New Wine

“No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good'” (Luke 5:36-39)

Wineskins were made of goatskins.  Because new wine expands as it ages, it has to be put into something that is pliable.  We as Christians must be open to new things, new structures, new ways, and ideas.  We must keep our minds pliable.

We must make sure that our hearts don’t become so ridged we don’t pay attention when God is birthing in us a “New” ministry, or we might miss out on God’s life-changing message.

Several years ago, I was deeply involved in the Woman’s Ministry at my church.  I was thriving in this ministry, I was happy and content.

However, God called me out of the Ministry.  I heard His voice and thought surely, I must not be understanding correctly.  Why would God call me out of something that was going well?  Of course, I assumed it was Satan, and I ignored the voice.

God distinctly proceeded to give me two visions regarding His message for me to step down.

The first one was a picture of the winemaker picking the grapes off the vine.  The Wine Maker was cautious in removing the grapes, gentle and slow were his movements.  He gently and proudly placed them into his basket.

The Lord told me that the winemaker has a particular window of time that he harvests his crop.  The moment the grapes are picked determines the flavor of the wine.  You want to make sure the acidity and sweetness of the grapes are in perfect balance.

Sometimes, God picks us up out of a healthy place, when we are at our juiciest, sweetest, best place.  Before we become burned out or bitter.

The second picture God gave me was of a wine cellar.  He showed me how the Wine Maker takes the newly produced bottle of wine down to the cellar, stores it on its side and leave it down there to age.  I distinctly knew that the time would be seven years.

It is important to note that aging wine doesn’t necessarily make it better. Instead, it makes the wine different.  The wine inside the bottle is actually living, and it changes from year to year – it’s continually evolving.

Sometimes God does things to us and for us that surprise us.  Maybe they don’t make sense at the time they are happening.

It is hard to follow, in blind faith, a calling or a waiting.  It was very tempting to forge ahead and ignore this word.  What if I misunderstood?  What if I never got another chance to follow my dream of being in ministry?  What if it was all a ruse?

It has been about 7 years since I stepped out of Woman’s Ministry.  My word of the year for 2018 is UNLEASHED.  No, fireworks did not go off, I didn’t see a host of heavenly angels in the sky.

However, I did get a new gift, the gift of writing.  A long-buried desire that I had forgotten about was brought up out of the wine cellar, and the bottle was opened, and I have sampled the wine, and it is good, very good.

 Heavenly Father, Make me your vessel, make me an offering, make me whatever you want me to be.  Jesus, bring new wine out of me.  Amen