Hi all,
Modern church culture is very ‘me’ focused if you think about it. We’ve seen ‘name it claim it’, ‘positive confessions’, ‘declarations and decrees’, personal prophecy, inner healing, and more, all focused on getting everything we can from God or ridding ourselves of demons, diseases, flaws, and problems of life.
Let’s change our focus to what the Father wants. It is possible to live focused on what the Father wants, and I can tell you it is the most fulfilling life there is!
#1: Jesus said the Father seeks worshippers: “Who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.” John 4: 23-24
“The time is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such people to worship Him.”
Notice the worship Jesus is talking about, is directed to the Father. Understand that – in all the gospels Jesus never told us to worship Him. He said to worship the Father. He said to pray to the Father (The Lord’s Prayer being the most well known of those instructions). So that is the question first: Do you worship the Father? (Or do you only worship Jesus? Jesus is God, so of course we worship Him, but do you worship Jesus while neglecting the Father?)
TRUE worshippers. The Greek word ‘alethinos’ here means ‘genuine, real, true’. By stating ‘true worshippers, Jesus reveals there are false worshippers, ones who mouth words or have ulterior motives in their worship.
‘In spirit’ refers to worshipping with our very breath, out of our innermost being. ‘In truth’ means no ulterior motives, no agenda, no reminders for Him as we sing. It means pure, no strings attached, no ulterior motive, focused on the Father, worship.
Jesus said the Father seeks such people to worship Him. The Greek word ‘seeks’ is ‘zeteo’, and within the culture means ‘to inquire’. Seeking as an inquiry. (permisson) As we walk with the Father, He will be inquiring of us: Do you want to, will you, worship from your spirit in truth. Therefore, will we answer His inquiry? When one inquires, an answer is required. How do we answer what He is seeking? For me I can say my first thoughts in my first waking moment at least 90% of the time are; Thank you Father. I start each day with that simple act of worship, and talk to Him off and on throughout my day.
Worship of the Father is seen in The Revelation 4.
The apostle John says “I was in the Spirit” in v2, meaning this natural world fell away as his eyes were opened to the realm of the Spirit. He saw a door in heaven and heard a voice inviting him: ‘Come up here’, and he was transported to heaven. This is seen by most as a type of the rapture, for it happens before the opening of the 7 seals by Jesus, which are the start of the Tribulation.
When a person is in the Spirit they can see the Father. Daniel saw the Father in Daniel 7 as the Ancient of Days, to whom the Son of man came to receive a kingdom without end. Moses talked to God face to face in the glory cloud when it came down on the tabernacle in the wilderness, but when he was in the natural on the mountain God had to cover his eyes. (Exodus 33:11, 34:10; 33: 20). Ezekiel had the Father and surrounding cherubs come to him in Ezekiel 1. He described a rainbow over the throne and clear flooring before it.
When John was in heaven in The Revelation 4, he witnessed the rainbow, clear flooring, and cherubs and the elders worshipping the Father in v8, 11: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” “You are worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power. For you have created all things, and for your pleasure they were created and have their being.”
Notice worship to the Father is all about Him – not what He did for us, but about Him, Him as Creator, Him as God, Him who is holy, Him who is ever-present. True worship is strictly vertical, from us to Him about Him and to Him. There is nothing about us, what He has done for us, how we were lost and now we are saved. No, worship is from our deepest spirit to His Spirit – spirit to Spirit. Our heart to His heart. But there is more.
The word ‘worship’ in the Greek is ‘proskuneo.’ ‘Pros’ means ‘toward’. ‘Kuneo’ means ‘to kiss’. The worship Jesus says the Father is looking for, the true worshippers, worship as a kiss to the Father – that means true affection, true covenant. In that day as in ours, a kiss is a token of a covenant between two people. I kiss my wife as a token of all my love and devotion to her. Two friends even in our day, may kiss each other on the cheek as a token of their bond. Jesus literally said in John 4: 23: “The hour is coming and now is, where the true kissers will kiss the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeks such to kiss Him.”
The word ‘worship’ therefore, is a kiss of covenant to the Father. When we worship Him for being Him, we are saying we are in covenant with Him. That we love Him and are devoted and give ourselves fully to Him. He seeks such whole-hearted worshippers. A physical kiss between people is a very rough example of the true spiritual ‘kiss’ or worship. Deepest worship is therefore when we are pouring out of our spirit our love to the Father, while also keeping our mind focused on what we are saying, our mind probing our heart to find the words to express who much we love Him. It means we need to develop the mental discipline not to mouth words with our lips while our mind wanders what we’ll eat for lunch tomorrow, or other such things our mind thinks of while we are singing worship songs to the Father.
The Father is looking for true worshippers. Are you interested in answering that desire of His?
How much of your prayers, how much of your worship, is to Jesus – all the while Jesus said directly that the Father seeks those who will worship (kiss towards) Him out of their spirit without ulterior motives. Can we redirect our focus to the Father, eyes off self, learning how to speak out of your deepest heart to the Father? Get to know your Father by just talking throughout the day, conversationally, but always with thanks.
In my experience, most Christians don’t know what true worship is because in their daily lives they don’t worship the Father. I have seen this as a pastor in the auditorium church and in house church. When the music stops and the leader says; “Let’s just continue to worship Him” the volume drops off considerably. Many just stand or sit with eyes closed and heads bowed. This reveals they never developed their own life of worship.
Years ago a leader in a house church was driving along complaining to the Lord: “Lord, I miss the worship of the auditorium church.” He broke in: “You don’t miss the worship; you miss the music, for worship flows from the heart.”
Worship from the spirit is a matter of us getting in touch with the core reasons we love God. The core things we are thankful for. The core reasons we walk with Him. Get back to basics, get back to the core, and start conversationally just telling the Father why you love Him and are so thankful for Jesus, for who He is as God and therefore worthy to be worshipped (kissed towards).
As a side note; That is the beauty of praying and worshipping in tongues – it is of our spirit, our core. For those who aren’t ‘tongue talkers’ yet, you may find if you do what I suggest here of getting in touch with your deepest heart of hearts and express your love to the Father, you may find yourself talking in a language you never learned – so deep will be the outpouring of your love and thankfulness that it will go beyond your known language to express it – and He will switch you over to tongues that your spirit may more fully and completely express your kiss towards the Father.
Another thing the Father looks for next week. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
