WWHEN A person experiences the new birth in Christ Jesus, his dead spirit receives supernatural strength and life. The Holy Spirit through the Word of God makes the man’s spirit right with God. This is what we call regeneration or re-creation. When a person is regenerated it means he is spiritually renewed or born again. In other words, there is a new creation of his spirit man.
Now, by our recreated spirit, we are to worship the Father. Jesus Christ taught that “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth” (Matthew 4: 24). As a matter of fact, if our worship is not in Spirit, it is not in truth and therefore does not please God. This is a truth a faithful pastor will teach Christ’s disciples placed under his care.
The apostle Paul and his fellow preachers of the gospel and all children of God in his day worshipped God in Spirit. Those who strayed were rebuked and corrected to ensure sound training in righteousness. He wrote: “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh…” (Philippians 3: 3).
The early church understood and diligently followed the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. They worshipped God in Spirit but not in the flesh. They had no confidence in man’s natural abilities. Instead, they got their human spirits developed and trained by the working of the indwelling Holy Spirit. By this, they got grounded in the truth which enabled them to walk uprightly before the Lord.
No wonder they were able to persevere and endure all the persecutions and afflictions that came their way and never cursed God. No wonder God used them to preach, teach and sing with signs and wonders accompanying them and as a result won many souls for Christ.
Their secret was that they worshipped God in Spirit!
A believer worships God in Spirit when he is under the influence of the Spirit of God. That is, the person is inspired, stirred up, stimulated and prompted by the Spirit of God to serve or sacrifice. It is sad that hundreds of Christians limit the meaning of the word “worship” to singing songs of adoration to God. That is an incorrect explanation.
We must understand that everything we do for God is an act of worship. When you serve God or sacrifice anything like money, time, talent, knowledge or energy to God, you are worshipping God. When the Bible talks about worshipping God, it does not mean just singing songs of adoration to God. To worship God is to serve, sacrifice, pay homage to, adore or revere God. It is to prostrate oneself or bow to God.
In Genesis 22: 5, when Abraham told his young men to stay with the donkey while he and Isaac went up to worship, it did not mean that Abraham and Isaac went to sing songs of adoration, but to sacrifice to God. We also read in Matthew 28:17 where the disciples worshipped Jesus Christ after His resurrection. Here too, it does not mean the disciples sang songs to Jesus, but paid homage to Him as their resurrected Lord and King. The same can be said in John 9: 38 where a man who was healed of blindness believed in Jesus Christ and worshipped Him.
This means that everything we do in church is an act of worship. When we sweep, wash, write, paint, pray, sing, dance, clap, preach, teach, fast or give in the name of the Lord we are actually worshipping God.
However, the Lord Jesus Christ taught that these acts of worship must be done in the Spirit and truth in order to please God. You worship God in Spirit when you are under the control of the Holy Spirit. In Revelation 1: 10, the Apostle John could only hear the voice of the Lord Jesus behind him for instruction while he was in the Spirit.
Yes, John could only hear the voice of Christ while he was in the Spirit. It may be impossible to clearly hear God while in the natural or in the flesh. Why? Because God is a Spirit and He operates in the Spirit. Therefore, for man to effectively fellowship with Him, man needs to be in the Spirit too.
Also, a believer worships God in Spirit when he lives his life by the Word of God. In other words, the believer’s life is regulated by the Word of God. He carefully and gladly acts the Word and lives the Word. Simply, he obeys the commandments and precepts of the Lord. This makes him worship God in Spirit and in truth. The Lord Jesus himself described the Word of God as the truth and Spirit (John 17: 17, 6: 63).
A person cannot truly worship God in Spirit and truth if he does not have the Holy Spirit in him. This obviously is one of the reasons why true Christians are told to be filled with the Holy Spirit at all times and not to quench or grieve the Spirit. The Spirit’s fire must be kept ablaze at all times.
Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. Paul was filled with the Spirit. Peter was imbued with the Spirit. In fact, all the 120 believers who met under the leadership of the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost in Acts Chapter 2 were filled with the Spirit. Even Master Jesus Himself was full of the Holy Spirit. All those who God has used mightily to execute His plan on the earth were filled with the Holy Spirit or had the Spirit upon them. Without God’s Spirit we can do nothing.
The indwelling Spirit of God in the heart of a Christian is the testimony of his true relationship and son-ship to God.
jamesquansah@ayhoo.com
By James Quansah