Jesus said that no one pours new wine into old wineskins. In the first century a wineskin was an animal skin used to store liquid. As the wine inside the skin fermented, the wineskin would stretch and expand. Once the skin was empty you could use it a few more times but eventually it would reach the stage where there was simply no more elasticity or stretch left in it. It had gone through the process of expansion too often and was no longer flexible or pliable. A decision had to be made: keep holding onto the old skin which no longer had the capacity to contain the fresh wine or discard it and pay the price of replacing it with the new.

I believe God is calling His people in these days to be increasingly flexible, to be open to the unexpected, to move with the Spirit, to be willing to be stretched, to pay the price and make bold moves.

These are the days of suddenlies and surprises. God is doing a new thing and we have a choice to make. Do we hold onto the old because it is comfortable and familiar? Or do we let go and embrace the new? Our decision will determine what God is willing to pour into us.

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Mark 2:22

“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.”

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Isaiah 42:9

“See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.”

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Isaiah 43:19

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

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Isaiah 48:6

“From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.”