“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers” (John 4:23, NASB).
How do we worship God in the spirit? The first thing that we have to understand is that in order to worship God in the spirit, we have to be authentic. We have to be real. Many of us have been caught in a religious trap or religious approach. Too often, the only prayers we pray are the ones we have learned from others or ones we have memorized in church. Although some memorized prayers can be very powerful and doctrinally sound, to enter into deep waters, we need to bare our souls to the Lord.
We must expose our hearts to Him. We have to talk to Him as if speaking to a friend. He wants us to confide in Him, sharing our deepest fears, insecurities and desires. We need to open our hearts to the Father because He can only come in to the degree that we invite Him in. If we limit our conversations with Him to only reciting religious prayers and do not open up our souls to Him by disclosing who we really are, He cannot come in and dwell with us in a deep way. Beloved, we need to hide nothing from God. He already knows everything about us. But, again, He can only come in as far as we are willing to ask Him.
There is a mystery about our relationship with HaShem (God). Although God knows everything, and He is everywhere, He only comes in and dwells where He has an invitation. He is a gentleman. He can intrude any time He wants to, and He does do that at times. But that is not the kind of relationship Father desires. He is not looking for a robot. He is looking for somebody who desires Him.
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We exist in God because all His creation is upheld by His power, and yet there is a degree that as unique individuals, we are separate from God. The only real way we can be united with Him is when we choose to be completely open to Him.
What makes humankind unique? What is it about you and me that is exclusive from all of God’s other creations? First, it is our awareness, the fact that we have consciousness. As humans, we can analyze and discern at a level of awareness that animals cannot do. Secondly, it is our ability to choose. Animals can choose to eat this or that, but these are merely survival instincts. I am talking about a moral quality—a higher superiority of consciousness and a deeper capability to choose. The gift that we have to be spiritually aware and the aptitude that we have to choose makes us unique. We are created in God’s image (Gen. 1:27).
The Lord made us this way because He is looking for a partner in love. He wants to love us, and He wants us to love Him back. It would not be real love if God forced us to love Him. In order for there to be genuine love, we have to voluntarily choose to love Him.
“For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (2 Chron. 16:9a, NASB 1995).
Let me say again that God is looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. In order for us to worship Him in spirit, we have to make a conscious decision to love Him. One of the ways we do this is by being more authentic with Him, disclosing our self to Him and talking to Him more than we talk to anybody else in our life. We should be talking to Him all the time. At work, at play, in the morning and evening—all the time. Communicating to God is not limited to only talking out loud from our mouth. We can talk to Him audibly from our mouth, and we should, but we can also talk to HaShem in our thought life and by being conscious of Him. We can commune with Yeshua in the recesses of our soul in a silent way.
Before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He opened His mouth and spoke:
“I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me” (John 11:42).
“When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth'” (John 11:43).
Sometimes we think the problem is that God is too far away to really hear us. But often the real problem is that we do not perceive how close He really is. He is closer to us than our own heartbeat; however, we often choose not to open up and let Him in. It can be an intimidating thing to be so open, to be so vulnerable and wholeheartedly allow Him in. Beloved, HaShem is truly closer to you than your own heartbeat.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20).
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Rabbi Kirt Schneider hosts the impactful television program “Discovering The Jewish Jesus,” which is available in more than 200 million homes in the United States and nearly 200 nations worldwide. In 2021 he began broadcasting on radio and now airs across America. Rabbi Schneider imparts revelation of Jesus’ Jewish heritage and His fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. Questions of how the Old and New Testaments tie together and how Yeshua completes the unfolding plan of The Almighty Yahweh are answered with exceptional clarity. www.discoveringthejewishjesus.com/about-2/rabbi-schneider/. His new book, “The Book of Revelation Decoded, Revised Edition,” releasing in January 2025, is available for pre-order at this link.
Abby Trivett 
Phil Hotsenpiller 
Stephen Strang 
