wineskins – Fire and Light

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Matthew 9:16-17

Sometimes, when we begin to pray for new wine, the Lord begins a process that will allow Him to answer that prayer. But He doesn’t start with the new wine.

First, the Lord will begin to remove old wineskins. Then, He will begin to create new wineskins in your life. This takes time. New wineskins take time to craft. Then, when they are ready, He will pour out the new wine.

Most of us struggle to stay in the process long enough to experience the new wine. But the Lord takes us through this process because He wants to preserve both the wine and the wineskin. Without this process, He could do damage to both.

We sometimes think that the answer to the prayer is the new wine. That is what we are asking for after all. But the answer to the prayer for new wine has been the whole process–the removal of the old wineskin, the creation of the new skins, and the pouring out of new wine. If we can see that all of it constitutes God’s answer to our prayer for new wine, we’ll be able to hang in there. We’ll be able to “not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Matthew 9:16-17

Jesus was doing a new thing, bringing a new covenant, and it needed a new paradigm in order to hold it. Jesus teaches His disciples that if a new thing (new cloth, new wine) is forced into an old paradigm (old garment, old wineskin) not only will it not work, but it will actually cause damage.

We don’t relate to Jesus through the old covenant paradigm. Jesus is not just a new Moses, teaching new understandings about the Law. Jesus was ushering in a completely new paradigm. In the new covenant, we are filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:17-18) and are made new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1).

This same principle is true for when God does a new thing in your life. About 5 years ago God began to disrupt my life with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in my life. Then about 3 and a half years ago I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit that many would call a “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” Having not been raised in a Christian tradition that talked about or experienced such things, I was experiencing new wine.

Yet, God had been preparing new wineskins–new paradigms of understanding–before He gave me the new wine. I didn’t understand what was happening when I went through it, but the Lord spent a year and a half renewing my mind with a new wineskin before He ever poured out new wine.

I see now that had He given me the new wine first, there could have been real damage done. I was already experiencing a lot of disruption in my life because of all the changes that were happening with the new wineskin. Had the wine come too early, it would have done some serious damage and the wine would have just run out. When the new wine finally came, there was new wineskin to hold it and not burst.

So often, before we can encounter the Lord in a new and fresh way, He will have to take us through a process of renewing our mind (Romans 12:2) which causes us to “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”(Proverbs 3:5). He creates new wineskins in our heart and mind before He pours out the new wine. This process is not only necessary for individuals but also for whole churches who want to experience God in a new and fresh way.

Do you want new wine?

Even now, do you sense the Lord creating new wineskins in you?

Tag: wineskins

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