New Wine in New Wineskins

611 is a Spirit-renewed church. The Holy Spirit keeps pouring down like new wine and transforms life one after another. It is amazing and drawing those who have longing to come.

My disciples Eben and Sau-Wing came from a traditional church to join us out of their longing. Their lives were dry and their marital relationship was difficult and helpless then. When they saw the wonderful life testimonies here, they decided to come and as a result experienced a great turnaround.

Looking back at my days pastoring in Vancouver, I had also no way out. When we held an evangelistic meeting every month, inviting new friends was not a problem, but finding someone to share a testimony was, as there was not much change in people’s lives. Thank God that now in 611, we have fresh testimonies almost in every service as the work of the Holy Spirit among us has never ceased.

In his early days at 611, Eben constantly asked his cell leader Adino after cell meetings all kinds of questions as he had not yet broken through the rigidities of tradition and law. For him, things like spiritual mapping as well as healing and deliverance, which are the works of the Holy Spirit, were things he had never heard of before, and he really couldn’t understand them rationally. I am grateful that he and his wife have been continuously humbling and emptying themselves over the years to embrace the work of the Holy Spirit, and have become new wineskins that can contain the new wine.

Jesus said, “But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matt 9:17) New wine will continue to ferment and if put in old wineskins, they will burst as they have become rigid over time. It makes new wineskins necessary. Still the new wineskins have to be constantly soaked in the oil of the Holy Spirit to keep fresh and supple, lest they become hardened and old too.

Although our church has experienced great works of the Holy Spirit, such as healing and deliverance, we should not be content with what we have now, or even cling to them, otherwise we will become stagnant. How vast and boundless our God is and how great His will is! We can never confine or diminish Him, nor stop Him from being God.

I pray that the Spirit of the Lord will continue to anoint us so that we will be always in the Holy Spirit and transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. May our lives be constantly renewed and make breakthroughs so that we will lay down our stubbornness to follow God and become new wineskins capable of receiving God’s latest revelations and new wine. Amen! ■【2024.06.09】