Spiritual Food

What is spiritual food? Where does it come from? How do we get it? In John chapter 6, after Jesus had feed 5000+ people with a boy’s lunch, the people came looking for Him the next day to get more food. Jesus interacted with them in John 6:25-29,

²⁵ When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

²⁶ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. ²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

²⁸ Then they asked Him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”

The crowd was confused. They came looking for food, but as Jesus is so good at doing, He changed the conversation from physical to spiritual. “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.” Then Jesus ties the conversation about food to what work God requires. “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”

In 6:33-35 Jesus gets to the heart of His message. He is the Bread of Life.

³³ For the bread of God is the Bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.” 

Jesus continues to take the message deeper in 6:48-57

⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. ⁵⁰ But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

⁵² Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.

Now the crowd was really confused. They are still thinking about physical food. Even the disciples were confused. When the crowd left because of His message, Jesus asked the disciples if they were leaving too, Peter simply said, “Where else would we go? Only You have the words of eternal life.” They had total faith in Jesus even if they did not understand.

I have been thinking about this passage and came to understand there is a parallel between physical food and spiritual food. We eat food when our body is hungry and craving nutrition (bread and fish for the crowd). We can choose to eat food that is good for our body or food that is not. Our body is greatly affected by our food choices. What we take into our body can be helpful or harmful to our physical health. The old saying “You are what you eat” is very accurate.

What seems to be the cause of confusion in the passage above is our understanding of what our spirit is. Paul helps us understand in his analogy that says our body is just the earthly tent our spirit (or inner person) lives in. Our body will decay after death, but our spirit is eternal.

Therefore, the same thing is true for our “inner person” or spirit. Our spirit is hungry and craves the things we learn to enjoy. They also can be good or bad for us spiritually. We are greatly affected by what we choose to intake into our spirit. What we think about, watch, read, and listen to are all either edifying, neutral or harmful. We will become spiritually like the people we spend time with. We will become spiritually weak or strong from the things we put into our mind. Our mind is the spiritual battlefield. Once something is in your memory, it cannot be “unseen” or “unheard”. Both God’s messengers and Satan’s messengers can only use what is already in your memory.

Everything that touches our spirit can draw us closer to God or move us farther away. Satan’s goal with a Christian is to keep us distracted from the Kingdom. Satan knows we can’t lose our salvation. He doesn’t need to lead us into sin, just be distracted and focus on things of no Kingdom value. If we stay to close to the things of this world they will become “normal” to us. The language or thoughts of others become ours. However, If our spirit is in line with the Holy Spirit, we will produce Kingdom “fruit”.

So, what was Jesus talking about when He said, “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” He is talking about spiritual flesh and blood. If we take Him into our spirit, He remains in us. If we get off into worldly pursuits, He cannot participate with us. We might say to ourselves what I am doing is not sinful, it is just entertaining to me. However, if we know we are off in a worldly focus, think about what James 4:17 says, “ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

Also, Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Here is an example from my life. When the Star Trek series was on TV I became a big fan, a Trekkie. Then Star Wars came along. We have all the Star Trek movies and the first six Star Wars movies. What I really enjoyed about all of them were the different characters, especially Spock and Data. They were extremely logical, and I liked that. I can’t even imagine how many hours of my earlier life I spent watching these make-believe worlds over and over again. There was nothing sinful in any of these characters, but there was also no Kingdom value derived from the time spent in their imaginary world.

Today that same enjoyment I found in those characters I find in learning about the different people in the Bible. I enjoyed learning about David, Joseph, Ruth, Esther and others in the Old Testament. Recently I have been doing an in-depth study of the Gospel of John. What I find interesting in this Gospel is it is written by John while in his 80’s remembering what it was like to be a disciple of Jesus when he was in his 20’s. I find that fascinating to think about.

The difference between the space movies and the Bible is obvious, empty entertainment versus God’s truth. If I am “created to do good works which God prepared beforehand”, the choice becomes obvious to me. I will be more useful in the Kingdom with Biblical truth in my memory.

There is a song from years past by the group Harvest. You can find it on U-Tube. It is worth listening to. The message of the song fits into the scenario of Christians walking in a worldly way. Here are the lyrics.

Army of the Lord

By Harvest

Are we walking into the enemy’s camp
Laying our weapons down
Shedding our armor as we go
Leaving it on the ground
We’ve gotta be strong
In the power of His might
To prove to the enemy
We are the army of the Lord
And we’ve won the victory

All around us a war’s going on
Between the wrong and the right
We gotta choose which side we’re on
The darkness or the light
‘Cause some of the soldiers of the Lord
Just don’t realize
That the captain of the army of darkness
Has come to blind their eyes

We have been given the Armor of God for this spiritual battle. Ephesians 6:11-17 says,

¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Satan wants to keep us blinded to God’s call in our lives so he can keep us from being fruitful in the Kingdom. All he has to do is keep us distracted and he accomplishes his goal. We have been given the Armor of God as a gift for us to use, but we have to put it on.