Reflection

Soul Farmers

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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.

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Balance

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In writing about Spirit Filled Spirituality Boa discusses Walking in the Power of the Spirit, Gifts of the Spirit, and Openness and Discernment: A Balance.

In the first chapter he discusses how the power the Spirit is predicated on enlightenment of the Word. Many believers overemphasize either the Spirit (Spirit Centered Believers) or the Word (Word Centered Believers). Both are needed to unite the mind and the heart so that they reinforce each other. He reviews briefly the three major Spirit-centered movements of the 20^th century: Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Third Wave. Basically there are two ways a person is filled with the Spirit. One is manifested internally as translated from the Greek word pleroo, and the other externally, translated from pimplemi.

The next chapter reviews the purpose and nature of Spiritual gifts. The church is a diverse group of believers with different gifts incorporated into a single body united in purpose and call. Boa gives us 12 principles describing the nature of gifts. Based on the lists in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4 he describes the various gifts, and adds other singular ones found in scripture.

The final chapter expands the discussion on how to balance openness to the Spirit with discernment based on knowledge of the Word. The strengths and weaknesses of an exclusively Spirit centered approach versus exclusively Word centered approach are outlined. Boa points out once again the need to balance truth and power, and Word and Spirit to guide our inward and outward journeys. He concludes by offering advice on how to appropriate the power of the Spirit.