John 4:24
"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
NIV
Have you ever wondered what this really means. I have heard a few sermons on this Scripture, but I have always felt there has been more to it than what I have heard.
This morning during Church I had one of those services where I get a "few" sermons. I not only heard what Pastor had to preach but I also got some "downloads" from the Holy Spirit. I thought I would share what He had to say.
Let's begin with defining some of the terms used in this Passage. God is spirit, God is unseen, God is in the unseen realm, the spirit realm is the unseen realm. This is important to understanding what Jesus is saying here. Truth, when it pertains to us is referring to the seen realm. Jesus is the truth. He is the revelation of the unseen Father. He brought the Truth about the Father from the unseen realm to the seen realm. I hope that makes sense.
Now to give some background before we move forward. Under the Old Covenant, God's people were confined to a life in which they were working from the outside-in. What I mean is that they were living from the seen realm leaning toward the unseen realm, from earth to heaven. They worked from the outside of the Tabernacle into the Holy of Holies which was limited to the Chief Priests. They worshiped in truth and in spirit so to speak.
Jesus signed in blood, purchased with His life, and ushered in the New and Better Covenant. This means that now the Holy Spirit lives within all New Covenant believers. We have become the Tabernacle and our spirits are the Holy of Holies! The Scriptures also say we are seated(now) with Him in heavenly places. This doesn't mean that we have a seat way up there in the sky somewhere. It means right now, in the unseen realm, we are seated with Christ.
What does this mean? It means, under the New Covenant, we are now to live from heaven toward earth, from the unseen to the seen, from the inside out! This is also why the Bible says we live by faith and not by sight in 2 Corinthians 5:7. (In fact, we aren't given permission to live by what we see. We are exhorted to live by what we believe.) When we live from the throne it brings every area in our lives into the Kingdom of God and effects every circumstance around us.
O.K. I know that is a lot to think about but let me simplify it by fleshing it out.
David said in the Psalms that there is no place we can go from His presence. Colossians 1:17 says that in Him ALL things are held together. You cannot go anywhere that He is not. If I am in a room with you then all of me is there. Not part of me. Why do we think God can be more present in one place than the other? Why do we ask for more of His presence or glory? He simply is where He is...everywhere all the time. If anything we are becoming more aware of where He and His glory already exists.
Habakkuk 2:14
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
NIV
How?
2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
NIV
When we actually worship in spirit & in truth we fix our attention on Him. We become AWARE of His presence & He is manifested through us in countless ways. He is ALWAYS there we just become AWARE. Then what is in spirit becomes manifested in the truth or natural realm. We cannot go anywhere that He is not. This is what Jesus paid for. That we become the manifestation of the Living God. We are made in His image and His likeness and we have been commissioned by Christ to re-present Him to the world.
Hebrews 12:2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...
NIV
