Life comes from our spirit. The people in today's reading were so dominated by their physical lives that they were missing all the spiritual significance of His words. Although God's Word does benefit our physical man, the Word is spiritual and must be understood through the spirit. God's Word is spirit, and it takes our spirit to illuminate its truths in our minds.

The Word of God is not paper and ink. Jesus is the Word, and He existed in spiritual form long before any words were inspired to be written down by the Holy Ghost. The Bible is simply a physical representation of Jesus and spiritual truth. It is inspired by God and, therefore, totally accurate and reliable, and yet until we receive the Spirit expressed in these words, the Bible will not profit us. This is why many people have read the Word, maybe even memorized it, and yet aren't reaping its benefits.

Just as our physical man receives life from the food he eats, so our spiritual man receives life as we partake of Jesus, the 'bread of life. Jesus plainly stated that the words He spoke were spiritual - not physical.

If we want to know what spiritual truth is, we must believe the Bible, for it is spirit and life. If we want to be led by the Spirit, then we must follow God's Word. If we want to hear from the Spirit of God, then we must listen to what God says in His Word. The Spirit (Holy Spirit) and the Word (Jesus - Jn. 1:1) are one.