“But I say to you, I will not drink
hereafter of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with
you in My Father’s kingdom.”
Some
months ago, the Lord kept saying to me, “Give
me to drink, give me to drink.” I did not understand what this
meant, and I could not get any understanding in my spirit, as to what the Lord
was asking for. Then one day, the Lord asked me to have communion.
I slipped out and bought a bottle of grape juice and some crackers, and then
became quiet before the Lord. I said, “Lord,
I do not know what You desire or mean by ‘Give Me to drink.’ I cannot
give You the communion that You desire, until You tell me what You mean.”
The
Spirit began to quote this passage to me. “But I say to you, I will not
drink hereafter of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new
with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
I asked,
“What do you mean Lord?” I have
wondered all my life just exactly what this verse meant, and I have never been
satisfied with any interpretation that I have ever had.
While I
was kneeling there beside my bed, the Lord said, “I
will not drink the fruit of the vine.” He let me see that He is
the vine and we are the branches. Then He said, “In us, the fruit is produced and then must be crushed to produce the
wine.” Together, we are to become this new wine, fully refined, of
which He will drink in the Father’s kingdom.
He is
not going to take up a cup and drink grape juice, the fruit of a vine.
This is a spiritual thing. The vine out here has its roots in the
earth. The Father had told Him a long time ago that a Nazarene was never
to taste any part of the vine. Even here, at the last supper, Jesus does
not drink of the cup.
The
Father has promised Jesus another wine, fully refined. He asks us to come
with Him, and become broken bread and poured out wine. To
accomplish this, He takes us through crushing’s, millings, and hard
places. He puts us in the crucible, together, just exactly like wine is
made. The grapes are all put in the same vat together. This is the
hardest thing for us, as here we are all pressed together, in order to lose our
identity and become “one” with Him.
If we
will respond and go through this as He intends, then we can offer to Him our “crushed” life, which is now one in identity
with His. We may have said, “I felt like
the very life was being crushed out of me.” This is His desire and
intention that our crushed out and poured out life will become an offering to
the Lord. Let it be presented to Him, as He desires.
Bring it
to Him and offer it to Him, in response to what He says, “I will not drink of the fruit of the vine – there
will be a new wine, fully refined from your lives, of which I will
partake. What you have become - that will be offered up to Me in My
Father’s kingdom. This is where I will eat and where I will drink, in
that great Passover, when we sit down together.”
You and
I are called to something most marvelous in God. He is our “drink and meat,” and at the marriage supper of
the Lamb, we will partake of Him. When you think of “the marriage supper of the Lamb,” do not think
of some banquet, or some big feast in the natural; rather, let the communion
service be projected over into eternity.
That is
what the feast of the Lamb will be, when we sit down to the table with
Him. Every desire, every longing, every cry, every hunger, every thirst
that we have ever had, He, the Lamb, will satisfy. We will partake of
Him. He is that immortal Bread that shall satisfy the hungry heart
throughout all eternity.
“…Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture
might be fulfilled, says, I thirst.” John 19:28
Jesus is
saying,
“But I say to you, I will not drink hereafter of this
fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s
kingdom - I will drink when you come and sit down with me in My Father’s
Kingdom. I will drink and ‘you’ will be that ‘new wine’ fully refined, of
which I will drink.”
