John 6:63, CSB, ‘The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.’
John 6 is part of the Fourth Discourse in John’s Gospel (6:22-66).
It follows passages revealing two of the miraculous signs that confirmed Jesus true divine identity: 1. Feeding the 5,000 (6:1-15); 2. Walking on water (6:16-21).
In the fourth discourse, Jesus is in Capernaum addressing a mixed group of people, believers, non-believers and sceptics.
Mar 4 – Father, thank You that John 6 contains one of the great ‘I AM’ statements of Jesus, ‘I am the bread of life (6:35, 48). This is the first of seven ‘I AM’ statements by Jesus in John’s Gospel.
Lord, we see in the shocked reaction of His listeners to His use of this divine name ‘I AM,’ a reflection of the refusal of the world to accept that Jesus is God. It was the name that was revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14).
We pray that we will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to give effective and real witness to Jesus as God, the great I AM the bread of life. Amen.
Mar 5 – Father, at the end of the chapter we are told, ‘Therefore, when many of His disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”’ (6:60); ‘From that moment many of His disciples turned back and no longer accompanied Him’ (6:66).
The force of Jesus’ words, and their implication was not lost on many who initially set out to follow Him. His words provoked a heated and rebellious response within them. They still do today!
Lord, empower us also to present believing in Jesus in literal terms like feeding on the very bread of life Himself – anoint our witness to the fullness of believing in Jesus so that Your voice is heard through ours as we share this truth.
Some take this literally to mean partaking of Holy Communion. There may be an element of that here, but at its heart is a call to the feed on that needed to enable one to step into the higher spiritual life Jesus offers.
We devote ourselves to those things like reading, obeying and applying Your word, fellowship with each other, breaking bread, and prayers which enable us to step up onto that higher spiritual life You call us to.
Anoint us by Your Spirit to do so. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Mar 6 – John 6:40, ‘For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”’
Father, part of the purpose of engaging in the battle within from a Spirit-led stance is that it clears the fog of spiritual darkness away so we can see Jesus as He is really is, in all His glory.
The crowd saw a young rabbi, a remarkable person. Once Jesus started revealing His true nature and substance – their unregenerate and spiritually ignorant hearts rose up against His light. They rejected Him.
They wanted their bellies filled – Jesus wanted their souls filled with heavenly bread, and their spirits alive and thriving in Him. Jesus always wants more and higher things for us than we want for ourselves.
Help to embrace that which is Your will for us in Jesus with all our hearts and minds. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Mar 7 – John 6:63, CSB, ‘The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.’
Father, if we look at Jesus from purely human eyes, not through the lense of repentance, saving faith and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, it profits us nothing or literally, does not count for anything.
There are terrible limitations to the life in the flesh. It focusses the mind and heart on the lower things that ‘self’ craves, and misses Your pathway set before us.
On the other hand, the Holy Spirit gives true life.
John 3:5-6, ‘Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.’
In order to be alive to You, to be truly righteous, we need to be born again of the Spirit.
We pray that a great anointing will come on our church so that many are born again of the Spirit through the ministry and witness of the church and its people, in person and online. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Mar 8 – John 4:10, CSB, ‘Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.”’
4:14, ‘But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”’
7:37-39, ‘On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
38The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” 39He said this about the Spirit.
Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.’
Lord Jesus, You are the bread of life, and the Holy Spirit is the giver of the water of life. Feed us with Your bread, and give us the water of life to drink every day so that our souls are nourished and we live the higher spiritual life You call us to. Amen.
Mar 9 – Father, the world’s bread and water satisfies the hunger of the body – it is only the Bread of Heaven and water of the Spirit that can satisfy the hunger of the soul.
Many don’t see this. Many love darkness rather than light.
John 3:19-21, CSB, ‘19This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”’
To live by Your Holy Spirit is life. To live by Jesus leads to righteous works that please You, glorify the Son, and give the Holy Spirit a platform to establish the Kingdom through.
We pray that each one of us will live this life of faith filled by Your Holy Spirit. We ask also that many will turn from darkness to Christ the true light through the ministries and people of our church, in person and online. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Mar 10 – John 6:63, CSB, ‘The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.’
Father, for the believer in Christ – while still subject to the impact of the ‘lower self-life’ within, and the force of Satan and the world seeking to make him or her to submit to his evil control and compromise with the world, we have access to the bread and water that changes everything.
We pray for anyone whose soul is thirsty and hungry because he or she has been trying to satisfy their soul with the food of the lower ‘self’ life. It is a battle to step into the higher spiritual life, to take the ground, hold it, and then gain it as one’s own.
It is a battle that can only be won as we apply the principles of the spiritual life. We have the promise of Your protection through all of this, and of Your grace to see us through into that new place. We claim these promises, and step out in the reality they bring.
Teach us and equip us to know and live by the spiritual principles that add fruitfulness to our lives.
2 Peter 1:3-11, CSB,
‘His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
4By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
5For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.
10Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. 11For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.’
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
