Recently I spent some time in South Carolina visiting my mother and enjoying the beauty of the Carolina mountains. One day as we were returning from a trip to my college alma mater in Boiling Springs, NC, I stopped the car for a much needed restroom break. As I headed for the restrooms in the convenience store where we had stopped, the clerk behind the counter quickly let me know that they had no water and their restrooms were not available for use. She said the pipes had burst.
I hopped back in the car and continued to travel down the road. About a half mile from the convenience store we passed a home with an unusual sign in the yard that said, "plumbing matters". I laughed to myself and said "Yes, it surely does!" As I began to think about this funny turn of events and the unusual sign that I had just seen, I felt the Holy Spirit began to speak to me and show me that the pipes burst because they were not able to contain the volume of the liquid as it expanded inside the pipes.
He then directed my thoughts to the passage of scripture in Matt. 9:16 which says,
"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch
will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men
pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the
wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No they pour new wine
into new wineskins, and both are preserved."
So, just as the pipes burst when they could no longer contain the volume of the frozen water, the wineskins will burst if new wine is poured into old wineskins.
Our unrenewed minds are like the wineskins and our old ways of thinking will not be able to contain the new things that God is wanting to do and release. Our minds must be renewed in order to contain the new wine that he is pouring out today, in this very hour.
An openness to receive new revelation and a heart that is quick to repent(change the way you think)are keys to having a new wineskin. God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble, and this humility opens the door for the new wine to flow in freely.
In Romans 12, Paul indicates that in order to know God's will our mind must be renewed. This renewing of the mind causes us literally to be transformed from the inside out. Yes, knowing and walking in God's will involves having a humble, childlike approach to receiving revelation and a heart that rushes to repent when we realize that our thoughts no longer line up with His. It is the renewed mind that will be able to test and approve the will of God.
I feel so very blessed to be alive in this day when God is uncovering mysteries and revelation that have been kept for us His Church, the Bride of Christ. As we walk in childlike wonder and humility, let us move forward as a mighty army, with an ever expanding capacity to receive Him and all that He is.
May our wineskins be ready to receive the new wine as He pours it out in our day. May we be free-flowing conduits or "pipes" that continually contain and release the very Presence of God.
Yes, plumbing matters.
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