John 4:31-34 “In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." (32) But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know." (33) Therefore, the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?" (34) Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”
Hearing the word of God is not the only source of spiritual food for our spirits, for Jesus mentioned another source of spiritual food in the above quoted passage of scripture when He said that doing the will of God was food for His spirit. Doing the will of God involves acting on the word of God. And so we see that another factor that is required for our spirits to grow strong, is acting on the word of God. As with most of that which we have discussed in this series this aspect of spiritual growth also correlates with our walk in the natural. In the natural, if we exercise our physical muscles they will grow stronger and if we neglect those same muscles they will grow weaker. There is no way around it, for we can read all the books on how to exercise our physical bodies to make them grow stronger, but until we put what we have learnt into practice nothing changes. In other words we can have all the knowledge there is on the subject, but our bodies remain the same and grow weaker until we get out there and put into practice that which we have learnt, and that takes physical effort. In the spirit the principle remains the same, i.e. in order to grow strong in spirit we are going to have to exercise our spiritual muscles, so to speak. In other words we can read our bible all we want and listen to as many teaching CD’s as we like, but until we begin to put into practice that which we have learnt, nothing will change in the spirit, and that takes spiritual effort.
1 Corinthians 3:1-7 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. (2) I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; (3) for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? (4) For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not carnal? (5) Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? (6) I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. (7) So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”
We have already looked at the above quoted passage of scripture to show that it is the Lord’s ministers that feed the church with the solid food of God’s word. But in this section I want to discuss the reason why the apostle Paul was prevented from feeding the church at Corinth with the solid food of God’s word. We can see from this passage that God uses His ministers to plant the seed of His word and also to water the seed, but that it is God Himself that causes the seed to grow. And so we see a spiritual truth, which is that God causes our spirits to grow. But this passage of scripture reveals to us that the church at Corinth had stopped growing spiritually, which is why Paul could only feed them with the milk of God’s word. We can also see from this passage that God’s ministers had done their part, for Paul had planted the seed and Apollos had watered the seed, but nevertheless God had withheld the increase. So why is that? The reason is because they were not acting on the word that they had already received, for they were still walking in envy, strife and division, instead of walking in love. And so because of that the Lord would not allow any further revelation to be given to them, and Paul was constrained to feeding them with that which their minds could understand i.e. the milk of God’s word, and nothing more. Sadly that is the spiritual condition of many in the church today, i.e. they can only be fed with the milk of God’s word because they refuse to put into practice that which God has already revealed to them.
Michael E.B. Maher
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