Holy Spirit.
So our spirit owes its life, its existence because of the working of the Holy Spirit in us.
And we can truly worship God in spirit because our spirit is made alive, energized and quickened by the Holy Spirit.
As believers we study the Lord, we read about Him, we investigate, we emulate, we copy. His views becomes our views, His way of living becomes our way of living. His way of doing becomes our way of doing.
This is worship, it is a lifestyle, a way of living.
