Spiritual.

There is a battle between the spirit of love and the spirit of evil.

Its in the small things. It encroaches on our peace and turns the tide quicker than the moon.

Romans 14:17 says: “for the Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

In life we learn to prioritize certain things, especially those that edify our bodies. As children, parents work to make sure we are well dressed, clean and healthy. To the best of their ability, they work to ensure that we learn basic skills such as ready and writing and math; they send us to school to further enhance those skills – thinking that this will lead to our success. As we grow, we learn to take pride in ourselves and our presentation, developing our style along with our personality – so that when people see us, they know who we are. And its true; certain success is statistically more attainable when these standards are in place. There many factors to ensure success in the world.

Yet, the Bible is constantly getting us to shift our focus from the temporary success in the world to spiritual edification [the instruction or improvement of a person morally or intellectually]. Why? Because the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, is a spiritual place. It is our ultimate goal in life, it is our eternal destiny – if we are so willing. Ephesians 6:12 tells us that our fight is not against flesh and blood, but spiritual principalities and powers. Romans 8: 6 tells us that a carnal mind leads to death but a spiritual mind is life and peace.

So why do we focus so much on eating and drinking, neglecting the opportunities to be led and empowered by the Holy Spirit?

One of the reasons I believe is because of what I stated earlier: its in the small things. Its in the tiniest details of our life, but is those details that make up our life. What I mean is, it is natural and normal for us to take care of our bodies – and the Bible says that we should honor the temple God has given us. But what we tend to forget is that our natural state is not only our most familiar, but it is at odds with the Holy Spirit. Our natural desires conflict with the will of God.

Salvation reconciles us with God, and baptism fills us with the Holy Spirit – and we are commanded to walk a spiritual life. Condemning our flesh should be a daily occurance.

Remember Luke 9:23-24: “23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,[a] and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost.”

Sin separates us from God. That is the entire purpose of sin, and separation from God is death. Our flesh is cursed by sin to death, but Jesus overcame the power of that death and separation by walking blamelessly on the earth. He did it so that there would be a path to  God, to righteousness, so that salvation can happen to our souls despite the unchangeable condition of our flesh.

In Christ, we are new creatures – we are spiritual beings. Before salvlations, we were zombies. We would edify our flesh by being consumed with desires that had nothing to do with the kingdom of God. We were walking around feeding and cleaning and clothing dead, rotten flesh. But Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice to that we could live our life filled with the Holy Spirit and surrounded by the kingdom of heaven.

As humans, we can’t escape the condition of our bodies on earth – but we OVERCOME it with the power of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is left up to us to ensure that we are constantly reading our Bible – hiding it in our hearts and staying in prayer – developing and strengthening our relationship with God.

It is up to us to live a life that is spiritual. Amen.