Shumby
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I RAN ACROSS THIS and decided to share it with the rest of you:
John 4:23
The Lord seeks true worshipers: those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. This parallels the truth of 2Ch 16:9, which says, "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him..."
John 4:24
The reason we must worship the Lord in spirit is because that's the only part of us worthy to approach the Lord. When we get born again we become brand-new creatures in our spirits (2Co 5:17). That part of us is identical to Jesus (2Co 6:17, 1Jo 4:17). Our spirits are created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph 4:24). They stay pure and holy even if we sin because they've been sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13). They're sanctified and perfected forever (Heb 10:10-14, Heb 12:23).
When we worship the Lord through our born-again spirits, we have access right into the Holy of Holies without any fear of rebuke. Those who come to the Lord overwhelmed with their unworthiness are not in the spirit but in the flesh. That will never please God (Ro 8:8) or us. It's only in discovering who we are in the spirit through our new relationships with Jesus that we can ever successfully worship the Lord.
Jn. 4:24: God is not merely a force or influence or a thought in the minds of men. Also, "forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device" (Ac 17:29).
God is a person. He has a personality and emotions (Ge 6:6; Zep 3:17; 1Jo 4:8,16). He has a mind (Isa 40:28; Jer 32:35; Ro 11:34) and reasoning (Isa 1:18).
He has a spiritual body with shape (Joh 5:37) and form (Php 2:6) as can be understood from many examples in the Bible where men saw him (Ex 24:9-11; Ex 33:21-23; Isa 6:1, 5; Eze 1:26-28; Eze 10:20; Da 7:9-14; Am 9:1; Ac 7:56; Re 4:2-5). Colossians 1:15 and 1 Timothy 1:17 do say that God is invisible, but in light of these instances where people saw Him, it must be understood that He is invisible to our natural sight even as are angels. However, He can and has manifested himself.
Jesus said in John 6:46 that no man has seen the Father and Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:16 that no man can see the Father. However, Exodus 33:20-23 shows that this must be speaking of seeing the Lord face to face because Moses did see God's "back parts." Taken in context, Exodus 33:11 must be using "face to face" as a way of saying God talked to Moses openly or directly without having to use visions or dreams (compare with Nu 12:4-8). "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body" (1Co 15:44).
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