The revival fire emails have brought much joy, as I have read of the outpouring that so many are experiencing. I love that sense that things are out of control and yet at the same time the King is reigning… Please pray that some of this hit's Thessaloniki, Greece where the Lord has called us!
Please bear with me if I share some things the Lord has been saying, I believe it's in the flow…
Two weeks ago we celebrated the home coming of our grand daughter Jemimah. Our daughter & son-in-law had been given two bottles of a newly produced wine by the daughter of a National wine producer. It was delicious! As I took the wine the Lord spoke to me and said that New Wine is about to be poured and it needs a New wineskin. Not a modified or patched old wineskin but something completely new! He called to me and said "Let's do church in a New Way".
The Lord then said some interesting things: We are church not the event… Expect Jesus to show up… Encourage diversity… Every part of the body will need to play a part…
I suggest you read John 2:1-9. Part of verse 9 says "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now." And Matthew 9:16 says "No one puts a piece of un-shrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved."
The New Wine is The Holy Spirit poured out, he transforms the very substance of the believer as he enters our lives and it is He who comes out, when you are poured out.
This New Wine we tasted: The Aroma was strong… The Texture was full bodied… The taste was rich… The colour was amazing. This describes our life in the multi-dimensional Body of Christ. This is not consumer church, this is the body of Christ made wonderfully alive by tasting new wine… It's Life!
The Wineskin.
The New Wine lives, so it must have a suitable container or the wine is lost… New wine is alive and like a baby in the womb it moves…. New wine needs a flexible wineskin... The wineskin is not an image we are familiar with in the age of mass production, but the originally wine was fermented in a container made from the skin of an animal. The flexibility would lessen with age, and whilst it could be lubricated with oil, eventually the skin would dry and become hard, consequently it would split when filled with new wine. Hence the importance of the wineskin as facilitates the movement.
So, the container had to be flexible or the wine would is lost, the wineskin had a limited lifespan. I believe the church of the 20th century must make way for the church of the 21st century. Much of what my generation have considered new is not new anymore, we have to make room for the best wine to be poured out and remember the best came last. In the present age the values of the Kingdom must remain but the wineskin must change so that a new generation can be brought in.
Pouring the Wine.
I checked out some wine tasting websites. I read that when you pour wine into a glass you should hold the stem of the glass not the bowl. This is so that you don't affect the wine with the heat of your hands on the glass. How this speaks to the church. Too many have left their mark upon the wine because they have held it wrongly, it's time to take hold in the correct way and realise this is God's church not ours...
In a new day you do things in a new way.
So, I encourage you … TASTE & SEE!
--
David Webb
PO Box 4169, Perea, 57019 Thessaloniki
Greece
www.fromj2i.net
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