“Thank you, Father, for bringing words that will transform us. We want You to go so deep in us and us in You like never before. We want to know you and the power of Your resurrection and the power of Your Word removing all mindsets that have kept us from being in your presence. Help us to understand that the true worship is to be in You, to live in You, to be in Your Spirit, and to do everything you want us to do even when it is hard. When we submit to You, this is worship! To obey Your Word and will is worship! To obey the Word that we heard and read is worship. Write Your Word in our hearts, let that be our daily bread, our sacrifice, that incense that only you can smell. Spiritual incense, spiritual aroma. Spiritual worship is not done from the outside! True worship is done from the inside of Your temple! We are this temple made not by the hands of man! This temple worships you not just with their lips but with all that is within us! This is the worship you are looking for!”
What is worship? Is it imagination? Is it a fixing on an image? Is it blind focus? Is it music? Is it dance? Is it being on your knees? What is true worship according to Jesus, according to the Word? What is the new wine worship? Let’s look at the woman at the well in John 4:23 – “But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him.”
Jesus was, is, and is to come to present to this woman a different type of worship. He was saying, “This will be different now. A better way, a holy way, My way.” When we come to worship, and we imagine God on the throne - and we sing to Him - that is not true worship. That is just praise, celebrating, that is focusing on Him. But God said, “Don’t worship an image. Not even an image of Me.”
So, Jesus is using the example of water to represent the living water which is what He is. There is another fountain of worship that springs up. Jesus is seeking for living water, living worship, worship birthed out of the Word of God. His Word is Spirit and life! Jesus said, "You come to this and to that place, to this mountain to worship" (John 4:20). Sometimes our problem is we wait to come to a place to worship Him, but He wants us to worship Him 365 days a year and all day long. Men love to mix things from the Old Testament with the New Testament without revelation. We must have the revelation of what our Father is expecting from us.
If we gather as a church a few days a week, but throughout the week we don’t worship Him, that is not a sweet aroma to Him. Before people used to go to “that mountain” mentioned in this passage to worship. Today people go to the church to worship, but there is a new way! God dwells inside us, not only does He dwell among His people, but He also dwells IN HIS PEOPLE. People create their own images, photos of Jesus in their minds, but that is not the image of Jesus. - What is the image of Jesus? The Word is the very image of Jesus. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), but now the Word is inside of us. When we worship knowing this Truth, we are not asking God to be among us but to come outside of us! Flesh begins to disappear because now we are stepping into a place of true worship. If we walk this way all week long, when we come together, there will be an oil bath! When we rebel, we are giving glory to and worshiping our flesh! If you want to worship God, you must worship His Word! This way when we submit to one another and to the gifts of God, the world will know God is in you. They will repent and fall on their faces because God is in you! Living waters are in you, just as it was in Him (1 Corinthians 14:25).
Read the whole passage in John 4:19-25. Just like that woman at the well, many go to the church to worship, what a lack of revelation! Many used to bring sacrifices to the temple, but now we are that sacrifice and we are that temple. To worship, you first need to know Him that you worship! All this worship are traditions of man because it is not birthed or done out of revelation! Now is the hour! The Father seeks such worshipers!
God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24). How do we worship Him in the Spirit? By walking in the Spirit, by submitting to the Spirit, and by staying in the Spirit. How do we worship in the Truth? Who is Truth? His Word! He tells us to love but when we hate, we are not worshiping. He tells us to forgive but when we don’t, we are not worshiping.
The Messiah has come, which is called Christ, and He is telling us all things to us about true worship. Worshiping Him in the Spirit and in Truth has nothing to do with singing and dancing or about a bodily posture like bowing down. If you bow down in the flesh but your heart is far from Him, if you are in sin or disobeying His Word, you are not worshiping in the Spirit and in Truth. You are only worshiping an image of your own vain imagination. False grace churches receive the Word in vain. True and pure worship consists of submission! Being submissive is worship! Submission between a wife and the husband is a perfect picture of the Bride and the Bridegroom!
Now there is a glory that comes in units. There is an oil that comes from the head down. That is the anointing, the covering, what keeps the enemy away, what breaks the yoke, that is who Christ is – the anointed One. If I submit to the Truth, I walk in the Truth, I obey the Truth, then I worship in Truth.
Our soul and our physical body submit to what He says, to what is written. When we submit to the written Word, we are worshiping Jesus every day in our lives. People that fight His Word are not worshiping Him - they are not true worshipers - they are impostors. They are rebellious. “God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land,” Psalm 68:6. To be dry means to be absent of liquid. The water of His Word cleans us and washes us. So many are unsatisfied because they are rebelling against the Word. They “worship” – sing and dance, but there is no aroma coming out of them because it is lacking submission. God is saying, “I give you power, but you must submit your flesh to My ways and to My Word.” Obedience is your sacrifice! Obedience is true worship! Before, we went to a place to worship, but now, we are the very essence of worship – we are the worship itself. Now we are the living sacrifice. It is impossible to worship Him without obeying His Word. True worship is submitting to the Word of God – when you are being transformed to the Word of God, you are worshiping God because there is no transformation without submitting to the Word of God. People sing songs with lyrics saying, “Finally, I surrender...” but if the songs don’t line up with what is true because you’re not really surrendering so actually lying, then this is not worship. So then even though we are singing songs, it is a lie because we are not surrendering to Him at all. It is just noise we make with our lips. Worship is not just wanting to but it is doing and being true. Songs can lead us to true worship if the one who wrote it and the ones singing it have learned to surrender everything to His Word and to His Spirit!
Before Jesus came, people thought there was a place to worship, a mountain, or a temple, but Jesus said: it is not about a place. It is about submitting to the Word - that is worshiping me in the Spirit and in Truth. People go to the church to worship God, just as that woman at the well went to the mountains to worship God. (John 4:20)They were worshiping God in an old way. Let’s see the difference between the old and the new way of worshiping God.
The Word said that God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalms 22:3), but now God is in us? So now what? Now we are the temple. We do not bring our sacrifice to God for worship. We are the sacrifice. When we let Him rule and reign in our hearts, He is being worshiped. It has gotten so bad that people are paying to go to worship. Men and women are selling false sacrifices at the door of a building, just as in the days of Jesus. He cleared the temple and called it a den of thieves (Matthew 21:13). Now they are doing it the same in the spiritual. Instead of bringing their sacrifices, they are buying from someone else. Convenient and perverted false gospels bring false worship.
Romans 12:1-3 is talking about the renewing of the mind. When we let our mind be renewed by His Word, that is worship. That kind of transformation brings true worship. That is what the Father is expecting from us. Also, we used to go to a priest or to a place to bring our worship. That was sacrifice…Many in the Old Testament would bring their burning sacrifices. What a waste, some may think! No. That was a sweet aroma, very pleasant to God’s nostrils. God wants us to bring ourselves as living sacrifices, that is worship! Real worship was and still is obedience. Jesus was saying to that woman at the well, I am going to make you, My worship! Now He will make us the sacrifice that He wants and expects. But if we are doing it, singing to Him but not obeying His Word, He will not receive our songs or our dances. Many still live in a posture of changing the heaviness for praise (Isaiah 61:3), but our heaviness is coming because we are not worshiping Him in the Spirit and the Truth. “The worshipers will arise, and they will worship Me in the Spirit and in the Truth.” What we do in the physical is a manifestation of what we are doing in the Spirit.
Now the hour has come. But people think they are worshipers because they sing, they play, and they dance. They just took their Friday night to be with God, thinking it is a sacrifice, but if you are not obeying Him all the days of your life, He will not receive it from you. Jesus was THE LAMB and now we are the LITTLE LAMBS OF GOD – the same sacrifice that Jesus did, now it is our turn to lay down our lives! Jesus did not say, “Peter, feed the Jew,” but “Peter, feed my lambs.” – Every lamb was created for sacrifice and seasoned with salt. They do all of that, but they live their lives outside the Word of God. Then they are just worshiping another god. They are more entertainers than worshipers. People "worship"- but when they are not in the truth, it’s like they dance around the golden calf.
Worship is an act of submitting to His Word, will, and ways. True worshipers will submit their thoughts to follow His thoughts, their ways to His ways. When they want to do something in their own way, they humble themselves and say, "No, I will worship him doing it His ways", " No, I won’t be offended", " No, I won't disobey", "No, I will forgive." Jesus was worshiping the Father when He said, “Not my will but you're will be done!” At that moment, there was a sweet incense for God. He denied His flesh. Jesus was like, “Nooooooo,” but He had the power to lay down his life and will. Our will may be saying, “Let’s forget it, this is too hard! Let me drink from this cup next year.” But now He gives us the power so we can resist our own will and ways! He gave us the power to worship Him in the Spirit and in Truth. He gave us all power through the cross and the Holy Spirit and the grace to become a son of God. When we allow our flesh to dictate our path, we submit ourselves to sin. It does not matter how big or small, we are removing ourselves from grace, and God is resisting us because we are resisting His ways! When we repent and turn back to God, grace is there! We don’t need to press towards grace because we are in grace! When you want to scream and you don’t, that is worship. When you want to give up and you don’t, that is worship. When you want to be somewhere else, but you don’t move, that is worship. When our flesh tells us to do what it wants, and we follow it instead of following the Word, that is not worship. See? It is not about where or what you sing, but it is all about submitting to His thoughts, His will, and ways! “I won’t be offended; I won’t give up; I won’t be mad at them; I won’t do it my way…” when we say that – that is worship! That is the smell of true worship! That fire of God burning our flesh is that sweet aroma to His nostrils!
Let’s look at this scripture with spiritual eyes. “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift,” Matthew 5:23-24. Is this offering concerning money? No. Let’s look at this as YOU being the offering! You bring yourself to the altar as an offering! Now you are that gift that you bring to the altar! You became that gift! That is worship! Following His ways is worship! The altar is a place that you live at! You may go to the altar without living at the altar! We are that living sacrifice that stays all day at the altar! You become the gift – that is worship!
In submission to Him, you will find true worship. In submission, God will see you worshiping whether you are singing, standing, on your knees, dancing, or on the floor! You are in worship! Jesus will say that they worship with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him (Matthew 15:8). Submission is worship! That is worship in the Spirit and Truth! When Moses was up in the mountains, they stayed down and worshiped the image that they made for themselves (Exodus 32). They were worshiping what God gave them instead of waiting for Moses to come down with the WORD of God. Many people don’t know why God does not accept their worship. It is because they are trying to worship God without His Word, without submitting to His Word! When you come to a place where you are supposed to be in worship all week long, but you are in sin and you start dancing and singing, God sees us just like those who were worshiping the golden calf! Submitting to the Spirit of God is true worship. The word is TRUTH! We must submit ourselves to the Truth of His Word! His words are Spirit and life! Many sing, “I am free to dance, I am free to sing…”, but they are in idolatry with their own self as they obey themselves above His Word. They are doing exactly the same as they did with the golden calf!
In denial of flesh, there is worship. If you follow your flesh, you are worshiping the devil even though you sing and play Godly songs. The world made us think that we need a satanic star to worship the devil. No. Worshiping the devil means to follow our flesh. Every sinner is worshiping the devil. What we bow down to is what we worship! We must bow down to Jesus, the Word. They are rebellious against the Word of God. The real deception is to think that just because you are a good person, you worship God (or at least have chosen a good image of Him in your mind to worship). The real deception is to think that just because you are part of the worship team, you are a worshiper, that just because you sing, play, or dance, you are a worshiper. No. All you need to worship satan is to bow to your own self! If people are not worshiping God (His Word and ways), they are automatically worshiping the devil. Denying your flesh is worship!
In the Old Testament, there was a burnt offering - Leviticus 1:9 says, “The priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.” In the New Testament, we became that burnt offering, and there goes up a sweet fragrance. Many think they can do what they want, but these come to the altar bringing no burnt offering! They do all the singing and dancing but there is no worship in Spirit and in Truth.
When we cut someone out of our lives because of ofense, there is no burnt offering! Worship is not music, is not dance; that is celebration. Worship is the rending of our hearts, the denying of our flesh! Worship is Galatians 2:20, I no longer live but Christ lives in me… I no longer submit to my ways. I don’t need a man to get me to praise God. I don’t need music to get me to sing to God. This is not a football game where we need to rely on cheerleaders! There were so many types of offerings in the Bible, like Cain (Genesis 4). He did the act of worship but that was not worship! Many “worshipers” are rebellious to the Word of God! Aroma that comes from a true and pure heart – this is new wine worship.
“For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them, that perish,” 2 Corinthians 2:15. What is a sweet fragrance? The fragrance of that flesh burning as the flesh obeys God's Word! The more our flesh burns away, the sweeter the fragrance is. That is worship! Now we are the TEMPLE. We do not need to go anywhere. We worship in Spirit and in TRUTH… “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's,” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. We are not our own, we are bought with His blood. Glorify God in our hearts, minds, bodies, and our souls! Glorify God by obeying Him.
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” Ephesians 5:1-2 That sweet fragrance is worship in Spirit and in Truth! Many worship the image of Jesus! But that is not the worship that God looks for! To worship the image of Jesus is to worship the Word - because the Word of God is the image of Jesus and vice versa. Dying to yourself is worship! When God smells your flesh burning, that is worship!
When we imagine the image of Jesus, we keep ourselves far from worshiping Him in Spirit and in Truth. Music painted this image of Jesus void of His Word! Just as the woman the well, Jesus is saying, "You worship what you know not," (John 4:22). Worshipers that drink from the old wine worship what they know not. We must know the Word! We must know the one we are worshiping. Many sing those songs that have no essence of the true image of Jesus - because the essence of worship is the Word of God! Because people that wrote those songs wrote them with a wrong image of Jesus! They themselves never bowed or submitted themselves to the Word of God! They worship God by what they see or feel about God. Submit to His Word is worship! Before they had to bring a sacrifice to the temple. Now we are that sacrifice. We are a living sacrifice. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service,” Romans 12:1. That is worship!
Many fight against their destiny in God, but they think they worship God when the music is playing. Obeying the calling is worship! Living sacrifice is worship! Loving the unlovable is worship! Doing as unto the Lord is worship! We really don’t know what worship is, do we?
We must submit to God, to His Word, as a wife submits to her husband! As we submit to God and to one another, that is worship! Many think they can worship God without submitting themselves to the Body of Christ! They close their eyes and sing but when they open their eyes, they are back to a life outside the Body!
Ephesians 5:21-25 shows us that just as the Word is the head of the Church, we must be submissive to it! Submission to the Body is worship! Submission to Christ is worship in the Spirit and Truth! Church, love the Word and give yourself up to His Word. – That is submission!
Now the hour has come, and the hour is here! True worshipers will arise: the doers of His Word and His will and His ways, those who are being transformed by His Word, being washed by His Word, submitting their ways to Him. Everybody worshiping God means everybody obeying God/His Word above themselves! Many keep exchanging praise for heaviness - they even sing about it, but why? God never intends for His people to be under heaviness. If you are under your flesh, you are under heaviness. But His Word is light! His Word is life! Obedience is being saturated in His glory. Why are they not? Because they are not really worshiping/obeying Him in the Spirit and in Truth! You don’t have to live one minute in heaviness if you were really "worshiping" him 24/7! That means loving our neighbor even when we don’t want to, that means obeying even it is hard to. Heaviness is not of Christ! That means that we are not walking in the Spirit. That means we are not submitting to His Word!
Worship is making up our minds and deciding I will never turn back. I will worship Him by being that sacrifice, being that burnt offering, being at the altar all the time! Many "worshipers" are still not submitting to the Word of God! So why should we call them worshipers because God doesn’t see them that way! Worshipers in Truth and in the Spirit are doers of His will! I will NOT run from the fire; I will lay my life down…that is worship. His Word will be our bread. There is only one type of worshiper of God. Those who worship Him in the Spirit and in Truth (in His Word). The Father seeks such to worship Him. God gives us grace to worship Him in the Spirit and in Truth - to obey the Spirit and to obey His Truth (His Word). In Him, in His Word, I will live and move. In your Word, I will have my being. Your truth is what I worship. Your ways are what I worship. Your will is what I worship. I will be a true worshiper. This is the time, and the Father is looking for true worshipers! Those who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. And they are the true bride, under His Word, under His Truth. The hour is now! The true worshipers are arising and the voice of the stranger (their flesh) they will not follow! Any other word will be under their feet! Father, when we lift our voices, you will come out of every part of our being! And the whole atmosphere will change. Just as He is, so are we! We will become living sacrifices, worshiping you in the Spirit and in Truth! In Jesus’ name! The hour is now! True worshipers shall worship the Father! In submission, in obedience, in denying themselves, and in the Truth of His Word! For the Father seeks for such! Let you and me be found a true worshiper of Him! Let true aroma arise! “But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him,” John 4:23
Shane Roessiger
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