The night before last, I dreamed I was a new employee at a restaurant. It was my first day on the job. In fact it was the first few minutes of my first day.
I was in training.
The owner/manager was an experienced, wise, even-tempered, generous, and experienced man.
I was in the dining area of the restaurant, just trying to get oriented to my setting. There were no customers. It was as if the restaurant was not yet open.
Suddenly, the doors opened and customers began pouring into the room and filling up the tables.
I happened to be standing beside a small table when a couple seated themselves at it. The couple were wearing stark black and white clothing in stripes and checkerboard type patterns.
They spotted me and immediately assumed that I was a waiter.
“We want some mushrooms,” they demanded in a very thick accent of some type.
I had trouble communicating with them because of the language barrier.
I tried to tell them that I was new and that I didn’t know if we served mushrooms, but they became impatient and kept insisting that I bring them some mushrooms.
I found a menu and scanned it for mushrooms. I couldn’t find any. I tried to explain this to them, but they didn’t understand me and grew more unhappy and impatient. Finally I decided to go get the manager.
I walked to the kitchen area and began to explain my problem to him.
Just then the couple came stomping by, angry that nobody had brought them their mushrooms yet. The manager intercepted them and began to use his amazing people skills.
He spoke to them fluently in their own language and I could see that they were relaxing and understanding his explanation.
Relieved that the situation was clearly in capable hands, I walked away, deeper into the kitchen area.
Symbolically, food signifies anything that we take in to satisfy us, sustain us, and strengthen us. In both the Old and New Testaments, people such as David (Psa. 119:103); Jeremiah (Jer. 15:16); Ezekiel (Ezek. 3:1-3); Peter (1 Pet. 2:2); and John (Rev. 10:10) all fed on the words that proceed out of God’s mouth.
Evidently, in my dream, I was prepared to help feed people Truth from God.
In walks a couple clad in black and white. Scripture uses the metaphor of clothing in order to picture one’s standing before God. We find instances of no clothing, of soiled clothing, of clothing changes, of clothing being washed, and of clean clothing – all in support of the metaphor of clothing as a picture of one’s right to stand before God. This couple were clothed in black and white. In other words, they viewed their standing before God as being defined by black and white.
Legalists.
Very structured thinkers.
Their insistance on eating mushrooms reminds me of the old joke.
Q: “How are employees like mushrooms?” A: “In order to have them grow the company must keep them in the dark and feed them… [I’ll use the word ‘dung’.]”
Stephen Jones writes:
“In the fourth chapter of Ezekiel, at the beginning of his ministry, the prophet is told to eat food cooked with dung. The word “dung” is from the Hebrew word gelel (#1561 in Strong’s Conc.). It is a variation of the basic root word galal, which also means “dung.”
“This Bible passage teaches us the contrast between good food and dung. God’s Word is the good food; man’s traditions, that which proceeds from his rebellious heart, are only dung. Those who eat food cooked with dung are those who believe in God, who do eat God’s Word, but they mix it with the dung of men’s traditions, men’s understanding of God and His Word. This is one of the most basic moral problems of all time.
“The Hebrew word for “idols” is gillul, which is just a slight variation of galal (“dung”). Ezekiel is really telling us that idols are dung. Dung was the popular euphemism for idols…
“There is an old saying, “Fight fire with fire.” In the matter of heart idolatry, God’s way is to fight dung with dung. When the prophets were sent out to expose the “dung” in the hearts of the people, the people threw “dung” at the prophet (verbally). Their opposition was often very bitter, very harsh, very vindictive. They also blamed the prophet for their own faults, projecting their own guilt upon him…
“Dung defiles us from within; bitterness takes root and grows into a tree. Soon we find ourselves overreacting and slinging dung at someone else…
“Do not sling it back. It takes two to fight, even in dung fights. It takes real faith to see the hand of God in a piece of dung coming at you from the hand of an enemy. The proper place for a false accusation is in the ground. Let God fertilize you, that you may bear fruit unto Him…
“Don’t waste a bad experience. Don’t waste a good chunk of dung. Thank God for it and bury it in the ground beside you, praying to know God’s purpose in this and how you may use it to bear fruit that is pleasing to Him. Learn to forgive. Learn to remit sin. If we always keep the dung in its proper place, knowing and trusting that God will work all things out for our good, then we will know the meaning of true Faith and Rest in Him.”
In my dream, these diners had not yet learned to bury the dung instead of eating it. They savored man’s traditions and the fleshly structure of legalism.
You really can’t reason with people like that. Their minds are made up and you might as well be speaking another language. Thus my language barrier with them. I simply couldn’t make them understand that not only did we not serve mushrooms, we weren’t interested in serving that type of fare, because we had so much better food to choose from.
I gave up trying to communicate and went to the manager.
He reminded me of Jesus Christ in his wisdom, patience, and gentle diplomacy.
Only He could speak their language. Only he could break through their legalistic mindset.
I didn’t need to stress it. He had this.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is about to unstop a lot of deaf ears and reveal the truth to some pretty dense and stubborn people.
Even Christians.
Especially Christians.
This is confirmed by Johnny Enlow’s interview on Elijah Streams today. Watch it below. It is a powerful prophecy that the fulfillment of Luke 4:18 is upon us. We are about to be anointed to preach the gospel to the poor; to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised.
Perhaps as you watch this video, you will receive this anointing for yourself.
The dRhema 