Worship God in Spirit and in Truth

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

For The Spirit is God, and it is fitting that those who worship him worship in The Spirit and in The Truth.”

Aramaic Translation

In reference to the woman of Samaria: 23, Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

John 4:24-26

Many religious believers take part in ceremonies or rituals, but never know the Object of their worship. It is those who have God consciousness, who commune with God that can truly speak of worshiping God.

We need to know, that when we are sincerely devoted to God, no matter what words we use, God will answer. Unfortunately most people do not worship God with conviction based on the experience, that God is real and that He is listening to our prayers; that He is just behind our thoughts. If we pray with all our heart and mind concentrated on that indwelling Presence, we will know the One we worship.

Why does God remain unknown to people who worship him in temples and churches?

Churches and temples talk about God as if He could be comprehended by our restless mind. Divinity itself is perceived through intuition, the soul’s God given power of knowing truth. When mental restlessness is stilled and our consciousness is interiorized, in touch with our soul, the God revealing intuition is awakened. When we find God within, He is no longer a mystery concealed by his various material manifestations.

The most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, (Acts 7:48) heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? Has not made my hand made all these things? Isaiah 66:1(KJV)

Worldly people have build temples on hilltops and lived in places of pilgrimage, only to find that their inner environment is still a place of sense and thought based matter worship. Worshippers, who by meditation interiorize the out flowing consciousness, by withdrawing their attention from identifying with the body and material nature, discover through direct experience what God is. They know what it means to truly worship Him; they have found the way to salvation.

When Jesus said:”God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

The term God and Spirit based on mystical insight, are mutually exclusive, but are interchangeable where no distinction is required.

Spirit signifies the Unmanifested Absolute, void of even the slightest ripple of thought or vibration, where even space, time and dimensions are nonexistent. There abides only ever - existing, ever – conscious – ever – new Bliss that is Spirit.

God implies the transcendental Creator, beyond creation but existing in relation to the manifestation that evolves from Him. When relative creation is dissolved again into its Creator, then God becomes Spirit, the Unmanifested Absolute. 

God remains transcendental as both the source of becoming and imminent as the sum and substance. In manifesting creation, when Spirit becomes God the Creator, His transcendence is reflected in creation as the guiding Universal Intelligence. Thus God is Divine Intelligence manifesting creation. Spirit is Divine Intelligence with creation dissolved in It.

So in truth, God is Spirit becomes the Father of Creation. He is all things in creation; but the manifestations of creation are not God. His Spirit nature never changes, though a portion of that consciousness is present in nature.

The wave distorts the ocean only in appearance, but not in its essence. The true vision of God lies in the Spirit Ocean without the waves of creation, the realization of God as Unmanifested Spirit: the only existing substance, Truth, without the delusion of matter or phenomena.

As long as our consciousness is limited to creation and its inherent delusion of separate things, we have not attained enlightenment. We live in delusion absorbed in the ever changing phenomena. We need to lift the veil and see God first as transcendent in His creation, following that, we can realize God as transcendent beyond creation.

As Absolute Spirit is reflected as God’s guiding Intelligence in macrocosmic creation, so is Spirit reflected in the microcosm of the body as the soul, the individualized spirit image of Spirit in man. True worshippers who actually commune with God, who experience his presence in meditation, realize that the soul and God the Creator are reflections of Spirit.

Another spiritual insight informs us, that God the Father of manifestation can be known by the soul either by perception of or oneness with any of His manifested attributes. Spirit, the Unmanifested Absolute, can be known only by oneness with Spirit.

God in relation to the soul presumes a duality, the Object to be perceived, God; and the perceiver or experiencer, the soul.

I AM

All things in the universe are manifested by light. The light is consciousness. Consciousness is the One, expressing in an infinite number of forms. There is no real separation or gap in consciousness. It is referred to in the bible as the “I AM or God, the One without another”.

Man may conceive himself to be rich or poor, but at the center of his being, he remains the same regardless of the concept he holds of himself. There is only one I AM, manifesting in countless forms or concepts. I am that I am. I AM is the Self definition of the Absolute, the foundation on which everything rests. I AM is the first cause and substance. I AM is the self-definition of God. It is the “I AM that” sent me into existence.

I AM THAT I AM. Be still and know that I AM God. I AM is a feeling of permanent awareness. The very center of consciousness is our feeling of I AM, Existence, Being. Joy. I may not know who I am or what I am, but I cannot forget that I AM. The awareness of being remains, regardless of the degree of ignorance. I may experience forgetfulness of my existence as a result of my identification with body and mind, instead of with my essence, which is ever the same and eternal.

Man is actually the arbiter of his own fate, and it is the concept he has of himself that determines the world he experiences and how he responds to life. As an example, if he is experiencing chronic ill health, knowing the truth about his existence, he cannot attribute the illness to anything other than to the concept which was produced by his own reactions to life, and his proclaiming "I am not well." This is why we are told: "Let the weak man say, I am strong" (Joel 3:10), for by his assumption, the cause and substance I AM is re-arranged and must therefore manifest that which its rearrangement affirms.

This principle governs every aspect of our life, be it social, financial, intellectual, or spiritual. I AM is that reality to which, whatever happens; we must turn for an explanation of the phenomena of life. It is the “I AM's” concept that determines the form and scenery of its existence.

Everything depends upon its attitude towards itself that, which it will not affirm as true, cannot awaken in its world. That is, the concept of ourselves, such as "I am strong," "I am secure," "I am loved," determines what we experience. In other words, when we say, I am a man, I am a father, I am a doctor, we are not defining the “I AMs”; we are defining different concepts or arrangements, we speak of name and form identification instead.

When we know that consciousness is the one and only reality and that we are a part of it, we are free, free from the belief that there are causes outside of us that can affect our lives.

In the consciousness of the individual we find the explanation of the phenomena of life. If man’s concept of himself were different, everything in his world would be different.

If on the other hand his concept of himself is, that everything in his world must be as it is, it becomes clear that there is only One 1 AM and we are that I AM also. And while I AM is infinite, we, when having a limited self concept, are displaying only a limited aspect of the infinite I AM that we are.

Unfortunately in our daily lives we use the personal pronoun “I am” for all we do and think, not realizing that the powerful “I Am” used in a negative manner could be harmful to our very existence.

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The great I Am is the all embracing Divine Spirit whose creative power lends form to all beings and all things, and gives to man his consciousness. Every being is destined to live the I Am of the Divine in his own way. We must live in the world of space and time, but in it we are indented to manifest the transcendental in our being. Our nature is transcendental, yet we can only fulfill it in the natural world.

Life on earth can only be fulfilling as long as we do not fall out of the cosmic order and by maintaining our contact with the Infinite.

Transcendence can be viewed as super natural reality. Or as an interior attitude of which all one does, or perceives takes on a superior meaning.