THE CHRISTIAN'S

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

John Edmund Haggai

The Word of God Nourishes the Believer

(2) The new nature is sustained and strengthened only by the nourishment the Word of God provides.

Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts (Jeremiah 15:16).

There is only one diet for the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the Word of God. The Lord Jesus Himself declared it.

So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:3).

(3) The Lord Jesus Christ has a rigid diet.

The Spirit nature thrives and grows only when on this diet.

But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'" (Matthew 4:4).

For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me (John 17:8).

While on earth and under the assaults of Satan, the Lord Jesus attained victory against every subtlety of Satan's inducement by "It is written."

He remained in the hands of His Father. His meat and drink day and night was the Word of God. His conversation and teaching were but quotations of, or allusions to, the Scriptures of the Old Testament.

(4) To know the will of God one must live in the Word of God.

The Word provides light, and the child of light walks in the light as he lives in the Word.

(5) Physical life requires regularity of nourishing meals. So with the spiritual life.

You could not meet the responsibilities of daily living if you did not regularly eat nourishing meals to sustain your body. You cannot expect to meet the responsibilities and opportunities of spiritual living apart from sustaining the spiritual life with the spiritual food it requires.

The Spirit life must be fed as regularly as the physical life. The diet must be just as careful and nutritious. Many believers stumble and fall - powerless to make their way along the path of discipleship. The reason lies in failure to feed on the spiritual food. They starve the spiritual life - the Spirit nature. Many believers live on past experiences, on old emotions. The experiences and food of ten years ago will not sustain the physical life today. The spiritual experiences and the spiritual food of ten years ago will not give strength for today.

An old professor used to admonish us, "No Bible, no breakfast. Don't speak to man until you have first spoken to God."

The written Word is the only food that sustains and strengthens the Spirit nature to do the will of God.

1. How does the Word of God nourish the believer?
2. What does knowing the will of God require a believer to do?