John + 4:32 & 34
“…I have food to eat that you do not know about… (34) My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work.” (Jesus Christ)
As with most of the things Jesus said to His disciples, having only a natural minded standpoint through which to weigh them, these verses must have perplexed them no end. To them, food was a physical necessity, but the nourishment Jesus spoke of was of another sort- the nourishment of the spirit.
John + 6:63
“It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” (Jesus Christ)
John + 4:24
"God is Spirit."
John + 3:6
"…what is born of the flesh is flesh; what is born of the Spirit is spirit." (Jesus Christ)
John + 3:5
“I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born through water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God…” (Jesus Christ)
Ephesians + 4:23
"Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God's way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth."
The mind is what feeds on the food Jesus speaks of when He says, “I have food to eat that you do not know of.” It is the food of goodness, holiness and truth, for the food of God is what nourishes the god self, the self that can both see and enter the kingdom of heaven. Without the food of God we would starve to death.
Oh, we can become gym rats, consume all the right foods, drink and down all the right supplements and pills, become vegetarians, whatever, but without God’s Word and Holy Spirit on our training table, we would eventually join the heartrending ranks of the walking dead, those who haven’t a clue as to what real life is all about, the lives we have hidden with Christ.
It is God’s Word that opens this life up to us through our minds by way of the Mind of Christ, for “We are those who have the Mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians + 2:16)
Romans + 8:5 thru 7
"The unspiritual are interested only in what is unspiritual, but the spiritual are interested in spiritual things. It is death to limit oneself to what is unspiritual; life and peace can only come with concern for the spiritual."
1 Timothy + 4:8
“Physical exercises are useful enough , but the usefulness of spirituality is unlimited, since it holds out the reward of life here and now and of the future life as well.”
Mark + 7:19
“Whatever goes into a man from outside does not make him unclean, because it does not go into his heart but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer…It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.” (Jesus Christ)
The Word of God is the spiritual water of truth which cleanses us of all these impurities by changing our thinking about and attitude towards what causes us to sin. The Word of God is life itself, the food of God, the knowledge of His will and the definition of His nature and character.
Hebrews + 5:13
“Truly, anyone who is still living on milk cannot digest the doctrine of righteousness because he is still a baby. Solid food is for mature men with minds trained by practice to distinguish between good and bad.”
It is the consuming of this heaven sent food that builds us up in faith, strengthens and nourishes our spiritual persona and puts a sword in our hand to fight off anyone or anything who and that holds the potential to dissuade us from aspiring to a higher state of mind, body and spirit.
John + 6:63
“The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” (Jesus Christ)
John + 8:47
“A child of God listens to the words of God.” (Jesus Christ)
John + 1:8
“The word was the true light that enlightens all men.”
Matthew + 4:4
“Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Jesus Christ)
Luke + 6:45
“…a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.” (Jesus Christ)
1 Samuel + 16:7
“God does not see as man sees; man looks at appearances, but God looks at the heart.”
Matthew + 6:21
“…where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Jesus Christ)
Mark + 31:31
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Jesus Christ)
James + 1:22
“…you must do what the word tells you and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves.”
1 Corinthians + 4:20
“…the Kingdom of God is not just words, it is power.”
John + 4:34
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work.” (Jesus Christ)
The work we do with and in Christ produces results so powerful and far reaching its effect cannot be fathomed by anyone but God. Each soul in Christ has been given the ability to set off a chain reaction of heaven-sent consequences, enlightenment and faith every time we step forward to minister the Word of God. It is our duty and a privilege to plant the seeds of God Word wherever He tells us, and to expect in faith that whatever we sow will feed the hunger of a soul in search of truth and the life they have hidden with Christ.
Isaiah + 55:11
“…so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.”
The food of God is the doing of the will of God by being the very substance of God’s Word, just as Jesus was, is, and always will be.
John + 1:14
“The word was made flesh, he lives among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Romans + 8:16
“The Spirit Himself and our spirit are heirs as well; heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, sharing his suffering so as to share his glory.”
The Temple of God
Our physical bodies are the outer shells of a place deep inside of every believer in Christ, a heart house, if you will, where God’s food is digested and stored that others may partake of its holy sustenance whenever we share what God has fed us with them: the Spirit and Word of truth.
1 Corinthians + 3:16
“Didn’t you realize that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God was living among you? If anybody should destroy the temple of God, God will destroy him, because the temple of God is sacred; and you are that temple.”
The destruction of which scripture speaks is caused by starvation, a severe lack of God’s Word and Spirit in our day-to-day faith diet.
Romans + 10:17
“…faith comes from what is preached, and what is preached comes from the word of Christ.”
Ephesians + 2:8
“Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith…”
We have two choices in life, one, to feed the faith God has given us by living in His Word, and two, to over-feed and appease the outer shell of his temple with physical food, drugs, sensual gratification, grandiose appearances and so forth. Neglecting the former will most certainly lead to overindulgence of the natural self, which leads to obesity (heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.), self-satisfaction, and all the destructive ego-tripping pleasures of the natural mind, and the flesh in the form of infections, mental illness, and an overall result of ill health.
3 John + 2
"My dear friend, I hope everything is going happily with you and that you are as well physically as you are spiritually."
As scripture says, “It is death to limit oneself to what is unspiritual; life and peace can only come with concern for the spiritual." But the death referred to here is more than just physical, it’s spiritual as well. For the ultimate condition of death is eternal separation from God. “I am the Way, the truth and the life” says Jesus, and this life of which He speaks is in the Spirit of God. For “The Spirit gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”
Overindulging the flesh with drugs, foods and sensual pleasures is suicide, for “Life and peace can only come with concern for the spiritual.” The best cook book we can own is the Holy Bible, for in its hallowed pages are the recipes of life in the Spirit of God and heaven on earth. As with every meal we eat each day, God fills us with the nourishment of the spirit through the recipes His Word cooks up for our temples.
1 Corinthians + 3:22
“What I fed you with was milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it; and indeed, you are still not ready for it, since you are still unspiritual.”
Again, he scripture speaks of the need to stop behaving immaturely, to see everything through the eyes of the Spirit. But in order to do that we must involve ourselves with that which is spiritual, and since God’s Word is spirit and life, since the kingdom of God is not just words but power, the power to turn our lives around and point it in God’s direction, would it not be advisable to seek after that kingdom from His perspective, which can only be accessed through the Holy Spiritual Mind of Christ?
This is what every practicing Christian must do in order to achieve Holy Spirit instrumentation, for by doing so we also become one with the power of God, the power He works through us whenever we exercise the faith gifts He has given us through His Son Jesus Christ. This is the solid food of righteousness, the doing of God’s will by the letting go of our unspiritual natures and to the will of God.
John + 4:34
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work.” (Jesus Christ)
This scripture quote appears three times in this message, and for good reason, for whenever we are not doing God’s will, we are also suffering the malnourishment of our true selves, the selves that can be in heaven on earth by simply maintaining a steady diet of God’s food.
Amen
In the name of Jesus Christ
