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Scripture Reading: John 4:21, 23-24
In these chapters we will consider the matter of the spirit and the service in the spirit. We will see what the spirit is and what the service in the spirit is. In other words, we will consider what our service should be before God and with what and in what we should serve.
If we want to know how we should serve before God, we need to be clear about the fundamental matter of service. In John 4 the Lord Jesus referred to the fundamental matter of worship. The worship to which the Lord Jesus referred, in a narrow sense, means to bow down to God. In a broader sense, it means to serve God, including all the positive matters between God and us, such as our drawing near to God, praying to God, looking unto God, waiting on God, having fellowship with God, and working for God. Therefore, the fundamental matter of worship spoken of by the Lord Jesus is also the fundamental matter of service. Concerning this matter, the Lord Jesus mentioned two basic points.
Our service and worship have an object. We do not serve emptiness, nor do we worship nothingness. We serve and worship because we have a real object. The object of our service and worship is not a thing or a common person, nor is it a matter or a work; rather, it is God. God is the object of our service and worship. If there were no God, then we would have no worship or service, and we would have no need of worship or service. We have worship and service because there is God and because God needs our worship and service. All our service and worship are toward God. The One whom we serve and worship is God. When we mention worship and service, we should think of God and God only. This is because God, and only God, is the object of our service and worship.
If we want our service to be proper, then we need to have a proper knowledge of the object of our service. The object of our service is none other than God. God is Spirit. God is nothing other than Spirit. God is neither a material thing nor a psychological object; He is neither a doctrine nor a concept; He is neither a theory nor an “ism.” He is Spirit. God is not a material thing that can be touched by our hands or seen by our eyes. Neither is God a psychological object that can be imagined by our mind or contacted by our intellect. Rather, God is Spirit. As such, He cannot be sensed by any part of our body or be contacted by any part of our soul. Spirit is neither material nor psychological, but transcends the material and the psychological.
In contacting something, one must know what it is and what its nature is before one can have proper contact. For instance, if you know something is a sound, you contact it with your ears. If it is a color, you contact it with your eyes. If it is a smell, you contact it with your nose. If it is a concept or theory, you contact it with your mind. When you contact these various items based on your understanding of them, your contact is proper; otherwise, it is wrong.
Whenever we contact God and serve God, we must know and understand what kind of God He is and what His nature is. Then our contact with God and our service to Him will be proper and not absurd. We must know and realize that God is not a material thing or a psychological object. Rather, God is Spirit. We must also remember that since God is Spirit, He cannot be felt with our body, nor can He be contacted with our soul. In this way our service toward God will be proper.
The Lord Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit” (John 4:24). Since God is Spirit, we who worship Him must worship with our spirit and in our spirit; otherwise, our worship is improper and absurd. Our worship and service to God must be in spirit. Whatever positive relationships we have with God must all be in our spirit and not in our body or in our mind.
The Lord Jesus said, “The true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit” (v. 23). Only those who worship and serve in spirit are true worshippers. If you merely prostrate yourself before God, or if you merely pray, praise, or invent a kind of service to God with your mind, these things do not constitute a true worship or service. They might be considered a kind of worship or service, but they do not constitute the true worship and the true service. True worship and true service are in spirit.
The Lord Jesus also said, “Neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father” (v. 21). This tells us that worship or service to God does not depend on the place. Even if you kneel in obeisance in a cathedral, this might still not be the true worship. True worship does not depend on the place or the building. It does not depend on anything physical or outward. Rather, it depends on the spirit. Only the worship, the service, that is in spirit is true. Regardless of how much piety, reverence, worship, or service there is, if it is not in spirit, it is not true and does not have much value in the eyes of God.
God is seeking after the worship and service that are in spirit. Because He is Spirit, if we want to worship and serve Him, we must do so by using our spirit. You cannot use your hands to touch or your mind to think about anything that is spirit. God is Spirit; therefore, you cannot contact Him with outward things, with material things, with your body, or with your mind. Since He is Spirit, you must contact Him with your spirit. If you try to contact Him with anything that is not spirit, it does not work. Only the spirit can contact and touch the Spirit. He is Spirit, but if you do not contact Him with your spirit, you cannot touch Him, even though He is real.
I often say that if you want to touch electricity, you must use a conductor. Metals are conductors. When you touch an electrical source with metal, electricity is transmitted. But if you touch an electrical source with a wooden stick, no electricity will be transmitted because you are using the wrong thing.
God is Spirit. Therefore, if you want to contact Him, worship Him, or serve Him, you need to use your spirit. If you use anything other than your spirit to contact Him, worship Him, or serve Him, then on the one hand, He will not be able to receive true worship and service, and on the other hand, you will not be able to receive true inspiration. Although many people often worship God, they are not moved or inspired inwardly because they do not contact God with their spirit. Consider electric fans; they keep turning because they are in contact with electricity. Once they come in contact with electricity, they begin to rotate. Whenever our spirit contacts and touches God, we are inwardly moved and inspired. If one prays to God and worships God, yet he is not inwardly moved, this does not mean that there is no God or that there is a problem with God. Rather, it means that there is something wrong with the praying and worshipping one. Perhaps instead of using his spirit, he tries to use his mind or his bodily senses to contact God. Actually, neither his mind nor his body can enable him to come into contact with God or to receive inner inspiration from God.
We all know that if we insert a small piece of paper or wood in an electrical outlet, the electric fan immediately stops turning. Although the fan might be very close to the electricity, it cannot make contact with the electricity. Likewise, today many people are close to God. They acknowledge the existence of God and have the fear of God in their hearts. They often read the Bible, listen to sermons, and go to church to worship God. But they have not touched God, nor have they been moved by God. This is because they do not use their spirit to contact God. Although they are near God, there is still a problem between them and God. They use things other than the spirit to contact God. They may be sitting or kneeling properly with their body, thinking about God in their mind, and inclining toward God in their heart, yet they are not able to touch God. This is because man cannot contact God in his body, in his mind, or even in his heart. God is Spirit. Man must be in spirit in order to contact, worship, or serve God. Only by being in the spirit can man meet God and touch God.
We have said many times that both the Scriptures and our experiences tell us that man is of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Man not only has a body and a soul, but he also has a spirit (1 Thes. 5:23). Just as the body and the soul are separate, so the spirit and the soul are also divided (Heb. 4:12). The body, which has a form, is the outward, visible part of man, including the limbs and the various parts of human anatomy. The soul, which is without a form, is the inner, invisible part of man as his personality, his real self; it includes the human mind, will, and emotion. Man’s thoughts, intentions, preferences, and feelings of happiness, anger, sadness, or joy are all functions of the human soul. The spirit, which is also without a form, is the innermost part of man; it includes man’s conscience, the intuition of God, and fellowship with God. Man contacts the physical things through the body, the psychological things through the soul, and the things of God through the spirit.
Therefore, outwardly, man has a body that belongs to the physical realm, and inwardly, he has a soul that belongs to the psychological realm. Furthermore, in his innermost being he has a spirit, which is neither physical nor psychological. This spirit is the highest thing of the created life. Man is higher than all the other created things on the earth because man has a spirit, which none of the others have. Not to mention the lifeless things, even the living creatures other than man do not have a spirit.
Plants have life, but they do not have a spirit or even a soul; they are without the mind, emotion, or will. The plant life, the lowest life, is without consciousness.
Although the animal life is higher than the plant life, it also does not have a spirit. The animal life is higher than the plant life because animals have a soul. Animals such as puppies, kittens, little monkeys, and small birds possess a life that is higher than the plant life because they have a soul with a mind, emotion, and will. A puppy or a kitten has a mind, emotion, and will. They can decide to do or not to do a certain thing. If you treat them well, they will feel at ease, and they will like you. If you mistreat them, they will feel miserable, and they will dislike you. This is because within them there is the function of the soul. Despite the fact that they have a soul, they still do not have a spirit.
Among all the creatures on the earth, only man has a spirit. Therefore, man is higher than all the other creatures, including both plants and animals. Within man there is not only the soul, including the mind, the emotion, and the will, but there is another thing, which is higher than and superior to the soul. This higher life that is within man is the spirit of man. Although this life of the spirit of man is lower than the uncreated life of God, it is higher than all the other created lives.
Man is higher than all the other creatures not only because man’s mind is intelligent, his will is strong, and his emotion is rich; even the more, it is because there is a spirit in man. The most important reason that man is higher than and different from all the other creatures is that man has a spirit, and the other creatures do not.
God put a spirit in man, that is, He created man with a spirit, because He wanted man to worship and serve Him. He created man for Himself. He wanted man to have a relationship with Him by worshipping and serving Him. Since He is Spirit and since He wanted to create a man who would worship and serve Him, then how could man worship and serve God unless He created man with a spirit? For instance, there is air outside of man, but if man does not have a breathing organ, how can he contact air and take it in? Even though he is in contact with the air outwardly, he still does not have a relationship with the air inwardly. In order to have an inward relationship with the air, he must have a breathing organ to receive the air into him. Likewise, man must have a spirit to contact God, who is Spirit.
God is Spirit, and He created man so that man might worship and serve Him as Spirit. Therefore, He created man with a spirit in order to enable man to contact Him as Spirit and to worship and serve Him as Spirit. To further illustrate, there is sound in the universe, and God wants man to hear it, so He created man with ears. If God had not created man with ears, man would not be able to hear, even though sound exists in the universe and God also wants man to hear it. Likewise, if God did not create man with a spirit, man would have no way to contact Him as Spirit, even though He as Spirit exists in the universe and He also wants man to contact Him as Spirit. Since God desired that man contact Him, worship Him, and serve Him as Spirit, He needed to create man with a spirit, which He did.
God created man with a spirit because His intention is that man should worship and serve Him. Although some animals, such as monkeys, dogs, cats, and parrots, are very intelligent and clever, none of them has a desire to worship God. No one has ever seen a dog or a cat worshipping God. Neither has anyone seen a monkey building a little temple to worship God. Animals do not worship God, nor do they desire to worship God, because they do not have a spirit. Man, however, is different. People in the world, whether they have culture or they have no culture, whether they are civilized or they are barbaric, whether they are wise or they are foolish, all have a thought and a desire to worship God. When you travel throughout the world, you cannot find a people that do not have the worship of God. The way they worship may be wrong, and the object of their worship may be wrong and false, but the desire within them to worship God is still proper and genuine. Without exception, among the human race, all people in the world have the inner thought and desire to worship God. This is because within every human being there is a God-created spirit for him to worship God.
Man has a spirit, so he has the need of the spirit. What the spirit needs is God. The spirit was created for man to contact God, so it needs God. This is just like the stomach, which needs food because it was created for man to receive food. If there were no food, there would be no need to have a stomach; if there were no stomach, there would also be no need to have food. Likewise, if there were no God, there would be no need for the human spirit, and if there were no human spirit, man would also have no need for God. However, man has a spirit, and man’s spirit came into existence for man to contact God; therefore, man needs God.
Man has various kinds of needs. Because man has three parts—body, soul, and spirit—he has three different kinds of needs. Man has a body, so he has the needs of the body. Man has a soul, so he has the needs of the soul. Likewise, man has a spirit, so he has the needs of the spirit. The needs of the body are physical, the needs of the soul are psychological, and the needs of the spirit are spiritual. Man has at least these three kinds of needs: physical needs, psychological needs, and spiritual needs. Only when these three kinds of needs are met can man feel no lack or emptiness.
The physical needs—the needs for clothing, food, housing, and transportation—are all for man’s body. The human body needs clothes for covering, food for eating, houses for dwelling, and the means of transportation for traveling. These are all material needs. Today people pay attention mostly to these material needs. They are very concerned about the matters of clothing, food, housing, and transportation, which are all related to the body. This is especially true with the poor. A poor man eats badly, clothes himself poorly, has a problem with housing, and has difficulty in transportation. Therefore, all he thinks about from morning to evening are these material needs. Besides these, it seems that he does not feel he has other needs. It seems that in his feeling these material things are all that he needs.
Then one day he may make a fortune and have a large amount of money. Then he is well-fed and well-dressed, he lives in a mansion, and he rides in a car. But when all the problems of food, clothing, housing, and transportation are solved, when all the material needs are satisfied, he will discover that besides the material needs there is another kind of need, the psychological needs. He will discover that once the problem of material needs is taken care of, then the problem of psychological needs comes. Previously, he felt that his body needed food, clothes, a house, and a car; besides these needs, it seemed that he did not feel the need for anything else. But now he feels that, in addition to the needs of his body, he needs pleasure and enjoyment psychologically. He now wants to watch movies, listen to music, and read novels and newspapers. He also likes to travel and seek recreation and entertainment. Now he does not feel his physical needs very much; rather, he strongly feels his psychological needs. These psychological needs are for the satisfaction of the human soul and not of the human body.
Man does not only have these two kinds of needs, the needs of the body and the needs of the soul. When man has satisfied his physical needs and psychological needs, he discovers that there is still a need in his deepest part, his innermost part. Before man satisfies his outward, material needs, he does not have much sense of his psychological needs. Likewise, before man solves his inward, psychological needs, he does not feel so much the need in his deepest being. After a man satisfies his outward, material needs and takes care of his inward, psychological needs, the innermost need in his being will surface and will be felt by him. When the outward, material needs and the inward, psychological needs of man are satisfied and solved, man senses that there is still a need in his deepest part. Moreover, the richer his material enjoyment is and the more satisfying his psychological entertainment is, the more he senses the need in his innermost being. Although he does not know what this need is, he can sense it. He cannot explain it, but he can sense its existence. This need, which is a spiritual need, is not for man’s body or for his soul but for his spirit. Because man has a body, he has material needs. Because man has a soul, he has psychological needs. In the same way, because man has a spirit, he has a spiritual need. This spiritual need cannot be satisfied by material things or by psychological things; this spiritual need can be satisfied only by God.
The human spirit was created neither for material enjoyment nor for psychological pleasure. Therefore, neither material enjoyment nor psychological pleasure can satisfy or meet the need in the human spirit. The human spirit was created for God. Hence, only God can satisfy the human spirit and meet its need. What the human spirit needs is God.
The spirit of man needs God, thirsts for God, and seeks after God. Man’s need for God is a matter of the need in the spirit; it is not a matter of the intellect in the human mind. The need for God in the deepest part of man, which is his spirit, will not disappear just because his mind cannot understand it, nor will it diminish just by his reasoning in the mind. This is a matter of need, not a matter of reason. Within man there is a spirit, which has a spiritual need. The need of the human spirit is for God.
Someone may be successful and famous and may have a very good family. His material enjoyments are rich, and his psychological pleasures are complete. In others’ eyes it seems that he is fully blessed and has no lack in anything and should therefore be very satisfied. But he himself still feels that there is a need and therefore pursues God with such a hunger and thirst. To others it seems that such a lucky person as he is should simply be at peace and enjoy life. Thus, they wonder why he should be pursuing God, why he should be engaging himself in such an unnecessary endeavor, and why he should be so superstitious. But in his feeling all these things are necessary; they satisfy the need in his deepest being. In his feeling this need is more important than the outward needs of his body for material enjoyment and deeper than the inward needs of his soul for psychological pleasures. This feeling is so intense that, if necessary for his pursuit of God and for the gaining of what he needs in his deepest part, he is willing even to sacrifice material enjoyments and psychological pleasures. The reason he pursues God by sacrificing everything and not caring for anything else is that there is this need in his deepest part, in his spirit.
Every organ and faculty of the human body has its need and the object of its need. The ears need sound, the eyes need colors, the mouth needs tasty things, the nose needs air, and the stomach needs food and water. Because man has these organs and faculties, he has these needs and the objects of these needs. Likewise, man has a spirit, and the spirit of man has its need and the object of its need also. This object is God. God is what the spirit of man needs. It is not enough for man to just care for the needs of his ears, eyes, mouth, nose, and stomach; man must also satisfy the need of his spirit. The need of man’s spirit cannot be satisfied by material things. Only God can satisfy the need of man’s spirit because man’s spirit was created for God.
If the various faculties and organs of the human body cannot obtain what they need, they will be miserable. If you were put in confinement so that your ears could not hear any sound and your eyes could not see any scenery, you would feel that to be unbearable. Even the more, if your nose could not breathe in the air and your stomach could not take in food or water, you would feel more miserable. You would give up the whole world just to be able to breathe in the air; you would rather have food and water than bars of gold. In the same way, when the spirit of man cannot obtain what it needs, it feels very uneasy. For this reason a man often would rather give up the world and sacrifice everything in order to pursue after God and gain Him.
God wants man to worship and serve Him, so He created man with a spirit. The spirit in man causes man to sense the need for God and thus to thirst for God and pursue after God. This is something that transcends human reason and is not up to man himself. We were created by God. God wants us to worship and serve Him; therefore, He prepared a faculty for us to worship and serve Him, which is the spirit within us. This spirit causes us to feel the need to worship and serve God. If we agree in our intellect to worship and serve God, our spirit causes us to sense this need. Even if we do not agree, our spirit still causes us to sense this need. This is similar to the way our stomach causes us to sense the need to eat. It does not matter if our intellect agrees or disagrees; the stomach causes us to feel such a need. This feeling is outside of and beyond our intellect.
Brothers and sisters, please remember that there is a spirit in man, that there is a need in the spirit of man, and that this need is for God. Not to mention the believers, even the unbelievers also need God in their spirit. They feel that they need something inside. Although they do not realize that this something is God, they feel that there is this need. As saved ones, we have an even greater sense of this need. This morning if you did not draw near to God, pray to Him, open up yourself to Him to fellowship with Him, or breathe God in with your spirit, then surely you are unhappy and feel that there is a lack within you. But if you prayed to God, worshipped Him, and contacted Him this morning, you feel inwardly refreshed and satisfied. This is because there is a spirit in you, and the need of the spirit is for God.
The spirit within man not only has its need but also has its feeling. The body has its physical feelings. When a person is cut by a knife or beaten with a rod, he feels pain outwardly; this is the feeling of the body. When someone is ridiculed or rebuked, he feels pain inwardly. This is not a physical feeling but a psychological feeling, a feeling of the soul. Beside these two kinds of feelings, the physical feeling and the psychological feeling, there is another kind of feeling, which is in the deepest part of man. Sometimes we feel pain and sorrow in our deepest part. That feeling of pain is not physical or psychological. It is deeper than the psychological feeling; it is the feeling of the spirit.
Many times you want to do a certain thing. Your mind thinks it is reasonable, and your relatives and friends all approve of it and consider it sensible, but there is something in your deepest part, your innermost part, that disagrees with it and says it is wrong. There is a feeling in your deepest part; this feeling is the feeling in your spirit, which transcends the physical feeling and the psychological feeling. It transcends the mind and intellect, and it transcends the soul. The feeling of the spirit is not psychological or mental, and even the more it is not physical. Rather, it is a feeling in the deepest part of man. In particular, when one does something immoral or something shameful, in his depths he feels unsettled or uneasy. His intellect, his mind, his consideration, and his thought may let him go, but this feeling in his deepest part does not let him go. Regardless of how his intellect agrees with it and how his thought justifies it, the feeling of his spirit deep within him neither approves or justifies it.
The spirit was created by God for man to contact Him; hence, the feeling of the spirit is especially keen with respect to God. The spirit of man causes him not only to sense the need for God but also to sense God Himself. Very often the mind and intellect of man consider the existence of God illogical, yet the spirit of man senses that there is God. Very often the mind and thought of man cannot perceive the things of God, yet the spirit of man can sense the things of God. The sense of the spirit is a direct faculty for man to perceive God. It is through the sense of the spirit that God enables man to know Him and perceive the things that are of Him. Because man has the sense of the spirit and is able to know God and perceive the things of God, man can worship and serve God. Since man can know God and perceive the things of God only through the sense of the spirit, man must worship and serve God through and in the spirit.
Therefore, the fundamental matter of service is a matter of our spirit and the Spirit. God is Spirit, and we have a spirit within us. God as Spirit wants our spirit to serve Him. Therefore, service is a matter of our spirit serving the Spirit, that is, the spirit of man serving, worshipping, contacting, and having fellowship with the Spirit of God. Only this kind of service is the true service.
The religions of the world teach people how to worship and serve God. That worship and service, according to the Lord’s word, are mostly not true. Even the worship and service in our midst today also may not be completely true, and it is possible, even very likely, that some of them are not true at all. Much of the worship and service that we consider right and good may in fact be wrong and not true in the Lord’s eyes because they are not rendered in spirit. Only the worship and service rendered in spirit are the true worship and service.
