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Jesus said, “But the time is coming and is
already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and
truth. The Father is looking for
anyone who will worship him that way.
For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in Spirit and
truth.” John 4:23
So what does this mean to you to worship God in Spirit and
truth?
One of the ways to help us define what is living in Spirit
and truth is to see what God considers the opposite of living and worshiping
God in Spirit and truth is.
“And the Lord said, ‘Because the people draw
near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, but they remove
their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition
learned by rote,” Isaiah 29:13-14
“They fear the LORD and served their own gods
according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried
away into exile. To this day they
do according to the earlier customs; they do not fear the LORD, nor do they
follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which
the LORD command the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel.” 2 Kings 17:33-34
“Having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof…” 2 Timothy 3:5
“Always learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth.” 2 Timothy 3:7
So living and worshiping God in Spirit and truth is NOT:
1.
Head knowledge
alone.
2.
Religious
tradition
3.
Repetitious
prayers or words.
4.
A complacent
or false love for God.
5.
Denying the Holy
Spirit in one’s life.
6.
Disregarding a
personal relationship with the True and Living GOD.
7.
(What did the Spirit point out to you in these scriptures?)
Spirit and truth.
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
Think…. This ever-growing revelation of Jesus being “the
way, the truth and the life” didn’t come until the Holy Spirit came upon us and
resided within us.
For the truth to become “active” in our soul the Holy Spirit
must make it “living” in our soul.
For instance scriptures on a page are just words until God’s Spirit
awakens them in our soul with meaning, insight, assurance, confidence and
ability.
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he
will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak
only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. John 16:13
Do we hear God?
Do we hear God some of the time?
How much do we hear God?
We shut off God by denying him within our daily lives either
consciously or unintentionally. We
can get carried away in daily tasks that we leave God behind instead of Him
having him central amongst the tasks of life. We tend to follow the path of least resistance (our own
humanness) if we aren’t mindful, and that path is our ignorance, imagination,
our insecurities, our pride, our perceptions, our feeling, our routines, our
order of things, our orthodox reasoning, our experiences and even those we
surround ourselves by. We limit
God when we think we have God all figured out and know it all. We shut God off when we think we know His
Word in all its richness and fullness. We shut God off when we think we have “arrived” in some kind
of spiritual self-sufficiency. In
such cases God’s Spirit becomes minimized, dormant, and even irrelevant in our
lives.
I love this these verse...
“Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that
the King of glory may come in.” Psalm 23:7
How of often does our human intellect and understanding
become gates separating us from God?
Where we try to figure out everything on our own. I find even in the best of intentions
in seeking or pursuing God in our ways, we miss God because it’s about us and
not us surrendering us to God. But
God’s word says, “Lift up your heads, O
gates and be lifted up- that the King of Glory may come in!”
If we build and base our day on just our self what do you have
in the end? Have we gained any greater mindset or heart? Has our relationship
with God grown?
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not
depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths. Don’t be impressed with your own
wisdom. Instead fear the LORD and
turn your back on evil. Then you
will gain renewed health and vitality.” Proverbs 3:5
For as long as I have lived I have never known anyone to
gain renewed health and vitality in themselves. How could anyone gain renewed health and vitality
without living in Spirit and truth of God? How could anyone the catch the fire of God when God isn’t
allowed in any and all aspects? For this LIFE giving principle of trusting in
the LORD and not depending on our own understanding makes us persist and endure
in all things! It’s where we cease
and where God’s loving, comforting and encouraging Spirit takes over!
I am reminded of what Jesus said to the church of Ephesus in
Revelation 2
“I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your
patient endurance. I know you
don’t tolerate evil people. You
have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are
liars. You have patiently suffered
for me without quitting. But I
have this complaint against you.
You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen from you
first love! Turn back to me again
and work as you did at first. If
you don’t, I will remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.”
Revelation 2: 2-5
For those who have ever fallen in love, I want you to think on
what it meant and felt like to be “in love”. What was that glow? What was that want to be near that
person? How you threw yourself at
that person with a special trust. You
seemed to want to do just about anything for that special person of the
opposite sex. It was no burden or
hassle at all. You seem to be
almost floating… You seem to have
this renewed health and vitality about you, did you not as you walked in this
unexplainable thing called “love”.
Now put God in that place… Do you see this?.
A. W. Tower wrote: “Behind the veil is God, that God after
Whom the world, with strange inconsistency, has felt, ‘If haply they might find
Him.’ He has discovered Himself to some extent in nature, but more perfectly in
the Incarnation; now He waits to show Himself in ravishing fullness to the
humble of soul and the pure in heart.
The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church
is famishing for want of his Presence.
The instant cure of the most of our religious ills would be to enter the
Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God
and that God is in us. This would
lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged. This would burn away the impurities
from our lives as the bugs and fungi were burned away by the fire that dwelt in
the bush.”
Jesus said, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all
your mind.’” Matthew 22:37
How quickly we dismiss such words out of familiarity not
realizing they are the key out of cage of ourselves and everything else that
chips and nags at us. We don’t necessary
see them as what we are to build and pour our life into but just orders and
commands. But God gives us these
words to liberate us from the
monotony of close-minded themes that keep us captive within the world’s ideals
and ourselves. Instead God says, “Come to ME, LOVE ME
with all your heart soul and mind and I will show you what it means to
LIVE. Take a moment to think how
this pertains to living Spirit and truth.
God wants us to develop, grow, endure and mature in the
supernatural grace and the glorious unfolding of His daily invigorating love.
Paul writes with great and humbling admiration:
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited
resources he will give you might inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I
pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in
him. May your roots go down deep
into God’s marvelous love. And may
you have the power to understand, as all God’s peoples should, how wide, how
long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great
you will never fully understand it.
Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and the power that
comes from God. Now glory be to
God! By his mighty power at work
within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to
ask or hope.” Ephesians 3:16-20
I don’t know about you but my soul says, “Wow!” Staying in Spirit and truth, which is
to stay in the ‘knowing of God’s love’ brings about the fullness of life and
the power that comes from being in His Love.
Is this an easy task? Of course not, for the things of self,
love to be our obstacle.
They like to barge to the front of the line and make their demands and
in the process redirect our focus away from God.
As A.W. Tozer so eloquently points out, “Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual
experience, never by mere instruction.”
Realizing this we must make a personal effort to live a
circumcised life in Spirit in order to enjoy the encompassing elements of
God. For we were meant to have
such a wonderful outlook as Paul speaks yet many times we find ourselves
settling for far less.
“Don’t copy the
behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person
by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you,
which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2
How many times has Christ Jesus overcome for us and shown us
His goodness? Why has he
continually made a way where their seems to be no way? Why has he kept the path clear for
us? This path we love to discover
and walk upon but somehow… forget throughout our day. But Jesus calls to us… Can you hear Him? “Let me be LORD
OVER ALL THINGS!”
Isaiah 55:8-9 “My thoughts are completely
different from yours,” says the LORD.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts are higher than your thoughts.”
Is this not REFRESHING!!! God’s thoughts and ways are HIGHER then our thoughts and
ways! Some may ask, “Why is this a
good thing?” This is a good thing because we who
have been born-again in Christ Jesus can live in, by HIS SPIRIT, in God’s
thoughts and ways. We can be in-tuned with God.
“Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him? But we
understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:16
This morning’s scripture verse reads,
“Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and
trust them wholly to the Him; He
will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your
plans be established and succeed.”
Proverbs 16:3
And this is what the Spirit said to me, “Your thoughts of
the day’s tasks are transformed when you give and entrust them to the Lord and
they become satisfying and liberated because they are in His will which is
perfect, pleasing and good for the soul.”
You don’t just see natural contexts of life but in the
contexts of life you walk in the spiritual contexts as well -instead of just
the tendencies or leanings of our selves.
As we digest these things, “What is established and success
in God’s eyes?” Is it being
materially rich? I don’t remember my Jesus ever being materially rich. And I have seen many who are materially
rich who are yet unsatisfied. So
that is not being established or a success in God’s eyes. Is it having a degree? Did Jesus have a degree? How about the completion of many tasks
and worldly successes? We can
complete many tasks yet still feel unsatisfied… God has shown me what is established and a success is those
things God put’s His hands to.
It’s allowing God to work in us as his holy priest.
“And now God is building you, as living stones,
into his spiritual temple. What’s
more you are God’s holy priest, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that pleas
him because of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:5
What is established and a success is how we go about those
tasks in life by His Spirit. I am
reminded that everyone’s life’s work will be tested by fire. Are we doing those tasks in the
ways and thoughts of God (Spirit and truth) or are we doing them with burden, only as obligation, self-sufficiency,
self-promotion, egotism, etc?
These things neglect the Spirit’s love, counsel and encouragement and
without the Spirit there is no “edible” fruit to partake from for us or anyone
else. For the good fruit is our
witness of God working in us and manifesting Himself in us.
“But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives,
he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.” Galatians 5:22-23
“If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let
us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” Galatians 5:25
“But if you keep looking steadily into God’s
perfect law- the law that sets you free- and if you do what it says and don’t
forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” James 1:25
Anyone can accomplish something but it’s in how we
accomplish that something that matters most to God.
GOD who inspired the words, “We walk by faith not by sight,”
wants to graciously bestow upon us a new perspective daily and hourly. A perspective only He can give. No wonder why the Word of God states nothing can separate us
from the love of God. Note Romans 8:39
Acts
17:28 says “For in Him we live, and move and have our being; as also certain of
your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”
Jesus said, "Abide in
Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in
the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he
who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can
do nothing.…” John 15:4
To quietly and humbly surrender to the Spirit and truth is
to pass through the veil of our stumbling and burdening understanding and have
every need… want… thirst… hunger… thought … circumstance… and experience to be
“spoken to” and satisfied!
“And God spoke ‘Let there be light’ and there
was light.” Genesis 1:3
God wants us to know
that in Him we lack nothing….
Romans 8:37 says… “No, in all these things we
are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
I find in many experiences in life we find ourselves out of
our league. We live in this world
but we are not of this world.
Most of us are aware of our moment-by-moment need and if we are
cognoscenti of WHO can hold and carry us and encourage us through our need we
are the most lucky and blessed individuals on the planet.
“You are of God, little children, and have
overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the
world.” 1 John 4:4
And it becomes overwhelmingly clear we can’t have this
unless we give our life to the son- Jesus Christ, who is God’s most greatest
gift of love.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his
one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved
us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love
one another. No one has ever seen God; but if
we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in
us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we
have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the
world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the
love God has for us. God is love. Whoever
lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete
among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world
we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love.
But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The
one who fears is not made perfect in love. We
love because he first loved us” 1 John 4:9-19
As I was writing the early parts of these pages a song came
on. I don’t think this was by
accident. Here are the lyrics to “You
are my Vision”
You are my vision, O
King of my heart
Nothing else satisfies, only You Lord
You are my best thought by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Your presence my light
You are my wisdom, You are my true word
I ever with You, and You with me Lord
You're my great Father, and I'm Your true son
You dwell inside me, together we're one
You are my battle-shield, sword for the fight
You are my dignity, You're my delight
You're my soul's shelter and You're my high tower
Come raise me heavenward, O power of my power
I don't want riches or man's empty praise
You're my inheritance, now and always
You and You only, the first in my heart
High king of Heaven, my treasure You are
High king of Heaven, when victory's won
May I reach Heaven's joy, O bright Heaven's Son
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall
Still be my vision, O ruler of all
Jesus said, “But the time is coming and is
already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and
truth. The Father is looking for
anyone who will worship him that way.
For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in Spirit and
truth.” John 4:23
