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SPIRITUAL TASTE

I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.

—REVELATION 10:10

I recall when our spiritual father, the late Bob Jones, who was a seer prophet, activated Naim and me in the five spiritual senses. He told us if God says hot, fresh bread and we don’t see it, what happens? And we said we taste bread that is hot in our mouth. He said that was the correct answer, because God told us it was hot, fresh bread and we were able to taste it by hearing what God was speaking. That’s what tapping into your spiritual taste buds is like. God speaks to us prophetically through what I call spiritual taste.

The Holy Spirit can cause a Spirit-filled believer to receive revelation through their spiritual taste buds. God uses what you are familiar with to get your attention. God will use your spiritual taste to speak something familiar to us. If I blindfold most of you and did a taste test survey, many of you would be able to identify apple, pumpkin, or lemon pie. Likewise, with our spiritual sense of taste we are able to identify things as well and call to our memory certain tastes that were bitter, sweet, salty, hot, cold, or warm. Ezekiel understood this when he was given the scroll to eat.

So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.” Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth. Then He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them (Ezekiel 3:2-4 NASB).

God can speak to us through our sense of taste. When we ask the Lord to use us for His glory, God does just that. He has created our bodies to function through messages between the brain and the body. God speaks to our imagination and sends messages through our bodies to respond. The brain is the control center of the body. God uses the brain through our imagination to communicate what is on His heart and mind. Through the Holy Spirit we can ascend to the throne room of God in one thought and be seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus here and now.

I can recall a time I was in Huntington, West Virginia attending Marshall University. I was in my dorm room recreational center talking to a roommate. As we were talking about track and field and our interest in the sport, I suddenly was interrupted by a sour taste in my mouth. It was like someone squeezed a lemon in my mouth. I didn’t understand why I was tasting this out of nowhere. This taste came suddenly as I was talking to my friend who ran track. I tried to discount what I was tasting and continued on with the conversation, and the more I looked at my friend the more bitter the taste got. I didn’t understand what was going on or why I was having these strange tastes when suddenly the Lord spoke to me about him.

God begin to give me a word of knowledge (specific details or information about a person past, present, or even future). He told me that there was bitterness, unforgiveness, and resentment in my friend’s heart. I started to inquire more about the specifics of what He was revealing to me through my taste buds. God initiated a dialogue like a friend would have with another friend. The Lord gave me more prophetic intelligence in my mind concerning a bitter root issue that needed to be resolved.

The interesting thing about it was that God used my taste buds to identify the taste of a lemon to speak to me what was going on in his heart toward someone dear to him. I didn’t know at first that he was upset. God knew and began to show me through my personal familiarity with the taste of lemons. The lemon taste was the unforgiveness that God used to help me see what was deep-rooted in his soul and impacting his life negatively.

It all started to make sense as I was talking to the Lord. I inquired of the Lord what the bitterness was a result of and the Lord said clearly, “His father!” I shared with my friend that the Lord spoke to me concerning his bitterness in his heart concerning his father. His father abandoned him at a young age and God wanted him to forgive his father and be healed.

Suddenly, he began to break down crying like a baby and I went over to him and hugged him like a father. I started to pray for him and have him renounce some things and forgive his father for what he had done to him and his mother. I was so surprised that God would speak to me with just a simple lemon taste in my mouth. We should never limit how God speaks to us. When we make ourselves available God will call on us for His work.

The Bible says Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” We can taste the goodness of God’s Word and find safety in His presence. Do you ever study and read God’s Word and it’s so good that you come away full or satisfied? Yes, that is what happens when God speaks to us daily and we feast on His fresh manna. God will allow us to taste and digest what He reveals to us.