The Living Relationship With God The Father

The Living Relationship With God
 
Living one's life with the Heavenly Father is having a relationship based on true spiritual love (note: „agąpē“).
This divine love is expressed in worship in the Spirit and in truth to Him (see John 4:23-24 i.c.w. Matthew 22:37-38).
 
John 4:23-24:
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.”
 
Matthew 22:37-38:
37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

The Touch Of Heavenly Fatherhood

As saints, we are approaching the Father in Jesus Christ in spirit and truth (see John 14:6) and then God touches our inner being (note: spirit and soul) with His heavenly fatherhood in order to fill our spirit and soul with His divine love (note: „agąpē“).
 
John 14:6:
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

This touch of getting filled by Him means that God, the Heavenly Father, enters the atmosphere of our spirit and of our soul as He is spirit.

His entering of the two invisible levels of our inner being equates to His presence of visitation compared to the time of the completion of the tabernacle and the temple, where Moses wasn't able to enter the Tabernacle and as well as the priests at the time of Solomon couldn't enter it after they left the Holy Place of the Temple (note: God in our soul - (will, emotion and mind) to create a realm so that God can visit and readjust us) (see Exodus 40:33-35; 1 Kings 8:10-11).
 
Exodus 40:33-35:
33 Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work.
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
 
1 Kings 8:10-11:
10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord.
11 And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.

That filling of God also includes the state of divine unity in the Spirit, referring to Jesus Christ praying for it in His prayer to the Father in Heaven (see John 17:21-23).
 
John 17:21-23:
… 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – 23 I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

The Sinner And Jesus Christ

In connection with the expression of true love for the Lord, the encounter of the woman (note: who was a sinner) with Jesus is an example when she anointed Him, Jesus Christ, with her anointing oil, as revealed in Luke 7:36-38.
 
Luke 7:36-38:
36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.
37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.
38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

This woman heard that Jesus was in the city and would be a guest of someone in a religious context to reach people there with the love of His Father. According to this, she had set out on her way to get closer to the presence of the Son of God, whom she loved sincerely and in purity.
 
She believed that Jesus was the Son of God, which is obvious as she approached Him in spite of the religious environment where He was (see Luke 7:37). She was able to hear where Jesus was and then went straightly into His presence, indicating a divine affiliation to which she was aware in her faith (see John 10:27).
 
John 10:27:
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

This woman also had a plan that she wanted to surprise Jesus with. It was a plan that she carried in her heart because of loving Jesus (note: „agąpē“ => the divine love). Her action contains a strategy that calls for a deeper step into the love of the Heavenly Father and His presence (see John 3:16).
 
John 3:16:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
 
The Phases Of The Woman's Approach

The woman proceeded in the following steps:

1. She heard of Jesus.
2. She approached the presence of Jesus.
3. She approached Jesus from behind.
4. She wet the feet of Jesus with her tears.
5. She dried Jesus' feet with her hair.
6. She kissed Jesus' feet with her mouth.
7. She anointed the feet of Jesus (see Luke 7:37-38).

The Sincere Heart Attitude

This approach makes clear that the woman loved Jesus with a sincere heart attitude. And Jesus said that the expression of obedience reveals love for Him (see John 14:23).
 
John 14:23:
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Accordingly, the woman had expressed her love for Jesus Christ through her approach by anointing His feet. At the time of her approach, she hasn't received Jesus Christ in her heart yet, but she was drawn to Jesus by the power of the Father (see John 6:44 i.c.w. Romans 5:8).
 
John 6:44:
44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.
 
Romans 5:8:
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The Drawing Of The Father To Jesus Christ

Although the woman who was a sinner entered into the Pharisees' religious sphere without fear, we know that the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out on earth at that time. So, it gives us a significant hint that the power of the Father was the Holy Spirit who had drawn this woman to Jesus Christ and who helped her with her plan expressing her love towards Jesus. The reason for this is because it is the Holy Spirit in whom one says ,”Abba, Father!” (see Romans 8:15)
 
Romans 8:15:
15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

The Woman Surprised Jesus

The woman didn't allow any religious power or legalistic spirit (note: only to become righteous by deeds) to stop her experiencing the presence of the living Word of God! Instead she pierced by her true surrender of her heart that religious atmosphere and surprised Jesus by approaching Him from behind and serving Him with abandonment. Finally, her devotion led Jesus to preach to His host, the Pharisee Simon, about the meaning of true abandonment and hospitality (note: relationship; see Luke 7:39-47).
 
Luke 7:39-47:
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is – that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.
46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.
47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
 
True Worship

In John 4:23 Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the time has come when true worshipers would worship the Father in the spirit and in truth.
 
John 4:23:
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.

The worship that Jesus was speaking of involves total surrender to God, the Father in the Spirit and the walk in His Word which is truth. Singing praises to God alone without walking in the Word of God leads to the fact that worship carries a sound which God cannot accept (see Amos 5:22-24).
 
Amos 5:22-24:
22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.
23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

In accordance to John 4:23 Jesus Christ had not only spoken of worshipers, but of true worshipers who would worship the Father in the spirit and in truth.

In The Spirit And In Truth

I consider these two important aspects as having two legs, as these two legs enable a person to constantly walk and move from one place to another. Furthermore, it is no coincidence that God has assigned many things to the human body by two, such as two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two arms, two hands, two legs, two feet, …

According to this principle, I can see clearly a reference to true worship in the Spirit and the meaning of living according to the Word of God (note: truth). This is the only way how our continual walk by faith with the Heavenly Father becomes visible and evident to people in the world.

The constant walk in true worship to the Father in the spirit and in truth also excludes any inconsistent or independent spiritual lifestyle towards the Word of God. True worship involves approaching the Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ by kissing Him in the spirit with the expression of worship.

This also includes complete surrender and worship to the Lord. True surrender in Jesus Christ bears a far-reaching testimony that reaches from the present to the future, pointing out the truthful attitude of loving the Lord (see Matthew 26:13).
 
Matthew 26:13:
“ … 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

True worship is not about whether God does something for someone or not, but about true devotion as commitment, which is an expression of one's personal confidence in God.
 
This devotion also includes an inner outpouring before the Lord, which comes along with an undivided and faithful heart.
 
Amen and Amen.
 
In His Wisdom,
 
Daniel Glimm