“Nor is new wine put into old [a]wineskins [that have lost their elasticity]; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the [fermenting] wine spills and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, so both are preserved.”
Matthew 9:17 AMP

In ancient times wine was placed into wineskins while it was actively fermenting, the yeast and sugar producing a violent chemical reaction emitting extensive CO², creating immense outward pressure from within the wineskin.

God making us anew is not just the process of the grapes being crushed and the pressed as it is made into wine. As with wine, it extends to the continued development and maturation of the wine marked by the fermenting of sugars while in the wineskin, and the stretching this causes as we are made anew. Pressure from the inside, not outside.

For us as children of God, this could be anything from His deepening convictions in areas that previously weren’t that deep to us e.g. not being able to watch the shows we used to or the music we listen to, or even the places we go to. It could extend to the reorganizing of our gifts and skills and interests that disrupt life as we have known it, the expression of our calling and how we God has been using us. The question becomes, as we are being made new and called higher, are we yielded, open and surrendered enough to stretch and grow to new levels of surrender? Have we offered a renewed yes, as we’re called afresh to new assignments, while the road grows narrower i.e. the space for compromise and luke warm living shrinks?

I pray we are willing.

The Significance:

A fresh, oiled, and supple goat hide, often used to make wineskins is highly elastic. It stretches along with the expanding gas, produced by the maturing wine. An old wineskin, having already stretched to its maximum capacity during its first use, has lost its elasticity and become brittle. It cannot expand further. If filled with new wine, it doesn’t just leak, it literally explodes under pressure, destroying both the container and the fresh harvest.

As God calls us either to wholly new assignments in new terrain, or to old places with new assignments, are we trying to recycle our yes and rely on the depth and breath of revelations and convictions that were fitting for an old call but simply won’t cut it here and now?

Are we tired, jaded and traumatized, but because we’re “effective and needed”, and find worth or value in the call, are therefore unwilling to stop, come away with the Lord to quiet and obscurity, so as to abide and seek him to be made whole and anew?

Or on the other hand are we so battle-weary and defeated that we refuse or are reluctant to answer the call again, because the trauma of the last season has made us stretched out wineskins, unable and even unwilling to hold new wine? And yet we can’t shake the rumblimg and increasing discontent because we know we’re called to and created for more.

Either way, I pray you come to father. His yoke is easy and His burden light.

In the same way that goat hide is oiled to increase elasticity, may the oil of His spirit increase our capacity as he stretches us for the new assignment. May He soften hardened hearts and refresh weary souls. May we remember that He does the heavy lifting. We simply say yes, stay seeking and surrendered. He shapes, molds and anoints us a new.

This new season, the new mantle, the new wine demands new wineskin.

In Jesus name.