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
We have all heard teaching on how not to try to put new wine into an old wineskin. Mostly in Charismatic churches. In some places you will hear someone teach how rubbing olive oil on the old wineskin will allow it to be used again. That's almost worse in some ways if you think about it.
Spilling the wine on the ground without effect or wasting the grace of God seems to be condemned. Wine is in this case a representative of the Holy Spirit. Wasting HIS power is condemned.
SO what of this, what if we dig deeper. What's Jesus really saying?
Here are some conclusions... and you might not like them. Jesus seems to be saying that an old wineskin must be abandoned or renewed.. That being an old wineskin is a death march. It has no value. It's over. It needs to be put aside. Unless it has much work and change brought on it, it's a useless vessel for anything fresh and new.
I hear all the time from 'Revivalists': "if you invite me to come and speak, I will blow your church up". Of course it's hyperbole. They are saying as a badge of honor that they will bring such light and spirit that things will never be the same. Any church that fears being blown up is already an old wineskin. Yet I know of many "leaders" who avoid all signs of new wine because they fear it will blow them and their church to bits. That is not sound leadership, it's an indicator of an overcautious old wineskin. Of great churches I have know, they will bring in the most radical wild eyed people and let them run free. It stretches the congregation and if the guy is off... if they are well grounded they will know what to do about it.
It may well be that God's plan to blow up old wineskins. Those who have lost the ability to take in new wine, Those unwilling to allow a full move of the Holy Spirit's anointing oil to soften them to receive, those no longer in the flow of HIS spirit.. who are stuck in the spirit of an institution.
IF a new wine move would blow up your church, you don't have a church, you have a club, cult or clique.
The solution?
1. The Oil of anointing.. one that softens the skin so it can take in new wine. OIL represents what? Holy Spirit. Most Old Wineskins don't have any place for a move of the Holy Ghost...Their trinity consists of Father, Son and .... UM... I donno. They are like Johns Disciples at Ephesus. "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" he asked them. "No," they replied, "we haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." Acts 19:2
2. New Wine Skin believers abandoning the old... That is how it happens most often. Why the most fruitful churches in evangelism many times are new church plants. They don't steal sheep as is often accused. They don't just live on "transfers". They pump new energy, new vision, new hope, new anointing into a community where it was missing before. The net result is, the Kingdom expands.
3. Blowing up old wineskin fellowships. IF they won't be able to accept new wine or are too rigid and only want to hold on to the few drops of they old wine they have... it is better for them to be blown up and thrown away.
And that is what you are seeing. Old wineskin fellowships are dying... and I submit to you, it may be God's plan..
Evenso, COME LORD JESUS
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