Spirit to spirit
2. Worship in S/spirit and truth

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SPCC Winter School 2003

1. Worship

Introduction

  • the main New Testament words for “worship” have to do with service and so relate to all of life worship in the general sense of thankful self-giving in response to God’s self-giving in Jesus (Rom 12:1)
  • all true worship is God initiated; it is God who opens the heart/lips and sets the spirit free (Ps 51:10,15; Acts 16:14)

Jesus the True Worshipper of God

  • Jesus is the one true worshipper of God: he offered up his whole self as an offering to God (Rom 8:3; Eph 5:2; Heb 13:11-12)
  • in the power of the Spirit (Heb 9:14) his faithful testimony to the God in a world of idolatrous compromise was without blemish (Rev 3:14)
  • he alone reveals the truth of who God is as the Father(John 1:14, 17; 5:33; 7:18; 8:40etc.)

The Role of the Spirit

  • it is the role of the Holy Spirit to ignite our spirits in love for God and Christ so that worship is spontaneously drawn out of us (Rom 12:11; 2 Cor 3:17- 18)
  • “spiritual worship” is not ritual/works dependent or initiated by humans (Phil 3:2-4; Rom 2:28 -29)
  • the worship of the Father in S/spirit and truth” (John 4:24) is worship without a fixed location on earth
  • it is participation in the life of the Spirit through accepting the truth that is in Jesus (John 14:6, 17)
  • “in” the Spirit means intimacy and mutual indwelling (interpenetration) (John 14:17, 20, 23; 15:4 -11; 17; 17:26) (This is prefigured in the Old Testament 2 Chron 7:16; Ps 22:3; Zech 12:10)
  • “he who is united to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor 6:17); this implies a likeness of being between humanity and God
  • this is because the human spirit has now been recreated in the image of God (Ezek 36:26-27; John 3:6; Col 3:10)

Worshipping with Jesus

  • our only access to God is through Jesus, who makes all our offerings acceptable to the Father (Eph 2:18; 1 Pet 2:5)
  • the worship leader (leitourgos) is the heavenly Jesus (Heb 8:2)
  • it is Jesus who declares the praises of God to believers on earth (Heb 2:12)
  • the New Testament represents the church as enjoying/participating in the worship of heaven (Hebrews 12:18 -24; Eph 1:4; 2:6)
  • the church therefore worships as “sons” in the Son (Rom 8:16)

2. Praying in the S/spirit: Prophetic Praying

Jesus’ Prayers

  • Jesus prayed extensively for the church during his time on earth (Luke 22:31-32; John 17:20-26)
  • as a person constantly filled with the Spirit, all of Jesus’ prayers were answered (John 3:34; 11:41-42)
  • his prayers grew progressively deeper as his communion with the Father (in the Spirit) intensified as he approached the cross (Mark 14:32-40; John 12:27-28; Heb 5:7-8)
  • here his relationship with the Father and the triumph of his spirit reached absolute purity (Matt 27:50; Luke 23:46; John 19:30)
  • Jesus ascended to heaven so that from the “throne of grace” (Heb 4:16) he might continue to pray for the church (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25)
  • he receives revelation from the Father to impart to the people of God on the earth during the time of their tribulation (Rev 1:1-3)
  • the fruit of such revelation will always be prayer and prophecy

Praying in the S/spirit

  • through Jesus’ pure sacrifice on earth (Eph 5:2) the prayers of the saints are acceptable to God in heaven (Rev 5:8; 8:4)
  • they sense this by being “in the Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3; Rev 1:10)
  • praying “in the Spirit” (Eph 6:18; Jude 20) is Spirit-saturated and directed prayer
  • prophecy, as inspired words given by revelation, is always the outflow of prayer-based communion with the Holy Spirit
  • Jesus sends the Spirit to teach us how/what to pray (Rom 8:26- 27) this prayer will be spiritual and (primarily) directed to the Father because we pray as “sons” in the Son (Rom 8:16)
  • prayer “in the Spirit” may be intelligible or unintelligible to the mind
  • in the latter case, the prayer and praise that flows out of the fellowship of Spirit to spirit is called “speaking in tongues” (1 Cor 12:7, 10; 14:2,14-16)
  • when tongues are interpreted they are functionally equivalent to prophecy (1 Cor 15:5)
  • tongues as an activity of a Spirit – moved and Christ-focussed human spirit (1 Cor 12:3) often opens up the reality of the spiritual realm by putting people inwardly in touch with “mysteries” beyond human comprehension (1 Cor 14:2)
  • since tongue speaking “edifies” the speaker it is encouraged (1 Cor 15:4-5)
  • prophecy, as intelligible speech, likewise flows out of Spirit to spirit communion (1 Cor 12:7, 10; 14:32)
  • the spiritual or trans-rational nature of prophecy is to be appreciated: “do not put out the Spirit’s fire, do not treat prophecies with contempt.” (1 Thess 5:19)
  • all true prophetic activity is anti – idolatrous (Rev 11:3 -13)
  • God is the “God of the spirits of the prophets” (Rev 22:6) who call the church to the purity of exalting only Jesus
  • the Spirit prays in/through Christian prophets for the return of Jesus: “the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” (Rev 22:17)
  • “Our prayer is an index of the Spirit’s work in us.” (Andrew Murray)

3. Deepening a Life of Worship and Prophetic Prayer

  • true worship is deepened in us the same way that it was in the life of Jesus
  • Jesus was “made perfect” (Heb 2:10; 5:8) through suffering under the discipline of God (upon our sin)
  • it was through the shedding of his blood that he became the “faithful witness” (Rev 1:5)
  • it is “the Father of spirits” who disciplines us that we might “share in his holiness” (Heb 12:9-10)
  • this involves progressively freeing our lives from all false images of who God is; these are constructions of the human heart and mind (Rom 1:21-23; Col 1:21) the opposite of all true worship is idolatry, honouring something as God that is less than God
  • the worship of idols reveals itself in an inability to hear God (Deut 4:28-29; Ps 115:6; 135:17)
  • when Christians worship something less than God, we cut our spirit off from communion with the indwelling Holy Spirit who is grieved or quenched (Isa 63:10; Eph 4:30), because there is no true likeness of being between our spirit and dead things
  • the fullness of the likeness of being between God and humanity is revealed in Jesus who is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15)
  • it is as the Spirit reveals to us that God has become one of us at infinite cost to himself that we honour him for who he truly is; the worship of God through Christ is therefore the height of worship (Rev 5)
  • “I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters who hold the testimony of Jesus.  Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Rev 19:10) this means that true worship and prophecy are always intimately related, for they are actions inspired by the Spirit in the human spirit.

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