The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
—John 4:23-24
We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
—Philippians 3:3
Man’s highest glory is to worship. He was created for fellowship with God. All the exercises of the Christian life—meditation and prayer, love and faith, surrender and obedience—culminate in worship. The truest and fullest and nearest approach to God is worship. Worship is man’s highest destiny because in it God is all.
Jesus told us that a new worship would begin with His coming. All that the heathen or the Samaritans called worship, even all that the Jews knew of worship in God’s law, would make way for something new—the worship in Spirit and in truth.
We have received the Holy Spirit especially for this worship. The great purpose for which the Holy Spirit is within us is to make us able to worship in Spirit and in truth. “The Father seeketh such to worship him”—for this He sent forth His Son and His Spirit.
If we strive to become true worshippers, the first thing we need is a sense of the danger that comes from the flesh and its worship. As believers we have in us a double nature—flesh and spirit. We need the Holy Spirit’s indwelling for life and worship alike. To receive this we need first of all to have the flesh silenced. “Be silent,…all flesh, before the Lord” (Zechariah 2:13). “No flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1:29).
Much worship is, even among believers, not in the Spirit! In private, family, and public worship, many hastily enter into God’s presence in the power of the flesh, with little or no waiting for the Spirit to lift us heavenward! It is only the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that equips us for acceptable worship.
The great hindrance to the Spirit is the flesh. The secret of spiritual worship is the death of the flesh. Give it up and in great fear humbly and trustfully wait for the Spirit’s life and power to take the place of the life and strength of self.