John 4:23-24 reads, “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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Now the Lord spoke these words to the Samaritan woman. Right at the beginning of their conversation, the Lord already talked about this. I believe that the Lord knew that she would believe in Him and would later experience the truth of these words. Love relationships are considered to be most captivating to one’s heart in this world, and this woman had experienced it multiple times, but was left unsatisfied. She thirsted in her spirit. The Lord wanted to give her the living water. He also spoke to her about worship.
We need to enter into worship, or we will not be satisfied. Whether before or after you believed in the Lord, the devil has been trying all means to tempt you, making you think that you wouldn’t be satisfied until you had gained those things. For instance, for relationships, he may make you think that you must be with a certain person in order to be happy, and without them you would never be happy. The fact is, nobody in this world has that person, you’re not the only one; does it mean the whole world is sad? King Solomon had much possession and many concubines. As a king, he tried his best to enjoy all that he could with his abundant resources and royal position. Yet, his conclusion was “vanity of vanities”. Nothing “under the sun” can satisfy your heart, no matter what you try to pursue. You will only experience emptiness. Only things “above the sun” can satisfy you.
Paul reminds us to “seek the things that are above” (Col. 3:1) because they are precious and there’s One who is incomparable. All things were created by the Lord, who is the most precious. Paul further said, “Where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” This saying is so precious! Christ is there. Not only is He the Son of God. Christ means that He became a Man for us. This means He would have come to the earth, so why then is He now in heaven? Because He died and resurrected for us. He has already won the victory of love. He proclaimed, “It’s finished!” Then the Father said to Him, “Sit at my right.” He experienced such a precious journey of love for us. Having accomplished all, He sat at the right of God.
Although the Lord is in glory, which seems so far away from us, Paul mentioned in Colossians that Christ is in us, becoming the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). The Lord who is in glory, at the right hand of God, His Spirit is also living in our hearts. We’re most deeply united with Him. We have a very deep relationship with Him. Not only is He in heaven, holding all authority, as head over all things to the church, and causing all things to work together for us, He has become our hope of glory in us. We can experience and enjoy the Lord who loves us so much. He became a Man, died for us, and lives in heaven for us forever.
It is so glorious that we can know the eternal Lord who has also become Christ. He is our High Priest who has removed the hindrance between God and man. As a High Priest, He helps us to experience God. The Father has set His beloved Son as the High Priest not only to accomplish the glorious salvation, He forever lives to help us to come before God and deeply experience Him. He also prays for us.
After we believe in God, we have a new glorious focus in life. Great things have happened in our lives! As young believers, we might only have known that our sins were forgiven, and we were saved from hell. In fact, all things are yours because the Lord is yours! You just need to understand and enjoy more and experience more deeply. There are two Bible books that I treasure most. They both speak about our deepest relationship with God. One is the Gospel of John. It was written by the Apostle John, who once physically leaned against the Lord’s bosom. Although the Lord has ascended to heaven, our spirit can embrace the Lord and we can be in His bosom. The other book that I treasure is the Song of Solomon. It speaks about the Lord’s love, how to draw near to Him and experience Him, and the way to enjoy His love. The first chapter says, “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth!” (Song 1:2) Isn’t that precious? Someone once asked, “Is this universe friendly?” I’ll tell you that the universe is more than just friendly, because the One who created the universe loves us so much! He is our intimate Friend and our true Beloved. Therefore, this universe is indeed beyond friendly! It is full of love. So many things are working together for you! Even after man sinned, God remains the same.
When you enter into worship and deeply experience the Lord, and have love interflow with Him, you will feel that He is precious, and you would be attracted to Him. You will experience what the Song of Solomon talks about–instead of “vanity of vanities”, as mentioned in Ecclesiastes–you will experience the things “above the sun”, our Abba Father and our Lord Jesus. After we believed in the Lord, our lives were changed. Think about it, the things we talk about now is so different from the things we talked about when we were new believers. Having said that, I don’t mean what we learned as new believers is not essential. For example, our sins being forgiven was one of the first things we learned. But we can also have deeper understanding in the Lord, because He created us to be able to experience His love. You have experienced these things in your hearts, that is why you can understand, and the Holy Spirit will open your eyes. He loves each one of us so dearly. Therefore, He desires to open our inner eyes, that we may enter into His love and enjoy the truth. During the night before His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father to send the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truths, and the truth of His love. The Holy Spirit is God and He helps us. The Spirit leads us into the Father’s love. He came so that we may cry out “Abba Father.” He also leads us to the Lord Jesus. He outpours God’s love into our hearts so we can deeply experience Abba and the Lord’s love, which of course nourishes our hearts.
The Lord also spoke to the Samaritan woman regarding this truth, that she needed to know the Lord, and her life would no longer be a “vanity of vanities”. Instead, her life would be filled with the abundance that replaces the vanities. She could enjoy the Father by having a deep relationship and fellowship with the Father, the Infinite One, where her heart would be filled. And of course she would also enjoy the Lord Himself.