[Thankful Jane]

Originally Posted by Cassidy

The Bible provides us such an illustration of a wild olive branch grafted into a cultivated olive tree. When the wild olive branch is "joined" or grafted into the cultivated olive tree it begins to absorb the life sap supply from the cultivated tree. The life essence of the cultivated olive tree becomes the life of the grafted branch. In the same way the believer is initially grafted or joined to Christ and in that position is now able to draw through its own fibers the life essence from the cultivated olive tree. The fruit is a result of the sap of the cultivated olive tree saturating the grafted branch, becoming its very life, and expressing that life in olives. This also is an illustration of the divine-human mingling confirming that the joining and the mingling are perfectly congruent in 1 Cor 6:17. Being joined and glued to Christ starts the process as without that no mingling can begin. Once joined, absorbing the essence of the divine life is the mingling.

Just so you’ll know that I heard you, you used the illustration of the vine in John 15 to say that joining or gluing makes way for the mingling. You also claimed that the same illustration illustrates the “divine-human mingling” which shows that joining and mingling fit well together in I Cor 6:17. You said this was because “once joined, absorbing the essence of the divine life is the mingling.” Just so we’re clear, your explanation is Lee’s interpretation of the vine and branches. It only presents a partial view of John 15, the part that Lee believes supports his mingling theology.

I'm going to proceed by nailing down our fundamental difference:

You are contending for what Lee teaches about mingling, using Lee’s interpretations and explanations. He teaches that it is mingling, or dispensing of a life essence, that produces everything that a believer needs in His walk. The import of the mingling teaching is that God does it all by dispensing His life essence. Once joined to Him by new birth, it’s downhill from there… just keep the life juice flowing into the branch by calling on the Lord and pray-reading and God will take care of the rest. Nothing else is needed. The divine dispensing will saturate the branches and do it all.

I am contending for what I see the Bible teaches, using the Bible: When we cleave to the Lord, stay glued to Him, and let nothing come between, we are one spirit (I Cor 6:17). We have access to Him by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18) and are able to engage in a cognitive, conscious, conversational relationship with Him (I Jn 1:3). We can come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need (Heb 4:16). He supplies us as we come to Him and empowers us to live as He does (Php 4:13). He does not take over and start living in us independently of our interactive relationship with Him. It is critical, in order to have fellowship with Him, that we take care of staying glued to Him, that we cleave to Him. We are to keep His commandments. If we sin, we break the glue seal, and we lose our fellowship, our relationship. We have to repent and be cleansed to have our fellowship with Him restored (I Jn). (Note that in John 15 the Lord says that if a branch, a man, does not abide in him, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. This points to a conditional relationship like the one in I Cor 6:17. Also, the Lord mentions that the branches are clean through the word which He speaks to them, which shows that He has a conversational relationship with the branches that convicts them of sin so they can be clean by repentance.)

Lee’s teaching about mingling is unhealthy. He misleads people to believe in an autopilot-like relationship with God produced by having the vision of one spirit and experiencing the one spirit (as he claims in the rest of his I Cor. message on this topic). His teaching stresses mingling that will do whatever is needed, including produce holiness. He actually equates dispensing and sanctification (being made holy), teaching that dispensing is what produces sanctification (holiness). It appears that Lee believed this because, as I posted elsewhere, he didn’t bother to take responsibility to repent for blatant sin, but just kept on ministering and teaching about dispensing doing it all. In other words, the sanctification-by-mingling teaching produces believers who can walk in sin while believing that God is the one who will make them holy by being dispensed into them. Lee’s mingling theology supersedes healthy teaching about the believers responsibility to be holy by walking in the light of the Word and repenting for sins that break fellowship with the Lord.

The Bible literally commands "Be ye holy" (I Pet. 1:15-16). It does not say be ye mingled. It does not teach that we become holy (sanctified) by something called mingling or divine dispensing. It teaches that we become holy by confessing our sins and being cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.

We do not have guaranteed access to God by virtue of our new birth alone. We must be clean. We are responsible to see that we remain clean and stay glued to the Lord. Any teaching that overlooks or overrides the importance of, or emphasis on, this fundamental truth is an unhealthy teaching. The mingling teaching does exactly this. It is false and is detrimental to the spiritual life of those who embrace it.

Thankful Jane