A New Season

No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. (Luke 5:36-37)

When the Lord does a new thing, it is something that has never been done before -- not a refurbished, remodeled, rearranged thing, but a NEW thing. We must be careful not to frustrate the originality of the Holy Spirit by holding Him to the past and our limited understanding of the future. He promises to do beyond what we can ask or think, and we can only take hold of that promise by faith. Our faith is the only container we possess large and elastic enough to receive the new thing God is doing. Let go of your history and, by faith, embrace what is ahead!

 

The old system of things will always resist the new. Remember, one of the greatest battles of the early New Testament Church was the temptation to turn back to Judaism and the Law of Moses -- feasts, symbols, the Levitical priesthood, circumcision, dietary restrictions, and the like. Clinging to the old is always the sign of spiritual stagnation and dead religion, and our Lord is the God of the living and not the dead. The Holy Spirit will have none of that in the church, and we must be careful not to grieve Him by seeking to breathe life into that which He has set aside. The Lord doesn't coddle the old way of doing and seeing things -- He puts it away, because it's time and purpose has passed. Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit is the New Wine, and we are the new wineskins. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Set aside the old. Step into the new!

 

Let's Pray - Father, I am prepared by Your Spirit for the new thing. I am willing to be, to do, and to go according to Your sovereign will. Thank You for the courage to let go of the old and embrace the new. In Jesus, Amen.