“And
no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the
skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new
wine into new wineskins.” (Mark 2:22)
I’m sure many of us are familiar with the above verse. Jesus uses the example of a wineskin to encourage
us to be flexible in our thinking to accommodate a new move of the Holy Spirit
in our lives.
I know this is kind of an obvious question, but did you
know that all old wineskins were once new wineskins? When a new wineskin is first used, it is
flexible, which allows the fermenting process to finish. But once used, old wineskins often have to be
discarded. They can no longer be used to
hold new wine, because they are already stretched out and cannot be stretched
again.
As Christians, we were all new wineskins once. At some point, we surrendered our life to God
and allowed Him to expand our hearts and minds with an understanding of who He
is. But tragically, as time goes on, we
often lose our flexibility and become like old wineskins, unwilling to be
stretched again.
How about you? Would
you consider yourself a new or old wineskin?
Are you flexible enough to receive a new move of the Holy Spirit in your
life? Or, were you flexible a long time
ago when you first asked Jesus to take up residence in your heart, but since
that initial stretching, you have become rigid and resist any new move of God
that doesn’t fit into your theological box?
The river or flow of the Holy Spirit in our
lives will always stretch us by moving in new and exciting ways. Isaiah 43:19 says “Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not
perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will
even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Will you heed to what God is doing in your life, even if it
looks a little different than what you’ve experienced before? Will you commit to being a new wine skin
every day, so that God can continually pour His Holy Spirit into you afresh?
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