Worship in Spirit and Truth

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)

12th grade was a difficult time for me. Covid, depression, rebelliousness, social anxiety....not to mention feeling alone and far, far away from God. I climbed out of it--thanks to my parents, who undoubtedly were channeling God's love for me. The Truth of the teachings of Exposition of the Divine Principle and religious scriptures, which I had so rigorously and happily studied throughout high school (because, I guess, I was what you'd call "churchy"), were always in the back of my head, calling out like a faint echo in the distance. Nevertheless, it was God who saved me and pulled me out from under the rubble of my internal pain. His love permeated from my parents and through the subsequent workshops I attended and, slowly but gradually, into my everyday life.

My experience recovering from the rubble calls to mind a current discussion within the Unification Movement: How do I really worship in Spirit and Truth, especially as someone who often gravitates more toward Truth and the written Word?

What is Truth? Truth is the universal Principle: the natural laws and dynamics of the internal and external aspects of the universe. Where does the Principle come from? Our Origin: God. The Origin cannot create with something outside itself, meaning that no Truth beyond what is within God could create this universe.  This means that God cannot operate outside the Principle, outside of the substance of God's Being, the Truth also cannot exist without God. 

Jesus taught that God is Spirit. What is the core of Spirit? To put it simply: Love. God's Fatherly and Motherly Love.

We must therefore worship God with God. Not only is universal God involved, but the God within as well. Father Moon called this the Original Mind, while Socrates called it the Soul. For Socrates, the Soul experiences the most real reality and Truth once the Soul completely separates from the body. The Soul, Socrates argued, gets blocked from the most real reality and Truth because of our body. In other words, our brains needs to be turned off to feel the Spirit in its entirety. When the Spirit is felt, there is no analysis of what's true or not; it's felt beyond the physical plane. Yet, for the Soul to operate, Truth is absolutely necessary. One cannot feel the Spirit without Truth, and one cannot understand Truth without the Spirit.

In 2012, Mother Moon stated that the Family Federation needed to "go back to the spirit of the early days of the church" and asked people to "go forth in Spirit and Truth." What were the early days of the Family Federation like, back in the 1950s when Father Moon trying to start out? Hours and hours of sermons and lectures, endless tears, intense spiritual experiences through prayer, massive breakthroughs in witnessing, and a Spirit-led search for the Bride (whether people at the time fully understood what the Bride was or not)....all beginning from a small mud hut. 

How could Father Moon convey so much Truth? Simply put, he was absolutely grounded in the Love of God--the Spirit. How could the Spirit come to the early followers of the church? The church was grounded in Truth. It's not one first, then the other second. Rather, its a continuously revolving, harmonious spherical motion in which "the Alpha is the Omega."

Truth is powerful. But without God, its a weapon. Spirit is also powerful. But God would not be the God we know, love, and glorify today if the Principle and Truth within God's self were even slightly different. Imagine, for example, if within God lay a principle that violence brings joy....don't imagine for too long!

God is Spirit, and we need Spirit and Truth to connect to God. The Spirit is perceived by the most Divine part of ourselves--the God within. The Truth allows the Spirit to manifest and exist eternally. It also allows us to discern if its the Spirit of God leading us, or some other force that elevates the darkness within. Luckily, as Jesus said:

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:6)