UNLIKE THE NEW TESTAMENT Church, the saints of the Old Testament weren’t a spiritual house. Israel was called the “house” of Israel, but these people were spiritually dead—they weren’t born again. The Old Testament priests offered up only physical sacrifices.
Under the New Covenant, in First Peter chapter 2, the Bible calls believers “lively stones . . . built up a spiritual house.”
1 PETER 2:5
5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood [the whole Body of Christ], to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
This verse says that as a holy priesthood, we are “to offer up spiritual sacrifices.” What are the spiritual sacrifices we are to offer up?
True New Testament worship is to live a life of thanksgiving.
Living Sacrifices Unto God
ROMANS 12:1
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
TRUE NEW TESTAMENT WORSHIP INCLUDES PRESENTING OUR BODY AS A LIVING SACRIFICE UNTO GOD. The Bible says this is the spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God as a spiritual house and as a holy priesthood.
The King James Version of the Bible says we are to present our body as a “living sacrifice.” Other translations say that we are to present our body as our “spiritual worship” or as a “spiritual service of worship.” The Bible calls this our reasonable service.
It is a part of true spiritual worship for New Testament believers to offer their bodies to God as a spiritual sacrifice. When the Church starts worshipping God according to His plan for New Testament worship—you talk about worship!
Jesus said to me in a visitation, “If the people aren’t taught about spiritual worship—true New Testament worship—they won’t get it. They do not know about true worship. They know a little bit about praising Me, but nothing about true worship.”
The spiritual worship of presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, is something many Charismatics know nothing about. I know because I’ve been around them. You can see some Charismatics running around talking in tongues, smoking cigarettes, and sipping cocktails! By such actions, they prove that they don’t know a thing about true spiritual worship!
When many Christians got over into the Charismatic Movement, they seemed to get free from everything—all laws, all discipline, all commitment, and all restraints. God wants bodies presented as “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto [Him], which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). It is your spiritual worship to present your body unto God.
Let’s see what else God wants as a part of true spiritual worship.
A Transformed Mind
Another spiritual sacrifice the Bible says believers are to offer up to God is a transformed mind.
ROMANS 12:2
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Many people are trying to serve God with the same old unrenewed mind they had before they were born again. No wonder they’re still having so much trouble with their body and with their thoughts. It takes work and discipline to renew our mind. It doesn’t come by simply attending church or praying, and it doesn’t come overnight. It requires diligently meditating on God’s Word and learning to change our ways and patterns of thinking to line up with what His Word says. But renewing our mind is not an option if we’re going to be true worshipers. A transformed mind is part of the spiritual worship we are to offer up to God.
A Life of Thanksgiving
Hebrews 13:15 says we also are to offer up “the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” The fruit of our lips offering praise to God is an acceptable sacrifice to Him and another part of true New Testament worship.
What does the Bible mean by “the sacrifice of praise”? And how are we going to offer it to God? Look at this verse again: “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” The Bible says New Testament praise is “the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His Name.”
A person filled with the Spirit will be full of thanksgiving—thanking God for His great plan of redemption and thanking Him for every good and perfect gift. TRUE NEW TESTAMENT WORSHIP IS TO LIVE A LIFE OF THANKSGIVING. What a difference giving thanks will make in you!
Worship and the Holy Spirit
In the New Testament, the emphasis of true worship is being filled with the Spirit, speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns, giving thanks always, and presenting our body and transformed mind to God as a living sacrifice. (See Eph. 5:18–20.) God considers this our spiritual service. This is His plan for true worship.
What is God’s purpose in this plan? His purpose is to help us, to build us up! Since this is God’s plan, we are to pursue it and follow it. Paul said, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13–14).
There is a high calling for the Body of Christ. We stand on the threshold of a mighty move of God’s Spirit. God has revealed His plan by which we can enter into the fullness of His blessing.
It is now up to us to pursue God’s plan with His purpose and usher in the next great outpouring. But we must be willing to pay the price.
The following prayer of commitment came forth under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit during Winter Bible Seminar 1987. That year, Kenneth E. Hagin had taught on this and related subjects. May each of us make this our personal prayer. May we choose to pay the price necessary to walk in God’s plan. May we seek not only His plan for our individual lives but His plan for the world in this hour.
Scan the QR code to view and download the prayer of commitment.
https://events.rhema.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/KEH_Prayer-of-Commitment.pdf
Author
Kenneth E. Hagin
Share this Post