A few weeks ago, I had a dream I was wearing an old business suit. It was baggy and didn’t fit right. The Lord was standing in the room with me, so I questioned him about this. As I did, he pointed at me, and the suit immediately tightened to completely fit my body like a second skin.

 

However, initially, this tightening was too tight… it felt painful, so I asked the Lord: “What is this? What is going on? This feels uncomfortable and too tight!”

I began to move around. As I did, this new outfit began to expand to fit my shape. But it didn’t become baggy like before; rather, it fit perfectly.

 

The Lord then said to me: “This suit represents my new wineskin. At first, it will feel uncomfortable, but as you walk in it, it will fit just right and become more comfortable”.

 

I believe the Lord was revealing four things in this dream:

 

IT IS NO LONGER BUSINESS AS USUAL

 

The business suit I was wearing didn’t work on my body any more. Same with Christ’s body – we don’t need outdated metrics, paradigms, branding and numbers to build His church! He is doing something new!

 

A MOMENT OF RESTRICTION BEFORE A NEW SEASON OF EXPANSION

 

Old wineskins will burst with new wine poured into them because, in the process of new wine fermenting, the old skin is incapable of holding in the gasses -or rather, the transformation of the new wine. However, when new wine is poured into new wineskins, the skin will eventually EXPAND to adapt to the aging of the wine.

 

There is a season of expansion as the new wine emerges. We are in a season where the Lord is enlarging us, and sometimes it will feel like we don’t fit in. In this season, it would be easy to run from this, but if we trust the process of expansion, and try not to get too overwhelmed by growth, eventually, we will adapt and fit into the new thing the Lord is doing. 

 

IT IS TIME TO MOVE

 

The new transition, although greatly desired, may also be uncomfortable, but it will only be for a moment. You may feel in a current season where finances are tight, or family or work is restricted, and you can’t move forward. But the key to the expansion in my dream was movement. I hear the Lord saying: “Keep moving! The restriction is not for failure or wrongdoing but for refining and becoming comfortable in the new”!

 

IT IS BOTH NEW…AND OLD

 

When we talk about new wineskins, we often think God is doing away with the old completely. But the new wineskin embraces the good things of what has come before, yet reshapes and remoulds it to fit the new shape of the body. It does away with the unnecessary fabric of the past that is now in excess – the things maybe, as a church, we added that God didn’t ask us to. IT BECOMES A HYBRID OF LEGACY, ANOINTING AND FRESH FIRE.

 

True kingdom living is one of apostolic legacy and honour. We can look back and carry forward powerful anointings and mantles of the past but wear them in a new way for a new era.

This also means no matter what age you are; the new wine is ready and waiting for you! You can be fresh in every season when you are willing to move and shift as God asks, and do not remain in old thinking and mindsets!

Lord, we say we are ready! And we will move with you!

 

Mark 2:22

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”