His Touch

For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
John 4:24 NLT
http://bible.com/116/jhn.4.24.NLT

There is an important difference between ritual and worship, between religious practice and communing with God, between learning about God and getting to know God personally.

If someone hasn’t been called by God, surrendered their life to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, received the baptism of the Holy Spirit – they can participate in religious practice and ceremony, and they can even gain knowledge about the laws of God and see benefit from the divine instruction of His Word, but they are not yet entering into worship – they have not yet uncovered Truth – because they are only examining with their minds, not yet growing in their hearts from the touch of Christ living in them.

And this change of heart,  this change of Spirit on the inside once we have grasped hold of Jesus Christ as the Truth,  the Life,  the Way – it opens a door,  a gate,  into the blessings of a personal level of worship that draws us closer into the presence of God. It is our worship that God inhabits, as true worship in praise,  in adoration,  in humility,  in awe,  and in wonder before our Lord is like life giving water to our very soul.

An obligatory attendance to a religious service is not worship. Attending a show for entertainment and to participate with others is not worship. If we have made it purely about a sacrificial trade with God,  an I’ll give you this if you give me that,  we are nothing more than money changers in the house of the Lord. But once we realize the truth about what He has already given us, our worship becomes abandoned to bringing Him Honor and glory.

You see, the shift becomes who is at the center, and once it is God and not self, we can commune with God, and He can commune with us, because we are now worshipping in Spirit and in Truth.

Don’t settle for ritual,  even the pagans,  atheists and satanists understand ritual.

Don’t settle for religious practice, for even the religious know the heat of the flames of eternity.

Don’t settle for knowing about God and knowing about Jesus Christ, because even the demons know and admit that He is the Son of God.

Seek first and foremost and without ceasing the Kingdom of God. Keep knocking at the gate, crying out the name of Jesus Christ from that humble position before the Lord Almighty, until He answers and comes to live inside your heart. The Word of God promises that if you will seek, if you will knock,  if you will have faith in the Word of God,  that you will be saved. And know that you are seeking because you are called, dear friend.

Do not neglect to find true worship, dear friends. It is the very nourishment and blessing to your soul that is eternal and powerful as it is the touch of the hand of God upon your life. Know His touch today.