WORSHIP IN SPIRIT INTRODUCTION Jesus teaches us two cardinal requirements that must be present in our worship if it is to be acceptable to the

father. In John 4, by Jacobs well the savior interacts with a woman of Samaria and the topic of worship springs up. The woman requested to know the right place to go and worship and Jesus rather went ahead to teach her how to worship the father and not necessarily where to worship at. He laid emphasis on the fact that a time is coming when place would not be of importance as was strictly adhered to by the people of that time; but that worship would be done in a more excellent way to meet Gods standard. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24 NLT) The two key requirements are IN SPIRIT and IN TRUTH. IN SPIRIT: To talk about worship being IN SPIRIT, I may like to explain based on these points It must be done in harmony with the Holy Spirit With the consciousness of the nature of God (spirit) It must be spiritual and done out of revelation

Firstly, the Holy Spirit of God must be in the lead of our worship. He serves as the tour guide to the very throne room of the father. He therefore directs our course to make sure that we are on the right path. We lose our way to a true worship experience any time we forsake Him and try to do things our own way. Our services become full of human ideologies and less of God. The Spirit of God knows the mind of the father and can show us the right way to worship the father. But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the mans spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. (1 Cor. 2:10-12) But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. (Jn. 16:13 NIV).

From the above scriptures we see that we cannot worship God without Holy Spirit.

Secondly, to be able to worship in spirit, we must have the consciousness of the very nature God in mind. God is Spirit (Jn 4:24). So to relate to Him in worship must be done according to His nature. We cannot therefore possibly come to Him who is spirit in or with the flesh. Thus He said let no flesh glory in my presence. We must also be aware that man was made in the image and likeness of God, so we are spirit-beings, we have souls that reside in human bodies. With this truth in mind, we cannot have fellowship with our father in any acceptable way than in the spirit. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children (Rom. 8:16) As children of God, having the same likeness of the father-who is Spirit, worshipping in spirit should come to you naturally. Lastly, worshipping in spirit may also mean we must be spiritual and be in the spirit. We must not dwell on external and physical ordinances but focus on things of the spirit. Worshipping in spirit must also stem from a revelation-truth of who God is and that may be achieved by a constant walking in the spirit. Being in the spirit breaks the barriers to distance, place and time. This means it cannot be measured over space, limited to a particular place or done only at a particular time. That is why Jesus referred the Samaritan woman saying; a time was coming when it would not be necessary to go to Jerusalem or any mountain to be able to worship the father. Our worship is as a revelation of who the father is to us, as we have come to know Him. By reading Revelations chapter 4, we see a portrait of true worship; where angels are worshipping before the throne day and night. And to be able to capture this truth of heavenly worship, John had to have a revelation as he was in the spirit. In chapter 2 of Revelations 4 he wrote And immediately I was in the spirit Unless you are in the spirit worshipping God in spirit can be very difficult if not impossible sometime. To be in the spirit is a term used of being wholly in union with the Holy Spirit and yielded to Him. (Rev. 1:10). To worship God in spirit, we must have a revelation of GOD, and when that happens, our worship can flow naturally out of the heart. Isaiah also had a vision in chapter 6 of his book and he could also describe the worship that was going on before the throne in heaven.

CONCLUSION Whenever divinity meets humanity, men surrender and bow in worship. Revelations are caught in the spirit, by the spirit, through the spirit and with the spirit. Even in Bible times, any time a person encountered God or had a revelation of His supernatural power, the natural response was to bow and worship. We should let our worship be IN SPIRIT, thus being led by the Holy Spirit, being conscious of the spirit-nature of God, and being spiritual in our approach to worship. When this condition is met we are on our way to becoming true worshipers if not ones already.