Chapter 7
The Wedding Guests
 

9: When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew:) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom.
10: And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, than that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

John 2:9-10

The wedding guests had become drunk with wine. The Governor of the feast made the comment that people normally serve the good wine first and then after men are drunk they bring out the lesser wine because those who have become drunk will not know the difference. If you become intoxicated then you become less aware of your surroundings. Your senses become dulled. You even become less aware that what you are consuming is not the quality you thought it was. You’re happy to continue to consume more and more of the same wine. You’re happy with what God has shown you and what He’s done in your life and you lose the vision of the whole picture. If you keep expecting the same wine to continue to be served, consuming more and more without really taking the time to taste it, appreciate it, value it and even recognize the potential dangers of it, then you are not enjoying real intimacy with God. And when you become spiritually intoxicated and impressed with yourself then your spiritual senses become dulled and

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you become insensitive to the direction of the Spirit as well as the needs of others around you.

When selfishness like this develops, you will only care about enjoying yourself and you will not even be aware that those around you are about to be ashamed and humiliated. You can even become selfish with the things of the Spirit and the provision of God. You may want to continue seeking blessing and enjoyment only for yourself. You’re happy that Jesus is here. You point to Him sitting over there every once in a while and say, "See, Jesus is here." You wave and He waves back. But without discerning the new wine—without pursuing real intimacy with Him—you won’t even see what is needed to meet the needs around you and you will eventually lose hope and become disappointed yourself. Your wine will run out. And God will purposely cause it to run out so that you can come to your senses once again and seek Him.

When you expect that things will just keep going on as they have been you have developed tunnel vision. 2 Peter 3:4 says that in the last days there will be scoffers who say that "all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." This kind of unbelief thinks that nothing will ever change. Everything is going to keep going like it always has. This thinking can lead you not just to become a scoffer, but also to become hopeless. Hopelessness thinks that nothing will ever change. It thinks that this problem will continue on and on. You need to stay in an attitude of faith, hope and love because if the devil can keep you from expecting change then you won’t see the change when it comes. You need to guard against thinking that everything is on auto-pilot and will just keep going the way it has—whether it’s been going good or bad. As you seek to become intimate with the Lord then you will stay in tune to the changes He is bringing by the Spirit.

As I said earlier, it is a practice even today that when serving certain alcoholic beverages that

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you serve the best and the strongest first. Once people have become intoxicated they won’t recognize it if what they’re drinking has been watered down or is of a lesser quality. You need to know that He is saving the best for last. You can’t be content to think that all you have is all there is. You don’t want to think that just because you are happy and God has blessed you that you don’t need to seek Him and what He wants anymore. You don’t want to become so blessed by what the Lord shows you and the truths that He reveals to you that you become stagnant. These great truths will end up becoming stale if you don’t remain intimate with the Lord.

The Bible says that knowledge makes a person proud, (1 Corinthians 8:1). When you just want more and more exciting revelations from God you become much like those who become intoxicated or impressed with what knowledge gives. You can come to expect that the wine will just keep coming, new revelation will just keep coming and coming and you’re expecting it to give you a greater and greater thrill. (Much like an addictive spirit). But the Lord says it’s time to go back and examine those truths more carefully. The old wine has run out. It’s been served in its time. It’s time for the new wine.

If you drink wine from a lack mentality—trying to get something you feel you are missing—it leads to craving and addiction. But on the contrary, the wine of the Spirit is drunk as a celebration of God’s goodness and blessing. It’s received with a heart of thankfulness, peace and contentment.

The addictive attitude keeps expecting a "new revelation" all the time. You’re looking for a new high. Something that no one else has seen before. You’re looking for some new thing that you can present to people so you can proudly say "God has revealed this to me" and people say;

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"Wow God shows you such awesome stuff." And all the attention and glory begins to be focused on you instead of on the truth of God. How many times have you heard a good speaker and said the next day, "Wow that was a great message, what a powerful truth!" And someone asks you, "What was it about?" and you say, "I don’t remember but it was really good." How many similar conversations have some of us had after we have over-indulged in a night of drinking? We say we had a great time last night but we don’t remember a thing about what happened. This is what happens when we start to give glory to a person for "their" anointing or insight and we don’t give glory to the Lord over what kind of work His truth is doing in our heart. We’re simply drinking to get drunk, for the thrill of it and not valuing what we’re consuming and allowing it to do the work in our heart that God has intended for it to do. Do you really want to change and be more like Him, or do you just want to acquire that which makes you look impressive? This can turn into a competitive, even political movement where you seek man’s glory of recognition instead of the glory of God. You must not allow yourself to become proud over your understanding of the revelations God gives. If you do, you will miss the greatest revelations of all.

The greatest revelations are also the simplest ones. It’s the simple truths taken to great depths that glorify God. That’s the new wine. It was just water. But water tasted in a new way, to a greater depth. Even water becomes appreciated by the best of connoisseurs after faith, hope and love have delivered it! I am not insinuating that a miracle didn’t actually take place and that the water didn’t actually become wine. Not at all, but it came from water. The greatest truths of God which bring the greatest joy will come from the simplest truths.

It’s not about acquiring great knowledge but rather depth of intimacy with the Lord. When you look for knowledge instead of intimacy you will become stagnant and intoxicated. You will

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become collectors without appreciating what you’re collecting. You will become dead ends. You will draw from broken cisterns instead of the Fountain of living waters, (Jeremiah 2:13). Ministers are guilty of this as well when we care more about sounding great then about the people receiving a deeper intimacy with the Lord through what we say. Kim Clement said that it’s not the delivery of a message that counts, the delivery can be messy, but it’s what’s birthed that’s important.

Do you want the truth, or do you just want to be right? Do you want the truth, or do you just want to look good? Jonah wanted to be right. He knew God’s great mercy and he knew that if he prophesied that God was going to destroy Ninevah in 40 days and the people repented, then God would not destroy them and he would look like he was wrong. Jesus spoke of the "sign of the prophet Jonah" in Luke 11:29. Could it be that this sign is a warning to avoid wanting to be right, or to look good rather than having the desire for truth? It’s interesting if you look at the root words of the name "Jonah" that you see "dove" as well as "wine" and "intoxication". This desire to be right can be intoxicating and can keep us from a desire for truth from the Spirit of God¹.

As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." The Lord asked me one time if I wanted my speech and preaching to be with enticing words of man’s wisdom or in demonstration of His Spirit and power. I thought that it was a trick question. I thought to myself, who would want man’s wisdom over the demonstration of the Spirit? But now I see that we can slip into a desire to speak with enticing and persuasive words when we begin to seek the glory of man. You can begin to desire to be persuasive when you prefer to convince people with your

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words instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to do the work in their hearts as you speak. If you are looking for the glory and praises of man you’ll lose the glory of God. And it’s only the genuineness of the Spirit among us that is going to truly change our lives and cause us to be changed from glory to glory into His image. (2 Corinthians 3:18). Your desire has got to be for the genuine Spirit of God to do a work in your hearts and in our midst. You’ve got to take yourself out of it and allow Him to do His work.

Ask yourself whether your desires are truly His desires. You can start off with the right desire in your heart but then get off track. That’s what a hypocrite is. A hypocrite is not someone who has never believed in the Lord. A hypocrite is one who starts off right. He starts off seeking God. In the beginning, both a hypocrite’s words and heart honors God and draw nears to Him. Then in their heart they begin to depart from God but they do not confess their sin. They continue on "talking the talk," even continuing to go to church and give the idea to others that they are serving and seeking God. But in their heart they have departed from honoring and seeking God. Their words and their hearts no longer agree. Jesus said in Matthew 15:8 when talking about hypocrites that "These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me." (Amplified Bible). If you begin to grow cold and drift away from God with your heart then you need to admit to that, confess it, repent and ask the Lord to help you draw close to Him once again. When you pretend you have no sin then your sin remains. (John 9:41). Bring your words in line with your heart—even if it means you must confess the sin in your heart. It’s the only way to be free from it.

A hypocrite will want to use the things of God for his own purposes instead of seeking to build the Kingdom of God. For example, you can hear about the power of God and get all excited about the power of your spoken words and how Jesus said you could have whatever you say

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and move mountains with your words, (Mark 11:23-24). But when He tries to show you how He desires this power to be used, you’re not open to Him because you’ve become intoxicated on the "glory’ that comes from impressing people and you’ve lost your taste for God’s desires. Your senses are dulled to the deeper, more intimate things that the Lord wants to bring you. And you can run into the danger of trying to take the things of the Spirit and use them to build a kingdom for yourself. That’s why I said earlier if you have faith without love you will become arrogant and selfish. True faith follows the convictions of your own heart, but doesn’t try and dictate what those convictions are—let God do that.

Remember what Jesus told His disciples who wanted to call down fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans that didn’t receive Jesus? He said that they didn’t know what sort of spirit they were of. In other words they didn’t know what was motivating them at the time. He went on to say that He didn’t come to destroy men’s lives but to save them. (Luke 9:53-56). You need to be aware of your own motivations and what you are allowing to influence you. Are you under the influence of seeking the glory and recognition of man, which really is from a selfish, self-seeking heart that has departed from God? Or are you appreciative of what the Lord has done, and continues to do for you, and responding with love and worship to Him in return? Let’s remember to keep everything in proper perspective.

Where did this miracle at Cana occur? At a wedding. This wedding setting for Jesus’ first miracle is no coincidence, as we will see in the last two chapters.

1 Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Strong, James Nashville Tennessee.

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