The Authentic Worshippers that the Father Seeks

In ages past, before the advent of the final revelation, worshipping was a formal and ritualistic act that required a set prescription to be followed and offered in a specific place, usually a once-a-year pilgrimage to the holy city. The birth of the Messiah more than 2000 years ago changed this centuries old tradition, as the Son of God communed with his Father in the out-of-the-way places that afforded maximum privacy, away from any form of distractions and shielded from the eyes of men who could compromise its integrity, as this sublime form of worship is exclusively offered to the Father. He, the beloved of God, who is the fullness of life, ever on the Father’s side, revealed the true worshippers that the heavenly Father seeks, and in doing so, changed our understanding of who God is, as worship, which is the greatest act that man can offer to his Creator-God, needs a profound knowledge of the recipient of this act. As Jesus revealed, it goes beyond the usual form, which is communal, and beyond a set of sanction acts performed in a fixed time. The worship that pleases the Father is personal without time limits, as this encompasses one’s whole lifetime, until the soul is tucked safely in the Father’s arms. Jesus unveiled this truth in Jacob’s well in a Samaritan town named Shechem. He encountered a woman, a serial monogamist who with her current live-in boyfriend was on her fifth attempt to find the right partner. Sounds familiar? Certainly, some things never change! Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand, while we understand what we worship, after all, salvation is from the Jews. Yet an hour is coming, and is already here, when authentic worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth. Indeed, it is just such worshippers the Father seeks. God is Spirit and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” (John 4: 21- 4) With these words, Jesus revealed the heart of the Father, as the knowledge of this is the prerequisite of worship. This was the limitation of all previous generations, as their consciousness had not received the Light of truth that was prophesied to come in the fullness of time. In revealing the heart of God, He too defined the true meaning and fulfillment of any life who wishes to follow him. Man was created for God, as his birthright is to give glory to the One who breathed life to him. The act of worship acknowledges this supreme task that only he in the natural domain can truly give in its highest form. While the lower forms of life give glory by living their God-given lives, following his law to multiply and fill the earth, yet only the crowning glory of creation possesses the consciousness of being that supremely surpassed all the others, pushing him to the rarefied reality of one molded from dust like the others but uniquely destined for immortality, as only he can transcend time with its passing splendor. The immensity of this gift necessitates the equally outstanding endowment of free-will, as this God-given power allows him to choose in freedom the kind of life he wishes to live, not only in the natural realm but more importantly, in eternity. Whether to persist in accord with the Divine Will that governs all life or go AWOL and follow his base instincts is his to decide. These two roads laid out before every man will determine the forms of worship that he offers to God, as even those who have chosen to live away from Him have self-help remedies and rituals, based on superstitions and ignorance of the truth, to assuage their conscience that accuses them of wrongdoings and to sugar coat a life of emptiness that haunts them at every turn particularly when the crowd of revelers had departed, and the

deafening silence in the stillness of night descends, and solitude becomes the powerful enemy that allows no escape.

But Jesus’ revelation of the nature of true worship is the ultimate definition that should guide all his disciples in the performance of this most sacred act. To offer worship to the Father in Spirit and truth are the two “bookends” of the life pleasing to God, so much so that this teaching sums up the meaning of life as one created for the fulfillment of God’s will here on earth as it is in heaven. These two cannot be separated, for they are not mutually exclusive to each other. In fact, they are the two faces of a coin, for worshipping in truth allows the disciple to worship in Spirit and the worshipping in Spirit empowers the worship in truth. This only mean that one form of worship cannot be done without the other because the baptized has the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit of Truth, imbuing the believer the grace to persist in truth that Jesus revealed. Moreover, worshipping in truth is the active form of worshipping in Spirit, meaning that the former is nothing less than the living out of the latter, which is done in secret, in the stillness of the heart that has temporarily turned away from the active mode of living, just as its power, which can move mountains and open the treasure throve of heaven’s graces, flows and invigorates the worshipping in truth. James underscored this duality when he wrote: “Show me your faith without works, and I will show you the faith that underlies my work!” (James 2: 18) As faith and work cannot be separated, as one assists the other, as one fulfills the other, as one cannot be done without the other, so thus these two forms of worship. This is the truth that makes authentic worshippers pleasing to the Father, as there is no distinction or separation between life and prayer, for life is prayer and prayer is life.