LIVING IN NEW WINESKINS

God used this parable to give me insight - revelation knowledge in a situation I was in and I want to share it with you today.

Luke 5:36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old one; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new [fermenting] wine will [expand and] burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one, after drinking old wine, wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is fine.’” AMP

The Pharisees were questioning Jesus about fasting, not having understanding that God was there and there was no need to seek Him by fasting (Luke 5:33-35). Then Jesus went even further and spoke of the reason they didn’t believe He was the Son of God or understand His teachings. That’s where the wineskins came in. He was comparing them, old wineskins to new wineskins. Jesus was saying that they were so stuck on their old way, so set in their old way of thinking they couldn’t take in the new way. Jesus was inferring that until they would receive Him they wouldn’t be able to see clearly, they were old wineskins, not being able to handle the new wine.

When we submit and are born again we can see things we couldn’t see before. Until one submits to God it is like old skins, our old nature taking in new wine. You could say it burns going down making it hard to make the change. But once we are born again, once we admit we need God - the new wine, we become new skins and the new insight makes perfect sense and its taste? Ah!

What God was showing me in my situation was I was looking at my situation as a Pharisee, an unbeliever, in an old wineskin, looking to the manner of how the world operated on the wide path. What He began to show me is my situation in the new and better way, HIs way, the new wine, which is a much happier way at that! He also reminded me that I have to filter, even though I have a new nature I have to filter out, be aware of, the enemy trying to poison my thinking to think the old way.

I love how God corrects me and is faithful to consistently keep me on the narrow path. It is easy to get caught up in the world’s way of thinking and doing living in old wineskins, drinking old wine. But, there is a new way and we can live in new skins. The choice is ours and we NEED God, we need His fellowship, His wisdom, His power to keep those skins on and keep them new.