New wineskins...

And no one pours new wine into old wineskins…”(Luke 5:37)

How hard is sometimes for me to understand basic and practical spiritual principles; and how simple they really are when we finally receive the grace to understand. The gap between my mind and my heart is revelation, and revelation only comes from Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes revelation is like new wine; and my mind is like an old wineskin that has been already stretched and molded for many years by the old wine of religion, and a distorted understanding of God. The new wine can’t get in my mind because it will cause it to explode; and “the wine will run out and the wineskin will be ruined…” I need a new mind in order to receive new revelation.

Revelation is very relevant. It’s not just superficial knowledge about God or His Scriptures, useful only for pastors and Bible teachers; it’s deep knowledge, experiential knowledge, healing knowledge, transforming knowledge of truth that sets us free. It’s knowledge of ourselves; of who we are, of what we want, and what can really satisfy us; it’s knowledge of our purpose in life; it’s knowledge of our real beauty, and success in life. It’s knowledge of what we are able to do, and what we can’t do; it’s knowledge of our limitations, and the unlimited power that has been given to us. Are we willing to keep measuring us according to the old wineskins? The ones that segregate us because of appearance, age, gender, ethnicity, degree, financial or social status? No, we need new wineskins.

How can we get them? We must acknowledge that we can’t. There is no human effort able to provide us with new minds; there are no works or ceremonies able to transform us; there is no teacher in this earth able to cause us to redeem our minds and make them new. Just Christ Himself can enable us to receive this undeserved gift of God through the work of the Spirit and the Word of our Lord; this is the gift of redemption of our souls; of renewal of our minds. This new minds are the new wineskins where revelation is given to stretch our lives conquering what seems unconquerable.

As we realize our deep need of new wineskins rejecting the old ones that have been conformed to the ways of this world; as we offer our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God; as we worship God through our obedience; as we pray with no ceasing, and cry out to God from our hearts, longing with all our being for the transformation He want to cause in us… as we do all of that, the promise of God shines and grows stronger and stronger in our hearts… “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you…” (Ez 36:26)

Lord, give us new wineskins.