New Wine

Mark 2:²² “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”

1 Cor.12:⁷ “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (NRSV, emphasis added). Yesterday, I shared how we used to take people through a spiritual experience. However, because we recognize that man is spirit, it is possible for people to be spiritually active even before they surrender to Jesus. So, at the end of that experience, we ask people to lay down such spiritual gifts based on the Exodus 3 principle [please see yesterday’s devotional for a detailed explanation of the Exodus 3 principle].

Some lady after going through one of such spiritual experiences came forward with a gift that she wanted to lay down. What was the gift? She said she had a third eye right on her forehead and she could see into the stomach of pregnant women. Of course, she felt power while having the gift. I asked her if she was ready to lay it down and she said, “Yes”. So, we prayed a simple prayer, “In Jesus Name, we remove this eye” and that was the end of it. Then she said she had a huge spiritual encounter that night. The people that gave her the eye came to fight her; she did not even know that anybody gave her the eye. She said since she was a young girl, she had just been using it. They came to fight her because she was leaving them. However, she prevailed in the Name of Jesus, and today she is standing strong for God. You have to lay it down.

Before you can even begin the journey into the positive supernatural, you have to abandon the things you do in the negative supernatural. There was another lady who came out and said her own gift is that she believes she can seduce any man. She says when she wants to seduce any man, she would just pass in front of him and do that dance and that man must follow her. Again, I said, are you ready to lay it down? She said, “Yes.” As I said, “In the Name of Jesus…”, she started dancing. I said, “this dance has met its waterloo.” So, we crushed the spirit and chased it out. Today she is saved, she is a pastor’s wife. This Pastor’s job is very dangerous. The point is this; you have to understand that the gift God is giving you is to serve your brother and your sister. It is not for you primarily. When you understand that, your heart will be in the right place. Then you can begin to attract the right gifts from the Lord. For some of us, you have to lay down the rod and you will lay it down today in the Name of Jesus. And God will give you His own gifts.

So, are you ready? There are nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. There are twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit. We are going to first look at the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are all enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12; I want to encourage you to read it again and again. The first is the gift of the Word of Wisdom. 1Cor.12:⁸ “for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit…” (NKJV, emphasis added). This gift is the utterance of wisdom.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I lay my all before You; purge every spiritual gift that is not of You and fill me with Your Precious Holy Spirit to the overflowing, in Jesus Name. Amen!