The Samaritan woman at the well (3)

Jesus declared the beginning of spiritual worship not in the Temple but at the well; not in Jerusalem but in Samaria; not to a male religious leader, but to a rejected woman. Spiritual worship is for all people, in all places at all times.

After he spoke to the Samaritan woman about her sins, he didn't implied that she was disqualified to obtain the living water. On the contrary, he declared that this was the time that she would truly know (by experience) what it means to worship God.

John 4:23 - 24 [Jesus] "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

Worship in spirit and in truth means to engage the hear and the mind, feelings and intellect; it involves the spirit and soul. God's presence is felt and His purpose understood.

This verse is popularly quoted when we talk about worship, but to really understand what worshiping in spirit and in truth means, it takes more than just knowing that we need to worship God in this manner. Spiritual worship is an expression of love from deepest part of us -- our spirit and soul.

This means that our sole reason to worship God is because we love Him. And if we love Him, we don't let anything hinder us from worshiping God, including the people around us, including formalities and the format of worship. We don't let the worship leader or musicians or vocalists to hinder what we express to God from our hearts. We don't let the style of music hinder us. We don't let the stiffness of our body to hinder us. We don't let fear of being ridiculed by people hinder us.

This means, if you feel like crying to God during worship, or you feel like kneeling down, grinning, waving your hands frantically, singing in tongues, dancing, etc. just express it out to God, because you are worshiping God.

There were times I just felt so strongly in my heart that I need to bow to Jesus. But it wasn't to kneel down. It was just to give Him a bow. Incidentally, I was standing right in the middle of our church hall...

So I bowed. But it didn't feel right. So I did it again. And again. Until I felt that it was more like a princess curtsying to her King. And that was exactly what I did: I curtsied to the King.

After that I was just so in awe of the presence of God, I felt like saluting Him. So I did. Several times.

And there was once I sang in the spirit for a long time in a tune and a tongue that I was unfamiliar with. I sounded like I was an African.

And there were many times I was worshiping on the keyboard, but it didn't matter what I was playing. My fingers were just connected with that music flowing in my heart. I didn't have to think; there was nothing to think about, nor did I want to think about anything, but there was just that music that keeps flowing, flowing, flowing... And I just close my eyes and let my fingers be carried away...

This is what it means when it says we ought to experience spiritual liberty in spiritual worship. The Samaritan woman experienced it -- she gained an understanding that the Man before her was indeed the Messiah. The liberty was that she no longer felt ashamed to be out in the open, fearing that people would talk behind her back. She went into the streets and told all the men in the city to come to Jesus.

Evangelism in its purest form is worship. She did evangelism the next moment, as soon as she had experienced spiritual liberty through worship -- encountering with the Lord.