There are many aspects of how you feed yourself spiritually that parallel with how you feed your body naturally. It’s important to ensure that we remain connected to the vine of Jesus and the Word and Spirit of God to avoid spiritual starvation. It’s not good enough to simply attend church services.  

Important Foundations: Spirit vs Soul vs Body

I will be talking a lot in this post about the spirit (or human spirit) of a man.  The spirit is the real you and something that the Word of God talks a lot about. It’s really important that you know the difference between spirit, soul and body.

So I went ahead and built you a little description of the three. 

• Spirit. The true you and part of you that gets born again when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. Your spirit goes to heaven after you die here on this earth.  Your spirit is eternal and will never die again. 
• Soul. This is the part of you that chooses.  Your soul is your mind, will and emotions. 
• Body. The Word of God calls this your “flesh”.  It’s the part of you that still wants to sin and behave like the world because it isn’t renewed to the Word of God.

If you have the time, check out the post below for an in-depth look at the difference between the three. 

Understanding the 3 Part Man: Spirit, Soul, and Body

Definitions to Familiarize Yourself With

There are three basic definitions that we need to be familiar with to really understand this blog post.  See the Bible says that Jesus is the bread of life and who ever is thirsty needs to come to Him to receive the rivers of living water. 

Water = Spirit of God

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

John 7:37-38 KJV

The term waters in the Bible refers to living water that flows from the presence and spirit of God often associated with the anointing of God. 

Bread = Word of God

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

John 6:35 KJV

The term bread or bread of life refers to Jesus the living Word of God and it also refers to the Word of God or Bible.  The Word of God, Bible, Jesus and Bread are all synonymous with one another.

Meditation

The term meditation occurs in the Bible quite frequently, especially in the Book of Psalms. To meditate is to consider, think on, talk about and confess the Word of God (or something else) consistently (aka day and night).

You do this without having to be taught to do this.  The best example of this I can think of is when you meet a girl (or a guy) you really like.  You know what I mean.  It seems like everything you do begins to make you think about her.  You start asking yourself those questions like, “I wonder what she thinks about ____?”  

Well here’s the deal… 

God wants you to do that about Him and His Word. You walk into the store and see something that reminds you of Him and a Bible verse. 

Some people call that being “too spiritual” or “weird”, but the Word of God calls that setting your affections on things above.  Honestly it’s just a sign that you really love God. 

There is a lot to the topic of meditation, and I can’t get into it all in this blog post, but make sure you check out this post for all that information.

Meditation Myths & Facts

In this post let’s just stick with our basic definition of meditation.

The Effects of Starvation Summarized

Remember to the previous section that when we discuss spiritual result we are talking about lack of digesting the Word of God (food) and lack of time with God’s spirit (water).

The Effects of Starvation on the Physical Body

We all know that not eating isn’t fun.  I mean sometimes just waiting to eat until after a church service can make the time feel like it’s crawling by…

These three facts presented below give us insight into the effects that lack of food and water can have on the body.  Water and food together are necessary for survival. Of course, we know this… no one is shocked by this information, but the natural body provides some really good insight into the parallels of the spiritual man. 

The Effects of Spiritual Starvation on the Human Spirit

I know this seems crazy, but you have a human spirit on the inside of you that needs to be fed just like your physical body needs to be fed.  Here’s the thing… I used to hear everyone say, “Read your Bible.” But it never clicked with me.  I thought of Bible reading as a duty that you had to do. 

In truth it is something you have to do if you want to have a strong spiritual life.  I truly believe many christians here on this earth look good on the outside.  They have the money, fame and beach body, but when they die and go to heaven they look like spiritual wimps. 

Their human spirit is weak because they starved themselves. 

You know your spirit can overflow to give you health in your body? See The Human Spirit can Overflow to Health

Many christians live this life in bondage to sin, sickness and lack because they aren’t feeding their spirit man to the degree they need to. 

Not Meditating on the Bible starves you of the Bread of Life.

Just as your body needs food to survive and without it you’ll wither away in a few months, so too we need the Word of God. There’s not a hard and fast rule on how much Bible reading and meditation you have to do, but a good rule of thumb is to eat until you’re full. Crazy right? 

Jesus said this,

In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.

John 4:31-32 KJV

Did Jesus physically eat something? No He was talking about His personal time with the Lord.  In fact, when He was tempted in the wilderness He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 and said…

And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Luke 4:3-4 KJV

What was Jesus saying?  He was telling us that our strength cannot come simply from the natural realm in what WE can do, but it has to come from the Word of God inside of us. 

Not Fellowshipping with God’s Spirit will dry you up Spiritually

The loss of water the human body is extremely dangerous.  Water is what comprises 80% of the human body and without it you begin to wither away very quickly. The human spirit it made up of the same thing that God Himself is made up of. 

Remember in Genesis when God breathed into the mouth of man? 

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.

Genesis 2:7 KJV

And then again when Jesus rose from the dead he breathed into mankind. 

Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

John 20:21-22 KJV

The Lord returned mankind to the same state that he was in when Adam was in the garden.  He then commissioned us to go out and tell everyone that they too can be reconciled unto God and have a real relationship with Him, but that’s a story for another time. 

Because we have the spirit of God on the inside of us, we are required to be a guard to the flame of the Holy Spirit on the inside of us.  We are the light carriers and that means we have to fellowship with the Spirit.

If you feel run down or lost in life as a Christian, check that you have spent time fellowshipping with the Spirit of God in worship some time recently.

Spiritual Starvation changes your strength

I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

John 5:30 KJV

Jesus, Himself, said he was unable to do anything of his own accord.  Now think about this Jesus the very Word of God said that He couldn’t do anything without relying on the spirit of God.  

This is what Isaiah tells us…

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31 KJV

Just like not eating food will cause our strength to shift from the food to our own natural bodies so too when we don’t eat the Word of God we stop the life source of the Word of God from being able to easily flow through us. 

Our strength often times then becomes what WE can do instead of what HE can do. 

Feed yourself with Frequency

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

Joshua 1:8 KJV

Just like you have a morning and evening meal, so too you should feed yourself spiritually with some form of frequency.  Now mind you there’s isn’t a hard and fast rule that you have to follow.  

This concept of “feeding your spirit” might have come up if you’ve been in church for any period of time, but here’s the thing it’s not simply something you do once or twice a week at church.

The concept of “feeding your spirit” comes with the understanding that you’re hungry.  Of course just like a child isn’t always sure what’s wrong when they’re hungry they just cry, so too many spiritual babes in Christ don’t know what’s wrong they simply start crying.

Just like it isn’t good enough to feed yourself once a week.  You have to feed your spirit more than once or twice a week.