There is an interesting and illustrative incident in the ministry of Jesus that speaks powerfully to us of the new mind of the Kingdom. “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself would come. Therefore He said unto them, Into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: and heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do WIPE OFF against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you” (Lk. 10:1-2,8-11). Jesus sent the disciples out to heal the sick. The healings were a sign and a sign is a message. The message was that the Kingdom of God had come. The healings were done by the power of the Kingdom. They were the sign, the declaration of the Kingdom, the proof that the power of another Kingdom was already at work in their midst. Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, “O, ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but ye cannot discern the signs of the times.” In other words, “You don’t understand the message that sounds forth when I do these things.”
Matthew records Jesus’ instructions to the seventy in these words, “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.” One thing is certain — the disciples were not just shaking dust off their clothes and shoes. They were saying something. By that action they were sending a message. The message was just this. When the people rejected the ministry of the disciples they were rejecting the Kingdom of God, because that is what they were preaching, demonstrating and manifesting. Jesus instructed them, “When the people reject the Kingdom of God shake that dust off of you, shake that Adamic nature off of you, don’t let that earth-bound mentality cling to you, or find a place in you, don’t be influenced or affected by their words or actions, don’t walk away from the city with the same kind of serpent meat they are providing!”
This brings us back to the curse laid upon the serpent in the beginning. The ancient serpent, having beguiled Eve, became the recipient of the first curse in history. “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” (Gen. 3:14). This is a symbol and the Deceiver, Satan, that old Serpent, the Devil, has to eat dust! The metaphor can be more clearly understand when we hear the judgment handed out to the man. God said, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for DUST THOU ART, and UNTO DUST shalt thou return” (Gen. 3:19). So that first Adam, the fleshly man, that cursed man, is declared by the counsel of the Lord God to be dust. Said the wise man, “He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14). That we are DUST! Not very flattering, not very complimentary, is it? This great gob of mud called man, strutting his superior know-it-all attitude even in the face of the Almighty! Dust! Our FRAME! Adam’s name could just as well have been called “Dusty.” The mind of Adam is the earthly mind, and it always minds earthly things. It is a dust-mind.
The message is clear — Adam and those belonging to him are of the earth, earthy. The Holy Spirit bears witness, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (I Cor. 15:45-49). The Amplified Bible reads, “The first man was from out of the earth, made of dust — earth minded; the second man is the Lord out of heaven. Now those who are made of the dust are like him who was first made of the dust — earth minded. And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, so shall we and so let us bear also the image of the Man of heaven.”