What is worship in the bible? Do you know how to worship God in spirit? It is one of those things that God requires from those who want to walk with Him.
Worship is the response of a believer’s heart to God’s grace. God is merciful, He makes His rain to fall upon both the good and the wicked, His thought concerning us is for peace and not for evil, and He has ordained a glorious end for us.
God is too good to be described with words, hence whatever we can do to offer Him quality worship at all times is worth it.
In general, worship can be thought of as a realization or acknowledgment of the truth, honor, and wonder that belongs to God alone.
Many people don’t see any reason to reverence God, or they do not know how to do it. This is the highest form of ungratefulness from the creature to the creator.
What we are receiving from God on daily basis is too much for us not to honor Him with our praise and adoration.
One of the reasons why God asks us to meditate day and night is to fully grasp His impact on our lives. This will open our understanding to venerate and obey Him at all times.
Worship is an acknowledgment that all good gifts come from God and that He deserves our praise for His goodness.
The Bible says no man can receive a thing except it is given to him from above, and all good gifts and perfect gifts come from God. John 3:27, James1:17
Just take a look at your life and you will see many good things that God has bestowed upon you. These are reasons why you should thank, praise. and glorify Him.
Worship is the most important thing in the world. It is the main way we interact with God and should be our highest priority.
Many people cherish prayers to God which is very good. You can pray for hours daily because the Bible says we should pray without ceasing.
How will you feel if your child keeps coming to you requesting what he needs all the time without creating time to show appreciation for what he had received in the past?
You will not be happy with that child, and you would wish you can make him understand that without making those requests, you are duty-bound as a parent to provide those things that he needs.
God is feeling the same way too. He knows the requests in our hearts before we open our mouths to pray about them.
We must know that getting answers to prayers before God has to do with pleasing Him and obtaining His mercy, and not the energy and time we put into the prayer, for to obey is better than sacrifice.
Going through the Bible, you will discover that extolling God can involve singing songs, or reading scripture, or bringing an offering, but if you want to know how to worship God in spirit you have to be closer to Him so that your worship will not be mechanical and unacceptable.
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What Does It Mean to Worship God in Spirit?
Worshipping God in spirit has been established in the Bible from the Old Testament, but it was not given much emphasis because the disposition of the Holy Ghost had not come.
There is no way you can talk about worshipping God in spirit without involving the Holy Spirit.
He is the power behind true and acceptable worshiping of God, being the spirit of God, he knows the right way to the throne of God and He can lead you there.
As followers of Christ, we are reminded that everything we do should be done in love. Not only for one another but also for God.
Worship is an essential part of our walk with God and is the foundation for all other aspects of Christianity.
The goal of this article is to lay down a firm foundation for glorifying God so that we will know the right way to connect with the throne of God, and please Him with quality veneration, such that He wants to receive from His creatures.
In John 4:24, Jesus met a woman by the well in a village called Syca. He was hungry and thirsty, His disciples had gone to buy food, but He needed to drink water.
The woman came along with a pot to fetch water from the well. Jesus asked her for a drink and she turned him down on the premise that Jesus was a Jew and she a Samaritan.
In those days, the Jews and the Samaritans don’t relate. Jesus told her that if she knew who was talking, she would ask from Him and receive the water of life that does not run dry.
As the conversation went on, He made her realize that the Samaritans are worshipping the God they do not know and that the time has come when the true worshippers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23–24.
The first thing to remember is that God wants us to “worship” Him. He created us for His pleasure, not to pursue a career, start a family, or embark on a noteworthy project that will benefit mankind, but to please Him.
One of the ways to do this is to worship. Every creature does this in their way, but He created us in his image, we are the closest to Him. It is our praise that He desires most.
We cannot afford not to give it.
The Greek word translated “worship” literally means “to render religious homage.”
So, when we come before God in prayer and praise, our objective is not to entertain Him or make Him feel good about Himself; rather, it’s about glorifying Him through the expression of our love for Him.
Worshipping God involves much more than just bowing your head or folding your hands during silent prayer, or making a loud noise of showing knowledge of what you know about Him.
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Why is it important to worship God in Spirit?
John 4:23-24 tells us to extoll in spirit and truth because that is the kind of service God desires and deserves.
He is Spirit
If God is spirit, it means, to relate with Him, we must operate at the same frequency with Him.
We must understand the nature and language of the spirit to know how to worship effectively, and to ensure that He hears us.
This is why we need the help and the companionship of the Holy Spirit. For us to worship God in spirit, the spirit must take over.
This cannot happen except we are born by water and the spirit, and except He lives inside of us.
He Seeks Such
God had been waiting a long time for this time, that men will adore Him in the right way that He desires.
God instructed the children of Israel right from the time of Moses concerning how they are to revere Him.
David appointed singers in the Temple, the family of Asaph taking the lead in motivating others to reverence God, David himself an anointed harper.
We also see a flash of what worshiping God in the spirit could mean when God instructed Jehoshaphat and his people to sing and praise Him when three kings came against the land of Judah with their armies.
As the people of Judah sang, the Lord set an ambushment against the enemy soldiers, they turn against themselves and destroyed themselves.
All of these were just a taste of what worshiping God can be when the spirit of God is handling it.
The Time is Now
Jesus told the woman He met by the well, “for the time is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship in spirit and truth.”
Those who have given their lives to Christ are the true worshippers. They are the people that can give true worship to God because they have been washed in the blood of the lamb.
On the day of Pentecost, that time came that God had promised. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and they worshipped God in spirit and truth.
On that day alone, three thousand souls got converted and became followers of Christ.
When we worship the Lord, we must not only acknowledge His existence but also honor and respect Him in our hearts and minds.
Our physical bodies are also part of this process; we must treat them with dignity and show reverence to God by keeping them pure and holy.
The primary reason why God can never accept the adoration of others is that they are not clean before Him.
They are already polluted by sin, hence no matter what display of reverence they make, it does not meet the standard of God.
God has given us a physical body for a reason, just as He has given us everything else on earth.
That reason is, that we can glorify and adore Him. This is how to worship God in spirit and in truth.
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How do you worship God in spirit?
Surrender your life.
Our relationship with God matters when it comes to the issue of worshipping Him. God does not accept any kind of service, sacrifice, or spiritual exercise no matter how costly it may be.
He does not lack it, because there are innumerable angels in heaven. They don’t have any other duty than to praise Him.
The fact that God commands us to exalt Him is a privilege that we must not abuse. The reason why we must do it the right way.
I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1
Only those who are born again can give God the right worship. Their service comes from hearts that have been washed pure in the blood of the lamb.
Celebrate Who God Is.
If you know who God is, you will know how to honor Him. The real worshippers in the Bible Moses, David, Daniel, Paul, etc., are people that know something about God that others do not.
The Bible reveals who God is. He is the creator of the world. You can extoll Him because He alone created all that we can see, and His power is sustaining them.
He is merciful.
The mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting. It is because of this mercy that the enemies have not succeeded in consuming us.
He is holy.
Words cannot describe the holiness of God. He dwells in light that no man can approach. His eyes are so pure that He cannot behold sin. Everything about Him speaks holiness.
What He Has Done.
God has done numerous things for us, which can be the reason why we should glorify Him.
Deliverance from sins
He saved us from our sins and eternal damnation. This He did by sending His only begotten son, Jesus into the world. John 3:16.
Provisions for our needs.
God is the one providing all that we need for our wellbeing in life. Whatever you have comes from God.
He is loving
God is love. He started showing His love towards mankind by creating us in His image. When Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, He visited them and fellowshipped with them. A sign of love.
Love made Him provide the solution to the problem of sin, and save us.
Focus on Him
God deserves all attention from you. This is what you must portray in times of worship.
When Jesus visited the home of Mary and Martha, the latter was making all efforts to ensure that Jesus is comfortable and to get him something to eat, but Jesus called her attention to what is more important, focus on him. Luke 10:38-42.
All forms of distractions must be eliminated when you are worshipping God. Whenever you want to prove to someone that you love him, you give your whole attention to such a fellow.
This is why some people close their eyes whenever they are worshipping God. They want to close their eyes against all other things going on around them so that they can focus more on God.
How important someone is to you, and the kind of value such person delivers to your life will determine the level of attention you give him. If God is important to you, you will not find it difficult to give Him full attention. This is how to worship God in spirit.
Get Out Of The Way
To worship God means to make Him more visible while relegating every other person and every other thing to the background.
To do this effectively you must not make any reference to yourself or any other person.
Sometimes when people share testimonies, they tried to focus on themselves by making people see that the reason why they received the miracle or divine visitation was that they fasted and prayed.
They painted the whole picture in such a way that the hearers will find it difficult to see the role that God played in the whole situation, rather they will see a spiritually strong Christian who can handle his challenges easily.
Jesus illustrates this better with the story of the rich man and the publican who went to the Temple to pray. Luke 18:9-14.
The publican used the opportunity to tell God why He should answer his prayers, all based upon what he was doing for God.
The man was proud, focused upon himself, and got nothing at the end. That is not how to worship God in spirit.
Worship Is Sacrificial Service
Worshipping God does not come easy most times. It is easy to praise when you are experiencing good times, when things turn the other way it becomes a difficult thing.
Do not wait until you feel it is right to praise God before you do it. It has to be a regular thing which you must keep to, come rain come shine.
To do that you have to sacrifice your time and comfort, disregard your emotions to focus on God and get His attention.
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How to Worship God In Spirit: Example In the Bible
There are some notable acts of worship in the Bible that we can use as examples to follow if we want to know how to worship God in spirit.
Some of them do not involve singing, drumming, and other activities that we are used to, but you will see that they are done to reverence God.
Jesus the perfect example
He used every opportunity to acknowledge God and exalt Him.
At the garden of Gethsemane when He was about to go to the cross He prayed hard and asked God if possible to remove the cup of suffering and sorrow from him. Luke 22:41-43.
He later went on to say “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” This is the highest form of worship recorded in the Bible. It is not just sacrificial, but total surrender even unto death.
Abraham’s obedience
His readiness to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, because God said so. Genesis 22:12-14. Abraham waited for 25 years after God’s call to get Isaac, however, when God requested that he sacrifice him on Mount Moriah, the man considered as the father of faith did not hesitate.
God stopped him at the nick of time and pointed him to a substitute that should be used for the sacrifice.
Worship is acknowledging the supremacy of God in all things, obeying Him without asking questions. Abraham was able to attain that height, and God swore that He will forever bless him and his descendants. The blessing is still in force today.
Paul and Silas In The Prison
Acts 16:24-26. They were arrested for preaching the gospel, beaten and wounded, they were locked up in the prison waiting for more punishment and perhaps death.
At the midnight the duo of Paul and Silas started to sing and praise God so loudly that the prison inmates heard them. All of a sudden, the prison building started shaking as if there was an earthquake.
All the windows and doors were forced open. All chains and shackles loosed from the legs and hands of the prisoners.
God visited the prison that night because his children worshiped and praised Him. That led to the immediate and unconditional release of Paul and Silas.
“God Inhabits the Praises of His People” – Psalm 22:3 KJV
No barrier, situation, or circumstance should stop us from praising God. He is not only omnipotent; He is also omnipresent. God is ready to visit anyone who worships and help them.
The Woman with The Alabaster Box
Luke 7:36-50. This woman was a sinner, but she saw an opportunity, grabbed it, and became a reference in the Bible.
It was recorded that she saw Jesus come to the house of one of his disciples as a guest. She too joined the people that came to hear Jesus preach.
She didn’t come to listen alone, she had made up her mind to make Jesus notice her and help her out of her hopeless situation.
She brought a very expensive ointment, poured it on the feet of Jesus, kissed the feet, and wiped the oil with her hair while weeping all the way.
She was truly sorry for all her wrongdoings, and she wants to show this to Jesus. The savior noticed her efforts at seeking forgiveness and responded positively to her.
We were created to give pleasure to God, the more we do this in the right manner, the more we fulfill our mandates on earth.