E-Prayer #220  True Worship and its Counterfeits


“...an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4: 23)


Jesus was responding to a question asked by a woman at Jacob’s well at Sychar of Samaria. There was a dispute between the Jews and the Samaritans about where to worship. She said, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain (Mount Gerizim) and you people (the Jews) say that Jerusalem (Mount Zion) is the place where men ought to worship.” The temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem was the only place where the temple services could be held and was the place that Jews assembled during feast days for prayer and worship. Mount Gerizim was the place where the priests pronounced blessings on the people if they kept the laws of the Mosaic covenant. Mount Ebal, which is nearby, was where the priests pronounced curses on the people if they violated the covenant.


Jesus responded to this inquiry by saying, “Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father.” He announced that a new day had come when the true worshipers would worship at neither geographical location but would worship in spirit and in truth. Thus, the old kind of worship was soon to become a false or counterfeit worship if it was conducted in a perfunctory manner and with the spirit left out. The idea that one cannot worship except it be in a consecrated holy place or on a religious holiday was now to become a sign of someone who does not understand worship. Furthermore, we no longer require a sacerdotal priesthood above us to lift our prayers up to God. We have Jesus Christ as our High Priest.


What then is true worship? Who are the true worshipers? Well, one cannot worship in the spirit if he is spiritually dead. One must be born of the Spirit in order to be alive to God. Those who are born in the Spirit become sons of God. “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out ‘Abba (Daddy), Father!’ The Spirit Himself bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God...” (Romans 8: 15, 16)


Such a son of God is spiritually alive to God and personally related to God as a child to his father. The Holy Spirit is imparted to that spiritual child and witnesses to him that he is a son of God. (He may be a biologically male spiritual son or a biological female spiritual son, both fully sharing in the Sonship of Christ.)


In prayer and worship, it is the Holy Spirit which connects our awakened spirit to Christ and Christ who connects us to the Father. This connection is a personal love relationship. It cannot occur without the facilitation of the Holy Spirit. The distance between an infinite God and a finite man can only be spanned by God Himself. The Holy Spirit as co-equal in divinity with the Father and the Son can span this gap.


Although the reborn spirit has a spiritual (nonphysical) substance similar to God who is a spirit, the human spirit is a finite created substance. God has an infinite uncreated substance.


Activity in the human spirit without the Holy Spirit cannot be true prayer or true worship. This would be worship in spirit but not worship in truth. A lot of eastern religious prayer and meditation and new age meditation are spiritual but are a false spirituality. They make false claims about being able to transcend the finite and reach up into the infinite. Even the old venerable contemplative prayer in the Catholic traditions can be false if practiced by an unbeliever who does not have the Holy Spirit. Even a spiritually robust Evangelical must be often reminded by the Holy Spirit that no one can break through to God except on “the wings of the dove”, i.e., through the Holy Spirit. We must wait upon the Holy Spirit or our words will bounce off the ceiling and echo through the empty air. Many of out impatient and fidgety American Christians do not understand how to sit in silence and surrender, waiting upon the Holy Spirit to move before they begin talking to God. It shows in the sorry state of their prayers.

 

Some groups of Evangelicals are Holy Spirit maniacs and some are Holy Spirit quenchers. The maniacs are preoccupied with the works of the Holy Spirit to the exclusion of the Father and the Son. In contrast, the Holy Spirit is self-effacing. He does not draw attention to Himself. He draws attention to Christ. Christ draws attention to the Father. This is the true order of worship. This is how we worship in truth. Interestingly, some of those who err in drawing attention to the Holy Spirit also draw attention to themselves and become obnoxious. They worship in a noisy, agitated, attention getting way - because the do not understand the self-effacing ways of the Spirit. “Everyone come and see my worship of God.” These proud self-worshipers have the deluded concept of the big worshipers of a small god. The do not know the terror of the Infinite Holy God before whom we are all pitifully small and weak. This is the One before whom John “fell at his feet as a dead man.” (Revelations 1:17)


Thus, the obnoxious worship of the Holy Spirit maniacs falls short of worshiping in truth. They also fall short of worshiping in Spirit. This is ironic because worshiping in the Spirit is that which they are most proud. Their chronic problem is that they cannot discern the difference between the spiritual and the soulish. Spiritual worship involves a yielding to the Holy Spirit. Soulish worship involves the pumping up of the mind, emotions, and will. The worship meetings of such Christians are ragged and chaotic as they lurch between soul and spirit throughout the meeting. The lives of such Christians reveals a constant confusion between soul and spirit.


Interestingly, the Holy Spirit maniacs often employ hard rock music for “worship.” The hard rock rhythm pumps up the body. Then the body beat arouses soulish passions. The people are stirred to a frenzy before the Spirit can get a foothold among them. The discernment between soul and spirit is very hard to do amidst this hysterical caterwauling. The people are entertained and aroused but I am deeply suspicious that much authentic worship goes on in these ear-spitting jam sessions. The still small voice of the Holy Spirit is drowned out.


Just as some Evangelicals are Holy Spirit maniacs, others are Holy Spirit quenchers. Certain hard shell fundamentalists have a bias against the supernatural. They have this bias in common with the liberals. The liberals do not believe that the Holy Spirit exists. The diehards do believe in the Holy Spirit but deny that God does miracles or employs supernatural gifts during this historical era. They worship dryly in “truth” but not in Spirit.


I watched in amusement as a group of conservative Lutherans tried to pray in the Spirit. In between the long silences some read passages from scripture. Once in a while someone added a short prayer. But it came down to 90% scripture recitation and 10% free-form prayer. I do think it is valid to quote scripture during prayer time. This was not counterfeit prayer. But it was imbalanced. They were so determined to pray in truth, that they neglected to pray freely in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was clearly present with us but he was somewhat bottled up.


A spirit led prayer meeting without mania and without quenching is not impossible. I attended many of them as a young Christian. One man had a song. A second had a scripture reading. A third had a prayer. A fourth traced Christ’s journey to the cross. A fifth rejoiced in the glory of the risen Lord. None was rehearsed. All was Spirit led. All wove into a beautiful harmony. A lot of the material was fresh and newly inspired each week.


The diehard bias against the supernatural is often accompanied by a suspicion of subjective human experience and the expression of human emotions. David, “the sweet psalmist of Israel” would have been amazed at the notion of worship without emotion.


Emotion is not the same thing as worship, of course. Sometimes emotions follow a move of the Spirit and sometimes they don’t. The Holy Spirit maniacs often mistake mere emotion for worship. The diehards often falsely accuse emotional worship of being a counterfeit.


As for the bias against the subjective, I might say that yes, true worship must have its object - the true God who is really there. Yet I doubt if there is any such thing as purely objective worship. Martin Luther said, “Every work of grace contains both an objective and a subjective element.” The idea of a purely objective worship and the bias against the supernatural was clearly not a trait of the Reformation. The Great Reformers were wonderfully balanced in the objective and subjective aspects of worship and life. The pinched ideas which rationalized the faith at the expense of subjective experience and supernatural providence were brought in by theologians a century after the Reformation. Thomas Merton was thinking of this brand of Evangelical Christianity when he said, “Protestantism is all in the head.”


I suggest that the worshiper strikes a balance between the word and prayer and worship during private devotions. The bible will keep us in the objective Truth about who is the God we worship. The prayer and worship is for our personal love relationship with God. Wait patiently upon the Holy Spirit to move you into the presence of God. Yield to the Spirit and let Him have His way. Address your prayer directly to God. Prepare your heart for sublime utterances about the holiness of God, the splendor of God and the love of God.