Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
Ephesians 5:18
What’s Ian doing? He closed with verse 18 in Gem 679, why is he quoting it again in Gem 680 ? Maybe he just likes to intoxicate me.
Ha ha no I don’t have a fixation on wine, because that will ruin your life. But I do want to draw your attention to what Paul is doing here. Wine is one symbol of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. So Paul is comparing wine (physical) with wine (spiritual). Don’t be drunk (or be filled) with wine but instead be filled (or drunk / taken over) by the Holy Spirit. I came across the following quote from Bob Gass years ago which I like it.
Do you pray even five minutes a day? That’s less than 0.5% of your waking hours!
During Prohibition, Congress ruled that anything containing less than half a percent alcohol was non-intoxicating.:
- Meaning you can’t feel the effect.
- It doesn’t change your perception.
- It doesn’t change your walk or talk.
How long should I pray?
- Until you feel the effect.
- Until it changes your perception.
- Until it changes the way you walk and talk.
How can you tell you are filled with the Holy Spirit, drunk or! intoxicated by the Spirit of God?
- When you feel the effect.
- When it changes your perception.
- When it changes the way you walk and talk.
Become intoxicated with God. The interesting thing is most of us don’t like to lose control. We like to be in control. It is also critical to know who or to what you are losing control. It is not wise to yield control to just anyone and anything. Except of course for those who get drunk. They have lost control the moment they start drinking to excess. I ought to know. I lived with an alcoholic father and saw the process first hand, data after day. But let me tell you: you never have to worry about losing cont! rol to God. God always has your best interests at heart. He will never take advantage of you. Rather everything is geared to your advantage, not His. Now that is a remarkable turnaround. Losing control to God is a GOOD thing. It reminds me of the water flowing from the temple of God in Ezekiel 47. The height of the water is important: ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep and higher. At these levels, you are still in control. Your feet are firmly planted on the bottom and you have control, but when you go over chest deep you lose control. The current will take you where it will. Are you willing for that to happen with God? Are you willing to yield yourself to His flow? Are you willing to be so immersed in Him that you are no longer in control? Many are willing to lose control to alcohol but not to God. How sad! Many only want to be ankle deep with the things of God because then they know they are in control. Some like to be knee deep in God. For some up to the waist is alright because they haven’t gone past the tipping point. Go past the tipping point people. It’s ok. He’s got you.
There’s another interesting element when Paul says “be filled with the Holy Spirit” he is not meaning be filled at some time in the past when you were “filled with the Spirit” (or as some of you would say, “baptised in the Holy Spirit”) or others of you would say received the Spirit at the moment of your second birth. It is not a once for all time filling. What Paul is saying with this Greek construction is “be being filled continually”. Why do you need to be being filled continually? Simply and for no other reason than we leak. Just like my father needed a constant top up of alcohol so he didn’t feel the pain of his hurts or whatever troubled him within. He always talked of “drowning his sorrows”. You are in need of a constant top up of God. You can’t never have too much of Him.
One of the disadvantages of wine: it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.
Ian Vail
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.
Anon
Drinking is a crutch for people who can’t handle God.
Ian Vail
My advice to you: Go get drunk, not on wine but on the Spirit of God. You will never regret it.
Ian Vail
Do it until you feel the effect and it changes your perception and the way you walk and talk.
Bob Gass