“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1 (ESV)  

We use the term relationship a lot in Christianity, but I prefer the term fellowship. You have a relationship with everyone you know. Some good, some are bad. The devil has a relationship with God, it's not a good one but he has one. I’m not trying to say it’s wrong to use that terminology. I just feel like in discussion about God and the worship of him, the word fellowship is better. Fellowship implies presence and it’s personal.  

In Christian discipleship the true Christian is reborn into Christ and in this rebirth we gain new appetites and desires, one of which is an unquenchable longing for God and to be right with God. 

To some degree every person ever created longs for God. We long to know the purpose of life, we long to know where we belong in this life, we long for meaning, we long for satisfaction, and to a degree we long to know God. But what separates a regenerate person from a non-regenerate person is this: the regenerate person longs to be right with God and to be at peace with God. 

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6 (ESV) 

Those who long and desire to be at peace with God will be filled. This is the power of the worship of and fellowship with Almighty God. Gospel-centered worship is always focused on the greatness of God, our neediness for him, the love of God and the grace of God. Worship is all about God not about us. 

“For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you.  I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day.” Psalm 71:5-8 (ESV) 

We see our need for God not just in salvation from our sins but from our birth. We need God for the air we breathe, the gravity we use, the planet which we were born on, for the sight of our eyes. Every detail of our existence depends on the sovereignty and power of God. Having a high and proper view of who God also reveals to us that we are not owed anything from God. Everything down to the blessing of even being created is a mercy and blessing from God, and any gift beyond that is an unearned blessing that testifies to his goodness. 

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24 (ESV) 

What does it mean to worship God “in spirit and truth”? This scripture in John 4 is part of the story of Jesus’ encounter with a Samaritan woman at a water well at the edge of town. As Jesus talks with this woman, they discuss the difference between the way the Samaritans worship God and how the Jews worship God. She is basically arguing with Jesus about which is the right way to worship, but she is talking about ceremony and location, while Jesus is talking about something deeper and much more real—he is speaking about matters of the heart.  

Worshiping in spirit means that we worship God from our heart and with sincerity, not just through ordinances, traditions and rituals. There is nothing wrong with church liturgy and formality, as long as they are observed with passion and sincerity toward God. True worship must originate from our love for God, our reverence for his holiness, our acknowledgement of his goodness and our place of lowliness before him. 

To worship God in spirit we must have fellowship with him, we must know him and the more we know him the more we will love him and be grateful for our salvation and our sonship and daughterhood. But to worship him in spirit and from the heart we must know him in truth. This where a lot of people get off base. 

We should be passionate and zealous in our worship of the Lord, but we must make sure we are worshiping him in truth and according to who he really is. The Holy Spirit reveals to us the beauty and value of God, a beauty and value we cannot see before we are in Christ. If we are worshiping God and our idea of God is not biblical, we are committing the gravest of sins. Biblical truth should be the basis of all we believe and all we do as Christians. 

The Bible is God’s direct revelation given to us through the Holy Spirit which reveals to us the one and true God. Our worship of God does cause emotion and even excitement at times but if that emotion and excitement arises from thoughts that are not biblically sound, we are not worshiping God we are worshiping an idol. 

The idea that because our emotions are sincere our worship is pleasing to God is simply wrong. People are sincerely wrong about things all the time. That is why our fellowship with God and our worship of God must be grounded in sound doctrinal and biblical truth, otherwise we are not really worshiping the triune God, instead we are worshiping an idol of our own construction. 

Here is where it gets easy to err. We often use Christian lingo when naming our idols. In the story of the idol of the golden calf, constructed by the Israelites while Moses was on the mountain receiving the law of God in the book of Exodus, it is apparent from our vantage point that this was wrong. But when we take a closer look at the story, we realize that it really isn’t far away from some modern viewpoints and methodologies on worship. 

In Exodus 32 Moses had gone to the mountain top to meet with God to receive the Ten Commandments. While he was up there the Israelites got tired of waiting on Moses to come back, so to appease the people Aaron, Moses’s brother, found a practical means to appease them. 

Aaron told them to take off their golden earrings and jewelry and they melted it down and constructed a golden calf for the people to worship Guess what they called it? Yahweh, which is translated “Lord” in our English Bible. Aaron pointed at it and said here is the God who brought you out of Egypt. They made something of their own creation and called it the Lord and even attributed God’s mighty works to it as validation.  

Any time we worship God in a way that is unpleasing to him or in a way that contrasts with his law or his Word, we blaspheme his name. So often we construct idols in modern worship and in our lives and attribute them to the Lord, but anything that contradicts his sacred scripture and his holy nature isn’t from God but from the evil one. 

The fact that something feels good or right to you doesn't make it right. People will often try and explain away unbiblical worship and unbiblical lifestyles by saying that God has confirmed it in their spirit, but what they are really saying is that it feels good to them. 

Here is a good point to remember: Your feelings are not the Holy Spirit! This is so very common today, people being led by their feelings and calling it the Holy Spirit. This is very dangerous and is the ultimate human deception, to believe that something is right because they feel like it is right, or to give the idol of their feelings the name God and be led by it. This is the most common form of Christian idolatry today. 

The Word of truth, the Scripture, was authored by the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, so these things will always agree and often will be in opposition to your feelings and your flesh. 

Christians often will feel like they have somehow matured past the need for biblical guidance in these areas, but this is absurd. To worship God in Spirit and in truth we must sincerely worship God from our heart according to his Word.

In Christ,

Pastor Joshua 

Joshua West is a pastor, evangelist, and author. He is also director of the World Challenge Pastors Network.