Old to New Wineskins, Part 2

OLD TO NEW - NEW WINE, Part 2.

There is a NEW WINE the Holy Spirit wants to release to His church today... a new wine that He wants to saturate His church in – this new wine was prophesied by the Prophet Joel, “In that day the mountains will drip with new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; and the ravines of Judah will run with water” (Joel 3:18). In the natural, old wines are grown and produced mainly in Europe by traditional methods. New grapes and new wines however, are being grown and produced OUTSIDE of traditional production areas, eg in South Africa, Canada etc. and these grapes are more ripe and more full-blooded and tastier than the old grapes and wines.

So with the new wine there is a NEW TASTE being released among God’s people, for those who will receive it... and a new personal freedom. Remember the water that Jesus turned into wine? It was the BEST WINE. It was better quality and it tasted better than the previous wine that was served at the beginning of the wedding (John 2:1-11). The new taste of wine starts with people who are really hungry and thirsty for God and for his presence ... they are fed up with old, stale breadcrumbs, with no power and joy.... they are looking for reality, for the real God is mighty and powerful.

When we come in touch with this new wine and taste, we experience a new personal freedom; the fears, the bondages and strongholds in our lives are being loosed from our backs and really begin to live. Everything is being renewed within us. We are joyful and our compassion for Jesus and for others is greatly increased. We want more of Him. We seek His face and pours in more of himself. As we are drinking this new wine, we are given new spiritual sight, new revelation of Him, His Kingdom, our sonship and our identity, our inheritance and our position. We begin to walk in heavenly places with Him, because that is where we are seated. We are no longer restricted and controlled by religion and traditions, but like David the King, we are abandoned on Him and we are not afraid to show our freedom.

With the new wine there is a NEW FRAGRANCE or INCENSE that is also being released in the churches, if we will allow. The new fragrance is our incense of worship and praise, and it is like the perfume that was poured out from Mary’s Alabaster Box, over Jesus’ feet. It is a new kind of worship and relationship that is not like we have experienced before.: it is deep, real, significant, life-changing. This fragrance will bring with it, visions, healings and miracles and God’s Rhema word spoken at a deeper level into our spirits that transforms us. We will have life-changing, God encounters. The fragrance is refreshing and it signifies His acceptance of our worship and intercession. The fragrance is uninhibited worship that is varied in forms and looks ‘messy’ compared to our hymns and songs, but it is still God - it is God breaking through, touching us in a dynamic way. The fragrance is also an offering, a sacrifice of our lives on the alter for Him. We are living, daily sacrifices. This fragrance is pure in Spirit and in truth and is an acceptable offering to Him.

God is calling His church to become NEW WINESKINS (see Luke 5:36 -39) ready to receive this New Wine. We must prepare ourselves, to receive the New Wine, or we will not be able to contain it. God wants to deconstruct what is not Him in our lives and the church: to deconstruct religious beliefs, practices, traditions, ceremonies and cultural practices that simply are not Him, but man’s ways. He wants to deconstruct old and faulty foundations and re-lay correct foundations in us. He wants to deconstruct and remove all old baggage and things that clog and blocks up His house that is not of Him. He wants to deconstruct wrong leadership structures and break off control and ungodly power in the church that it does not rightfully belong to us (too many have power that should not - from deacons, to organists to committees and boards, elders and whoever....) God wants to remove all these things because they hinder and block Him.

Deconstruction and Reconstruction:

During prayer this is what the Lord showed me.... I saw a vision of the big church buildings we have built, and the programmes and religious systems, rising up into the sky (like the tower of Babel).... but they were black.... they became a big facade, a camouflage, and like a fog, they blocked out the real Jesus. I saw these things acting as a barrier, they reflected the glory away from the Lord when people find Him. I started praying and repenting for the church....

In the spirit I saw that the Church had become a tool in the enemy's hand.... and like Satan, who stated, "I will ascend into the heavens.... I will set my seat above the thrones of the stars... I will sit on mount zion, I will be like the most high God...." and I saw how the church was doing the same thing.... the churches (leaders) were setting up their own kingdoms, their own thrones, trying to be the best, trying to show themselves to be like God, but in fact they had become like Satan, desiring the things he desires.... and I saw how the church had played into the enemy's hand, how we thought we building God's kingdom, whereas we were in fact assisting the enemy in building something counterfeit... we were building a church does not represent God, nor reflects is image, but in fact, it reflected the image of the enemy in many ways. We need to repent church - this is not the church that God wants.

God will literally remove people who block and hinder him and refuse to move, so that God’s Spirit can move freely in their lives and in the church, OR he will remove the person who are truly seeking Him, out of the old into a new place – remember John 15:2, which says, "He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

He does this so our growth, maturity and freedom are no longer stunted, hindered, restricted or controlled. God will remove us and replant us into the new vine, if we will allow Him.

God is deconstructing the church as we know it now. God wants to restore Kingdom through his church, not more of church as we know it and do it. It’s all about the Kingdom of God and about the Bride being ready for His return. God is building a new home that doesn’t look like the old one at all. The church is being reconstructed, not into a another similar-type building, but into new wineskins, which is the Bride of Christ, that is ready and waiting for his return. The Bride must prepare herself for her husband, because she does not know when he will come for her..... but he will come and he will live with her.

There is a reconstruction God wants to do in “his house” and a new way of “doing” and “being” which is not programmed but has a freedom and flexibility to go where the wind of the Holy Spirit is blowing, where the cloud is moving and the fire is burning. Wineskins are made from goatskin, and are used because of their flexibility to expand. The new structure God is building is not based on authority figures and heavy-handed leadership, but rather servant leadership, based in spiritual family relationships. The Five-fold ministry and leadership will not exert their authority over others, nor demand titles and honours, but rather they teach, train, release, and they step back and even step down to allow the Body of Christ to grow up and be released.

The New Structure:

The New Structure of our church gatherings is already laid out in the New Testament – it is getting back to the simple and fundamental church as it was. It is the Body of Christ ministering to each other and to the world outside. It is the Body of Christ sharing in fellowship, in prayer and worship, in breaking of bread, in biblical teaching and doctrine, and displaying the signs and wonders of God in our communities. It is believers living as family, sharing their lives together, sharing meals, sharing and giving to one another as we have need. It is God’s family being family. It is lay ministry: members of the Body ministering to members both inside the church meetings and outside - members being raised up and released in their gifts and callings and sharing this with each other, rather than being led by leadership only.

In 1 Corinthians 14:26 we have an insight into how this might look within a church meeting... it says: When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.... “ Notice it does not say that only the leadership or the Pastor is to speak in meetings or to bring revelation etc, but all members of the Body need to be encouraged to operate in their gifts, all have something to share.

This is what God is looking for in us.... a church, a Body, a people who are genuine, authentic, flexible and willing to go where He is going., otherwise, how can he lead us if we refuse to move with Him? Goatskins are organic and they stretch when the new wine is poured into them and carbon dioxide ferments with the wine. The wine continues to ferment inside the wineskins for a while, causing them to stretch to their fullest capacity. We are called to be like a wineskin rather than a inflexible stone or rock that cannot change its shape or expand.

If we will allow it to happen, this new wine in us will expand us to our fullest capacity, stretching us to new dimension in the spirit. It will expand in us and through us. it will multiply and produce more wine, so we can give out of our fullness. Remember, new wine is more full-blooded, riper and richer tasting than the old wines. New Wine cannot be put into old wineskins of legalism and tradition, ceremonies or religion, or it will burst out and will be lost. What do we want to be? Do we want to be inflexible and inappropriate or do we want the new wine to flow in us and through us? It is our choice.

God is restructuring leadership and how this works within the church. God has been, and is continuing to restore the five-fold ministry back to its place, working in submission to one another and as servants..... Leadership needs to return to servanthood..... that is where Jesus lead from, a place of serving. I believe God is looking for those are truly surrendered to the King and the Kingdom; only through these servants can God’s Spirit truly be released. He is restructuring and restoring his Church back to its original purposes and plans; again, that which is NOT him, will be pruned and removed, so that re-growth can take place, that is truly connected to the vine (see John 15:1 ff).

Even more than this, the Lord wants to restructure and restore the whole Body of Christ to be ministers .... we may have heard it said before, every member is part of the Body and each part needs to be working together (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) but what I can see that the Lord wants to release is a whole body of ministers both inside and OUTSIDE of the church, in every dimension of society and life, and they will carry this message: “The Kingdom of God is at hand..... make way for the King.”

This is how the Body, the Bride should be: salt and light, the Kingdom of God physically present within the world, affecting and every part of society and our communities for good, and enhancing the Kingdom of God on the earth: she will no longer be ineffective and powerless, but it will be the opposite – she will be filled with the power of God, and signs and wonders will be a natural part of life.; then the world will look to us for answers. This is the kind of church God wants us to be. We are organic. We are moving. We are growing and expanding and enhancing. We are multiplying across the earth. We are a church on the move and nothing, not even the gates of hell shall prevail against us.