But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”  9 Now when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. 10 Then He spread it before me; and there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe . . . 3 Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll. 3 And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.  Ezekiel 2:8-3:3 NKJV

In the above text, God gave the priest-prophet Ezekiel a vision of an out stretched hand giving him the Word of God and he was caused to eat it. He opened his mouth and ate it until his stomach was full, and the Word of God was sweet as honey. I call this soul food, i.e., food good for the soul and spirit.

Every since Adam disobeyed God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, mankind has been on a downward slide of sin, sickness, bondage, and spiritual defeat. Eating caused mankind to be defeated, but eating can also bring great victory in Christ Jesus. It is important to eat good food in order to be healthy and fit both physically and spiritually. In the same way that the physical body needs natural food, man’s soul and spirit needs soul food. I am not talking about natural soul food like: fried chicken, corn bread, collard greens, black-eyed peas, macaroni and cheese, and sweet potato pie, etc. Spiritually speaking, the Bible symbolizes God’s Word as food and drink, and you are what you eat.

The Word of God is food for the soul with nutritional power to transform one’s life by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2; Jas. 1:21). Jesus had this in mind when He commanded Peter to feed His lambs and His sheep with “soul food.” In fact, the metric that Jesus used to gauge Peter’s love for Him was his obedience to feed—not natural food but soul food—to His lambs and sheep (John 21:15-17).

Soul food ranges from milk to strong meat (1 Cor. 3: 2-3; Heb. 5:12-14).  Milk is fed to the babes and solid food to the mature in Christ. The apostle Paul admonished and charged Timothy (a young pastor at Ephesus) to preach the Word (2 Tim. 4:2) —not politics, history, psychology, sociology, or theology. I am reminded of Job’s insatiable hunger for “soul food.” Notwithstanding Job’s severe test and trials, he esteemed God’s Word more than his necessary food (natural food, see Job 23:12).

Unfortunately, much of the preaching and teaching in today’s Church is junk food, leftovers, recycled food rather a fresh Word of God. God wants His people fed and to eat the “whole book of the scroll” as He commanded Ezekiel. The spirit and soul needs soul food, and you are what you eat!