Worshipping God in spirit and truth begins with a willingness to participate with God’s spirit in changing who we are. In effect we become farmers of all that define us: our thoughts, our lives, our souls. Since we still live as strangers in an environment filled with poisonous fruit, we need God’s nutrient-rich resources to replenish our lives. Guided by the Holy Spirit, we recognize that the fruit of our lives apart from God—anger, jealousy, dissension and envy are quite different from the fruit God wants to cultivate—love, joy and peace (among others). As we remove the weeds, rocks and other obstacles preventing the Holy Spirit’s light of truth and renewing rain from accessing us, we understand how much of what we were in the world is truly alien to God.

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:23-24

For the seeds of the Holy Spirit to grow roots and take hold of who we are, daily cultivation of spirit-led disciplines including prayer and Bible study is required. Christ in John 14 describes the Holy Spirit as being invisible to the rest of the world. If we become careless in tending the life God has given us, in a sadly short amount of time we lose our ability to see God’s spirit or recognize the sound of his voice. Just as a field can become overgrown from inattention, leaving the crops ravaged by animals, our relationship with the Holy Spirit can be left fallow, allowing the world’s toxicity to corrupt our thoughts, obscuring the truth of Christ’s light.

Unlike farmers of the Earth, soul farmers are not subject to failure because of flooding rains, drought, or terrain-stripping fire. We are given the most incredible gift through Christ—the presence of God himself in our lives, directing us through the power of his spirit, protecting us and revealing the truth of who God is. All we have to do is spend our days ensuring that the terrain of our thoughts and actions is freshly tilled, free of thorns, and ready for his seeds, so we can bring glory to our Father.