TRUE WORSHIP
Memorise: God is a spirit:
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24
Today you will observe with dismay how some people
counterfeit the true worship of God in the name of religion. The reason for this
phenomenon is not farfetched. They reason for this phenomenon is not
farfetched. They worship in the flesh and not in the spirit. This is the reason
Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:5b that:
“Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
This also was
the message of Jesus Christ to the religiously minded people of His days, as
well as the message of the early apostles. They played down the paraphernalia
of religious practices that did not connote spiritualism. They worshipped in
truth and in spirit. How can we put an end to carnal religiosity in our
churches today? The solution is simple: we must go back to the basics of
Christian teaching as outlined in Acts 2:37-38:
“Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their
heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostle, Men and brethren,
what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
It is a pity that people do not know or have forgotten
that genuine repentance is the foundation of the faith that saves. Covering up
our past misdeeds without repentance is a waste of time. The Holy Spirit
emphasis this truth through Apostle John in 1 John 1:6-9
“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk
in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. if we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.”
The problem
with many 21st century so-called Christian worshippers is that they
no longer admit sin to be sin; they trivialise sin and regard it as unavoidable
“mistakes”, hence, they neither confess it as sin nor strive to live above it
with the power of the Holy Ghost. This explains the carnal worship and
“plenty-rascality” in the name of Pentecostalism that we observe in some of our
churches. Remember the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21. These are the
things we must not entangle ourselves with if we would worship God in spirit
and in truth. You must be born of the spirit and live a life of change for
acceptable worship in the sight of God.
Action Point
Read Galatians 5:19-23,
identify the works of the flesh still manifesting in your life and pray for
power to live above them.
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