Worship Him in Spirit and Truth

Worship Him in Spirit and Truth

(John 4:21-24)

When I worship the Lord along with songs that say things like "I want you more" or "We want more of you" or "We want Your presence" etc, I like to change the words myself and sing them as "I want to know you more" or "We want to know more of you" or "Thank You for Your presence" etc. The reason being is how do you get more of the Holy Spirit, more of God, more of His presence, when He is living inside you, you are one spirit with Him and He will abide with you forever (Rev.3:20, 1 Cor.6:17, John 14:16-17), when He said He would never leave you (Deut.31:6, Matt.28:20, Heb.13:5) or when Paul, but the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says you are complete in Him (Col. 2:10)?

I think it is important we have the right mind set and say the right things to Him when we worship Him. Why is this important? Because correct knowledge is important to living as Jesus did, it is truth (John 8:31-32). Correct knowledge brings a correct identity and from a correct identity you will live correctly, from a correct identity you will live victoriously, in and through Him. How can you have or maintain correct knowledge and thus a correct identity when the words you say and sing don't even line up with the word of God (Prov. 18:21)?

A. W. Tozer once said, and I think it is true: "Christians don't tell lies – they just go to church and sing them"

I sometimes hear this sort of conversation when I or other Christians are singing these types of songs, or more specifically, tonight this is what I was hearing from the Lord on this matter as I worshiped Him:
Me: "I want more of you, Lord!"
Him: "I'm right here inside you, Chris. Just get to know Me better, know Me experientially, know Me exponentially."

Once I heard this, I started to incorporate this truth into what I was singing and soon began to flow in a beautiful spontaneous song that I truly felt was from His heart and I believe brought Him great joy, thus bringing me great joy. It was a wonderful moment with Him!

Now, as far as getting to knowing God more, this is biblical. And I will show you that below. Kenneth Wuest really brings out the meaning of the Greek words used for the knowledge of Him in the below passages that I would like to share which outline this wonderful truth. (Of course feel free to read them in their full context)

... that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of the glory, might give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the sphere of a full knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart being in an enlightened state with a view to your knowing what is the hope of His calling, what is the wealth of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the superabounding greatness of His inherent power to us who are believing ones as measured by the operative energy of the manifested strength of His might, which might was operative in the Christ when He raised Him from among the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, over and above every government and authority and power and lordship and every name that is constantly being named, not only in this age, but also in the one about to come.
Ephesians 1:17-21 (Wuest)

...until we all attain to the unity of the Faith and of the experiential, full, and precise knowledge of the Son of God...
Ephesians 4:13 (Wuest)

Because of this, we also, from the day we heard, do not cease on behalf of you offering our petitions and presenting our definite requests, that you might be filled with the advanced and perfect experiential knowledge of His will in the sphere of every kind of wisdom and intelligence which is spiritual, so that you may order your behavior worthily of the Lord with a view to pleasing Him in everything, in every work which is good constantly bearing fruit and increasing by means of the advanced and perfect experiential knowledge of God
Colossians 1:9-10 (Wuest)

...and having clothed yourselves with the new man who is constantly being renewed, with a resulting advanced and perfect experiential knowledge which is according to the image of the One who created him.
Colossians 3:10 (Wuest)

...to those who have been divinely allotted like precious faith with us by the equitable treatment of our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. grace to you and peace be multiplied in the sphere of and by the experiential knowledge of God, even Jesus, our Lord. Seeing that all things to us His divine power has generously given, the things which pertain to life and godliness, through the experiential knowledge of the One who called us by means of His own glory and virtue, by means of which there have been generously given to us the precious and exceedingly great promises in order that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped by flight the corruption which is in the world in the sphere of passionate cravings.
2 Peter 1:1-4 (Wuest)

Please have a look at Romans 12:2 by Kenneth Wuest in regards to the this truth. Wow, eh?!

And stop assuming an outward expression that does not come from within you and is not representative of what you are in your inner being but is patterned after this age; but change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being, by the renewing of your mind, resulting in your putting to the test what is the will of God, the good and well-pleasing and complete will, and having found that it meets specifications, place your approval upon it.
Romans 12:2 (Wuest)

Did you know that you also worship Him (or something / someone else; IE an idol, or another person) with your body every day by how you live? To give to Him your body, to be His hands and feet, your mouth to speak His words, if you live holy, free from sin as you have already been set free, now a slave to righteousness instead (Rom. 6:17-23, Rom. 8:2) walking by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-25), you are offering to Him reasonable/rational service, or worship.

Romans 12:1 speaks of this:
I therefore beg of you, please, brethren, through the instrumentality of the aforementioned mercies of God, by a once-for-all presentation to place your bodies at the disposal of God, a sacrifice, a living one, a holy one, well-pleasing, your rational, sacred service (Wuest)

To enforce this truth a little more, the Greek word for sacred service, or just service in most translations is latreia, and Thayer's Lexicon gives it the definition:
1) service rendered for hire
1a) any service or ministration: the service of God
2) the service and worship of God according to the requirements of the Levitical law
3) to perform sacred services

So, to worship the Father in spirit and truth is not only to say right words and have the right intentions that line up with what He says in His word when you sing songs to Him, but also to offer our bodies daily, as a living sacrifice, as a holy and pleasing offering to Him. And to worship Him in spirit and in truth will result in us living and walking more and more as Jesus did (1 John 2:6)!

Won't you worship Him in spirit and truth? :)

You ARE blessed!

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

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Great worship song!