EXCERPTS FROM THE MINISTRY

2. To Contact God the Spirit

Listen to the Lord’s words about the matter of worship. “Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know; for salvation is of the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and reality; for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and reality” (4:21-24). This word was given to instruct her regarding the need for exercising her spirit to contact God the Spirit. To contact God the Spirit with her spirit is to drink the living water, and to drink the living water is to render real worship to God.

In typology, the worship of God should be (1) in the place chosen by God to set His habitation there (Deut. 12:5, 11, 13-14, 18), and (2) with the offerings (Lev. 1—6). The place chosen by God for His habitation typifies the human spirit, where God’s habitation is today—Ephesians 2:22, “an habitation of God through the spirit” (KJV), should read “a dwelling place of God in spirit.” The offerings typify Christ; Christ is the fulfillment and reality of all the offerings with which the people worshipped God. Hence, when the Lord instructed her to worship God the Spirit in spirit and reality, it meant she should contact God the Spirit in her spirit instead of in a specific place, and through Christ, instead of with the offerings, for now, since Christ the reality has come (vv. 25-26), all the shadows and types are over. The Lord Jesus told the Samaritan woman that God is Spirit, that worshipping God means to contact Him, and that contacting Him is not a matter of place, but a matter of the human spirit.

When He said, “An hour is coming and now is,” it meant that the age had changed. In the past, according to the Law of Moses, God ordained that His people worship Him at a specific place where He would establish His habitation with His name (Deut. 12:5). All of God’s worshippers had to go to that unique place. That was a type. Now the age has been changed, and the type is fulfilled. Typically speaking, the place of worship should not be a place any longer; it must be the human spirit, where God is going to set up His habitation with His name. Where is the unique place for God’s people to worship Him today? It is our human spirit. According to Ephesians 2:22, God’s habitation is in our spirit.

Why did God ordain in the ancient times that His people had to worship Him in one place? It was for the purpose of keeping unity. God would never allow His people to worship Him in any place other than the place He had chosen. If anyone had worshipped Him in another place, the unity among His people would have been damaged. Where can we keep the unity today? In our human spirit. In our mind, understanding, teaching, doctrine, and concept we all differ from one another. I do not believe that there is even one couple where the husband and wife think exactly the same. Everyone has different concepts. You have your concepts and I have mine. You have your way and I have mine. You have your view and I have mine. How could we ever be one according to our differing concepts, ways, and views? We must forget about them all and come to our spirit. When we all turn to our spirit, we are one. So, learn never to argue with people about doctrine, but always direct them to their spirit. We all must be reminded that we have a spirit wherein is God’s habitation. Our spirit is the place to worship God, that is, to contact Him. Whenever we worship God in our spirit, it means that we drink God as the living water. When you praise God with your spirit, you immediately have a drink. If you would say, “Praise God! O Father, I worship You,” from your spirit, you would be drinking living water.

The Lord also said that now is the time for the true worshippers to worship God not only in their spirit, but also in reality. This is difficult for today’s Christians to understand. However, if we consider the type, we shall understand what the Lord was talking about. In ancient times, God ordained that His people worship Him at the appointed place and with the offerings. The people could not worship God at any place they chose and they could not worship Him without the offerings. They needed the offerings because they were sinful. When they came to contact God, they had to offer many types of offerings—the trespass offering, the sin offering, the peace offering, the meal offering, the burnt offering, the wave offering, and the heave offering. All the offerings were types of the various aspects of Christ. Christ is our real trespass offering. He is also our real sin offering, meal offering, peace offering, and burnt offering. Today, instead of worshipping God in a specific place, we should worship Him in our spirit. Furthermore, instead of offerings, we should worship Him with Christ as the reality of all the offerings.

Now is the hour, or the age, in which we must worship God in our spirit as the unique place and with Christ as the reality. How can we do it? How shall we apply the matter of worshipping the Father in our spirit? Suppose several brothers come together for the purpose of worshipping God, yet they do not exercise their spirit. Instead they exercise their minds. They begin to discuss the matter of worshipping God and soon are divided due to their conflicting opinions. They become unhappy with one another and separate. What these brothers need to do is simply to exercise the spirit, praise the Lord, call upon His name, and see what He will do. They should not exercise their mind by talking. They should exercise their spirit by calling on the Lord.

How shall we apply the second point, that is, to worship God with Christ? The traditional way is to call a hymn and then, after the hymn has been sung, to offer a prayer to our Father in heaven. That is the traditional religious way. However, when meeting together for worship, we must exercise our spirit. If we do this, the Holy Spirit who indwells our spirit will have the opportunity to move. He may move in one brother, giving him a burden to offer a living testimony of Christ. Then that brother will testify of his living experience of Christ. In doing so, he will offer Christ as one of the offerings. When you give a testimony of your experience of Christ, in the eyes of God, that is offering Christ to God. Eventually, such an offering will become food to the brother who gave the testimony and to all of the other worshippers. This is not the traditional way of worshipping God; this is the way of worshipping in the spirit with the experienced Christ offered to God for His satisfaction and as food for all the other worshippers. This is the real worship of God.

May the Lord impress us with what is proper worship. The proper worship is continually to drink the living water. God the Spirit is the living water, and our organ for drinking the living water is our human spirit. Whenever we exercise our human spirit to contact God, the living Spirit, we drink of Him as the living water in His Son, Jesus Christ.