Categories: Devotionals

Are You Ready for God’s New Wine?

…Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved
Matthew 9:17 NIV

What is Jesus really saying in this parable and what implication does this have for our lives? First, wine was, and in some cases still is, carried in bags made of goat skin. While new wineskins are stretchy, old wineskins on the other hand are stiffer and don’t have elasticity.

Interestingly, a new wine is still undergoing fermentation. The sugar in the grape juice is converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide. The implication of this is that it will always require more space or put better a container that has elasticity. This is where the new wineskin comes in.

New wineskins can stretch to accommodate increased volume; however old wineskins are unable to stretch. Therefore, any attempt to put a new wine in them would mean, that they would rupture, and the new wine is spilled-what a waste that would be, no smart winemaker will make such a rookie mistake and neither will God.

The investment that goes into winemaking is too great for any prudent winemaker to carelessly entrust the output with just any wineskin, no! The wineskin must be carefully chosen and of particular interest is the capacity of the wineskin to be able to hold the wine.

There is a new wine that God wants to pour into you, but like a prudent winemaker, He wants to ensure that this vessel has sufficient capacity to bear what it is asking for so that His investment doesn’t become a waste.

He wants to know if you have developed enough prayer and character capacity to be able to operate the level of the anointing you seek without it destroying you in the process. He wants to know if you have developed the required time management, self-management, and financial intelligence required to manage the level of career promotion or business growth that you seek.

In every area of our lives, there is a capacity building required to sustain the next level of growth, and out of his love, God will not give us such growth unless our capacity to handle them is proven already. So, above all else, today, ask God to help you identify the capacity gaps in your life and grant you the discipline to bridge them.