Also he (Noah) sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth…And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.~ Gen. 8:8-12.
As to our title, the spelling of the third word was intentional, using a ‘D’ rather than an ‘L’. The latter would have changed it into the popular clichè question used by many today.
One of the several comparisons the Bible uses to describe the Holy Spirit is to a dove. This fowl is without a gallbladder; that is, it has no gall of bitterness within. Jesus, Spirit endued, hanging on the Cross, refused to drink of the cup of bitter gall offered to Him.
We are told in the eighth chapter of Acts that Simon the sorcerer wanted the Holy Spirit in his life but was rejected; Peter told him that his heart was not right with God because he was in the gall of bitterness. There are many such facts about the dove to study if one is interested.
But I want to hone-in on just one of these tidbits in today’s article. I trust it will be seriously pondered by each of us in the days to come. Notice the dove, in the above account, did not feed off the many and various dead carcasses that were strewn as a result of the flood. A dove feeds on grains, seeds, greens, berries, etc-- that is, LIVING foods.
A Spirit-filled Christian does not partake of the dead and lifeless things of the world. He or she is only interested in LIFE! Peter in his first epistle speaks twice on the saint being, “lively.”
When Lazarus was raised from the dead, he left the graveyard; and the Maniac of Gadara, once converted, left the tombstones behind him and returned home to the living.
Maybe some of us believers need a change in diet. What satisfies your Spiritual palate?
Amen dear brother