Bowls of "Mixed" Wine – Redefined!
“Who has affliction? Who has pain? Who has contention? Who has complaints? Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Proverbs 23: 29-30
Traditional church teaching in the past has led me to believe that this passage deals with only one thing, the effects of earthly drunkenness. And I am not here to discuss that fact. In fact, I have experienced it first hand, and countless times, and in more than one season of my life. So I’m here to tell anyone in doubt, the list of “symptoms” above is exactly what you get when experiencing earthly poisoning.
So with that said, the purpose of this teaching is to get out of the spiritual elementary school and into maturity, the place where we can see and know the deep things of the heart and mind of God!
However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what 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 by his Spirit. The Spirit searches ALL things, even the “deep” things of God. II Corinthians 2: 9-10
Over the years I have learned the following truth:
If something is happening in this realm of appearances, then a parallel is happening in the invisible Realm of His Beloved Son!
Is it possible at this stage of spiritual maturity that the focus of this passage is more than just the effects of earthly drunkenness? Hopefully at this level of maturity we are no longer focusing on Christian behavior, but have actually moved beyond external issues, such as behavior, towards the core reasons for our being here. Is it possible that this passage is about something other than the teaching of the status quo, something much more powerful … something we haven’t even looked at in the past?
Who has woe, who has pain, who has strife?
This sounds like many believers to me who, without knowing or understanding their ordained resting place, are still trying to “do” something for God in order to gain His love or acceptance! (Hebrews 3: 7-4: 11)
Sincere brothers and sisters who sincerely love God, but believe that their life is still theirs, and their purpose for being is to do a work … for God!
Jesus said, “I only do what I see my Father doing!” (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 works within us, both the willing and the doing of His good will! Philippians 2:13
And notice that it does not say that we are 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 chapter 3 of Genesis.
You will certainly not die, “said the snake to the woman.” Because God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be “like” God, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3: 4- 5
The snake 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 … simply “like” God! And what we all end up with is a complete deviation from the truth of seeing God as ALL IN ALL, while being forced to settle for hellish “mixed” bowls of wine! The “mixed” bowls that make us experience the same 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! Not only have we believed it, we have embraced it as well, and by embracing it, we have embraced it to the point of turning it into a sculpted image! 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 (however, they are not gods at all)? But my people have exchanged their glory for useless idols. Be terrified of this, you 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 onto something! What they cling to are bowls of “mixed” wine, the false belief that we are here to work FOR God. What they cling to is a performance-based, conditional perception of God that is as far from the truth as the East is from the 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 do, stop trying to be “like” Christ! There is only One who can be like Christ and that is Christ Himself! Only Christ 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 we are! We are here (Christ IN us) to open the eyes of the blind and lead them to the God who loves them without any performance-based commitment! We are here to proclaim the eternal Sabbath rest for God’s people … and the mystery that was kept hidden from ages and generations past, but NOW has been revealed to us. (Colossians 1:26)
We are here to proclaim the true Jesus, the manna that neither we nor our parents (in faith) have known before. (Deuteronomy 8:16)
Which is by the way … Christ IN you!
IN Him, there is no “mix” 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 abandoning everything, 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 “distance” relationship with Him, to the internal, “open and uncovered” place that He desires, we will forever see ourselves as a divided house!
So let’s get away from vain religious forms of piety that have no power! Let’s proclaim our absolute and total abandonment to Christ as our Life! And as we do so, let us put off the “mixed” wine cups once and for all and enter the orderly resting place 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 the limitless expansion … which is the faith of “the” Son of God! (Galatians 2:20 KJV)
Bowls of “mixed” wine?
Yes, but NOW redefined as the “different gospel” of separation and division, doctrines of men that make us see more than God. And 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 the majority 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 apart, and 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, carried and shaken by the wind. That man must not think that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a” double minded “man, and “unstable” in everything he does James 1: 7-8
Unstable in everything he does? Does that sound like a symptom of earthly drunkenness to me, much like the ones described in the Proverbs 23 passage above?
“Anyone who hears the Word but does not (allow the Spirit) do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, leaves and immediately forgets what it is like. James 1:24
Do you “forget” what it looks like? Sounds like yet another symptom of earthly drunkenness, doesn’t it?
And I haven’t even covered the entire list in Proverbs 23.
What about bruises, complaints, and bloodshot eyes? Are these simply more of the “sufferings” experienced by the believer who continues to taste the “mixed” bowls 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 the “double vision.” And about seeing more of 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 be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (or God and anything else) Matthew 6:24
The light of the body is the eye; therefore, when your eye is “unique”, your whole body is also full of light; but when your eye is “bad” (or double), your body is also in darkness. See, 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 know the truth NOW, let’s commit ourselves to see … God Alone Only NOW … IN all things.
Furthermore, God promises to bring the necessary clarity so that we can see exactly as He sees.
“All of us who are mature should have that vision of things, and if at any moment you think differently, that too God will clarify, just let us live up to what we have already achieved.” Philippians 3: 15-16