¹² These Hebrew, Greek, and English words for “spirit” are used in many different ways. But in all their uses they have⁠⁹ something in common: They all refer to something that is invisible to humans and that gives the evidence of force in motion—just like breath or wind. Obviously, then, the Sanskrit word ātma would more properly be translated as “spirit” rather than as “soul.” Hence, when the sentence, “God is a Spirit,” was translated into Sanskrit, it was rendered: “Ishwar ātma.” (John 4:24) This is because God is both invisible and powerful, as the words “spirit” and ātma denote. But God is not, of course, and never was, disembodied spirit. God has always been and always will be an absolute Spirit!

37. (a) How does one worship God “with spirit”? (b) How does one worship the Father “with truth”?

³⁷ Is this beautiful description not what we would expect the invisible God to be like? Here is the kind of God we can admire and worship. But how should we worship Jehovah? God wants us to worship him with spirit and truth. The Bible says: “Nevertheless, the hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshipers will worship the Father with spirit and truth, for, indeed, the Father is looking for suchlike ones to worship him. God is a Spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth.” (John 4:23, 24) To worship the Father with spirit means that the veneration of physical places, objects, buildings, and material representations of God are forbidden. It is truth that really matters. To worship the Father, Jehovah, with truth means that our religious practices, beliefs, and teachings must be in agreement with the actual state of things, the truthful reality of things, as revealed in God’s written Word. God’s chief Spokesman said in prayer to the Father: “Your word is truth.”—John 17:17; compare Acts 17:24, 25.