And after six days, Jesus took James, Peter, and John with him by themselves, and led them up a high mountain. And He was transfigured before them….- Mark 9:2

We ourselves heard this very voice borne of heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. - 2 Peter 1:18

It is on the mountain that we learn how to see Jesus. It is on the mountain that we learn how to worship Jesus. It is on the mountain that we learn how to listen to Jesus. Surely we can do these other places, but God calls us who draw near to Him up higher so that we can experience Him in fresh and new ways.

I haven’t been necessarily speaking of the physical mountain, but of the inner season and journey it represents. In the Old Testament, the “high places” were established for worship in various locations. Either false gods and idols were worshipped, or the Lord himself on these “high places”.

However, when the Temple was established, God desired the high places to be done away with, so that all people would come “up to Mount Zion” to worship the King of Glory. Unfortunately, many still set up high places to worship Baal and other false Gods. (2 Kings 14:4) Going up to the high places, and now, the long journey to Jerusalem was to be an act of humility, sacrifice, and dedication to go and worship on God’s holy hill, Mount Zion.

Then, when Jesus came, he spoke to the Samaritan woman in this way: “Believe me dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or [at the temple] in Jerusalem….For God is Spirit, and He is seeking worshippers who will worship in Spirit and Truth.” (John 4:24) What an amazing transition!

Look! He turns the worship from an outward requirement to an inward position! Notice that he did NOT say “worship by the spirit and by the truth”. We often try to acquire these things that we might “use them as tools” to worship God. On the contrary, worshipping “IN spirit and IN truth” are actual positions to God, just as the mountain was previously in the natural.

Instead of striving to obtain more “spirit” and more “truth”, the veil on God’s holy mountain has been torn asunder, that we might enter in to the spiritual reality of “spirit and truth” by His blood! By bold confidence and humble faith, we ask the Holy Spirit to guide us “into” spirit and truth! By that inward positional reality, unattainable by even the most “self-righteous” individual, we are ministering to the Lord - becoming the exact worshippers “the Father is looking for”. No flesh can gain access there, it is by the Spirit in faith!

Who will come up to the mountain to see Jesus transfigured, hear His voice, and worship Him in His presence, which is “spirit and truth”? God is Spirit, and Jesus is the Way, Truth, and the Life. Unlike here in Colorado, the journey is an inward sacrifice, for we must believe in order to see. We can not see and then believe, but by believing we have access to be positionally “in spirit and in truth” we are worshipping as the Father desires.

Therefore, let us lay hold of this place we have been granted, this free access to the mountain of God by His grace! Let us minister to God without fear, without striving, but with humble faith, true humility, and passionate joy out of His great love and provision for us to be the very thing He desires.