Scripture: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."—JOHN iv. 24.
When God created man, and breathed into him of His own spirit, man became a living soul. The soul stood midway between the spirit and the body, and had either to yield to the spirit to be lifted up to God, or to the flesh and its lusts. In the Fall, man refused to listen to the spirit, and became the slave of the body. The spirit in man became utterly darkened.
In regeneration it is this spirit that is quickened and born again from above. In the regenerate life and in the fellowship with God it is the spirit of man that has ever to yield itself to the Spirit of God. The spirit is the deepest, inward part of the human being. As we read in Ps. li.: "Thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom"; or in Jer. xxxi.: "I will put My law in their inward parts." It is of this also that Isaiah says: "With my soul have I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early." The soul must sink down into the depths of the hidden spirit, and call upon that to stir itself to seek God.
God is a Spirit, most holy and most glorious. He gave us a spirit with the one object of holding fellowship with Himself. Through sin that power has been darkened and well-nigh quenched. There is no way for its restoration but by presenting the soul in stillness before God for the working of His Holy Spirit in our spirit. Deeper than our thoughts and feelings, God will in our inward part, in our spirits within us, teach us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
"The Father seeketh such to worship Him." He Himself by the Holy Spirit will teach us this if we wait upon Him. In this quiet hour, be still before God, and yield yourself with the whole heart to believe in and to receive the gentle working of His Spirit. And breathe out such words as these:
"My soul, be thou silent unto God."
"With my soul have I desired Thee in the night, yea, with my spirit within me I seek Thee early."
"On Thee, O God, do I wait."
