What I Learned From Getting Old

Develop your root-life in Christ. Where Christ is present, joy is perceived.

👀 Luke 5:36-39, AMP

Lord Jesus is not obsessed with patching up the old religious system. The systems your religious leaders have put in place; the traditions they've established.

A fresh piece of fabric sewn onto an old clothing will shrink and tear away when the garment is washed, rendering the garment useless. Old systems and practices cannot be repaired.

When you spend time with Christ [by reading His Word], you'll notice that He does something entirely new. Not according to your religious leader's traditions.

👉 Old Wineskins

The old, rigid structure of the wineskin cannot flex when the new wine ferments, and as a result, it will explode, the wine will be lost, and the wineskin will be completely unusable.

An explosion occurs as the new wine begins to ferment and the gas pushes through the previous, stiff structure.

👉 “Hesed” [Grace] Is The Gospel

Have you ever been around a congregation that likes to be beaten? [read 1 Corinthians 15:56, AMP]

“I have given my darkness an identity,” they boast. “Condemn my darkness, preacher!”

When you attempt to integrate a fresh move of the LORD into an established framework or ritual, problems abound. It is often quite risky. It might be hard.

The wine [Christ's Spirit] will be quenched, and the structure [their systems, customs, etc.] will be destroyed as a result.

When you try to introduce the new wine, people are unable to tolerate it if they are traditional and hardened.

You will damage their structure as a result. You risk damaging the current wineskin.

🤔 What Should You Do?

I am aware that you haven't yet discovered a church that radically practices “hesed.”

So, despite your best efforts, you are unable to change the minds of the people you hang out with frequently. In reality, you can't put new wine in old wineskins.

They are tethered to their structures, or their paradigms, so that doesn't work.

It is best to put new wine in new wineskins. Launch a fellowship of “hesed.”

⏰ I Know What You Are Thinking

Are there any chances of being rigid as you age and continue to follow Christ?

Are all of us destined to deteriorate into old, brittle wineskins that can never hold Christ's new work at any given time?

Are you simply doomed to become elderly-dead-wineskins?

👀 Luke 5:38, AMP

Neos is the Greek term used to describe “new.” Kainos is the Greek word used to describe “fresh.”

But “neos” wine must be put into “kainos” wineskins.

Literally, “kainos” means renewed wineskins.

💡 The Era Of Wineskins

Wineskins were then a valuable and quite expensive commodity for the inhabitants of that civilization.

If you didn't have the funds to go out and buy a new wineskin when one started to get hard, you would renew it.

You would “kainos” it!

🤔 How?

If you took an old, rigid wineskin and soaked it in water for days, the elasticity and suppleness would eventually return.

God's Word is compared to water.

How can we remain adaptable? Usable? Not blown away by Gospel gas?

In light of whatever Christ may be up to, how can you stay receptive?

📖 Soak In The Scriptures

We sit at Christ's feet [read Luke 10:38-42, AMP]. That's what Mary did.

You don't soak old wineskins in traditions, or programs, or denominationalism, or regulations.

You immerse them in Christ by reading His Word [Romans 10:17, AMP]. If you skip soaking these wineskins in water, they'll get hard.

👀 Luke 10:38-42, AMP

What we doctrinally hold to be true, as determined by our headquarters back home, is what we prioritize around-the-clock. Sad!

When “sitting at Christ's feet” no longer has primacy or supremacy in the church life, man! You begin to become rigid and hard.

It all comes down to rules. Programs. Traditions. Expectations of a denominational nature.

There won't be constant renewal once those things start to take precedence. No fresh findings. There is no fresh insight. No continuous softening.

🐘 The Elephant In The Room

How do we remain flexible? Fluid? How can you get the Christ-softening, Christ-renewing effect?

You sit at Christ's feet all the time. Hear what He has to say. Pay attention to receiving from Christ. That becomes your first priority in life.

🤔 Is That Practical?

If the church as a whole is committed to saying, “Lord Jesus, we will all come together to sit at your feet, as individuals, and as small groups. These wineskins will be soaked in your Word,” Christ will continually fill these vessels with new wine.

👀 Luke 5:39, AMP

Elections are generally quite fascinating.

“Send all corrupt leaders home,” was the response to all the discussions on removing terrible leaders.

Guess what, 94% of all awful leaders are consistently re-elected. Voters decide on that.

Why?

You are aware of the propensity: With the old, we feel at ease. This is a fact, and there is risk in doing that.

We criticize the government. We declare, “The former administration plundered taxpayers' money!”

Or, “We require fresh management. Remove the current officials!”

But you end up re-electing the incumbents on election day.

⚠️ Careful!

After discussing wine and regeneration, Christ encouraged us to exercise caution.

You will grow old and become comfortable if you are not careful.

Your complacency begins to stink, “I am knowledgeable about the Bible. I established my theology.”

Really?

“I don't need to soak my heart in the presence of Christ.”

🚂 Our Christian Journey

My gait and yours are identical to a locomotive.

Nine or ten years ago, you might have been on fire. Perhaps eighteen or nineteen years ago.

Possibly you were adding wood to the fire. It was necessary to perceive the presence of the Spirit moving, to hear insights from Christ, to read your Bible, to pray, and to praise the LORD.

Then you ceased providing it with consistent fuel [the flames].

And you begin to feel somewhat at ease when you say, “Oh, you're aware! To spend time with Christ is not useful.”

Or, “How can studying the Holy Bible make money appear in my bank account?”

Simply put, you stopped stoking the fire.

“Surprise! The train is still running.”

It's going fairly well. My financial situation is doing okay. Our marriage is prospering. The economy is doing well. Things with my child are going well.

💡 Locomotive

A locomotive doesn't immediately come to a screeching halt when you cease fueling its fire.

It simply moves very, very slowly. It gradually loses speed, almost imperceptibly. Slowly, and slowly.

'Til it does abruptly stop. And you wonder, “What happened?” as you consider your finances, your marriage, your children, your life, or your joy.

Guess what? It was ignoring stoking the fire since, for a while, everything appeared to be going swimmingly.

🚶 Walking With Christ

Your spiritual journey cannot remain static.

Either you are advancing in your walk, developing in the LORD, and growing in Grace, or you are regressing in your walk and losing ground with the LORD. You can't stay put.

Staying at the same speed is impossible. You cannot do that! In the kingdom of God, there is no such thing as cruise control.

Either you are gaining momentum for the kingdom or you are losing it.

Either you're warming up or you're cooling down. Either you are expanding or contracting.

Be mindful to avoid becoming stiff. You'll develop a hardened heart and no longer be a vessel for the new work of the Spirit in these latter days.

“How so?”

Ignoring the growth and the soaking. Unwilling to spend time with Christ.

“The old is better,” you say.

🧐 Watch out!

“Why?”

Be careful not to embrace the mentality of thinking, “Well, it's not as it used to be,” since Christ is continually doing new things.

Some religious leaders' hearts became hardened because they stopped immersing the wineskins in water.

They stopped spending time in the scriptures with Christ. They put an end to the longing for more revelations from Christ.

And they couldn't stand it when the Spirit of Christ started to move in the past.

They object, “We are made the righteousness of God in Christ,” saying, “What do you mean?”

“What do you mean, if sin has reigned over me, it proves that I am still not under the grace of God?”

They didn't continue to sit at Christ's feet. They were left behind when the Spirit began to move differently.

⌚ Too Late

May we always be open-minded and ready to receive the new wine, the fresh outpouring, that the LORD is accomplishing at any given time.

When the new wine is poured out, if the wineskins have hardened, guess what? It will be too late to soften them. You are left behind!

It's too late to say, “I best start studying the Holy Bible now,” while Christ is at work in a revival.

Or, “I should begin spending time with Christ right away!”

You won't catch the train! You missed it.

In these final days, Christ will pour out His Spirit more and more. You'll either be left out and wondering, “What's going on now?” Or you'll be prepared, having soaked the wineskins in the scriptures, kept the flames lit, and set your priorities straight.

If you don't spend time with Christ right now in reading the Holy Bible, you'll miss what He's accomplishing in these latter days before He comes back.

Rest in Christ! Sit at His feet, just like Mary did.

Your spiritual life will lose momentum, and you will fall behind if you neglect to feed the fire right now.

🤔 Am I Going To Hell?

I'm not referring to the rapture, to you being left behind during the tribulation, to losing your salvation, or to any of those things.

I refer to you being at the forefront of what Christ is and will be doing in these closing days.

Don't you see, you religious folks? The receptivity inside of you has hardened. Worn-out clothing!

What are you saying—“The old is better!”—when Christ is doing a fresh work?

You haven't been sitting at Christ's feet. You haven't been stoking the fire.

Your mind hasn't been spending much time with Christ lately in the scriptures.

“Lord Jesus, may your Spirit renew us.”

“Amen!”