Pandemic Chronicles #8 - New Wine

Last week I woke up feeling drained, agitated, and frustrated. 

I listened to the song "This Way" by Dilated Peoples over and over again.  It's not a Christian song but it completely captured my mood and the way I was feeling.

This time I made up my mindThis time I'm back on my primeI know there's things in my lifeThat I'ma let go startin' tonightI can't live my life this way

What brought this on?  

The previous evening I had been in observation mode in order to Pray and Not Say and afterward I asked The Lord how he wanted me to pray into what I observed. I went to Jesus' words about The New Wine.

Luke 5:37=29
 And no one puts new wine into old [a]wineskins; otherwise the new [fermenting] wine will [expand and] burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one, after drinking old wine, wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is fine.’”

The point of this parable is that the old wine skins could handle the old wine because the old wine wasn't moving. The old wine was motionless and standing still.  

The old wineskins could not contain the new wine because the new wine was fermenting and expanding.

I woke up the  next morning after my observation and study of that scripture.  

"We cannot continue to do the same old things with the same old people the same old way and think we're going to expand our territory or even get to the other side.  We aren't going to make it if we keep on trying to do a new thing with the same old."

I was super frustrated and agitated because I am the type of person who is results oriented and if what we've been doing has been giving us mediocre and meager results, then I'm ready to move on and do something different or I'm ready to move on period.

In this case I know this is my assignment and while I felt super frustrated and agitated because I did not want to end up wandering in the wilderness or get passed by.

So I stayed stewing about it the entire and listening to that song over and over again because I just couldn't bear the thought of being a cursed barren fig tree in the wilderness. (OK I mixed all my Bible stories together but that's the reality of the situation)

I can't live my life this way.

Refill and Re-energized

That evening I called into our church's Prayer Perimeter for the marriage Hour.  I am not married (yet) but I do enjoy listening to the testimonies from marriage couples who have overcome struggles in their marriages.  It encourages me because it reminds me that getting married is not the goal.  Staying married,  becoming more like Jesus, producing fruit, and glorifying God is the goal and there will be challenges with that.

That night was super special.  There was a healing atmosphere as the couple shared their marriage testimony of restoration.  Other married couples asked for prayer.  We had a husband pray for his wife in public which was big for him.  We had other people pray for restoration of their own marriages.

It was a glorious time.  It was so good we went an hour over the scheduled time for the call.

My big takeaway from that call other than I have no busy getting married without Jesus was that we really need to lift up the men in prayer because the enemy is trying to take them out with violence, or silencing their voice, stealing their identities, sending counterfeits, and destroying the societal structure.

It was a breath of fresh air and sorely needed.

I'm sharing this because if you're called to take a leadership role in ministry or even if you're an active laborer of the Kingdom just know that God refills your cup when you need it.  I was drained, frustrated, and agitated after the previous evening and then I was refilled that evening through the prayer meeting.

I believe that is the example we see from Jesus in his earthly ministry.  He was always doing these draining events that required lots of energy and the next thing we know he was going off somewhere to pray.  I have to believe that time spent with the Father was the time of refueling and getting the next message of what to say.

Same Goes for us. 

We may have a draining time in our earthly ministries because people are draining.  The only way we will refill and refuel is time spent with the Father in prayer.  The only way we're going to get the next message from the Lord and not the message we want to give (ALL Y'ALL NEED TO SIT DOWN AND GET IT TOGETHER) is time spent with the Father.

I was refilled after that...The next morning I woke up and was still reflecting on what a great time we had in prayer...and things only got better from there.

God is on the move...and so are we

A few days later I began to receive phone calls about a Prayer Meeting that was taking place on Pentecost Sunday in Oakland from 4 p.m. - 7:14 p.m.  (2 Chronicles 7:14)

I got all excited because I knew that this was a move of God.  It was time to get out of the walls of the church and do a prophetic act to confirm that God was in the midst of a major move in this generation. ...and we will not be passed by.

As I talked with various leaders and my part in all of this, I became more and more fired up.  I have prayed to be on the front lines of the revival and here we are.  This is just the beginning!

This is the sound of the Dry Bones Rattling!

I have heard from various prophets to look to Pentecost for something to happen.  I expect God to do something.

Pentecost certainly has a precedent for shaking the foundations.  Our goal is to get at least 120 believers in one place and pray into various things happening in the earth right now including: Covid-19, Racism, the Government, Future Vision for the Church, Families, Finances, etc.

Acts 2

When the day of [a]Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, 2 and suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rushing violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 

3 There appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were being distributed [among them], and they rested on each one of them [as each person received the Holy Spirit]. 

4 And they were all filled [that is, diffused throughout their being] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other [b]tongues (different languages), as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out [clearly and appropriately].

The Old Wine is NOT just fine

We're on to the next normal.  The people who are clinging to the past and thinking things are going to go back to the way they were are missing the entire point.  

This is the Next Normal: We're not going back to the way things were.  I believe only God could close the doors of the buildings and he closed them down for a reason.  We either catch it and get in formation or we miss it and get passed by.  

When church re-opens I believe that a lot of things we were doing previously are going to be gone.  Of course ineffective and pointless endeavors that weren't producing fruit are definitely going to be gone but also some of the "good" things will be gone because they are no longer "God" things. 

Old Wine Programs and Groups will be gone.  

As I've said we'll see ministries and "leaders" be exposed and go down in flames because we're headed into a serious move of God and a harvest...and that's where God will dispose of the weeds and useless branches.

The Old Wine is NOT just fine....so I pray that we would not resist the new wine and wineskins.  It may look completely different from what we are used to. It's time for a new thing and we will just be frustrated and not get anywhere if we try to patch up the old.  

Let us not resist the New Wine and the New Wineskins but let us embrace them fully trusting God.

For the past few weeks this song by Hillsong has been in rotation and on repeat.