Jesus and the Holy Spirit are never separated.  The Holy Spirit was present at Jesus' conception in the womb of Mary (Luke 1:35).  The Holy Spirit (Luke 3:23) was upon Him at the Jordan River baptism.  The Holy Spirit led Jesus in the wilderness and now, in the power of the Spirit, Jesus returns to Galilee.  Christ Jesus is "full of the Holy Spirit." (v.1)  

Every aspect of our Lord's ministry, his teaching, his healings, his service, his obedience, his miracles, his prayer, and his Passion were all united to the Spirit.  Anyone who wishes to know what a Spirit-led or Spirit-filled life looks like may see it comprehensively in Jesus Christ. 

If it doesn't look like Jesus, if it doesn't sound like Jesus, if it doesn't love like Jesus, if it isn't Jesus, it isn't of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit wants us to know above all else Jesus Christ as our God and Savior and continually receive Him through the means the Holy Spirit provides: Word and Sacrament. 

The spiritual life, therefore, is not just any pious, mystical impression someone may have.  It is life united, secured, and centered in Christ alone.  The spiritual life is nothing other than enjoying union with Jesus Christ. 

Spiritual life that is both "spiritual" and "life" is centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  Without Him there is neither spirit nor life. 

It is erroneously assumed among many people today that being spiritual can be anybody's psychic preference or intuitive sense of the divine.  Allegedly, the clairvoyant is spiritual; the tribal shaman is spiritual, the Tibetan monk, the devotee of Kabbalah, and the Wicca prophetess are all "spiritual."  Utter baloney.  

How many times we hear some moonstuck actress or avant-garde professor deferentially declare, "I am not religious; I'm spiritual."  One commentator suggests as many as one in five Americans identify themselves this way, regarding "spiritual" as some kind of private unworldly experience with no connection to the institution of the church, its doctrine or rites, and certainly not oriented only and entirely upon Christ. 

The Spirit of the living God however is found squarely in the historic Christian church where the doctrine of Christ's incarnation and the confession of God in the flesh encompass the church's ritual in Word and Sacrament.  Anything other than Christ alone, Christ proclaimed, and Christ of the cross is neither spiritual nor life.  Anything other than Christ truly imparted to us in Word and Sacrament is ungodly. 

The apostle John declares, "This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." (1 John 4:2-3) 

Anything "spiritual" apart from Christ is not only not from God but is actually hostile to God. 

Any life that does not acknowledge that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ is not only unspiritual but demonic.  The Spirit of God cannot be known except in the Gospel of Jesus Christ because Christ and the Spirit are inseparable.  They are, with the Father, one indivisible God the Holy Trinity. 

Being spiritual is not about ethereal interests or murky beliefs.  It is not achieved by simply being meditative or willing to reflect on goody-goody topics.  It is Christ in the flesh. 

Being spiritual is not the opposite of tangible.  In fact, the Holy Spirit blesses us with very real, solid things, most especially Jesus himself.  The corporal presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper in, with, and under the bread and wine is, and was meant to be, down to earth.  It IS Him! 

The miracles of Jesus were not visualizations of ears being healed, the lame now walking, or the dead raised to life.  These were people you could meet, talk to, touch, and slap on the back. 

The prayers of Jesus were not dreamy fantasies but on-your-knees, sweat-and-sinew prayers hammered out in the crucible of Jesus' real day by day struggle. 

The teachings of Jesus were not a set of celestial beliefs floating around on gossamer wings, but blunt warnings, matter-of-fact promises, and real education you can count on and use.  

The ministry of Christ had dirt under his nails, calluses on his feet, sun on his face, and the power of the Spirit in full working capacity.    

The passion of Christ was not a mood Jesus went through; it was His blood, bone, and tissue pounded onto a real cross.  Jesus didn't save us on a hunch; he saved us on two coarse pieces of wood that don't look very spiritual at all.  But neither does a virgin's womb, Jordan River water, the trackless wilderness, or the humble countryside and synagogues of Galilee. 

It may not look very "spiritual" when a squirming or bawling infant is washed in Holy Baptism; it may not sound very "spiritual" when a minister drones through the announcement of absolution you've heard a hundred times before; it may not feel very "spiritual" while reading a Bible or taste very "spiritual" in a dry, flavorless wafer of bread. 

Nevertheless, Jesus and the Spirit are never separated.  The power of the Spirit is in Baptism.  The strength of the Spirit is in that liturgy of Absolution, in those Words of Scripture, and giving life and peace through that crust of consecrated bread.  

Word and Sacrament declare and deliver Christ.  God gives you His Son and His Spirit through these promised means exactly so that you yourself may know just what the Spirit-led and Spirit-filled life is.  It is Christ and the fullness of His life in you.