In
my last post I revealed the key difference between Old Covenant and New
Covenant worship. We now live under a
better covenant whereby we have open access to worship the Lord. But, there is guidance
from scripture that we must worship under this covenant in spirit and truth. Jesus
said, “Yet a time is coming and has now
come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for
they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his
worshippers must worship in spirit
and truth.” (John 4:23, 24)
Today let’s look at four aspects of worshiping ‘in spirit’ under the new
covenant.
First,
to worship ‘in spirit’ we must worship in
freedom. Jesus said in Luke
4:18 “He has sent me to proclaim freedom
for the prisoners”. Under the new covenant, we worship freely, no longer
bound by the old covenant rules and regulations. We worship free from sin and
veils and curtains that would separate us from God’s presence. Jesus came to
make us free, and therefore to worship freely and in freedom. We have freedom
from the law of sin and death and freedom from the power of sin. We are free to worship led by the spirit,
not as demanded by the law.
We
worship by faith. That means we worship by faith and not by
sight. Eph. 3:12 In Him (Jesus) and
through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. By
faith we approach to worship the Father, confident that all sin of the past,
present and future has been put away through the blood and redemptive work of
Jesus Christ. We worship the Father intimately, yet confidently knowing that
Jesus met all the requirements of the Law of Moses. He met the requirements of
blood sacrifices for the Day of Atonement. Therefore, instead of one High
Priest entering the Holy of Holies, each year on the Day of Atonement, every
believer can enter every day
by faith in the one sacrificed (Jesus). He made a way…a way we worship by faith.
We
also worship in His presence. The Old Testament tabernacle contained a symbol of God’s
presence: the table of showbread. Upon
it were 12 loaves of bread, representing the 12 tribes of Israel. “Showbread”
was also called the “bread of the presence” because it was always to be
in the Lord’s presence. It symbolized the Father’s willingness to
commune and fellowship with man. Every Sabbath day the priests would remove the
bread and eat it in the Holy Place (inner court), then put fresh bread on the
table. Only priests could eat the bread, and it could only be eaten in the Holy
Place, because it was holy. But a new way came forth to declare God’s
willingness to commune and be present with us. Jesus said “I am the bread
of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me
will never be thirsty. … Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they
died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat
and not die.” (John 6:35, 49-50). We have the ‘bread of life’ within us as
born-again believers. We now have God’s presence with us continually.
Finally, to worship in spirit is to worship with His power. The Old Covenant was under girded by fear of God’s power. If anyone even touched the ark
of the covenant they would die. But
when we are born-again we have the Holy Spirit which by it’s very nature is
the ‘spirit of power’ within us. 2 Tim. 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power,
of love and of self-discipline. We respect His power, but we do not avoid His power. It’s already within us, and, many times in worship He
demonstrates His power through spiritual gifts, healing, and outward signs when
believers lay hands on others.
Consider
the magnitude of worshipping God ‘in spirit’. Worship Him confident He will
embrace and fellowship with you as you enter His presence.
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