38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”
Wineskins are the animal hide containers used to transport and dispense wine. Wineskins are the structures, the methods and means by which the wine to given to people.
Biblically, the new wine is the new work, the new move, the new thing that the Spirit of God is doing through the new covenant of Jesus Christ. The first issue is you need the new wine! We need what God is doing today instead of living on the memory of encounters and seasons with God long since past.
With the new wine, you also need a new wineskin. The new wine of God requires a new structure and framework to stretch and grow with the new wine. As the new wine settles, so does the new wineskin to accommodate it.
BUT interestingly Jesus also tells us something important here. He says, if you give people the choice they will take the OLD wine over the NEW wine any day. Yes, that’s right the old over the new. Why is that?
In the natural, people have the view that older wine has a more mature, refined taste. It has had time to settle and the flavours become more subtle. In the Spirit, it is the same. People are more acclimatised to the “taste” of the old wine. They believe what God did then was better than what we see and experience now.
This is a mindset we all need to overcome. The shape of the wineskin – new or old – is irrelevant if we are clinging to the old wine. Wine eventually spoils. Wine does have a “good by” date.
What God has done in the past we give Him praise for. But let’s not allow it spoil our taste for what is to come, lest we settle for sipping on spoiled vinegar instead enjoying His finest of fare.
PRAYER: Father, I ask you to help embrace the new wine that you are wanting to pour out in my life. I trust you Lord and know that you are good. Thank you Holy Spirit for your refreshing in me, In Jesus name, Amen.