What is Worship?
(Spiritual and true worship)
Christianity is faith to walk by the guidance of the spirit of Christ. Because Christians can carry out the act of faith only when they receive the Holy Spirit, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ (Ro 8:9). Like this, the church is a community of Christians who believe in Jesus Christ, and the most important thing in the church is worship. Until now, churches have interpreted the worship differently in their own ways. Therefore, Jesus said with some significance to the Samaritan woman, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:23-24). Then, what is spiritual and true worship which Jesus Christ said and how can it be done?
● What is spiritual and true worship?
In the Old Testament era, worship was given by the Law of Moses which was the Law, but in order to give worship to please God, worshipers must put first priority on the law of Holy Spirit together with the Law since the New Testament era. The law of Holy Spirit means the law which is to let us know the will of God within the Spirit of God through the Spirit of Christ by bring to our remembrance, teaching and educating us (Jn 14:26). Christianity must worship God with only this law. Only then, God will appear to mankind and all things, which will lead to achievement of glory. Accordingly, spiritual and true worship is to believe God’s will and the word which are guided by the Holy Spirit as they are in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and to serve them to be fulfilled. This can be defined as spiritual and true worship. (Spirit is i.e. the fullness of the Holy Spirit.)
God is spirit and the attribute of God is love. Spirit means the state which love (1Co Chapter 13), God’s attribute, is perfectly completed in my heart by the grace through pouring out love and this refers to the fullness of the Holy Spirit which requires in the New Testament. If love is perfected, I am in you and you are in me, and we are united with the Spirit of God and become one with God. Like this, when we belong to the Spirit of God, this state is spirit. Only then, I will just get to know the will of the Lord as if we were face to face because we are the same form and attributes (Heb 8:11). In other words, spiritual thing and other spiritual thing can recognize each other and they are distinguished, thus not knowing the will of the Lord means that love is not yet completed. (Truth is i.e. the guidance of the Holy Spirit.)
Truth means every law which operates and governs all things. God is the one who controls every law. Accordingly, God is truth itself. All of will, words, etc. which the God has planned is ‘good’ and become truth, righteousness and sincerity. Only the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is the one who knows the will of God. Therefore, the Holy Spirit will guide us into all the truth as the Spirit of truth (Jn 16:13, Jn 14:17). In other words, the Holy Spirit allows us to know the will of God by bring to our remembrance, teaching, educating and guiding us directly concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. This is the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In order to know the will of God, anyone should become one spirit with God through the completion of love (1Co Chapter 13). When love is completed, anyone can become the state of divine spirit i.e. the fullness of the Holy Spirit. When anyone becomes one spirit with God, he can have true fellowship with God; and through the fellowship with God, he can find out God’s good will about all problems. Like this, the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Holy Spirit lead to one. Because the God’s will which is guided by the Holy Spirit is revealed to the world through the church, it was declared that church was the pillar of the truth (1Ti 3:15). In the Old Testament, many prophets such as Isaiah the prophet, Jeremiah the prophet, etc. recorded about the promises which God made with people for salvation through the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
“I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jer 31:33, Heb 8:10).
“All your sons will be taught of the Lord” (Isa 54:13).
“They shall all be taught of God” (Jn 6:45).
“I will pour forth My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams” (Joel 2:28, Ac 2:17).
Like this, even today God reveals God’s laws into our hearts directly and guides us through the Holy Spirit. This is the guidance of the Holy Spirit and this is revealed to the world through the church. Because the Spirit of truth directly commands, instructs and governs the church as a supervisor, a teacher and a leader without human wisdom and knowledge, the churches cannot make an excuse any more about the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Spirit and truth means to believe God’s word which is guided by the Holy Spirit as it is and walk by the word through the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Jesus Christ declared that everything that has not be done according to the will of God was lawlessness (Mt 7:21-23). Now, the church must keep this word firmly in mind. (Spiritual and true worship cannot be given if worshipers are not pure like a child.)
When we face the words guided by the Holy Spirit for the first time, they are realistically impossible, senseless and illogical. As the case of showing a vision to Peter and asking Cornelius to preach in the Book of Acts, it is absolutely difficult to accept the holiness and divinity of God with human common sense and logic. Therefore, it is hard enough to believe with the common sense of the world because it does not have stately form, majesty, and anything to admire.
In order to believe this word, I should start the good fight of faith in pure mind like a child. To do so, I must deny all of my wisdom, knowledge, experience, common sense, etc. and I totally surrender my life to God’s word such as a lesson, a teaching, etc. which were guided by the Holy Spirit just given suddenly without any logic and grounds; and worship the word. Like this, spiritual and true worship mean to just bow down to the ground and worship God’ will i.e. God’s word which is guided by the Holy Spirit. The world cannot give such spiritual worship to God because there is no faith in the world.
Therefore, Jesus Christ said to the Samaritan woman, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know” (Jn 4:22). To worship what we know means that we worship with the knowledge of what to serve and what to do because the Holy Spirit teaches us God’s will directly. God is pleased with such spiritual worship. In addition, only in that worship, God shows Himself and appears and receives glory.
The purpose of worship is glory.
Glory of God is to reveal and express God to the world. Because God is spirit, He cannot be perceived by human wisdom, knowledge and senses. The only way for human beings to perceive and sense God is to accomplish the prophecy which has spoken by God as it is. By doing so, the presence of God can be known. Therefore, prophecy is important. Governmental authority cannot be seen or caught, but it can be known through righteous and strict law enforcement.
Like this, by accomplishing and fulfilling the word of God who reveals as it is to the world through the churches, each person can see the living God with his own eyes, which makes that nobody can deny the presence of God and this is called glory. This means that His kingdom and His righteousness have established on this earth. Accordingly, the worship which does not reach for glory is meaningless, and God said with regard to such hypocritical worship, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men” (Isa 29:13, Mt 15:8). Because the churches have not revealed the glory of God until now, mankind and the world have not known at all about the fear of God. If the churches have revealed the glory of God, the history of the world would have been changed. In order not to worship in vain, the churches must worship in spirit and in truth from now on as Jesus Christ said to the Samaritan woman. Not the smallest letter or stroke shall not pass from God’s word until all is fulfilled and accomplished.
A typical example of this is Israel. Willing or not, Israel is a nation which made a covenant with God by the ancestors 3,500 years ago and the covenant has been handed down continuously without changing until now. The covenant was written in detail in the Book of Deuteronomy Chapters 27-34. In the Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 27, it was declared at Mount Gerizim that those who kept the Law would receive blessing; and it was also declared at Mount Ebal that those who disobeyed the Law would be cursed (Dt 27:12-13, Jos 8:33). In addition, in the Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 28, it was recorded in detail about blessings, protection and rest which those who kept the word of God and feared God would receive; and curses, disasters, defeat, downfalls which those who disobeyed the word of God and worshiped idols would receive. Moreover, God already made covenant with people mutually in the time of Moses that if people of Israel had not obeyed the God’s word, God would have eventually scattered the nation (Dt 28:25, Dt 28: 64); and if they had repent, come back and obeyed the word of God, God would have gathered His people again and established a nation.
The history of Israel has proved as it is until today how this promise has been fulfilled up to a smallest point. In the time of King Solomon, Israel achieved the pinnacle of blessings through King David. However, when King of Solomon left the word of God, there was Babylonian Captivity for 70 years as God had promised. The repeating history of coming back again and being dominated has been continued until today. Particularly, since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the people of Israel were scattered for 2,000 years and founding of Israel miraculously took place in 1948 after completing the term of sentence due to the price of sin. The founding Israel proves again that the word of God is fulfilled as it is in the Bible even a single point to all human beings who live today.
As the word which God declared to Israel is applied to every creator in the universe, all human beings who also live today in the world must obey this law. Blessings at Mount Gerizim and curses at Mount Ebal which were declared 3,500 years ago come down to every life as they are. In other words, if people obey the word, they will live in blessings; and if they disobey the word, they cannot but live in curses. Accordingly, their own destiny depends on how they keep this law. Therefore, in the Book of Deuteronomy, God said, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity” and asked us to choose (Dt 30:15). Consequently, now mankind should not blame anyone and he is responsible for everything. (For the everlasting hope of all mankind, there is no other way than the church shines light.)
At present, human beings are facing disasters everywhere in the world because they did not keep God’s law which is God’s word and rejected it (Jer 6:19). As prophet Hosea prophesied that Israel would be destroyed for lack of knowledge, now human knowledge is overflowing like a flood, but mankind is heading towards his downfall because there is no wisdom of God. Today, mankind depends on only human wisdom and rejected the God’s law, thus God rejected him (Hos 4:6).
Now, God says to mankind that if he suffers torment, He asks him to come back. Until he comes back, there is no rest and he cannot get rest. In order to achieve happiness and peace, mankind does something continuously without taking a rest and lives a life in endless worry, anxiety and pain. Therefore, the Bible defines life as living being in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger until death (Ecc 5:17).
Like this, although people of the world face disasters, they rather clamor that there is no God. Why have the churches left the world to end up like this? The church is the light of the world and the pillar of the truth. As the light is God’s word which leads to the Holy Spirit, only the word can reject downfall and darkness of death which are evils; and lead to life. Accordingly, in the history of mankind, there is no other time than this time when the importance of Christianity is urgent and desperate like now. Only when the churches seek the good word of God, i.e. the will of God, through spiritual and true worship, difficult problems which human beings face can be solved. By doing so, peace of the world will be fulfilled. In order to do that, first of all, the churches must go back to God. As they carry out the Lord’s commandment which is the Christ’s law, i.e. love (1Co Chapter 13), they must worship God in spirit and in truth with the supplied power coming down from the above. This is the only way to be saved in the present, in the future, and forever.
Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Please, accept spiritual and true worship which is spiritual worship of the church. Amen.
To the only God be glory and honor forever and ever. Hallelujah!
cf. Love
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1Co Chapter 13).