Is Your Spirit Starving?

How often do you eat? How would you feel if you only ate once a week or less? You would probably feel tired, in pain, run down, unable to focus, and you would be very sickly. So it’s not a very good idea.

Now how often do you feed your spirit? Most believers today are feeding their spirit once a week, only when they go to church. And whether they know it or not, their spirits are very weak and sickly today.

The Bible tells us that we should be feeding our spirits multiple times per day just like our physical bodies. So today we will be examining what it means to feed our spirit and how we are nourished with Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 4:4 Jesus makes a statement that many believers are probably familiar with, but at the same time we have never really meditated on it to realize what it is actually saying. Let’s examine Matthew 4:4:

“But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

This is an eye-opening statement. The question is, do we really believe it today? Do we really believe what Jesus said, that we live by the words of God? Take a look at Proverbs 4:20-22:

“My son, attend to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the middle of your heart.

For they are life to those that find them, and health to all their flesh.”

Now honestly, who is speaking here? Some would say that it was Solomon, but let’s put these two scriptures which we have just read together… we can plainly see that these can only be the words of God. Because His words are the only words that can give life and health.

So how exactly does this work? How does hearing God’s words bring health and life to your body?

The Bible says that receiving God’s words have a variety of benefits for us. Let’s examine some of them – John 1:4:

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

God is life, and God is light. His light is the only thing that dispels our innate darkness. This is what gives us life.

We must understand that we are all born dead in our sins. Our spirit is doomed because of sin. But when we accept Jesus Christ, He breathes life back into our spirit and the darkness fades away.

Yet if we stop feeding our spirit, the darkness can creep back in just as if you were to turn off a light and the room becomes dark again.

John 7:37-39 paints a wonderful picture of Jesus satisfying us:

“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink.

He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

(But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)”

Try to visualize what was happening here. Jesus was at a great feast. Everyone around Him was eating and drinking and being merry. But Jesus looked into their spirits, and what He saw was that their spirits were malnourished, starving and sickly. And when He saw the sad state of their spirits, He wanted so desperately to feed them that He stood-up right there, cried, and shouted for people to come to Him to receive the nourishment for their spirits that they so desperately need.

It is very similar to the cry of wisdom in Proverbs 8 and 9. Those who study the scriptures, those who meditate on the words of God, those who come to Jesus and drink, will be satisfied and live.

But why is this so? Consider the account of the creation in Genesis 2:7:

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

So we can see here that it is the breath of God that gives us life and sustains us. So how does this fit-in with the previous words of Jesus which say that man lives by the words of God? 2^Nd Timothy 3:16 has our answer:

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”.

Now do you see that word “inspiration” in the verse? It is the original Greek word theopneustos, which means “Divinely breathed-in”.

What we can learn from this, is that as we take-in the word of God, as we meditate on the scriptures, we are continuing in the breath of God which He has given to us. We are in-essence, feeding on Him.

And as we study, the Holy Spirit will instruct us and correct us in righteousness, not in the law. There is correction in the word of God for us today but it is not condemning, it is there to protect and to teach us.

So how do we eat? And How often should we feed our spirit? Jesus makes this simple for us in John 6:48-51:

“I am that bread of life.

Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

The word for “eat” used these verses is the Greek phagomai, meaning to eat literally or figuratively. Whereas in the later verses, the word is changed to one that means literal eating/crunching of bread for communion. But here Jesus is referring to feeding on Him as the Word of God. Jesus further confirms this in John 6:63:

“It is the spirit that vivifies; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life.”.

So by combining these verses together, we can see that The words of Jesus are water and bread for our spirits to feed on. We feed on Him by reading His words and meditating on them, studying them and receiving them.

So how often should you feed your spirit? The wonderful thing is that you can feed your spirit as often as you want… your spirit will get fat (which is good), your body will become healthy, and you will become wise.

I will end today with the instructions of God. The first is correction to those who do not feed their spirit, and the second is an advisory for those who want to improve.

Matthew 22:29:

“Jesus answered and said to them, You do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”

If you do not know (perceive in your spirit, more than memorization) the scriptures, don’t be surprised when you fall into many errors and you will not see the power of God in your life. These are the words of Jesus, my friends.

Also consider Hosea 4:6, in which God proclaims that we, His people, are destroyed because of lack of knowledge.

Finally for those who want something better than destruction and death, for those who want God’s best in their lives and a life full of power, God offers this advice in Joshua 1:8:

“This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.”

So today we have learned God’s nutrition plan for our spirit. But as we have also seen, a healthy spirit makes our whole being healthy as well; spirit, soul and body.

Feed your spirit daily, as often as you can. Feed on God’s word, not the words of man which bring fear, worry and doubt, but the words of Christ which bring life and health. He is the true bread from Heaven, and in Him alone you have eternal life.