Since the first time I ever read these words of our Lord Jesus, “and no one puts new wine into old wine skins. For the wine would burst the wine skins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wine skins.” (Mark 2:22) I have been asking Him to really help me understand what they mean so that I can apply them in reality.
What He has continued to show me is to come with Him 24/7. So far, this is the only way I have found to be really “new”. What is He showing to you about these words? I heard an explanation of these words in a church service years ago, which did not help me at all.
Jesus continues to show me that I must become a “new wine skin” every day. If I do not keep coming with Him EVERY day, I could fall back easily into my “old” patterns of behaviour, or do what I have been taught to do by the world, or simply not care about learning anything new from my one and only teacher on the earth, out saviour Lord Jesus Christ!
As anyone who knows the Gospels would know, our Lord Jesus says that He is our one and ONLY teacher! “And don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’ for you have only one teacher, the Messiah.” MATTHEW 23:10 Does it make total sense to you, that the Son of God is to be our only teacher on this earth?
We can learn many things from people in this world, who have gone ahead of us and have learned things that we do not know. Lord Jesus is the Son of God and the only WAY to our Heavenly Father, so surely we must put Him into that position of authority in our lives? To place Him as our one and “only teacher” makes total sense to me!
This is what He is really commanding us to do, of course for our own “good”. Even the word “good” He speaks about in a way that if we will listen properly to what He is meaning for us to do, we will be set free when He says, “Why do you call me ‘good’, only GOD is good! “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone.” (Luke 18:19) When you truly accept that “only God is good”, all you have to do is seek to do God’s will through Lord Jesus and do it!
If you use the power of logic alone you can put together these dots for yourself. Lord Jesus, our one and only teacher on this earth ( about all to do with God, Himself, the Holy Spirit, LIFE and LIVING LIFE to the full) is telling us that we can’t put “new wine into old wine skins”, if we do the old wine skins will “split” and the wine will be lost!
You can start if you like to ask Lord Jesus anytime of the day or night, to teach you personally about what He means with every word He is recorded as saying in the Gospels. What He has shown to me with this Gospel is that I must come with Him, learning all He has to teach me in a day, so that I can stay in the “NEWNESS” which comes automatically from really applying myself to all of His teachings. This takes real love, discipline, commitment, many other qualities and a huge desire to be new every day!
Sound hard to you? Well…Lord Jesus also says that His burdens are light and His yoke is easy! “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke … 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”(Matthew 11:28-30) So yes there is a lot to learn to come with Lord Jesus and receive all of the love, gifts and treasures that our Father, Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit have for us every day but if we will “ask, seek and knock” then He will help us EVERY step of the way and make our “burdens light” and our “yokes easy”! Yahoo I say!
So the next time you want to go back to your OLD ways and be an “old wine skin”, shake yourself quickly, (spiritually speaking) and ask Lord Jesus to help you. If we do not become new “wine skins” to receive all that our Father in Heaven, Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit have for us every day, it will all just pass through us, just like we are an old wine skin, splitting and the precious new wine just comes pouring out onto the ground.
I believe satan fights so hard to make it so hard for humans to just come with our Lord Jesus as a “child”. The devil wants to keep all people enslaved in the “old” us. The “old” us is the way we were brought “up” by the world. Lord Jesus says that there are ONLY two masters, “God and mammon” “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24). We love God and hate mammon, or we love mammon and hate God.
I have been asking Lord Jesus about these words for years. A long time ago, I found a definition of “mammon” which included “the world”. Lord Jesus has shown me that I either follow Him, or I follow the world and the desires of the world. Either I am out to impress God, or I am out to impress people in the world.
I have discovered that most people I have ever met have been almost obsessed with what other people think of them. Any person may immediately say that they don’t care what other people think of them that they just do what they want to do. In terms of what our Lord Jesus says, He says we serve “God OR mammon”. If we say that we do what WE want, how is that serving God? How is that obeying the commands of Lord Jesus?
Which master we serve AND obey, is a huge subject, one which I am very soon to be running workshops about to share what I have been discovering for years, to help me to make sure I am “awake” and really engaged with obeying the commands of our Lord Jesus. He says that if we “love Him we will obey His commands”. If we say we “love” Him and believe in Him but we have never known or bothered to find out about every one of His commands, then how genuine are we as “Christians”?
Lord Jesus says that anyone who “believes” in Him WILL be SAVED. If we SAY we believe in Him but have never bothered to learn about His commands could be in danger of being told, “Get away from me you evil doer, I never knew you”! (Matthew 7:23) It is so important to keep engaging with Lord Jesus as your greatest friend who wants you to be “saved” to come with Him and LIVE with Him forever. He wants us to LIVE. He died on the cross for each one of us to have the opportunity to live “LIFE IN ABUNDANCE”. (John 10:10)
When He tells us that we can’t put “new wine into an old wine skin”, it is so important for us to say to Lord Jesus, “Lord what does this mean to me”? I pray you will be helped immediately to become a “new wine skin” who is capable of receiving and holding all of the new life, gifts, power, purpose and on and on that God Himself wants to give you! Yes YOU!
If you start to engage with His every command and speak with Him as your Father in Heaven, Lord Jesus as your one and only TEACHER and the Holy Spirit your wondrous HELPER and Counselor, you are starting on the most amazing and exciting adventure beyond what any of us can ever imagine. I highly recommend that you start today! God bless you and share the love of our Lord, Kelly Newton-Wordsworth
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