God has been making these scriptures come alive to me lately.
Luk 5:36-39
(36) And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.
(37) And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.
(38) But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.
(39) No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.
Jesus said this in the context of the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fasting, but His disciples not fasting while He was with them on the earth, but the broader application that this implies has become more and more real to me.
Being born into, literally, the roots of 20th century pentecostalism, there were ways we did things that had become such deeply rooted tradition that it sometimes made the Word of God of none effect. Mark 7:13. For the last 13 years or so God has been working in me to bring me to the place of counting nothing sacred but Him and His Word.
So many times we are comfortable with the ways and traditions of the place where we have always been. We have a hard time opening our eyes and ears to what the Lord is saying, to His Word, to the dealings of the Spirit because we want God to fit into our already established framework of how things ought to be. It is subtle, but deadly to the moving of the Holy Spirit in and through us.
Every move of the Spirit of God in our lives is a new move of the Spirit of God that will require a new commitment to abandonment of the old and embracing the new. God is always changing us from glory to glory. This is not a stationary thing, but a perpetual movement forward in the things of the Spirit. We cannot afford to camp out, but must remain flexible to His teaching and leading.
I have come to a place in my life where my desire is to see God move in my life in such a way that I bear much fruit for His kingdom. I cannot fit this move of God into an old mold. I must allow God to mold me in such a way that I am ready to receive the new wine, the further move, of His Spirit in and through me. I never want to be found saying, "God, I don't think I really want this new move in my life, this new thing you want to do with me. I like the way it used to be better."
Don't misunderstand. God does not change. His Word does not change. But we MUST change as He moves in us to conform is to His image. Sometimes this hurts, sometimes it is uncomfortable, always this yields priceless fruit in us and through us.
Praise God that He is changing me. I want to be a new wineskin.
Travis