The Parable Of The Soup

Your spirit is a great soup. God wants to nourish the world with the products of your spirit. God cooked a great soup for the world on the day you got saved and was filled with the Holy Spirit.

My dad (of blessed memory) used to tell us the story of one of his experiences while at The Polytechnic Ibadan Nigeria. Dad was a great cook. I have fond memories of moments when mummy was on a long trip and he would take over the kitchen and cook for us to eat.

I think I learnt part of my culinary skills from him. I have six other siblings (five at the moment). Three males, three females. The males came first and so my parents trained them in all the basics of the home. There was nothing like males aren't supposed to cook or do laundry. Everyone, irrespective of your gender, was actively involved in domestic activities.

So, while at the higher institution, his hostel mates would come close to his kitchen just to savour the aroma of his soup. At first, he was unaware until the day he "caught" a guy lurking around his kitchen while trying to sniff the fragrance oozing out of the cookhouse.

Soup making is an important part of our cuisine. And the ability to make good soup can give you some advantages in life. Though, things are changing now but a popular mantra in the Yoruba parlance says, "Ọlọ́bẹ̀ ló l'ọkọ." In other words, if you can cook, you will win over your husband.

Now, take a moment to imagine a wife who made a great soup yesterday, served her husband and the entire family and they all ate and enjoyed the soup. But waking up today, she simply went to the pot and served the soup again without warming it up.

Then, on the third day, because they had a lot of the soup in the pot, she didn't bother to warm it up, she just took out plates and served the family.

Your guess is as good as mine. There is no way the soup would have survived not getting spoiled in three days without warming it up. The once delicious soup would have turned to an irritating stench.

This is the first lesson in the parable of the soup.

It doesn't matter how great the soup was when it was cooked, it has to be warmed up in order to preserve it and make it edible until it is finished.

Your spirit is a great soup. God wants to nourish the world around you with the products of your spirit. God cooked a great soup for the world on the day you got saved and was filled with the Holy Spirit.

But you have to warm up the soup daily if the world around you will keep eating from you. And your time of daily fellowship with God is the place where the soup is warmed up.

Like the cold soup, we wake up each morning feeling insipid and uninspired. Sometimes, we wake up overwhelmed with all the responsibilities and demands of life and the tendency is to rush out without warming up the soup.

However, as you summon the courage to break free from your bed, draw your Bible close to you and begin to read and meditate, something begins to happen to your spirit. You can literally feel the gentle simmering sound or bubbling characteristic of a soup that you are warming up.

There is going to be occasional small, quiet pops or hissing as pockets of air or steam escape. It's a soothing and comforting sound, indicating that the soup is slowly heating and becoming ready to enjoy.

Then, the aroma begins to go forth again as you keep the soup on fire for a considerable period of time. And soon you are ready to eat again.

It happens to our spirit too. You can literally feel the burning sensation on your breast after you have spent quality time with God in the word and prayer.

Cleopas and the other brother whom Jesus met on the road to Emmaus testified of their experience after meeting Jesus. They said,

“Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭24:32‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

If you don't have the habit of warming up your spirit daily through meditation in the word and prayer, the stench of the flesh will begin to ooze out you instead of the aroma of Christ.

This is why you exude being touchy, moody, reactive, restless, anxious and disturbed when you miss your appointment with God. It can become so bad you begin to fall into sins like telling lies, sexual lust including abusing or cursing people. The soup is getting spoiled.

God has ordained that meeting Him daily is the secret to preservation in this chaotic world.

If you are a truant, you are largely unpredictable. Your flesh can get out hand one day and you will do the unimaginable. If you have heard stories of a brother who suddenly fell into sexual sin, it didn't start that day. It began with a quiet departure from God's presence.

God's presence is the place where the human nature is constantly brought under control.

Meanwhile, soup gets exhausted and you will often need to make another one. This leads me to the second lesson in the parable of the soup.

You Need Constant Fresh Encounter and Impartation From God.

One scripture that quickly comes to mind on this is Acts 4:31. The Bible says

‭‭"And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness" NKJV.

Back in Acts 2, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit but in chapter 4, they needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit again because there is a new demand.

Another soup needs to be cooked!

Most believers never really desire or have any other fresh encounter with God apart from the one they had when they began their journey in the faith.

You need make it a habit to separate extended period of time to stay with God until a fresh soup is cooked in your spirit. This is critical for you if you are in the ministry.

You don't want to be carrying about the same stale revelation or anointing.

You want God to impart you with new grace and anointing that makes a difference. See, except people get to eat fresh soup cooked regularly from your spirit, you have no right to force them to stay. They will leave you and go to the place where they can get what they desire.

Make it a duty that you consistently separate time to receive fresh encounters from the the Lord so that you are always fit for any responsibility that comes your way.

This is the parable of the soup!

© Olufemi Babalola

PS: In the last two weeks, I have been leading a series of teachings in a WhatsApp Group of more than 300 person's on How To Pray Exclusively For One Hour Daily Even If You Are Extremely Busy.

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