Now let us see the conclusion of the matter.
When spiritual starvation is allowed to run its full course you see the same effects that physical starvation produces.
1. A starving body starts breaking down its own tissues. Basically, a starving body begins to consume itself.
2. Hunger causes starving people to eat anything they are offered and anything they can find.
3. In extreme cases, starving people may even consume one another.
Proverbs 1: 18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
A physical body that receives no nourishment from without will take it from within. A starving body breaks down muscle, then fat, then the tissue of vital organs. It literally eats itself up from the inside. If you have a spiritually body – whether an individual or a congregational body—that does not have the living water of Jesus, that is not drinking the milk of the Word, that is does not feed on the bread of life, that does not digest the meat of the Father’s will; then you have a spiritually starving body that will slowly self-destruct.
Look at the young girl giving her body away again and again, destroying her virtue because she feels so empty, so hungry inside.
See the contentious congregation withering away as it tears consumes itself in backstabbing and undermining.
Consider the self-hating man, woman, boy, or girl who’s every interaction and relationship is filled with gossip and manipulation, who’s behavior is self-destructive because the soul are so hungry.
2 Timothy 4: 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
2 Peter 2: 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.
Like newborn babies, starving people will eat whatever you give them, even if all you put before them is a baked cake of … dirt. We encounter these starving spiritual babies and sometimes we feed them dirt.
We talk to those who are less spiritually mature than us telling them things like:
“You know you’re supposed to be nice to people, but if they come at you wrong, you better cuss them out!” That’s spiritual dirt.
“Oooh ooh, he got a bunch of money. I know he didn’t get it legally, but he sure is blessed.” That’s spiritual dirt.
“I know what the Bible says, but God’s not really going to send anybody to Hell.” That’s spiritual dirt.
“The Lord know you’re only human. He’ll bless you even if you live in sin.” Spiritual dirt.
“Man, an episode of Oprah’s as good as a morning at church.” Spiritual dirt.
“Lie to the boss for me.”
“Lie to the bill collector for me.”
“Lie to your daddy for me.”
“Lie to your mama for me.”
Dirt. Dirt. Dirt. Dirt!
We season this grime, bake it up, and set it before people who are desperate for something, anything to feed their souls; and they eat it up because they have nothing else. They look to us because we seem well-fed, or at least, better fed than they, but if all we offer them is dirt, we will fill their bellies, but “dem still hungry.”
But even, if we don’t actively misfeed and deceive them, we must be careful not to simply neglect them.
There are many well-documented stories of explorers who became lost or stranded and, desperate for food, boiled their belts, chewed their saddles, even ate sawdust. If we do not feed people spiritually, if we do not tell others about the living water, the milk of the Word, the bread of life, the meat of the Father’s will; then they will look around and consume whatever is at hand. They will swallow the lies of astrology. They will sate their bodies with addictions. They will gorge themselves on crime. They will accept and imbibe any destructive heresy, lying fable, and false prophesy lying around the culture because we who have access to spiritual nourishment have failed to share with them.
And if malnourished or misnourished long enough, starving people may begin to consume one another.
2 Kings 6: 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged …
26 Then, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!”
27 And he said, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?” 28 Then the king said to her, “What is troubling you?”
And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 29 So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”
30 Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes…
The evidence of spiritual cannibalism is all around us.
See the young man who is so spiritually hungry, that he thinks, “I’ll kill my brother because maybe if I take his life, it’ll fill this hole inside me.”
Consider the Wall Street executive who has gutted the company, drained the employees’ pensions, consumed the savings and the livelihoods of thousands of people, to make another million and try to feed a hunger that no amount of money can satisfy.
These are examples of people who are so spiritually hungry that they attack each other.
The solution?
In my hometown of Bassfield, Mississippi, when an older lady saw a young mother with a hungry, or hungry-looking, child, she would tell the girl, “You need to feed that baby!” Then, without hesitation or permission, she would reach into her purse , pull out a candy bar, a pack of crackers, or some other snack, and hand it to the child.
The solution to the spiritual food crisis is for us -- the church, children of God, saints, believers in Jesus, Saved, Elect, Chrisitians-- to feed the babies. If you have received the living water of the Holy Spirit,
if you have any knowledge of the milk of the Word,
if you have given your life to Jesus, the bread of life,
if you seek to be filled with the meat that is the Father’s will,
then you must reach down, take out what you have and share it with whomever looks hungry around you.
If you are starving yourself, get to some food. Take advantage of the promise Jesus made to the woman at the well in John chapter 4. Recognize Jesus as Messiah and Lord of your life, and he will rehydrate you with living water. He will help you how to grow on the milk of the Word. He will be your bread of life. He will give you the meat of the will of the Father.
Confess your sins to God. Ask forgiveness in Jesus name. Accept Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life. Repent and be saved.
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
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