Upgrade Your Wineskin
#newwineskinsseries
(This Weekly Prayer Summary was written by Irene Sentosa, from the CBC English Prayer Ministry Core Team, and edited by Brigitta Tedja)
Pastor Paul continued with the “New Wineskin” series for the month of August with a sermon entitled, “Upgrade Your Wineskin.”
Acts 2:13, 17-18 NKJV
Verse 13: “Others mocking said, ‘They are full of new wine.’”
Verses 17-18: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.”
New wine is talking about Holy Spirit and wineskins are talking about out vessels, our hearts. God is going to pour out His spirit upon all flesh. To experience the outpouring, the wineskin needs to first be renewed. New wine demands new wineskin.
The original language for each word “new” in “new wine” and “new wineskin” are different.
Neos wine and kainos wineskin
Neos: denotes the new primarily in reference to time, recent.
Kainos: new, which as recently made is superior to what it succeeds. Better than the last.
Some of us have been praying and praying for the promises God gave us, but we have yet to receive or seen the answer yet, but know that that God never forgets. He is the beginning and the end; He is the Alpha and the Omega and everything in between, He is The Great I AM.
Sometimes we forget our prayers, but God does not forget. In His time, He will do and accomplish what He has promised even if it takes longer than our lifetime. So, in other words our prayers lasts longer even after we are gone.
In the book of Exodus, you can see the story how God brought the children of Israel, who have been in captivity for 400 years, out of bondage of Egypt and brought them into the Promise Land. Egypt is a symbol of sins and bondages, but God is the Deliverer. Holy Spirit can set us free!
The same as what Israel went through, we can never make an entrance into our new season until we were willing to let go our old season. Every entrance is always preceded by an exit.
If you say you want to be upgraded, you need to let go of your old wineskin for you to move into the new wineskin. You cannot enter into the new season until you are out of the old season.
If you want God to upgrade your wineskin, you need to leave something, you need to exit so that you can enter into the new wineskin.
When we talk about upgrading our wineskins – we need to upgrade our hearts, our minds, update our strategies, upgrade our ways of thinking, and other things that God wants us to replace.
Matthew 9:16 NLT: “Who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.”
Matthew 9:17 NKJV: “Nor do they put NEW wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put NEW wine into NEW wineskins, and both are preserved.”
If you read the previous chapter in the book of Matthew, the people were waiting for a long time for a Messiah, yet they did not recognize Him when He arrived; they did not recognize Jesus when He showed up. In other words, they had been praying for something for a long time but they could not recognize when He showed up because of their pre-determined mindset which became a hindrance to them.
Is it possible that you have been praying for something and because of your pre-determined mindset, your imagination on how God will answer the prayer only allows you to think He would answer only in a certain way?
Some of us may have an old wineskin, so when the work of the Holy Spirit manifest, we do not recognize it.
You could never put a new experience in old habits or put new experience in old structures because the old wineskin will become the hindrance when the new wine is being poured out into our life.
All of us must be willing to embrace continual changes so that we can experience continual improvements that processes us into the things God has promised us, because He is doing a new thing.
As we are building the Training Center, it also requires us to build a new foundation and upgrade the structure. We are preparing the new wineskins and have the Strategic Planning Team working together:
Prayer Force Team
Facility Team
Spiritual Development Team
Branding & Marketing Team
Strategic Planning Team
Dream Team
Financial Matters Team
1 Peter 2:9-10, NKJV: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
God gives you opportunities and opportunities will come and go. If you are not prepared; if your wineskin, vessel, container, heart or mind is not prepared, then you will get stuck. In this new season, there is a pattern and the pattern is shifting. Do you want to or would you be willing to upgrade your wineskin knowing the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out in your life?
Prayer Points:
Pray that we are willing to let go our old wineskin so that we would not be stuck in our old ways/old season/old wineskin, but we will move into a new way, a new wineskin, a new season.
Pray for the breaking off of the old or pre-determined mindsets that becomes a hindrance for us to see what God is doing and where He is going.
Pray for strongholds, bondages of the enemy, the voice of Egypt that keeps taunting us, to be broken in the name of Jesus!
Pray for the renewing of our minds, our vessels, our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Pray for a new thinking pattern, new strategies that we need in the new season.
Pray that our hearts would be ready and be willing to be shaped into God’s model of the new wineskin in order to receive what God wants to pour out in our lives.
Pray that we would not resist the transition or molding God desires to do.
Pray for readiness of the vessel, the church for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Pray for the advancement and building progress of the Training Center; no delays, obstacles, accidents, pushback, or interruptions. Pray for wisdom, a hedge of protection, and unity upon the Strategic Planning Team.