Is Old Wine Really Better?

People of refined taste often prefer aged wine. That’s why it costs so much more. But is aged wine really better? According to Jesus, new wine is always God’s best.

The wine of God has to do with the Holy Spirit coming with present Kingdom life and power. Jesus suggests that we are God’s wineskins and that it is God’s wish to fill each one of His chosen vessels with fresh, satisfying, powerful, supernatural Heavenly wine.

Do you believe God wants to fill you with Heavenly new wine right now? He really does. Ah, but there may be a slight problem: “New wine demands new wineskins.” Generally, God’s people cannot be likened to new wineskins. We are often much too content with the old wine. Some believe the old wine to be enough. We are made in Christ to be continually filled with a fresh Heavenly Cabernet. What wonderful things we must be missing by not seeking God’s Heavenly new wine.

So, what is the difference between old and new wine? New wine is still in the process of fermenting. It is alive with life and the potential for change. To receive such wine, the wineskin must be unusually pliable. Its elasticity allows the skin to move with the fermenting wine. An old wine skin is brittle, immovable, stiff. It refuses to surrender its present shape or condition to the dynamic of life fermenting inside. If new wine is poured into an old wineskin, the wine will be wasted as the old, rigid skin bursts.

God only gives new wine. Unless we become new wineskins- fresh, pliable, virginal (if you will), “child-like” (knowing nothing but wanting all God has to give of Himself)- we cannot experience or receive all that God has for us now. Interestingly, when the people of God built the second temple, the old wineskins said, “The glory of the former was better.” They could not receive the new because their hearts were still fixed upon the old. They refused to be like little children in their faith and see God’s new work with new eyes.

How can you and I become new wineskins? First, we must determine (with an absolute resolve) that the old wine no longer satisfies us- it has lost its appeal and power. We must no longer drink of it. Second, we must be utterly cleansed, renewed, and made virginal again. This is something God does in us when we press into God while holding on to absolutely nothing. Finally, we must desperately long to be filled and refuse to remain unfilled.

Jesus directs his disciples to a special God-given grace that is able to help us become freed of our “old wineskin-ness” and become God’s “new wineskins.” It is deep prayer and fasting. Look for yourself at Luke 5:33-39. It is not insignificant that the parable of the old wineskins follows Jesus’ teaching on prayer and fasting. He said, “One day, when the bridegroom has gone away, My disciples will fast.” Why pray and fast? That they (that we) might fully receive what He has promised of His Kingdom power and presence- embodied in the Spirit of Love, the Heavenly Dove.

Let us pray and fast that we might first be changed and then filled.
Scott V. Johnson, 11-2005