In One Way, Out Another

We once had the privilege of being invited to a popular restaurant in Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico. The food was so delicious that it was hard to stop eating. As we discussed this delightful culinary problem, our missionary host grabbed a napkin, took a pen from his pocket, and drew a rudimentary picture of people entering the restaurant one way and exiting another through an adjacent door.

"They should post this as a warning to all who enter here," he explained, "come in skinny, come out fatter." We laughed at the image of the skinny stick figure entering one door, then exiting with a big tummy. We agreed, though, that it might act as a deterrent to future clients, this visual warning that the good food posed the danger of overeating and obesity. His chuckle-inducing drawing, though, painted a very real picture of God's heart, His desire for His people to be fatter—but in a very good way.

While there are a few individuals who do need to gain weight, most people I know do not. They do not wake up in the morning sighing, "Oh, I hope I get fat!" But in God's eyes, there is a door He desires us to frequent, a door leading us to a place of plenty, a place in which, if we partake of its delicacies, we will leave in a state different from that in which we entered. A place of spiritual fatness.

Ezequiel 46 paints an intriguing picture of how worshippers should enter and leave the place of worship he describes. While the prince is to enter by the east gate and exit through that same gate (a symbol of many things, including the prince's direct and consistent obedience to God), not so the people. They are to enter one way, and exit a different way. Why?

Theologians posit two theories. The first lies in safety and management control. A flow of people going only one way reduces the possibility of people running into each other as well as reducing the possibility of trampling one another. Then, the life changing symbolic meaning. The one way flow appears to be a visual of God's desire for His people: they are not to leave the same as when they entered. In His house, they are to be fed spiritually, fattened up spiritually, changed.

How does this transformation occur? There might be many catalysts, but one definite requisite is that we come with hearing ears. Jesus shared his parables with many, but their meaning only to a few, His disciples. We need to ask the Lord that we be in that number, that He give us the spiritual discernment to hear what He is ministering to us through the worship, through the Scriptures given and explained in the church in which we have been planted.

One of my most heart-breaking memories is from some nice young men I worked with in my subbing days. As we waited for our classes in high school to start, we ended up talking about our faith—or lack thereof. Sadly, they admitted to being atheists. Taking this as an opportunity to share my Christian faith, I gladly shared my testimony, how I had been an atheist one year, morphing into agnostic the next, and finally asking God to reveal to me if He really did exist and, if so, if Jesus really was His Son. That glorious night, as I knelt in our humble little kitchen, He did graciously reveal Himself to me and the reality of Jesus His Son. From that moment on, my life changed. Peace flooded my soul and I awoke the next day to a joy I had never known. I encouraged my sub colleagues to do the same, to call out to God and ask Him to graciously reveal Himself to them.

I was taken aback when they both answered, "I did do that, and nothing happened." Frowning in confusion, I answered, "I don't understand. God is faithful to reveal Himself to those who seek Him. Please, you must try again." Then life happened. Our classes came up, we separated, and I never saw those young men again. But I have prayed for them through the years whenever the Lord brings them to mind.

For a long time, their experience flummoxed me. How was it that when I called out to God He revealed Himself to me and yet those young men came up empty when they supposedly did the same? I finally asked our Father to explain it to me and He did. Remember when in Luke 23:8-9 Jesus was brought before Herod and Herod asked Him to do a miracle? Did Jesus do it? Did He perform a miracle? No. In fact, though he peppered Him with questions, Jesus remained silent. Why? Jesus was always kind and compassionate. Why wouldn't He answer this request?

The only possible conclusion is that Jesus does not perform for the sake of performing. If there is a sincere desire to be touched by the Master, He is more than willing to do anything we need or ask. But if our desire is fueled by curiosity, a desire to be entertained, or some other desire that is not consistent with truly wanting to know Him, why should He answer? He knows that miracles performed for the sake of entertainment or satisfying curiosity will not yield spiritual results. The chief priests and Pharisees recognized that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but that incredible miracle did not draw them to Jesus, it did not change them spiritually. It only caused them to try to kill Lazarus so that the people would not believe in the deity of Jesus (John 12:9-11). Miracles in themselves do not yield faith. To do so they must take root in a heart sincerely yearning for God.

In C.S. Lewis's book The Last Battle, there is a chapter in which the dwarfs think they are in a dark and smelly stable when in reality they are standing in a beautiful sunny field in Narnia. Their delusion keeps them from the beautiful reality. Even so our hearts. If we hang on, like the chief priests and Pharisees, to the delusions of what we want reality to be, we will miss the greatness of God's reality, His wonderful, glorious, liberating economy.

Bottom line: when we enter God's house, let us enter with hearts open to see Him, to see His glory, to hear from Him, to learn from Him. Then, and only then, will we fulfill the desire of God's heart and come out changed.

"They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house" (Psalm 36:8)

Hebrew word for "fatness": deshen, a word that refers to the fat or best part of a sacrifice; it represents the highest quality of spiritual provisions and blessings, such as grace, satisfaction, and spiritual joy

" And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree ..." (Romans 11:17)

Greek word for "fatness": piotes, a word meaning richness, fertility, nourishing sap; represents the spiritual wealth, blessing and Abrahamic covenant promises of which Gentile believers can partake

"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Matthew 11:15).