Summary

Show Notes

• Spiritual growth deepens in seasons that feel like “winter,” producing stronger roots
• God designed believers to live interdependently, not independently
• True oneness flows from a shared revelation of Jesus Christ
• Relationships within the body are formed and established by God
• Loving one another begins with understanding how God loves His body
• Serving one another is central to walking in Christ’s life
• Washing one another’s feet represents humility, openness, and spiritual ministry
• Closing our hearts to one another closes our hearts to the Lord
• Forgiveness and reconciliation are essential to spiritual fellowship
• The Spirit often ministers without words—presence carries life
• Every believer is a spiritual being, carrying Christ to those around them

Key Quotes

• “We’re never separated. We’re always together.”
• “It’s not an individual thing; it’s a collectiveness of the family, the body of Christ.”
• “Our oneness is based upon a common revelation of Jesus Christ.”
• “It’s the Lord Jesus Christ establishing relationships.”
• “We don’t have the right to close our heart and walk away.”
• “Sometimes all you have to do is just love one another.”
• “Serving is giving what we are and who we are to each other.”
• “The body cleanses itself—Christ in me, ministering to you.”
• “We are 24/7 spiritual beings.”
• “It’s not hard to be what we are—we’re sons of God.”

Scriptural References

• 1 Corinthians 12– One body with many members
• Ephesians 4 (1–16)– Growing together into maturity through love
• John 13 (1–17)– Jesus washing the disciples’ feet
• John 19 (26–27)– Jesus establishing relationship between John and Mary
• Matthew 18 (21–35)– Forgiveness as a foundation of relationship
• 1 John 3 (16–18)– Loving not just in word, but in deed
• 1 John 4 (7–21)– Loving one another as evidence of knowing God
• Colossians 3 (12–15)– Bearing with one another in love

Takeaway

Ken:

In the wintertime, because of all that we've received through the summer, the fall, the spring, our roots go deeper. And just like the trees and other things like that in nature, all that God has ever put in us just goes deeper in the wintertime. Does it mean that we always enjoy it? Not necessarily.

When you stop and think about what God is doing in our life by our interdependence with each other, how the whole element of all of that just goes deeper and deeper in the spirit. We're never separated. We're always together. We're a part of each other's lives. That love, the love of that, flows.

We're family. We're the family of God, and God is ministering through the family to the family. We're all helpers of one another's faith, and that's the way God designed it. I tell you, we are so much a part of each other's life. These connections are so vital—how interdependent we all are. It's not an individual thing; it's a collectiveness of the family, the body of Christ.

We want to know each other in the spirit. We minister in the spirit. Just getting to know each other even, I think, on a deeper level— isn't that what Ephesians four talks about? We're gonna love each other and minister to each other in the spirit, and just allow the spirit in us to minister out and connect with each other.

Lois:

To see only the Christ in our brother. That's all I want to see—to know by the Spirit one another. We're the Lord's family.

Roger:

Our oneness, our relationships with one another—everything is based upon a common revelation of Jesus Christ, and that's the way it will always be. We are his body, and God loves us. And because the Lord loves us, we love one another. But we're learning to love on the basis of the fact that we have a revelation of Christ's love for his people, and thus we love.

We serve one another. And if you love him, then we give ourselves to serve one another and to walk together. And I think that's what pleases the Lord more than anything. The things we do, first and foremost, we're doing it unto him, because we know his heart concerning his people. We know his heart concerning his body.

Therefore, if I care anything at all about pleasing God, that's where I'm gonna give my heart. That's where we all give our hearts. It's a common revelation of the Lord among us that God forms the relationships.

You remember where Jesus was on the cross there? He looked down to John and said, “Behold your mother.” At that point right there on the cross, he established a relationship between John and Mary. He says he took her into his house from that very day—something God established.

And that's the thing. We talk about other things out there—groups, churches, whatever. It pretty much is that you got things in common, you get along, and if you don't have things in common, you don't. And that's why there can never be any spirit oneness, because it has to begin with the relationships that God forms, that He establishes.

This is who you are to be to each other. This is who I am to your brother and sister. And then we open our hearts to it, and we walk together. God has brought a maturity for us where we're gonna love one another the same way God loves us.

How does God love my brother, my sister? I'm gonna find out, and then I'm gonna flow in that same love with my brother and my sister. Not that it's gonna be taken for granted.

Lord, how do you think about your body? If you love Him like we say we do, then we're gonna give our hearts to the same thing He loves and then pray. We find his love beating inside our hearts for each other.

It defies all rhyme or reason. Doesn't matter—your personality, anything else. I've known people that were the exact opposite of me in my personality and the way I approach things. Yet God created such a love because it was in the Spirit, based upon a revelation of Him, and not just me trying to get along with someone.

It's the Lord Jesus Christ establishing relationships, and that's how our relationships are together. They're based upon a word from God. We don't have the right to close our heart, to walk away, because if you do, you're closing your heart to the Lord. And don't expect God to meet you if you've closed your heart to your brother. You say, “This ain't gonna happen.”

Jesus laid that principle out in another way when He said, if you don't forgive your brother, neither will you be forgiven. And then he says, if you got something against your brother, go to him. Get it straightened out. It's all based upon our relationship with him.

Then John said, in First John, how can you say, “I love,” but how can you close your heart to your brother and say you love him? It's ridiculous.

The Lord is causing us to walk out the reality of His love in his body. Sometimes we feel it deeply. Sometimes you may not feel it at all. That's just the way it is. It doesn't matter. It's something in our spirits where we're given to please the Lord, and that's what makes it work.

Ken:

On that last day, when they were having the upper room meeting together before Christ went to the cross, the last thing He did was he got a towel, a bowl of water, and began to wash their feet. And He says, “You don't know what I'm doing to you right now, but you will.” And it's about serving one another.

It's about giving what we are and who we are to each other. Serving is so very important. A lot of people are open to receive something but not open to give something, but you have to be both. It's giving and receiving.

Peter—he said, “You don't wash my feet.” Jesus said, “Unless I wash your feet, you have no part with Me.” In other words, if you don't open up to me on that level, then you can't be a part of what we're doing.

Debbie:

How do I wash your feet? It's a thing of our spirit. I minister to you because I'm ministering to your spirit. That's what He was doing. He was washing each other's feet because the feet were the ones that were walking in the dung, in all the garbage that was out there. They were walking in it.

To wash their feet was really difficult for them to accept—someone washing their feet—because that was a humbling thing. It was like, “You don't do that to me,” because I have to do that for myself. I can't have someone else do that for me. But we open up to each other. We express our hearts to each other. That's how we're ministering to each other.

We're accepting it, and we're reaching into the spirit of the Lord, and we're just flowing that out to each other. The body cleanses itself—Christ in me, the ministry to you. Whatever you need, to you.

Ken:

It's about your submission to the Lord and your submission to one another. You talk about a responsibility—that's a responsibility when we're talking about washing one another's feet. It's more than washing their feet. It's like purifying their spirit.

And you say, “How can I purify my brother's spirit?” By just being the Lord to him, because you are the Lord. And when we open our mouth and begin to speak, there is a purifying that comes out in ministry, in connecting, and loving one another.

And when we love one another, we're absolutely moving in the realm of God. Sometimes that's all you have to do—just love one another.

We have no idea in our walk with God how many people we come in contact with, and there may not even be a word said. But the spirit coming from that individual ignites something in our spirit, and we send back the same blessing that we receive from them.

That's the awareness. I think it's so important that we're aware. We are 24/7, a hundred percent of the time, spiritual beings. Maybe we don't always act in the spirit, but we are spiritual beings.

Mike:

People appreciate when they're acknowledged. You go through a day, you feel alone, or you wonder, “Does anybody care?” Or you have all these thoughts running through your mind. Then somebody comes on the scene, and we're led to say something—speak a kind word to ’em, smile—and all of a sudden they light up because somebody paid attention to ’em.

It's not hard to be what we are. We're sons of God.