God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24
Jesus tells us that we are to worship in “spirit and in truth”. He was not talking about physical mannerisms. There are people who seem to believe that dancing, running, or shouting is worship but I do not believe that this was what Jesus was talking about. Jesus appeared to Kenneth E. Hagin in a vision in 1987. One of the things He showed Dr. Hagin was that clapping was neither praise nor worship. This vision is detailed in the book Plans, Purposes, and Pursuits. In the New Covenant we are directed to lift our hands in worship.
A lot of the manifestations we see occurring in services are not “in the Spirit”. People are hungry to see a move of God but do not have a revelation of the spiritual realm. They are carnal and unable to discern the Spirit’s presence apart from a physical manifestation.
I believe that Jesus was talking about worshiping God from our spirit instead of from our flesh. True worship will always flow out of our spirit. If we are not feeding our spirits a steady diet of the Word of God, we will remain carnal and unable to enter into spiritual worship. The Holy Spirit will lead us in this journey, but He will never force us.
I was told that I would never amount to anything growing up. Teachers would tell me that I was not smart enough to learn a topic and send me to the library. They would give me a passing grade for not showing up because it was not even worth their time to try and teach me! This built a failure mentality into my soul that stayed with me into my adult life. The concept of God being able to love me was something that I struggled with.
There are a lot of people just like I was. They focus on their faults and failures and sruggle with the concept of God being able to love them. They have a sin complex and feel unworthy to worship God. It is not possible to be in the Spirit with a sin consciousness. Our spirit was recreated. Paul tells us that we can approach God with an assurance of always being accepted (Ephesians 1:6). Jesus made us acceptable by providing His righteousness to us when we accepted His free gift of salvation.
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
Our society is focused on the seen realm. People are judged based on how they look or how strong they are. We even judge ourselves by what we see in the mirror and it seems that the majority of us have a greater revelation of who we are in the mirror then who we are in Christ. This is not the way God meant for things to be!
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephesians 4:24
We cannot put on the new man if we do not spend time in God’s Word. If we are continuously looking at news reports, television shows, and sporting events this is what our minds will be renewed to.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:17
John said that we are like Jesus now. This statement used to confuse me because I was focused on who I was in my physical nature instead of who I had become in Christ. Our spirits have been recreated into the image of God. It is our spirit that is just like Jesus. We will never understand this without a revelation of the differences between our spirit, soul, and body. It is our spirit that was born again. It is also our spirit that John was referencing when he said that we are just like Jesus in this world. I believe that John did not make this clearer because he knew that his readers were aware of the spiritual nature of man. Unfortunately, most of the people who call themselves “Christian” today are unaware of their spirit and have almost no revelation of the spiritual realm. This is why so many are struggling with understanding the Bible.
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