Worship in the Spirit (ii)
SCRIPTURE: \’The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the
Father in Spirit and in truth; for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers. God is a
Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.\’–John 4: 23,
24.
\’We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. Phil. 3: 3.
As the body consists of flesh and bone, and the flesh is that part of us is specially endowed
with sensitiveness, and through the flesh we receive our sensations from the outer world, the
flesh denotes human nature, as it has become subject to the world of sense. And because the
whole soul has thus come under the power of the flesh, the Scripture speaks of all the
attributes of the soul as belonging to the flesh and being under its power. So it contrasts, in
reference to religion and worship, the two principles from which they may proceed.
- There is a fleshly wisdom and a spiritual wisdom (1 Cor.2: 12; Col. 1: 9).
- There is a service of God trusting in the flesh and glorying in the flesh, and a service of
God by the spirit (Phil. 3:3, 4; Gal. 6: 13). - There is a fleshly mind and a spiritual mind (Col.2: 18, 1: 9).
- There is a will of the flesh, and a will which is of God working by His Spirit (John 1:13 ;
Phil. 2:13). - There is a worship which is a satisfying of the flesh because it is in the power of what flesh
can do (Col.2: 18, 23), and - There is a worship of God which is in the Spirit. It is this worship Jesus came to make
possible, and to realize in us, by giving a new spirit in our inmost part, and then, within that,
God\’s Holy Spirit.
PRAYER: Pray for the ability to distinguish between the the spirit and the flesh in these
critical areas.