Learning to Give The Spirit Full Expression
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.
And this can only be as the Spirit of God dwells in us. If we would strive to become such
worshippers in Spirit and in Truth,-true worshippers,-the first thing we need is a sense of the
danger in which we are from the Flesh and its worship. As believers we have in us a double
nature – flesh and spirit. The one is the natural part which is ever ready to intrude itself, and
to undertake the doing of what is needed in the Worship of God. The other is the Spiritual
part, which may still be very weak, and which possibly we do not yet know how to give its full
expression. Our mind may delight in the study of God\’s Word, our feelings may be moved by
the wonderful thoughts there revealed, our will may–we see this in Rom.7: 22–delight in the
law of God after the inward man, and we may yet be impotent to do that law, to render the
obedience and worship we see and approve. Let us see the 3 step operation.
- We have revelation
- Faith to operate that which is revealed
- We must have faith working by love.
We need the Holy Spirit\’s indwelling for life and worship alike. And to receive this we need
first of all to have the flesh silenced. \’Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord.\’ \’Let no flesh glory
in His presence.\’ To Peter had already been revealed by the Father that Jesus was the Christ,
and yet in his thoughts of the cross he savoured not, his mind was not according to, the things
of God, but the things of men. Our own thoughts of Divine things, our own efforts to waken
or work the right feelings must be given up, our own power to worship must be brought down
and laid low, and every approach to God must take place under a very distinct and very
quiet surrender to the Holy Spirit. And as we learn how impossible it is at our will any
moment to ensure the Spirit\’s working, we shall learn that if we would worship in the Spirit
we must walk in the Spirit. \’Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you.\’ As the Spirit dwells and rules in me, I am in the Spirit, and can worship in
the Spirit.
PRAYER: Let us come before Him and surrender all striving and submit all activity of the
flesh crucified.