Worshiping in Truth and in Spirit

Bienhome Muivah *

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

What an amazing story surrounds this scripture! Contrary to the religious and cultural rules of the day, Jesus had engaged in conversation with a woman and a Samaritan. You well can imagine the situation! Inspite of her not-so-ideal situation Jesus deliberately uncovers the heart of God to her. How mind blowing it must have been to realize who stood before her. Could this man really be the One? Not only that, she is invited and welcomed into a miraculous new way of relating to God and even experiencing Him for herself.

As a woman and as a Samaritan she had endured a life time of restrictive traditions and stigma, so these words shook her to the core. She was struck by the total disregard for cultural and religious rules from this stranger; it was obvious that He was one sent from God who somehow knew her situation but still valued her.

Today as always, God is seeking after true worshipers who wants to know Him. How He longs for us to experience all He is and all He has given to us in Christ! Jesus is saying that the way to experience God is to be a true worshiper, to worship in spirit and truth. What does He mean by that? It is clear from this scripture that Jesus was talking about a new era of worship dawning upon humankind.

He was about to inaugurate a totally new and different covenant. And on that day the Samaritan woman stumbled upon this amazing Son of God who chose to reveal Himself to her. Here she was hurting, caught up in the culture of her day, trapped in a situation possibly beyond her control (contrary to the popular opinion, we don’t know exactly why she has been married so many times-she could have been barren!) Jesus demonstrated that everyone is welcome to the Father.

Through His redemptive work all people would have open access to the Father right from their own hearts, not like the old way of having to be in a physical temple and going through a human mediator. The new covenant is not a covenant of external institutions or human systems, but it is a covenant of the heart, administered by the spirit of God.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new (2 Cor. 5: 17).

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3).

For through Him we both have access by one spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:18)

We live in the New covenant! We need to understand that old conditions have passed away. We can draw a lot out of the old covenant and be inspired by the way they worshiped back then, as long as we understand that we are not in that covenant. The cross hanged everything, and we must be careful not to mix the two covenants. God has not changed, but the way he relates to us has. Being a new creation in Christ radically changed the way we worship the Father. In John 4:24 Jesus indicates that this new relationship with worshippers was His desire all along. Look at this passage in Hebrew:

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people … In that He says, “A new covenant, ‘He has made the old obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away (Heb. 8:10-13).

This was exactly what Jesus conveyed to the Samaritan woman!

This covenant is a covenant of the heart. It is a covenant where sin has been cleansed and every believer has the privilege and the responsibility to know God for themselves. So, if God calls the old obsolete. It is important to be grounded in the new, and fully welcome and walk in this new life with the Father.

What it means to be a New covenant worshiper? Let’s look closer at the expression: “In spirit and truth”.

To worship “in spirit brings attention to the fact that the external, ritualistic worship of the old covenant is obsolete. Jesus is telling the woman at the well that the hour is now coming when worship is not about the external place and form, but that God now meets us within our own hearts. We now are alive to God through the new birth, and filled with the spirit. In the new covenant, God relates to us through our hearts.

God dwelling isn’t in physical buildings and temples, but in redeemed people. Many Christians think of their time with God as being the time they spend at a certain time of the week in a church building. We easily put our trust in priests or pastors and ceremonies or services. While we need times of coming together as a Christian community, one of the greatest needs in believers is to help them live out of this inner relationship with God and find their strength there. This is where the kingdom is found!

In today’s church we often replace communion with God with the activity for God. We live in an outer world everyone sees. Too many believers are not in touch with the deeper places of the heart-the place where God wants to meet us, reveal Himself to us, and take our breath away with His beauty and intimacy.

If it is true that He actually lives in us, don’t you think that it would be His purpose and desire for us to experience Him anytime? More than anything, once we are born again, God wants our tendency to busy ourselves in the external realm robs us of the depth of life we could have with Him. I believe that’s one main reason why Christians and even those in ministry experience burn out.

Worshiping in truth denotes worshiping in reality, sincerity and accuracy. Jesus reveals to the Samaritan woman the way real worship of the Father takes place: “in truth and in spirit”.

Worship and truth are implicitly tied together. We might be sincere, but without true understanding we find ourselves on a different frequency altogether. False idea about God or how He relates to us will only lead to bondage, no matter how sincere we may be. It’s sad, but many people across the Christian world worship an image of God they have created in their own minds.

Today’s worship music has penetrated the secular market and has an unprecedented popularity among the general population. Worship is taking an increasingly important role in most church services. Through worship God has the opportunity to manifest, His love and Kingdom in ways that open up people’s hearts to Him again. I believe in a mighty, global end time harvest of souls, that skilled musicians and worshipers have an unequal opportunity portray the living God in fresh new ways and to be a catalyst for revival. Our mandate is nothing less than changing the way world views God!