John 4:23-24 KJV
23 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. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Worship is in no way limited to song. It is a full life response to the object of our worship. When we truly worship something, it affects the way we live. When we worship God, we do so in response to who He is (Psalm 52:9 KJV). Our attitudes and actions reflect that we believe the character and conduct of God to be worthy of praise and adoration. At times our worship is expressed through corporate singing, teaching, and giving. It is also expressed in our daily lives through prayer, Scripture reading, acts of kindness, gratitude, pure thoughts, and the like.
Romans 12:1-2 KJV- I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
We must release from our hearts any unforgiveness, hate, anger and hurt if we are to worship God in spirit and in truth. We shut that trunk of memories.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 KJV - Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
We are to keep our hearts, minds and body clean and holy unto the Lord. We need to humble ourselves and surrender our very self and every aspect of our lives to the Lord in Jesus name. We then present ourselves a living sacrifice unto the Lord. We continue to worship God in spirit and in truth by our acts of worship i.e., prayer, gratitude with praise and exaltation of who God is. We must know the bible and have knowledge of who God is because we must know who we are worshipping. God tells us who he is in the bible, His word. So, we humble ourselves by raising our hands to Him, kneeling down and worshipping God Almighty in Jesus name. We express our emotions in worship by clapping and dancing and singing.
Worshipping God in spirit and in truth
It is important to note that we do this simultaneously. We do not worship in spirit in one setting and in truth in another. We are in both at once.
Our spirit is the core of who we are. It is the center of our volition and our emotions. We also know that God is a spiritual being. To worship in spirit, then, is to do something that is beyond the physical. We do not worship by simply bowing our knees; we worship through a heart posture (Psalm 51:17 KJV). And our worship is in line with the worship going on in heaven (Psalm 148:1-2; Ephesians 6:12; Revelation 4:8 KJV).
Worshipping in truth means that we worship based on truth (Romans 10:2 KJV). This includes the truth about who God is and what He does, hence why He is worthy of worship. It also includes the truth about our circumstances. We worship God even when we are experiencing heartache. When we worship Him, we do not forget about our hurt, but we worship even in the truth of our hurt. We also worship in joyful circumstances. Truth itself can be a means of worship; we worship God when we declare His truth.
To worship God in spirit and in truth, then, is to declare that God is worthy of our reverence. We do this both through our emotional core and in light of reality. We worship God based on the truth of who He is, the truth of who we are, the truth of what God does, and the truth of what is going on in our world. We do it with a heart inclined toward God and in submission to Him. We worship God when our attitudes, actions, and words declare that He is worthy of our praise.