New Wine

Everyday we wake up to a “new” day. It’s a new day full of God’s mercy, grace, forgiveness, protection, and provisions. Everyday “new’ lives are being formed and “new” lives are being born both physically and spiritually. We have a great God who is always doing a “new” thing in our lives. All throughout Psalms it talks about us singing a “new song” to our Lord each day. Even though God provided us with four different seasons each year that roll around like clockwork, this winter is not the same as last winter, it’s a new winter with new things happening, just like each season is not like the last, it’s a “new” season with “new” things happening.

In Old Testament times, in the fall, usually around what we call September, the grapes were collected from the vines and brought to the vats (crushing floor). In their bare feet, they would step off into the crushing floor and start stomping on the grapes. The juice was put into “new” wineskins which were made from animal skins. Wineskins, once emptied, were never used for storing wine again because when the wine is first put into the new wineskin it starts a process of “fermentation” which causes the wineskin to stretch. Once stretch the first time, it was no good for “new” wine anymore. In Matthew, Jesus talks about how an old wineskin will burst when new wine is poured into them.

“16 But no one puts a piece of unshrunk (new) cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. 17 Nor is new wine put into old wineskins [that have lost their elasticity]; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the [fermenting] wine spills and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, so both are preserved.”” Matthew 9:16-17 (AMP)

God has “new” things for our lives each new day. If we aren’t fully ready for these “new” things, then we won’t be able to experience them and/or benefit from them fully as God intends for us to. A lot of us have old mindsets and old ways we are hanging onto causing us to be like the Pharisees and miss out on the “new” things God has for us. The Pharisees were the religious leaders in Jesus’ time who studied God’s laws and read the scriptures while teaching the people about God’s laws. They were so stuck in the “old” ways, the “old” things, the “old” rules, that they couldn’t see the “new” thing God had given them, His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Then why were the disciples so easily able to receive the teachings of Jesus? Because they were “new” wineskins, ready to soak up all His teachings.

Think of the pressing floor as the “old” things in your life, the past hurts, the past disappointments, the past and present things that need to be “stomped” out of your life. Just envision this: In the crushing and pressing of the new grapes the “old” is being stomped out of your lives to make room for the “new” things God has for us. This is where God is refining us out of the pressing floor where our old life is being crushed out of us and our “new” fire for the Lord is defined! The grapes undergo a lot of pressure when they are being crushed and so our lives may go through a lot of pressure while our “old” is being torn down and our “new” is taking over. This requires faith in God to do what we can’t do on our own!

The “new” things are then put into a “new” wineskin for us to drink from! If we want to embrace the “new” things God has for us, new revelation from His Word, we must become new wineskins. Once we become new wineskins, we are ready for all the new things God has for us.

Just think, Jesus was the “new wine” God provided for the Old Testament people. Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He gave us a “new wine”, the Holy Spirit. Without the inner workings of the Holy Spirit faith is impossible. Without faith, we cannot let go of the “old” and look towards the “new” God has for us!

People enjoy the old wine and old wineskins because they enjoy what’s familiar to themselves, they enjoy that comfort zone they have built up over the years. Then three are those who just refuse change! I remember asking my husband, Lonnie, why he was doing something the way he was doing it. He said, “because that’s the way my Dad did it”. With that I said, “Well, just because that’s the way he did it doesn’t mean it can’t be done a different way, maybe even a better way”. The point I was trying to get across to my husband was just because you are taught something one way does not mean you can’t learn a better and sometimes easier way to do it (especially with all the new technology we have now to use). He was comfortable doing it the way his Dad had taught him (and his Dad probably learned it from his Dad, and so on). My Daddy got furious with me one day. I had asked his opinion about something (I was working on my car) and he said, “Why do you even waste my time asking my opinion when you don’t even do what I suggest for you do?” Oh, he was extremely mad at me, I could see the veins in his neck popping out! I crawled out from under the car, looked at him and said, “Daddy, I ask a lot of people their opinions about the same things. Then I take all the opinions and chew on them for a while and then make my own decision about what to do. It’s not that I don’t value your opinion or everyone else’s opinion, but I have to make my own decisions, right or wrong, and learn from them one way or the other” I’m not saying the way you do things is wrong, I’m just saying there may be a better way to do it and if I don’t explore “new” things, I’ll never learn from the past “old” things!” In Luke chapters 5 & 9, even Jesus said that old wineskins stay that way because people are satisfied with the “old” and the “old” is not fit for the kingdom of God.

“And no one, after drinking old wine, wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is fine.’”” Luke 5:39 (AMP)

“But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back [to the things left behind] is fit for the kingdom of God.”” Luke 9:62 (AMP)

To get our “new” wineskin, we must let go of the past, stop comparing the new with the old, get out of the box we have created with our comfort zone, and throw out our limited perceptions we have about who God is and what all He can do for us. We must step out in faith and follow what God teaches us in His Word!

“18 “Do not remember the former things, Or ponder the things of the past. 19 “Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.”” Isaiah 43:18-19 (AMP)

New wine is associated with a new harvest! Where there is “new” wine, there is “new” power, “new” freedom, “new” revelations, “new celebration!

I just love the song “New Wine” by Hillsong. Pray you listen to it and it blesses you and your “New Wine”. 🙂

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Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.

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Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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