The Bible is real food for our spirit and soul and it is impossible for us to grow spiritually if we do not read and study the Word of God. When we become born again we are spiritually like newborn babies. We are spiritually weak, cannot defend ourselves from the devil, and need the support of other mature believers. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so important for us to belong to a local church–It is a support structure that God has prepared for us. The Holy Spirit is always ready to help us but we need to feed on the milk of the Word of God and then progress to solid food just as a newborn baby would in order to grow.[i] Some people never acknowledge that they have a spirit by feeding only their flesh. Our spirits are real and we need spiritual growth. In fact, what we see in the physical world came out of what we don’t see, that is the spiritual world[ii]. So don’t be deceived, our spirits and souls are as real as our bodies if not more. We must eat spiritual food (the Word of God) in order to grow spiritually; there is no other way around it. If we don’t feed our spirits we will develop a “spiritual malnutrition” and a type of “disease” that I call “spiritual failure to thrive”[iii]. We cannot walk in the victory that Christ has won for us when we are spiritually starving. We as believers are supposed to walk by the Spirit, so that we will not carry out the desires of the flesh.[iv] We cannot walk in a starving spirit.
[i] John 3:3-8 (NIV) also 1 Pet. 2:2; 1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12-13
[ii] Heb. 11:3 (NIV), also 2 Cor. 4:18 (NIV)
[iii] Failure to thrive is a serious medical condition that babies develop if they are not fed adequate quantities of nutritional food. Spiritual failure to thrive is a serious spiritual malnutrition “disease” that keeps the believer from growing after the believer has been born again. This is totally correctable with discipleship and daily bible reading and frequent bible study when done properly.
[iv] Gal 5:16
