The Lord Jesus states in John 4 v 23, “But the hour comes, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him.”
The first statement that catches the eye is that the Judeans to whom Jesus preached worshipped the Father. They went to the temple or synagogue at the hours of prayer, they sang praises or psalms to the Lord together, they worshipped the Father according to the law. And yet Jesus speaks of a time in the future when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
By implication, if you want to worship in the spirit, you must have received the Spirit, and that only became widely available on the day of Pentecost to those, then and now, who accept Jesus as Lord and believe that the Father raised Him from the dead. (Romans 10 v 9,10).
There are 9 evidences or manifestations or demonstrations of the spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12 :
- Word of wisdom
- Word of knowledge
- Faith
- Gifts of healing
- Working of miracles
- Prophecy
- Discerning of spirits
- Kinds of tongues
- Interpretation of tongues
Verse 11 states that, “all these work(are energized by) that one and the selfsame spirit, dividing to every person severally as He( God) wills. It must be noted that kinds of tongues is for use in the church only and is to be interpreted by the speaker as prompted by the Holy Spirit.
But what about speaking in tongues in our own spiritual language, that personal language, unknown to us, which is given to us, by grace, “as the Spirit gives us utterance” which, by grace, we are allowed, by the Father to speak any time we want to. This I believe is worshipping Him in spirit, not when He wills, but, by grace, when we desire to do so.
That deserves a hallelujah!
In this age of grace we now live in, there are no commandments just the Father making known His will for us. He has given us freedom of choice to agree with His will or not, to worship Him in tongues or not to, we can speak in tongues at any time of the day or night. He simply desires us to worship Him in spirit because we want to, out of a heart of love.
Why am I convinced speaking in tongues is worshipping the Father in spirit? We will come to that in tomorrows “Thought for today”
Have a glorious day!