As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Ps 42:1,2 NIV
I didn’t understand what it meant for my soul to thirst for God. I knew it needed something, but it wasn’t until I experienced God in Spirit that I truly grasped this sentiment. So often, we go through our days just going through the motions, seeing the world in black and white and countless shades of gray, unaware that there is more. But our spirits crave color—a vibrant, purposeful life that I now realize can only be found in God’s Presence.
The Unspeakable Majesty
As I discover God’s majesty, I feel increasingly drawn to Him. I am absorbing this concept as I reread the book Authentic Worship by A.W. Tozer, which explores the discovery of God’s majesty, enabling us to worship Him as He desires. Tozer (2023) depicts that to experience authentic worship, we must feel it in our hearts, which leads us to a “humbling but delightful sense of admiration and astonished wonder” (Authentic Worship, p. 21). Here, we become overwhelmed with unexplainable love as we recognize we are in the presence of “that most ancient of mysteries, that unspeakable Majesty, the Ancient of Days” —the majesty of God—Elohim. We must uncover this aspect of God to begin understanding the praise He deserves.
We can only experience God’s grandeur in our spirit; it is far too vast to understand in our flesh fully. But in our spirit, when it connects with His, we begin to see clearly. Until we discover Him in this realm, we will never have the courage to kneel before Him and Him alone. When we catch a glimpse of this God, we are freed from caring what others think of how we worship, no longer bound by man’s rules and opinions. In this moment of recognizing God, we are set free!
Spirit and Truth
“The time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, and that time is here already. You see, the Father too is actively seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23,24 NCV
The Bible recounts Jesus’ teaching that God is looking for true worshipers—those who seek Him in spirit and in truth. Therefore, to please God, we must not only understand the truth of the Bible but also learn to worship Him in spirit. Being a student of the Scriptures doesn’t automatically make us disciples of Jesus; the religious leaders of His time serve as an example of this. To genuinely follow Jesus’ words, we need to move beyond a theoretical or doctrinal faith and learn to experience God (Matthew 7:24).
“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. They are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” John 5:39 NIV
Without learning to experience God in our spirit, we will never worship Him as He desires. I have chosen to make glorifying God and enjoying Him forever my highest calling. Therefore, I want to glorify Him by worshiping in a way that pleases Him, not people. In return, when I worship Him as He has called me to, I experience freedom. He fills me with His peace, love, joy, and all those things that aren’t things at all. Worshipping God in the Spirit is a beautiful rest and reset—a deep breath for my soul. Ephphatha.
Uncovering Worship
"Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ." Gal 1:10 NIV
Before I learned to worship God in the Spirit, I attended church, established family devotional time, and called it worship. I labeled my actions without truly engaging my spirit. The churches I attended promoted a standard passed down by tradition, rather than creating an environment that encouraged biblical worship.
I had to step outside the only formal environment of worship I knew to discover the limitless ways of worshiping God as He desires. Learning to sit quietly and still, worshipping as He fills me with His words. Finding worship while walking along country roads or wandering grassy trails. Opening my spirit to His through music, whether alone or as part of a congregation, I learned to experience worship. I realized it was worship when I stood in awe at sunrise and sunset. I’ve created space for worship while doing dishes and folding laundry, aware of His Presence with me, in me (John 14:17). By being intentional, I’ve found more worship through conversations in lines at the grocery store or coffee shop than I ever did inside the walls of a church building. When we decide to do all to the glory of God, we find true worship in the Spirit surrounding us.
Freedom in Letting Go
As I think about the religious culture I was raised in, I realize it’s easy to turn our way of worshiping God into an idol. We often believe we have it all right, committed to tradition rather than surrendering to God and worshiping Him as He has instructed. Here, we elevate the words of men above Scripture. But once our eyes are opened to the majesty of the God of the Scriptures, His Word and His ways become our source of life — the only thing that truly matters — and we will bow before nothing else. I think of Paul recalling his life before Christ. In referring to his transformation, he acknowledged being “extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” (Gal 1:14). I can relate. I know what it means to be zealous for the traditions of my past, and I now understand what it means to let go of those traditions to please my Heavenly Father.
Newness of Life
Regardless of your story and personal experience, I urge you to seek for yourself and uncover this transformative discovery of the greatness of God. And as you seek to see Him as He truly is, allow yourself to worship Him in the Spirit. This piece of worshiping in spirit was the key that I was missing to soul freedom. It’s in the seeking that we develop a relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ. Without the intentionality of seeking God, we can easily spend a lifetime in His Word searching for truth, yet fail to let it resonate within our spirit and miss the whole point. Satan schemes to keep us in this state where we never experience the fullness of God, a place where we never worship Him, bound in stagnation.
I am discovering that when I have it all figured out, I am only just beginning. Our faith should be active, growing, and constantly evolving. Stagnation has no place if we want to be disciples of Jesus. So again, I invite you to rethink your perception of God, Truth, and Spirit. Dare to explore the Spirit of God, for this is where we join Him in relationship and can worship Him as He desires.
When Jesus tells me that God is seeking true worshipers—those who worship in spirit and truth—I will learn to worship as He wishes, not clinging to how I was taught. As I begin to worship Him as He desires, the gray-scale of my past is fading, and I’m discovering a vibrance in my everyday moments that I hadn’t expected. Mundane, truly, no longer has a place when we surrender and choose to live life in the Presence of God.
~ This song came alive in my spirit as I sat alone in the waiting room of the hospital while my husband was receiving life-saving care for a heart attack last year. In those moments of surrendered uncertainty, I knew one thing: no matter what the outcome, God was Sovereign and He would never fail to surround me in His Presence. Worship can look very different from one moment to the next, but now every time I hear this song, I am reminded that sometimes it’s from the thickest darkness that our worship rises. ~