CURBLOGZ

by JEFF DEYO

"Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who trust in him!" (Psalm 34:8) OK, what in the world is that! Have you ever tasted God-that sounds really weird!!! What about seeing God-have you ever physically seen God?? Have your physical eyes seen God? (No, not according to 1 Timothy 6:16) Man, when I read stuff like this, I typically skip over it. Of course, I have a general idea of what the writer means, but it’s a little too funky for my little human brain to grapple with, so I normally just move on. But let’s not move on today!

What is David saying to us here in this verse? Is he telling us that we should be able to somehow take a physical taste of God? No. Is he telling us that if we strain really hard we might just be able to see God standing up there next to the pastor or sitting with the choir? Of course not! Again, I’ve always had an idea of what we were referring to, but it wasn’t until I was watching a video from John Bevere on the Holy Spirit that the lights came on for me. In John’s book, Drawing Near, he reveals what I knew all along in the deepest part of my soul, but just couldn’t put into words. He says, "Just as we have five natural senses we have five spiritual senses."

OF COURSE! That’s it. Maybe this isn’t profound to you, but it is extremely profound to me! I knew there was something going on in the spiritual world that I could never put my finger on! You say, "WHAT? Five spiritual senses? What are you talking about?" To understand, let’s look at the scriptures. And as you read these passages, ask yourself if it is possible that the writer could be referring to our natural senses-could you do any of these things with your five senses - taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing?

"How sweet are your words to my TASTE; they are sweeter than honey." (Psalm 119:103)

"Thus saith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that TOUCH the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them." (Jeremiah 12:14 KJV)

"To those who are perishing we are a fearful SMELL of death and doom. But to those who are being saved we are a life-giving PERFUME." (2 Corinthians 2:16)

"For you are a fountain of life, the light by which we SEE." (Psalm 36:9)

"Anyone who is willing to HEAR should listen and understand!" (Matthew 11:15)

So you can SEE now that we have been missing out on a part of our spirit that we didn’t realize existed! For me, it’s as if in finally understanding this principal I’ve been healed of tastelessness, deafness, lack of feeling, lack of smell and blindness all at once! PRAISE GOD!

If you think about it, this is really what can happen. If you didn’t know you were blind, and then someone walked over, prayed for you and suddenly you could see, you would be amazed. If you didn’t know you were supposed to be able to hear because you were deaf, and then you got healed, you would be overjoyed upon listening for the first time! And so on…

So, if you didn’t know it, now you do-you can see, taste, smell, touch and hear in the spirit! It’s right there in the word! (And if you’re still not sure, it may be because your sense of spiritual hearing isn’t fully functioning yet!)

So what’s the point? Dude, its time to feast! Its time to revive your spiritual senses! Its time to see things in God you never thought were possible to see! It’s time to hear and understand God’s Word for the first time-on the deeper level God desires!

Now, of course, these spiritual senses are not some kind of super human power that we can stir up within ourselves! The ability to hear, taste, see, smell and touch in the spirit comes from none other than the Holy Spirit! That is his job-to help us know and experience stuff that we cannot without him! He gives us wisdom, knowledge and understanding as well as many other gifts that make up our spiritual senses.

Many of us have grown dull in our spiritual senses. For some it may be because we didn’t realized they were there, and for others maybe because we haven’t developed them. Think about it. Have you lost your taste for the Word? Do you have a difficult time hearing what God is asking you to do? Is it painstaking for you to "endure" the fragrance of God’s presence? Maybe you need to start a work out program for the senses of your spirit!

Paul says in Hebrews 5:14, "But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who BY REASON OF USE HAVE THEIR SENSES EXCERCIZED to discern both good and evil." (emphasis added / NKJV) We’ve got to exercise our spiritual senses in order for them to function properly. Again, it is as if we never knew they were there! They need to be rehabilitated and strengthened so that they can bring us the spiritual nourishment we need!

John Bevere shows us in his book that many of us have tuned our spiritual senses to the frequency of the world. We tickle them with the temporary joys and pleasures of our everyday lives, and that weakens our ability to enjoy and recognize the things of God! Proverbs 27:7 is a verse that seems really strange at first glance. Its one of those I have always passed by, assuming it had no relevancy for me. It reads, "Honey seems tasteless to a person who is full…"

Here, honey represents the sweet things of God. Maybe it represents God’s Word or his desires for us or even his Son’s death on the cross. You might say, "How can honey seem tasteless?" Well, the key in found in the word SEEMS. The Bible doesn’t say that honey IS tasteless to a person who is full. It says it SEEMS tasteless. So we know the problem isn’t with the honey. The sweet things of God are still sweet. They just may not seem sweet to you!

But what does it mean by "a person who is full?" Full of what? And what type of "full" are we talking about? I believe it is clear that the Bible is speaking of the type of full where we become satisfied with something other than God! God designed us with spiritual needs and desires that are similar to our physical needs and desires. All of our physical senses benefit us by fulfilling a need, giving us pleasure or warning us in some way. It is the same with our spiritual senses. And both types of senses can be "contented" in different ways. We can fill ourselves with junk food or we can feast on the Word of God. We can "feed" our ears with the words and sounds of the devil or those of God. We can smell up our lives by wallowing in the trash pits of life, or we can be saturated in the sweet fragrance of God’s presence. And so on . . .

So, again I ask, at what point could honey possibly taste bad or "unsweet" to us??? Honey would clearly loose its appeal if we were already "satisfied" with something else. For example, if you had just downed a huge thing of dip n dots, drank three cokes and eaten a quart of cookie-dough ice cream, you would most likely not be interested in a bowl of honey nut cheerios. In fact, if you did eat them they wouldn’t taste sweet to you in comparison to everything else you just consumed. At best, you would be indifferent towards them. However if you had been on a fast for 5 days with nothing but juice and water, a bowl of honey nut cheerios would be like a carnival for your taste buds!

It is the same with our spiritual senses. When we "entertain" them with the things that momentarily fulfill our longings, we lose our desire for the things of God. And worse yet (as in many of our churches) we become indifferent or luke-warm toward the sweet and incredible things of God. It’s not that we don’t enjoy God, but he’s not as sweet TO US, because we’ve indulged ourselves in the things of this world. (And remember, we’re not talking only of sinful indulgences, but anything that "satisfies" us in the place of God.)

So what to do? We typically beg and plead God to increase our hunger, but it really isn’t God’s job to make us hungry. It’s his "job" to SATISFY our hunger. But we have to create within ourselves a true hunger and "taste" him. And the fact is, whatever you consume, you develop a taste for.

Have you ever heard someone say, "You have to acquire a taste for it"? I’ve never understood that phrase entirely. I mean, why would you ever want to acquire a taste for something you didn’t like to begin with, especially for what most people are referring to when they use that phrase-like coffee, beer, smoking, etc? It seems silly to me to "grin and bare it" for a while so that at some point your taste buds can begin to enjoy what they used to despise!

But, this is precisely what we need to do in order to maintain a balanced spiritual diet. When you discipline yourself to balance your diet, there are always things you have to eat that you don’t necessarily like. But the more you eat those things, the more your body craves them. So, if you eat pie and drink milkshakes constantly, you will crave pie and milkshakes, but if you eat blackened red fish and steamed broccoli, you will begin to crave that instead. The more we discipline ourselves to ingest the good things of God, the greater our hunger will be for those things! Simple. Difficult. Wise. All at the same time!

(Oh yeah, thanks to John Bevere for inspiring much of this devotional! I highly recommend his book, Drawing Near. Trust me. It’s not the same ol’, same ol’ wimpy stuff about intimacy with God. It’s "hit you in the gut" truth from the Word of God that will take you much deeper in a practical sense than you thought you could go with God. John has sharpened his spiritual senses, and he has an understanding of God’s Word that will open your heart and mind!)

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