Jesus taught these truths about the act of worship:
*Prayer flows out of worship
*Because God is Spirit, He must be worshiped in spirit and truth.
*The body is to be an instrument of praise.

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them about prayer, He gave them the Lord's prayer. He said, pray like this: "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen" Matthew 6:9-13

Many repeat this prayer in church services, but this is a pattern for prayer...not meant to be spoken in rote repetition. Jesus' words "Pray like this" mean pray according to this pattern. When I was growing up people in my church treated the Lord's prayer like something magical; say the Lord's prayer and you had somehow repented and become right with God...No, this is merely a pattern for how we should come to the Lord in prayer, and those prayers should be organic and heartfelt, not memorized and cold. (Repentance is repentance and to those people I say "you have fooled yourself, get right before the Lord.")

The pattern starts and ends with worship. The essence of prayer is worship! You may be surprised to discover that of the sixty eight words in the Lord's prayer, thirty six are words of worship. (Yes I counted). More words of worship than words of request, this is the pattern of the Lord's prayer.

The first three statements concern God's honor, while the second three concern our interests. In true worship, the Father must be first. God must be all.

One of the ways that I pray the Lord's prayer is to personalize it..."My Father, oh, it's so wonderful that you are my Father... I love how that sounds... Your name is holy... You are perfect and sovereign and good... The great desire of my heart is for your kingdom to come here on earth. Father I long for your will to be done - here in the world - but also in my life. I want to bow my will to your will. Oh gracious and loving Father, I am asking you to give me what I need today... Please lead me away from anything that would tempt me to forget you... Guard my heart and deliver me from the evil one. May your very presence be a hedge of protection around my life. Oh my Lord, yours is the kingdom...You have all the power, and deserve all the glory for eternity... Father, please, let it be so. Amen"

Worshiping God in spirit and in truth means that I worship Him "truly". It means that I must have a mind filled with the truth of who God is. I must know God's word and be sincere. I worship God on the basis of my understanding of the truths about Him. Who He is, His character, determines how I worship. My knowledge of God limits my worship. If I don't know that He is wonderful, how can I say "You are the Wonderful One Lord"? If I don't know that God's word states that He is in control of all things, how can I praise Him with "You oh God, are Sovereign, the one whom I trust"? So to worship in truth, I must first fill my mind and heart with scripture which bears the complete truth of Jesus.

I must worship with a sincere heart. Spirit worship flows out of my human spirit. When Jesus says that we must worship the Father in spirit, the Greek word indicates He is referring to the human spirit, the inner person. It is the essence of who a person is. The intangible real part of who we are must reach out and touch the Father, who is Spirit, in worship... We are to commune, spirit to spirit.

"The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him."
- 1 Cor6:17

According to watchman Nee, "Since God is Spirit, we must use spirit to worship Him."

Spirit worship must involve the Holy spirit. While everyone poses a human spirit, not everyone poses the holy Spirit. Apart from the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to worship God in the fullness of spirit and truth that Jesus spoke about in John 4:4-26 to the woman at the well...(to paraphrase...) She says "I thirst". He hears, "I yearn for face to face intimacy." She says, "I've had four husbands, but they have not satisfied my thirst." He says, "I can give you special water, living water that will become in you a perpetual spring from which you can drink so that you will never thirst again. This is spiritual water...it is from God - it IS God." She says, "As a Samaritan, I worship God in this way." He responds, "I can show you a new way to worship that will satisfy your thirsty soul." Jesus is saying that when she drinks of Him, the Holy Spirit will be inside her. This is where worship comes from, the inside out...When the living water of the Holy Spirit infuses our human spirit in worship, it becomes a spring that bubbles up producing a river of praise that delights God and blesses us in the process.

We also are to worship with our body. The word "rejoice" in Hebrew literally means: to spin around in joy. When you worship... when you praise God, your body should also be expressing your feelings, we should see lifted hands and bowed torsos, we should see people spinning and skipping and stretching and dancing (maybe even climbing up on chairs or laying prostrate on the floor)...worship should be filled with movement, as our spirits yield and soar and dance with God, so should these spiritual things be reflected in our faces and our bodies. I am not sure why some see this expression as too "charismatic" or "over the top"...God sees it as worship. Even King David danced in the streets, striped down to his very own self, without His kingly robes of definition, he danced naked before the Lord. (Now please don't get me wrong, you need to keep your clothes on at church), but your inner self, your spirit, should be naked before God, unconcealed and openly yielded to His Spirit.

Why so much contemplation about worship? Because God's word says that "God resides in the praises of His people"...I want to be wherever God is...if  worshiping in Spirit and truth is how I encounter God...then that is where you will find me...

So don't be surprised if you see me spinning down the aisles at church. If you do, don't judge me, join me instead!