Many years ago the small inner-city ministry where my husband, Gary and I were volunteering was in desperate need of more volunteers. Not an uncommon thing for your typical inner-city ministry or church – even today. For some strange reason, churches want to move to the suburbs, forgetting, I suppose, that every great revival in history began in the inner city because of passionate intercession. This hobbyhorse of mine aside, I found myself drafted to lead the praise and worship at the Friday night service.
Being relatively young in the Lord at the time and with the matching inexperience, I began seeking the Lord for His wisdom concerning how to go about leading worship. The very first thing that He showed me was Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John 4:21-24. "Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 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."
Three things jumped out at me. I began to jot down some ideas.
Catching the Revelation of Relationship
The New Testament was originally written in Greek. So I did a bit of research and found that the word for "know" in John 4:22 comes from a Greek word that indicates something beyond what we can learn form reading a book, getting a degree, listening to a speaker or a preacher, or other ways of obtaining academic knowledge. It’s the kind of knowledge that the Holy Spirit supernaturally reveals to us.
We can’t get this from our man-made religious traditions and expectations. And if we hold too tightly to what we’ve always done in the past, we’ll miss the blessings that God has for us today.
If we remain focused on what we’ve always done rather than looking honestly at how God is moving today, we will find ourselves in a place where we are only worshiping God with our lips and our hearts are far from Him (Isaiah 29:13). The Lord calls this type of empty worship purposeless in Isaiah 1:10-11.
While it’s true that Sodom and Gomorrah were terribly sinful nations, America has plenty of it’s own iniquity. And we Christians need to be willing to respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit with repentant hearts in our churches and our lives before we can ever hope to begin making a difference where our nation is concerned. When we begin worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth on a regular basis, He’ll empower us to walk in the spirit daily (Galatians 5:22-26).
True Worshipers
In John 4:23 the word "true" (as in "true worshipers") comes from a Greek root that means unconcealed. A nice synonym here would be "unashamed" or "open". The Father is looking for people who are openly and unashamedly worshiping Him. Willing to give Him the glory at work, in the car, at the grocery, at home, in the church or wherever He presents us with an opportunity – and that doesn’t necessarily mean in song. Taking advantage of an opportunity to tell someone about some good thing that God has done for us is a form of worship. And when our hearts are willing and obedient, He continues to pour out His blessings on us (Isaiah 1:19).
Another important word in John 4:23 is the word "spirit" (in spirit and in truth) which comes from a Greek word that can be translated as "a current of air", "breath", "blast", or "breeze". Our hearts are a very important part of our ability to "breath". This being the case, we could say that the Father seeks those who will worship Him "from the heart". But here’s my favorite part of that whole verse. He "is seeking such to worship Him." The word "seek" comes from a Greek word that can be translated as to "be desired", "will seek after", and "will seek means". So our Heavenly Father desires and will chase after and even make a way for those who will worship Him from their hearts.
In Spirit and in Truth
Because God created each of us with different giftings and different personalities, worship from the heart isn’t going to be a "one size fits all" kind of a thing. However, there are examples throughout God’s Word of worship from the heart. King David wrote psalms, played the harp, and danced. Miriam and many other Israeli women played the timbrel and danced (Ex. 15:20). King David invited all people to clap their hands (Psalm 47:1), shout (Psalm 32, Psalm 35) play instruments and sing (Psalm 147), and many other Biblical examples could be mentioned.
While it’s important to worship with the church corporately, it’s also important that we make time to worship Him on our own. Whether we choose to sing our praises to Him when we first wake up, think our praises to Him on our lunch break, speak our praises to Him before going to sleep or even in the shower, this time with Him is one thing that will strengthen our relationship with Him, as will reading His Word on a regular basis and applying it to our lives.
As we commit to waiting on Him (or listening for His directives) during our personal worship time with Him, we’ll gain the wisdom and the faith we need to step where He calls us. Our choice to worship God from our hearts, read His Word, and apply it to our lives is going to empower us to live our lives, and equip us to make a difference in the world around us.
