"Listen to them, Israel! Follow them carefully so that things will continue to multiply exactly as the LORD, your ancestors' God, promised you, in a land full of milk and honey." (Deuteronomy 6:3-5)
Somewhere along the way we lost the understanding that we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. We were transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Light. Such a transfer required a new birth, a transformation, and an ongoing transformation.
We grew up understanding how things work in the kingdom of darkness. It is the place where rebellion rules, where everything is deformed and fails to function as God designed it to function. It is governed by the false prince of this world. But the Kingdom of Light works on a different set of principles.
This is why Jesus taught concerning the old wineskin and the new.
Just as Yahweh gave Moses a set of laws that Israel must follow to function properly in the new land, Jesus gave us instructions so that we can function in the Kingdom, allowing for everything to flow in its proper manner, enabling growth.
The Kingdom is about multiplication but it requires us to work within our function as designed by Father. We need to let go of the old ways so that we can walk in the King's ways. Moses prayed that God would teach him God's ways so that Moses could know him. Do we dare pray the same thing?
Showing posts with label wineskin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wineskin. Show all posts
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Thursday, July 3, 2014
There Is A Reason For The New Birth
We can't stay the same after we encounter Jesus Christ. If we do, we haven't had an encounter. It is simply the nature of things. Scripture tells us that when we accept the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins, denying ourselves, taking up the cross and follow him, we are born for a second time. We are made as a new creation, something that had not existed before. We are transformed. There is a reason for this.
Father has called us into fellowship with him, as his children. His plan was always to adopt us but in order for this to happen a couple of things needed to take place. First, the issue of our rebellion needed to be dealt with. Our whole nature was bent on disobedience to Yahweh. We didn't have to think about it, it was just natural to us. Jesus paid the price of reconciliation, so that restoration would be possible.
The second thing that had to happen was we needed to become one with Yahweh, just as Jesus prayed in the gospel of John; that we would be in him, as he is in the Father. This is only possible by the Holy Spirit, who Jesus sent after his ascension. It was the Spirit who gave birth to the Church. This is Jesus being in us and us being in Jesus. Thus the scripture:
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in this body I live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
In order to receive the Holy Spirit, for him to take up residency in us so that it is Christ who lives in us, there has to be a rebirth, a new creation, because the Spirit could not inhabit what once we were. Jesus describes this for us:
"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. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved." (Luke 5:37-38)
Old wineskins are dry and have no flexibility left. New wine is still giving off gas from the fermentation process. These gases would cause the inflexible wineskin to burst. The Holy Spirit operates based on the principles of the Kingdom not according to the patterns of this world so we have to be transformed in order for us also to live by the principles of the Kingdom.
That is why there is so much trouble in the Church today because there are people who are trying to operate according to the patterns of the world. There is going to be a huge mess in the days to come, even more so than today, as some those wineskins continue to burst.
Jesus did not save us so that we would be enslaved again to sin. He did not save us so that we would prostitute ourselves to the gods of this world. He did not save us to run around after the things of this world. He saved us for our restoration and reconciliation to the Father, for a great and wonderful fellowship which the Father wants with us. Do yourself a favour; let go of the world and grab hold of Jesus before it gets messy.
Father has called us into fellowship with him, as his children. His plan was always to adopt us but in order for this to happen a couple of things needed to take place. First, the issue of our rebellion needed to be dealt with. Our whole nature was bent on disobedience to Yahweh. We didn't have to think about it, it was just natural to us. Jesus paid the price of reconciliation, so that restoration would be possible.
The second thing that had to happen was we needed to become one with Yahweh, just as Jesus prayed in the gospel of John; that we would be in him, as he is in the Father. This is only possible by the Holy Spirit, who Jesus sent after his ascension. It was the Spirit who gave birth to the Church. This is Jesus being in us and us being in Jesus. Thus the scripture:
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in this body I live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
In order to receive the Holy Spirit, for him to take up residency in us so that it is Christ who lives in us, there has to be a rebirth, a new creation, because the Spirit could not inhabit what once we were. Jesus describes this for us:
"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. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved." (Luke 5:37-38)
Old wineskins are dry and have no flexibility left. New wine is still giving off gas from the fermentation process. These gases would cause the inflexible wineskin to burst. The Holy Spirit operates based on the principles of the Kingdom not according to the patterns of this world so we have to be transformed in order for us also to live by the principles of the Kingdom.
That is why there is so much trouble in the Church today because there are people who are trying to operate according to the patterns of the world. There is going to be a huge mess in the days to come, even more so than today, as some those wineskins continue to burst.
Jesus did not save us so that we would be enslaved again to sin. He did not save us so that we would prostitute ourselves to the gods of this world. He did not save us to run around after the things of this world. He saved us for our restoration and reconciliation to the Father, for a great and wonderful fellowship which the Father wants with us. Do yourself a favour; let go of the world and grab hold of Jesus before it gets messy.
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