Some of my Christian friends wonder why I don’t drink wine anymore, especially as I used too. I find it hard to explain, without sounding all super spiritual. It’s not because I think it’s evil and God would be displeased with me if I did, but I have found something far better that increases my intimacy with the Lord. It also energises me and doesn't make me feel sleepy like wine used too, and I don’t have to worry about driving a car afterwards either.
The journey began when I read this verse in the Song of Solomon. “Your love is better than wine.” Song of Songs 1:2
I didn’t understand what it meant at first, but when the revelation began to dawn on me, I wanted this wine that the Lord was speaking of. The wine that far surpassed anything that I had, or had tasted of before. This wine is none other than a revelation of the love of God.
Paul prayed that we might be empowered to discover the amazing love of Jesus. As Christians we know that God loves us, but this is understanding His love on a whole new level. I have found that as you appreciate this love that has no boundaries, it intoxicates you. You want to taste more and more of it. Just as wine can be addictive so that you can’t live without it, so can this love that Jesus offers. You also begin to find out that He is a jealous lover and wants all of our love as well. He gave His everything for us and wants all of us as well. He doesn't want any competition in our hearts. I have found that there are times when I sense the feeling of His love lift and wonder why. The Spirit has shown me that I am loving something more than Him, and on repenting, the sense of His amazing love returns and I now do everything I can to keep myself in the love of God.
“Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Jude 21
It says that we should love not the world nor the things of the world. He that loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. After a long struggle with the Holy Spirit in this area, I can now say that I know what it’s like to have the love of the Father ‘in me.’ It’s like a beautiful wine that intoxicates me every day. It’s not that He didn't love me before, it’s that I couldn’t sense His love because of other loves that had crowded into my life. Unfortunately many Christians don’t know this revelation of His love and end up taking the poor substitutes offered to them by the wines of this world.
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15
For many the source of their life is rooted in this world alone and not in the life of Christ within. All their joys come from this world and its not meant to be this way for we are new creatures in Christ with a different appetite. The ‘feel good’ sensation of wine is a poor substitute for the love of God, for His love is better than wine and it’s available to all of us and has no side affects like sleepiness, headaches, impaired judgement or putting on weight.
This wonderful experience of being ‘deep’ in the love of God is far greater than any drug, any alcoholic beverage or wine. It says that lovers can ‘fall’ in love and it’s true, you can ‘fall’ into His love and want to drown in it, so to speak. It’s like falling into a sea of wine that is deeper than the deepest ocean and higher than the highest mountain. It has no boundaries. It says in the word that God has chosen us before the foundation of the world that we might be in love with His Son.
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love.“ Ephesians 1:4
The Song of Songs is an amazing book that is being opened up to us in these last days and speaks of the Bride being invited into the Kings House of Wine, to drink deeply of His love.
I have discovered in the Song of Songs, the love that is compared to wine. His love for us is like a wine, but it also shows us that our love for Him is the same. It’s a wine that He delights in. Just as we long for the wine of His love, so does He long for the wine of our love. Believe it or not our love for Him is exceeding precious to Him. I would dare to say that it is the most valuable commodity in the universe to Him. It’s greater than the love that Angels have for their God, for they have not known anything different since their creation. We have to choose to love Him and when we choose to love Him, especially in the face of pain and adverse circumstances, it enriches and intoxicates Him and is extremely precious. Just as wine takes years to mature, so does our love for Him take time to mature. It becomes more and more powerful and intoxicating as the years go by, if kept untainted.
On the Day of Pentecost when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit they became drunk with His presence. It was like a wine. This type of drunkenness has no hangover and only enhances our experience of the Lord. Acts 2:1-15.
“Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “‘In the last days, God says,I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” Acts 2:15-17
You can enhance the wine of your love by mixing faith with it. As you go through your day loving the Lord in all you do and say, you can also mix faith with it by believing in the promises and the unseen. This makes your wine even more pleasing to Him. When you have symptoms on you of sickness yet continue to confess what you believe even though it hurts, this is walking by faith and fortifies the wine of your love. I want a rich, fortified, full bodied red wine that will intoxicate the King.
I love what Brian Simmons says about this love in his daily readings from the book of Song of Songs. “The Divine Romance.’ He wrote the Passion Translation of the Bible.
S/S 4:10 “Your love is the finest wine - intoxicating and thrilling.”
Your life of devotion pleases Him more than any other beautiful thing He’s created. It intoxicates Him. Jesus is essentially saying that your love for Him is more valuable than anything else in the universe. Your love thrills His heart. He values your love more than any other pleasure there is. He measures it not on strength but by its sincerity. He knows you love Him although you may fail and sin at times.
“Let him smother me with kisses his Spirit-kiss divine. So kind are your caresses, I drink them in like the sweetest wine!” Song of Songs 1:2
Even the simplest revelations can impact your life forever. This is the revelation of His love for you, personally. It is not about others, it is about Jesus and you. Sermons and rules will never satisfy the longings of your heart, because you were created for so much more. Let this cry come from the depth of your being: “Jesus, come kiss me!” When you call for Him to make this relationship personal, He will come running. You were created with a holy kiss—the very breath of God. Everything about you was created by and for His love. Any walls that you have erected to protect your heart are about to come crashing down! And you will never feel safer. This heavenly kiss will awaken your spirit to His affections and destroy every hindrance to a deeper relationship with Him. Jesus loves you, just the way you are. Father, I’m asking that your Son, the Son of your splendour, would kiss me with the kisses of His Word. I cry out for the kisses of His affection, the kisses of His mercy, and the kisses of His forgiveness. Thank you for loving me, believing that I am special, and choosing me to walk with you on this journey. Awaken my heart with your kiss.
“Suddenly, he transported me into his house of wine— he looked upon me with his unrelenting love divine.” S/S 2:4
The overflow of life in the Spirit is more intoxicating than the finest wine. Over and over, the Holy Spirit beckons you closer. He yearns for you to experience the bliss of His presence. Nothing can compare to the distinct awareness of His affection. In every season, in every mundane task, during life’s deepest loss or most painful trauma, His love can transport you beyond what you feel and into a glorious healing encounter. His love has no limits. It is heavenly, mystical, and magnificent. It’s where everything but God gets swept out of view. It’s found by focusing upon the Lord and pouring out your worship without reservation. Here, where heaven and earth collide in an explosion of glory, nothing else competes for your attention. This place of joy and freedom that goes beyond understanding—this is His house of wine. Father, sweep me up in a hurricane of your love. I look to you and turn away from all distractions that mentally tie me to the cares of this world. You are my joy and my strength. My worship to you rises from the depths of my being. Come; intoxicate me with the bliss of your presence that washes away all other cares.
There is something else that I want to end this message on. The first miracle that Jesus performed was the turning of water into wine. At the end of these verses the man in charge of the wedding said after seeing the miracle and tasting the wine, that the best wine had been saved until last.
“The servants did as Jesus told them, and the man in charge drank some of the water that had now turned into wine. He did not know where the wine had come from, but the servants did. He called the bridegroom over and said, “The best wine is always served first. Then after the guests have had plenty, the other wine is served. But you have kept the best until last!” John 2:9-10
Prophetically speaking I believe that this ‘better wine’ is saved until last. I can see that it is reserved for the Church at the time of the end. It’s a revelation that can be only truly understood in these ‘Last’ days and was hidden from previous generations through ignorance. God has not changed, its just that we need to be mature enough to understand what He is saying and what He wants to give us. We need to be in the right place to receive the message of grace for instance for it to be unveiled to us. Isaiah 28:9-10. ,
“Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.”
This teaching of the new wine would not be understood in the Dark Ages when the average Christian was denied the word of God, for its only by believing the word that you can enter into this amazing experience. Most Christians back then lived under sense of condemnation. This love relationship with Jesus would have been considered blasphemy in the 1950’s, for there was still a lot of legalism back then, but in these days where knowledge is being increased, we have such a greater understanding of the epistles of Paul. We are in the ‘Third Day’ where we go on to ‘know’ the Lord and really ‘live’ in His sight. Hosea 6:1-3. We can now have a greater understanding of His amazing love for us through progressive revelation. The Song of Songs reveals His love for us and how we can love Him back through our worship. there are some other messages that may help to explain this truth attached to the pdf. All you need to do is click on them to read.