Luke 4:4 “But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'”
In order for our spirits to grow, they need to be nourished regularly by the word of God. In the passage of scripture quoted above, our Lord Jesus teaches us that as we need physical food for our physical bodies, so we need spiritual food for our spirits. Our Lord taught us that the spiritual food that we must partake of, is the word of God. The reason for this, is because our spirits are born of the word of God and it is only the word of God that can nourish our spirits.
1 Peter 1:23 “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”
The truth that our spirits are born of the word of God, is revealed to us in Peter’s epistle, quoted above. It is our spirits that are born of the word of God when we are born-again, and so the word of God is the nature or DNA if you will, of our spirits. In the natural, the longer you starve your body of physical nourishment, the weaker it will become. In the spirit, it is no different. The longer you starve your spirit of spiritual nourishment, the weaker it too will become. In the natural, we feed our physical bodies daily, on average three times a day. A believer who does not feed their spirits at least daily, will never grow strong in their spirits. When our Lord Jesus taught us to ask our heavenly Father for our daily bread, He was not only talking about the physical bread that our bodies need, but He was also talking about the spiritual bread of God’s word, which our spirits need (Luke 11:3). And so, we see that we need to feed on God’s word daily, for our Lord taught us to pray for our “daily” bread. In the natural, if you choose not to eat any food on any given day, you will find yourself feeling substantially weaker by the end of the day, especially if you live an active lifestyle. The reason for that, is because your physical body is using up the stored energy that it has, as a result of your previous food intake. With no current food intake, your body no longer has any reserves to draw on, and consequently you begin to weaken. And the longer people abstain from eating, the weaker their bodies become, until they no longer have any energy to carry on with even their normal daily living. The exact same principle applies in the spirit. Those who choose not to feed their spirits with God’s word every day, will become weak spiritually and incur all of the problems that go along with a weakened spiritual condition.
John 21:17 “He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep.”
The scripture reveals to us that there is such a thing as the milk of God’s word, and there is such a thing as the solid food of God’s word (Hebrews 5:12). In order for believers to grow strong in spirit, they need to partake of both. It is as we grow spiritually, that the Lord opens our understanding to more of His word. The natural analogy would be, that we begin to eat solid foods and no longer only drink milk. But I want you to notice who does the feeding in both instances. In the passage of scripture quoted above, our Lord Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep. In other words, the Lord uses His ministry gifts to feed His sheep.
Michael E.B. Maher
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