from Joaquin Duke, Liberty, Missouri, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008, 6:28am

It is our physical relationship we have to the world that binds us also spiritually. We allow our physical to dictate what is important and what we need, meanwhile our spiritual becomes more bound and oppressed. We bind our physical and spiritual being by allowing the world to dictate what we need instead of God our Father. He allows this to happen because we choose to listen to the world. He also uses it to try and teach us to listen to Him.

It is through Jesus Christ, our Lord, that we become free from the physical and transer to the spiritual, if we truly let go of the physical attachment to this world.

    “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for Me, you will save it.” Matthew 10:39

If we continue to cling to the physical nature of this world then we have forsaken everything our Lord Jesus died on the Cross for us for. He came to set us free from the physical and show us the true path which is in the spiritual. I realize that most of us have a problem understanding the concept of being spiritual, especially those who don’t even know Christ.

The first step to even gaining a glimpse of the spiritual is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and He will set you free, then send to you a helper to guide you into all Truth.

Many have problems understanding the spiritual – I can say that I don’t fully understand it either, but I do ask my Lord Jesus to teach me every day. Jesus said it pretty plainly in this verse to a Pharisee named Nicodemus.

    “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” John 3:12

We truly need to become spiritual and let Jesus lead us in the spiritual to understand the heavenly things which are spiritual. I believe this verse says it far better than I can.

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18

To understand the spiritual we must come to Jesus with open arms and withhold nothing and completely embrace Him in Love, and let Him guide and direct our paths.  Now that we begin to understand where to begin, which is with our Lord Jesus, we can begin to understand that which is heavenly, the spiritual.

    “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would.” Galatians 5:16-17

There are many gifts of the Spirit we have been given, along with many fruits of the Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23.

All the gifts of the Spirit were given to us so we could comfort and learn and be a part of one another. These are all great gifts, but they have a key that truly makes them function the way they are meant to function – and that key is Love. The utterance of wisdom and knowledge, the gifts of faith, healing and miracles, prophecy, the discernment of spirits and tongues and interpretation were all meant to help the whole body of Christ our Lord. If we are not using them in Love and with Love, they cease to be for the Body and begin to serve our own self-centered purposes and that will turn out very badly. Which I’m sure some of you can see just by the state of things in this world.

Love is the key to all things of heaven, which is the spiritual, it brings us into true unity with one another just as our Lord’s last prayer:

    “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”  John 17:20-21.

Jesus wanted so very much for us to see the Truth and that truth is Love, to be one with Him and Father and each other through Love.

Love is the only way to make unity possible, it is the glue that binds everything together. Without love things begin to fall apart rapidly and then division begins, then resentment is soon to follow. God loves us so much, He cries to pour out His love on us, so we can pour it out to each other.

    “My steadfast love I will keep for him for ever, and my covenant will stand firm for him.” Psalm 89:28.

    “And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”  John 17:26.

It is God’s Love that He pours out on us, and it is His Love that we pour into others, not our love, but His Love. To truly Love is to have our Lord within us, and if He is in us then it is His Love. Any love we could bring about is imperfect and false, because we are living in and for the flesh. But His Love is spiritual and is the true form of Love. His Love is what brings us into true unity with Him and with each other, so that we become one in Love. Unifying all the spiritual:

    “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-13.

It is only because of His Love that we can become one, and Love is the key and true Love is spiritual.

    “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25.

The fruits of the Spirit are all governed by Love, and the first one listed, of course, is Love. Ask yourself this, “How can you have joy without Love? How can you have peace without Love? How can you be patient with others without Love? How are we kind to others if it is not in Love? What true goodness is there without Love?”

We cannot be faithful to Jesus, let alone each other, if not for Love! How can we be gentle with one another if it isn’t in Love? How can all these fruits manifest and be poured out if it is not done through Love. We have been given a law by Jesus our Lord to:

    “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2.

How can we fulfill the law of Christ and bear our brother’s burdens if it is not through Love? We must therefore put to death the earthly things in us, for they are false, and let the Truth shine in and through us – which is Love. We must stop being physical and let God transform us into the spiritual. Crucifying the flesh so that it is Jesus in us that lives.

    “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on Love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.” Colossians 3:12-15.

The only way to truly forgive any offense is through true Love. And that true Love only comes from our Lord God. He pours out His Love on us in every way, and He truly only expects us to Love Him and each other as much as He loves us. To have this kind of Love, which is the only true Love, we must:

“Set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Colossians 3:2.

The key to all things of heaven is Love, and Jesus is the true expression of that Love. Amen!

from Joaquin Duke
See more at www.FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com

(Scripture quoted is from the RSV.)