“Who has affliction? Who has sadness? Who has struggles? Who has complaints? Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger on wine, who go to taste glasses of mixed wine. Proverbs 23:29-30
Traditional church teaching in the past has led me to believe that this passage is about only one thing, the effects of earthly drunkenness. And I’m not here to argue with that fact. In fact, I have experienced this firsthand, countless times, and in more than one season of my life. So I’m here to tell anyone who has any doubts, the list of “symptoms” above is exactly what you get when you experience earthly intoxication.
So with that being said, the purpose of this teaching is to move from spiritual elementary school to maturity, the place where we can see and know the deep things of God’s heart and mind!
However, as written:
“What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no human mind has conceived,” the things that God has prepared for those who love him, these are the things that God has revealed to us through his Spirit. The Spirit searches ALL things, even the “deep” things of God. 2 Corinthians 2:9-10
Over the years I have learned the following truth:
If something happens in this realm of appearances, then something parallel happens in the invisible Kingdom of His Beloved Son!
Is it possible at this stage of spiritual maturity that the focus of this passage is something other than the effects of earthly drunkenness? Hopefully at this level of maturity we are no longer focusing on Christian behavior, but have, in fact, moved beyond external issues like behavior to the core reasons we are here. Is it possible that this passage is about something more than the teaching of the status quo, something much more powerful…something we haven’t even investigated in the past?
Who has affliction, who has sadness, who has struggle?
This sounds to me like many believers who, not knowing or understanding their ordained resting place, are still trying to “do” something for God to earn His love or acceptance! (Hebrews 3:7-4:11)
Sincere brothers and sisters who sincerely love God, but believe that their life is still their own, and that their purpose of being is to do a work… for God!
Jesus said “I only do what I see my Father do!” (John 5:19)
Who was doing the One, and more importantly, who is the One NOW…doing the work IN us?
Because it is God who is working within us, both willing and doing, by His good pleasure! Philippians 2:13
And notice that it does not say that it is God and I, but He IN me!
The lie of all lies is that we live a separate existence apart from God! In fact, it is the original lie and you can find it in Genesis chapter 3!
You will certainly not die,” the serpent told the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be “like” God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
The serpent basically said, if you “do”, then you will become… “like” God! And instead of becoming God, humanity inherited the ability to be “like” God. So much so, that they could also see both good and evil…just “like” God! And we all end up with a complete deviation from the truth of seeing God as the ALL IN ALL, while being forced to settle for hellish “mixed” wine bowls! The “mixed” bowls that cause us to experience the same long list of symptoms as someone who drinks too much alcohol! And the reason we do it is because we still believe and hold on to the original lie, which is God’s lie…and! We have not only believed it, but we have also adopted it, and by adopting it, we have embraced it to the point of making a graven image of it! And today we serve and worship “it” and call “it” God! Is it any wonder why the prophet proclaimed the following?
Has a nation ever changed its gods (yet they are not gods at all)? But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Awe at this, O heavens, and tremble with great horror, declares the LORD. My people have committed two sins:
They have abandoned me, the (Only) Source of living waters, and have dug (with their own strength) their own cisterns, broken cisterns that do not hold water. Jeremiah 2:11-13
They may not hold water, but they do hold on to something! What they cling to is glasses of “mixed” wine, the false belief that we are here to work FOR God! What they cling to is a conditional, performance-based perception of God that is as far from the truth as east is from west!
It’s time for God’s people to stop trying to be good (why do you call me good?) and stop trying to be godly, and while we’re at it, stop trying to be “like” Christ! There is only One who can be like Christ and that is Christ Himself! It is only Christ who can live the Christian Life!
We are here to proclaim a message, the same message that men and women have died for throughout time, which is Christ IN us and as us! We are here (Christ IN us) to open the eyes of the blind and lead them to the God who loves them with no strings attached based on performance! We are here to proclaim the eternal Sabbath rest for God’s people…and the mystery hidden from centuries and generations past, but NOW revealed to us. (Colossians 1:26)
We are here to proclaim the Real Jesus, the Manna that neither we nor our parents (in faith) before us have known. (Deuteronomy 8:16)
Which by the way… Christ IN you!
IN Him, there is no “mixture” of any kind! There is no separation, deviation, division, denomination or condemnation! He is our only hope of Glory!
Jesus is the pure Wine, the All IN All that fills everything in every way! And if He is the Vine, he is also the New Wine!
And unless (or until) the Body of Christ finally comes to the place of giving it all up, and like Peter, and eats of His body and drinks of His blood (the New Wine), then we can’t have a part IN Him either! Unless we move from an external “arm’s length” relationship with Him, to the internal, “open and uncovered” place He desires, we will always see ourselves as a house divided!
So let’s stay away from the vain religious forms of piety that have no power! Let us proclaim our absolute and total abandonment to Christ as our Life! And as we do so, let us once and for all leave the cups of “mixed” wine behind and enter the ordained place of Rest that God has proclaimed that some must enter by faith! (Hebrews 4:6)
And not because of our limited human faith, which is not faith at all, but because of unlimited expansion… which is the faith “of” the Son of God! (Galatians 2:20 KJV)
“Mixed” wine bowls?
Yes, but NOW redefined as the “different gospel” of separation and division, doctrines of men that make us see more than God. And by seeing more than Him, we are forced to see and believe things that are not real, like someone who is completely intoxicated.
Foreigner… one of my favorite classic rock bands from the ’70s, had a hit song that sums up where most are today in their relationship with God. His best-selling song, titled “Double Vision,” describes what people experience when they drink too much alcohol.
When we walk in separation, and in a duality that still sees God as the distant God “up there”, we have no choice but to walk in a form of that same “double vision”.
Let’s see what James has to say about it;
“But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, pushed and tossed by the wind. That man must not think that he will receive something from the Lord; he is a “double-minded man” and “unstable” in everything he does. James 1:7-8
Unstable IN everything you do? Sound to me like a symptom of earthly drunkenness, much like the ones described in the Proverbs 23 passage above?
“Anyone who listens to the Word but does not (allow the Spirit) to do what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. James 1:24
Do you “forget” what it’s like? Sounds like yet another symptom of earthly drunkenness, doesn’t it?
And I haven’t even covered the entire Proverbs 23 list.
What about the bruises, groans, and bloodshot eyes? Is this simply more of the “suffering” experienced by the believer who continues to taste the “mixed” cups of wine, which we now know as the “mixed” message of Grace plus law? The “not so good news” of the “different” gospel? (II Corinthians 11:4, Galatians 1:6)
And finally, Jesus himself has something to say about “double vision.” And about seeing more than One, which is really what this “mixed wine” teaching is all about.
No one can serve “two” masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money at the same time. (or God and anything else for that matter) Matthew 6:24
The light of the body is the eye: therefore, when your eye is “single”, your whole body is also full of light; but when your eye is “bad” (or double) your body is also full of darkness. Beware, then, that the light that is IN you is not darkness. Luke 11:34-35
All of the above passages have to do with seeing more than God, or tasting bowls of “mixed” wine. So, since we NOW know the truth, let us commit ourselves to see… God Alone NOW Alone… IN all things.
Furthermore, God promises to bring the clarity necessary for us to see exactly as He sees.
“All of us who are mature should have such a vision of things, and if at any point you think differently, God will clarify that too, let’s just live up to what we have already achieved.” Philippians 3:15-16