Soul Nurture - The Power of the Word
Soul Nurture • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
We’ve started this year starting a new series looking at Soul Nurture -
“Soul Nurture” refers to the intentional care, feeding, and strengthening of a person’s inner life—their mind, emotions, will, and spiritual condition—so they grow healthy, whole, and aligned with God.
From a biblical and Christian perspective, it means tending the soul so it flourishes in God’s presence rather than merely surviving life’s pressures.
The Bible treats the soul as central to a person’s life:
36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
3 He refreshes and restores my soul (life); He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.
Soul nurture is about formation, restoration, and protection of the inner person.
Formation: Feeding the soul – through the Word of God, worship, prayer, and truth
Restoration: Healing the soul – allowing God to address wounds, sin, trauma, and lies
Protection: Guarding and Strengthening the soul – discerning what we allow to influence our thoughts and emotions. And learning resilience, faith, obedience, and spiritual authority
Basically:
Soul nurture is caring for the invisible part of you that determines how you live, love, and respond to God and others.
In the last 2 talks we have seen that:
Our souls are shaped by what we consume, believe, and hold to.
The Word of God is not just information—it is impartation.
We can only receive and understand God’s Word in relationship with the Holy Spirit
If the soul neglects sustenance by God’s Word, it becomes vulnerable.
If the soul is nourished by God’s Word, it becomes strong, stable, and victorious.
“Seven days without reading God’s Word, makes one weak”.
Do you know that many believers are spiritually malnourished, not demonised.
The enemy often doesn’t need to attack — he just distracts us from the Word.
A nurtured soul is not sustained by feelings, willpower, intelligence, or personality — but by the living, powerful Word of God, it is what voice we allow in to shape our soul.
12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
As we give God’s Word authority in our lives it has power to change us.
1: The Word of God Has Power to Transform the Soul
1: The Word of God Has Power to Transform the Soul
The Word of God doesn’t just inform the mind; it has the power to renew, restore, heal, and transform the soul.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect (flawless), restoring and refreshing the soul;
The statutes of the Lord are reliable and trustworthy, making wise the simple.
Illustration – Renovation vs Decoration
Illustration – Renovation vs Decoration
Q. Do you know there is a big difference between Renovation and Decoration?
To decorate deals only with the surface, it makes the visible look better, but doesn’t deal with any underlying problems. If there are underlying issues, after a short while, no matter how many coats of paint you’ve tried to apply, the issues will soon surface.
Jesus didn’t die on the cross to just make your life a bit better!
God isn’t into the papering over of the cracks.
God Word of life doesn’t decorate the soul; it renovates it. God doesn’t want to build on broken foundations.
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This is structural work: Be transformed: μεταμορφόω - we get metamorphism from this word, which describes a profound, visible change that proceeds from an inward changed reality, it’s never a mere external disguise: as a caterpillar become a butterfly.
How are we transformed? By the renewing of our mind!
To renew- ἀνακαίνωσις - to make new, to renovate, to completely change for the better.
How do you renovate your mind? By reading and allowing God’s Word, His truth to take root. As I said last week, to call out to the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s truth, to search God’s word for His treasure, to accept His truth for my life and then apply it.
As we allow God’s truth to transform us, to renew and renovate our minds, what we previously believed about ourselves, the lies which conformed to the pattern of the world will loose their grip.
Trauma, fear, guilt, and other lies will lose their grip when God’s truth is received and believed.
Our soul will align with heaven when God’s Word becomes its primary voice.
RESPONSE:
Take a moment right now:
“Holy Spirit, what lies have I been believing about myself? What lies have shaped my thinking? Where have I conformed to the pattern of this world? I invite you now Holy Spirit to renew my mind, to realign my soul to your perfect truth.
2: The Word of God Has Power Over the Enemy
2: The Word of God Has Power Over the Enemy
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Jesus was hungry, isolated, and weakened physically.
Satan attacked identity (“If you are the Son of God…”). - do you know this is one of the main ways in which the enemy attacks - our identity - who we are in Christ.
What was Jesus response?
Jesus didn’t argue with Satan, He didn’t try to explain his opinion, he didn’t enter a debate or get angry, emotional or shout at Satan — He simply declared Scripture. With: “It is written.”
“The devil didn’t leave because Jesus shouted — he left because Jesus stood on truth.”
The enemy is not intimidated by opinion, emotion, or volume—he is defeated by truth.
The Word of God, spoken in faith, becomes a weapon.
This is a key: The Word read nourishes the soul. But the Word spoken advances the Kingdom.
Our words have power,
21 The tongue has the power of life and death…
In Ephesians 6 we find the armour of God, the only piece of armour for attack is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
A sword on the wall is decorative. A sword in the hand is decisive.
How many of us have our swords decorating our bookshelves?
How often when the lies of the enemy come against our identity do we reach for our mode of escapism, whether social media, Netflix, porn, books, food, the gym.
“The Word you don’t speak cannot fight for you.” Silence in spiritual warfare is not neutrality—it is vulnerability.
The enemy knows the Bible — what he fears is a believer who believes and declares it.
What is God’s truth, who does God say you are? What does the Bible say?
What Biblical truths do you need to start to declare?
“It is written —
I am God’s ‘child’. John 1:12
I have been ‘redeemed’ and ‘forgiven’ for all my sins. Colossians 1:14
I am ‘complete in Jesus’. Colossians 2:10
I am free forever from ‘condemnation’. Romans 8:1,2
I cannot be ‘separated from the love of God’. Romans 8:35-39
I have been ‘established, anointed and sealed by God’. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22
I am ‘confident that the good work God has begun in me will be perfected’. Philippians 1:6
I am a ‘citizen of heaven’. Philippians 3:20
I have ‘not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind’. 2 Timothy 1:7
I am the ‘salt of the earth and the light of the world’. Matthew 5:13-14
I am a ‘branch of the true vine’, Jesus, a channel of His life. John 15:1-5
I have been ‘chosen and appointed by God to bear fruit’. John 15:16
I can ‘do all things through Jesus who strengthens me’. Philippians 4:13
3: The Word of God Has Power to Release Life and Fruit in the midst of storms.
3: The Word of God Has Power to Release Life and Fruit in the midst of storms.
Psalm 1 speaks about those who meditate on God’s law day and night
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
Last time when we looked at Psalm 1 I mentioned how fruit feeds other, how fruit carries seed but also I want to say that fruit reveals maturity.
At Christmas I received a Greengage Tree for my present. It is 2 years old, but on the information it said that it would not produce fruit for at least another 2 years!
A tree will only start to produce visible fruit as it starts to mature. Most of a tree’s growth happens where no one can see it.
The deeper the roots go, the less dramatic the visible struggle becomes.
In drought, storms, and heatwaves, trees don’t survive because of what’s above ground — but because of what they’ve developed below the surface.
Strong roots don’t stop storms; they make the tree unmovable in them.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
To be planted by streams imply:
Continuous supply
Hidden dependence
Daily drawing, not occasional visiting
Q. Where are you today?
Many of us want visible spiritual breakthrough without the invisible discipline.
God’s Word develops a hidden strength that shows up later as peace, endurance, wisdom, and fruit.
The storms will come -when life shakes you, it reveals how deep your roots really are and if you can still produce the fruit despite the storms.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
The soul cannot thrive on yesterday’s revelation.
The Word is not just to be admired it is not for decoration —it is to be received, believed, spoken out, and obeyed. It brings transformation through the renewing, through the renovating of our minds.
God doesn’t want us to wear the lies of the enemy! He wants us to take back our identity which the devil has stolen. He wants us to take up our sword, His living word and fight back. To declare “It is written”, to speak out God’s truth over our lives, over our identity, as His beloved child.
Finally, God wants our roots to go deep, to be drawing continuously from the stream of living water, for us to mature so we can bear fruit no matter what storms we may face.
