New Wine
Last week we had a prophetic word from our speaker who said that she saw God stretching our hearts. Being stretched is not always pleasant. It can be uncomfortable. But it is so necessary.
When Jesus was challenging the religious traditions of the day, He said, “No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins." Luke 5:37
In Jesus’ time, wine was stored in animal skins. New wineskins were stretchy and flexible. As new wine fermented it expanded and produced gases, stretching the supple new skins without breaking them. But old wineskins had already lost their elasticity, so new wine cannot be put into old wineskins or they will burst.
The message for us is that we all can become old wineskins; we all can get comfortable with doing things a certain way. And these habit patterns and expectations become limiting factors to receiving all God has for us.
The timing of hearing this prophetic word on Sunday was significant as just the weekend before at the Party is On conference in Montreal, John Arnott spoke about new wineskins. Here are my notes:
New wine represents the Holy Spirit, kingdom expansion.
Old wine skin characteristics: dry, rigid, unable to stretch. Tradition, pride, resistance to change, depending on yesterday’s blessing.
The problem is rarely the wine, it’s the condition of the wineskins.
New wine will blow up old wineskins.
Old wineskins have to be repurposed.
God always stretches before He fills.
Every encounter brings change.
Abraham had an encounter. It changes him. Leave Ur. Leave the land.. where? He didn't know. God’s not telling.
Moses had an encounter… 40 years happy with Jethro… then the burning bush… take your shoes off…now transition, leave Moab, go to Egypt. (Hmmm. What does his wife say?)
Peter, James, and John.. a supernatural fish encounter… depart from me Lord, I am a sinful man… What’s going to happen? You will leave your nets and go follow Jesus… (What does his wife say…?)
Pentecost… now they must leave Jerusalem and go to the ends of the earth.
Apostle Paul.. Damascus Rd. encounter… be blind for a few days… Paul you will leave your Pharisee friends and go to the ends of the earth… It doesn’t analyze well… “Paul, what are you doing?” Paul: “I had an encounter”… (What does his mother think? His mother thinks he has gone nuts. The Pharisees think he is crazy.)
When an encounter happens we end up leaving the old ways. We stretch and grow into the new.
IF YOU SAY YES, BE PREPARED TO MOVE.
The theme of the 1904 Welsh Revival was “Bend the Church and Save the World.”
When we become old wineskins, comfortable and content on doing things our way, we limit the flow of the Spirit. May it be our prayer today:
“Father, we say yes to Your ways, even those ways that make us uncomfortable. Stretch us, bend us, break us, send us, that You would be glorified and all would come to know You.”