John 4:23-24
"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
As I look at this passage closely, I'm afraid I've been misquoting it for years. While I got the words right, I surely wasn't getting the meaning right. Notice that "God is Spirit." It doesn't say "God is spirit", though that truth comes in the next sentence. Why else would we be told to worship in "spirit and truth"?
When we come to worship God, we worship him as Holy Spirit. In the Trinity, God the Father and the Spirit are one, just as Christ and the Spirit are one, and Christ and God the Father are one. The Spirit is God, and as such, we worship the Spirit just as we would worship Jesus Christ. Don't worry, we're all confused by this one, but understand the Father, Son and Spirit are all God, revealed to us in different ways, forms, functions, authorities, etc. – But still worthy of our rightful worship.
So how does one worship God as Spirit? Our preschoolers understand God is invisible and can't be seen, so how can we worship this unseeable being? Sometimes, I stand before our congregation and proclaim that Christ is present in our services, but how can we be so sure since we see no real manifestation of his presence?
The answer lies in the concept of spirit.
We're spiritual beings, much different than the rest of animal-kind, if only in that we're made in the image of God with a spirit. Some call this our soul. Others say it is our conscious. Some look to our personalities. But putting them all together, we have a spirit which is intertwined and inseparable on our part from the body. It is this spirit, our very being, which worships the Spirit.
It seems to be clear that every human being is drawn in some way to spiritual things, searching for meaning in life by looking to the spirit. I believe this is the draw of the Spirit upon every life. It is this need to worship Spirit which opened the door for Jesus to reveal himself to the Samaritan woman and continue to reveal himself to us today.
LORD JESUS
Lord, I thank you for the mystery of the Spirit within me, living in communion with my spirit and thus my life. Your presence is comforting and reminds me of the eternal. May I never push your Spirit aside in a false belief I can live in satisfaction without you. Amen.
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