Soul Food

Archived on August 21st, 2008

We're going to talk about food this month. Not just any food though, we are going to talk about food that not only sustains the Spiritual body, but also can sustain the physical body for a time.
Jesus gave many teachings and in those teachings always taught on more than one level. I am going to try to show you some of these teachings concerning manna from Heaven and what I like to call "Soul Food". Now this is REAL Soul food.
We are going to start in John Chapter six, at verse twenty-two. This is just a day after Christ had fed the five thousand with two fishes and five loaves of barley bread.
Before we get started, let's talk about barley for a moment. Barley is a product grown in Palestine and was the dominant grain among the poor for Hebrews in making bread and feed for livestock. It was harvested no more than a month before the Wheat harvest. This is something I want you to really think about.
In another place Christ compares wheat with the Children of God, and the tares are the children of the devil. (Matthew 13:24-30) This barley harvest was necessary to sustain people, especially the poor. It is indeed a miracle when five loaves can feed five thousand people, but I want you to be aware of something in this teaching. Jesus was teaching on this mount and the people were listening, yes they became hungry and he had the disciples pass out the food as he blessed it and divided it. Yet it wasn't just physical food that he was distributing that day, it was also spiritual food. The bread he was giving out was not just bread from barley meal, but that of Life. Jesus is the Bread of Life, and he was sharing with these people himself and the Holy Spirit. With that in mind, realize that this barley was already harvested, this Bread of the poor, and was being given out around Passover, which Christ is now our own Passover. (1st Corinthians 5:7) Without this barley, this Bread, there could be no Wheat harvest. In this case; the Bread of Life must be received in order to have a harvest of Wheat, the children of God, for it is through Christ that the children can return to their Father and He will receive them unto Himself.
Ok, with that said, let's look at the following day and Jesus is going to clarify some of what I have said for us, as always the Word of God teaches of itself. This day following some of the men who saw Jesus teaching realized that He was the one who should come, so they were trying to find him in order to make Him King. However; Jesus purpose was not to be an earthly King, but the King of Kings and had to complete His purpose , so He kind of hid from them a little, went walking on the sea to the ship where the disciples were and sailed away. So the next day…..

John 6:22-41
(22) The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone;
(23) (Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:)
(24) When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.

They were looking for Him, but couldn't find Him there so they took a ship to Capernaum, these boys are hot on His trail.

(25) And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?
Rabbi is the Hebrew word for teacher or master which is an honorable title. Remember Jesus taught us that we cannot have two masters? (Matthew 6:24) You will love one and hate the other. I hope that Christ is your master, your Rabbi.

(26) Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
Verily means truly, so Jesus is saying "truly you do not seek me because of the miracle you saw, but because your hunger was filled with that bread you ate." We are going to see what the bread really is in a moment.

(27) Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
He continues, speaking of the meat that lasts forever. We know that no meat on this earth, no flesh will last forever. This meat he is speaking of is not physical, but spiritual. This is the meat of His Word. We will delve into this more a little later.

(28) Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
(29) Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
This is all that is required to become the child of God: Believe...John 3:16

(30) They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
(31) Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
These men are referencing the time in Exodus as the children wandered the wilderness for forty years. They struggled in that wilderness, grumbling and being babies, griping at Moses, complaining the whole time when God was right there with them. Do you know that Christians are doing the same thing today, The Holy Spirit is dwelling within us and yet you see some "Christians" who whine and complain about life IN this world and think they are doing someone good by telling someone else that they need to get their life straight. Hypocrites! God allowed the children to wander for a long time until they started to realize that their demise was their own fault for not fully trusting in Him and partaking of the meat that He had for them and for each one of us Today! So these men are looking for a sign to show that He is the son of Man, that prophet that God would send and the anointed one. The bread, the manna, fell from heaven and the people did eat it, but there is someone here in their presence that is much more sustaining than that manna could have ever been.

(32) Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
Jesus makes an interesting statement here and really begins to show you the reason I came here. He tells these men that the Father is giving them the TRUE bread from heaven, not just something to fill the belly.

(33) For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
Here it is! This Bread of Life is Christ and it is He who gives life to the world if the world would only eat of the bread. Unfortunately; there are some who search their whole lives looking for something, hungering for something to fill this huge hole in their heart. They will never find it unless they look to the one who gave His life for them.

(34) Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
These men want part of this, they want that Bread, but they cannot fully believe, they have already asked for a sign in doubt that He was the one.

(35) 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.
Never hunger or thirst again when you eat and drink of Christ! The five thousand that day were not filled in their belly, but in their heart and soul. They didn't hunger anymore; they had eaten of God's Table of Grace.
We are speaking here spiritually of course, but there is a lessening of the desires of the flesh body when you come into the knowledge of Christ and receive Him. When the Holy Spirit is dwelling and you cast your focus completely on Him (i.e. fasting) you can be surprised how He can sustain you in His Spirit. I don't suggest a complete fast for anyone who has never done it, it can be damaging to your system. If you work up to a complete 24-hour fast, it is amazing how He feeds you those hours and you truly walk in the Spirit during that time. I can guarantee you that there is coming a time when we will have to stand up and do this when the instead-of-Christ is here trying to entice all to come to him. He is a fake bread of Life, he is the Bread of Death, don't eat of his lies when he comes. Stay true to Father and continue partaking of the bread of Life.

(36) But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.
(37) All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
(38) For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
(39) And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
(40) And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
These men didn't believe on Him, maybe they would later, but right then they just couldn't understand His teachings to them. Father has given Sheep who should come to Christ and they will hear the voice of their Shepherd when He calls. Those who believe will have that guarantee, that promise of Eternal life! What a wonderful thing to know that in Christ we do not die.
Let's go one more verse here in John 6 and look at something else…

(41)The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
The word "Jews" (and I cannot stress this enough) is Ioudaios in the Greek language. It is not necessarily actual Hebrew children, Children of Israel, but it is a regional word, like American or Canadian or even Israeli in today's use of the language. So these people were standing there with these men, and were part of those people listening but not receiving Jesus, they had other plans for Him later on when His time would come to pay that ultimate price. So these were Judeans, living in that region, not actual Hebrews, or of the tribes of Israel. These are those who grafted themselves in almost in secrecy, but scripture reveals them as the Kenites...aka The Sons of Cain. Alright, let's continue on with the Bread, this Soul Food. I want to go to the 4th chapter of Matthew and look at something that has possibly been looked over for a while. This chapter involves the devil trying to tempt Christ. In a way it is ironic that the tempter is prideful enough to think he could talk Jesus into falling away. Of course that is the mind set of the prince of the power of air, satan, and here he is really trying to throw Christ a curve ball.

"And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:3-4)
Now we see that the devil is trying to get Jesus to turn some stones into bread, so that he can eat. Jesus had been fasting for 40-days and surely His flesh was gnawing at Him to put something into His stomach, yet Christ to show truth and understanding endured it all.
We have been discussing the Bread of Life and I hope after reading the verses above you may see this scripture a little different than before.
To some this scripture is a little confusing, but in the right thinking, the spiritual, you can easily understand it. Jesus isn't talking about physical completely, but more about spiritual. As I said before, when you are truly in the Spirit, your physical body doesn't bother you as much as it usually does, when you show it who is boss, the voice of the flesh body is much weaker.
Mankind cannot live on bread alone, but every word that proceeds, comes out of the mouth of God. In Luke it simply says "the Word of God". Of course this streamlines Matthew's words here.
We have the Bread of Life, which is Christ. Then Christ says that we cannot live on Bread alone but by every Word of God. Christ is the Word made flesh as we see in John chapter one. Jesus is teaching us a vital part of being a Christian, and living the life in Christ. This same teaching is touched on by Paul in his letter to the Hebrews.
Go with me to Hebrews Chapter 5:12 and learn what this Soul Food is that Christ is telling the devil we must also partake of.


Hebrews 5:12-14
(12) For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
(13) For every one that useth milk is unskilful The Word for Today of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Here we begin to learn of this Soul Food. The "first principles of the oracles of God", simply stated are the fundamentals of Christianity. These are the basic teachings that we must follow in order to be His child. These basics are described by Paul as being milk, and those who only live on this milk are like babies who are not off the bottle quite yet.
This is one of the problems in Christianity; people never get weaned because they are never taught the Word God properly. When you are in a church that never gets past being saved and baptized, you're in a church who is only handing out bottles for its babies.
People that use only the milk are unskillful The Word for Today of God. They are only handing out Milk and Bread.

(14) But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Strong meat is for those who are mature in Christ. They eat that meat of the Word and are fully sustained by that Word. So once we have eaten that Bread of Life and the Milk we must be weaned into solid foods.

Hebrews 6:1-3
(1) Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
(2) Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
(3) And this will we do, if God permit.
God does permit it if we are true to Him and love Him enough to study His Word. There is so much contained in His Word that we will never be able to completely understand all that He has to teach us through it. Yet; there is still so much more contained within that we do and can understand, yet it is not taught in today's churches for the most part.
We must leave those basic fundamentals, the principles (the firsts) of the doctrine of Christ in order to move on to maturity and completion.
The word "perfection" in verse 1 of chapter 6 is the Greek Word: te?e??´t??, teleiote¯s
tel-i-ot'-ace, it is a word that means completeness, or more intelligent. In this case complete in Christ whereby we can reap the benefits and share the same with others.
So in order to be complete, we must leave those principles to move on' use the brain that our Father gave us and think for ourselves, to study His word. (2nd Timothy 2:15) It's kind of like graduation from High School to College.
So your High school course would be: Repentance, Faith, Baptism, Healing, Resurrection and Judgment of the righteous and the Wicked.
When you have learned these you are ready to move on and grow up! To move into College courses that are much deeper and edifying.
Yes we must teach and give this Bread of Life to people in order for them to become children of God.
Not to say that these courses are not important. God forbid, without these you cannot move on and without these you never enter school at all.
Praise God, we have an education in and through Christ. We receive that Bread of Life, and become babes in Christ, then as we grow and mature we begin to partake of "every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" as Christ told the devil.
Those "words", is the entire Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, all of it is for our teaching. All those things in the Old Testament are for our examples and teachings and for signs for us to watch in these last times.
So continue in His Word and you will eat of that abundant Table of the living God. The food from His table will always feed you fully. You will never hunger or thirst when you sit at His table. AMEN!

God bless you and stay in His Word.

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