Acts 2:12-13 – “So they were all amazed and perplexed saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” Others, mocking said, “They are full of new wine”. “
The mockers did not know it, but their statement, “they are full of new wine” is a fact because new wine signifies the effect of the Holy Spirit.
There were two set of groups here. One that believed and watched in amazement the awesomeness of God, (verse 11: “....the wonderful works of God”) whilst the other group mocked because they could not see the new wine as the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
Paul explained it better in I Corinthians 14:23:
“Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are UNINFORMED or UNBELIEVERS, will they not say that you are out of your mind?”I believe that the ‘uninformed’ that Paul was referring to are believers or Christians. But as the word implies, they were not informed, they could not see the work of the Lord or the new wine being manifested. And the only way they could compute it in their brain is to conclude that the so-called wonders of the Lord is madness, and that the believers that the Lord is working through must be out of their minds.
The Lord said He will pour out His Spirit on ALL, but not all will be able to withhold or carry His Spirit. The old wineskin will hinder them from receiving the new that the Lord is pouring out. We stay in the old because of religion, what we are used to, this cannot be God because we have not seen it before, amongst other humanly reasons. We want to use our mind to decipher the things of the Spirit, or use the old to explain the new.
“..Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Matthew 9:17
But the ones that are malleable in the hands of the Lord, the ones that have shed off the old wineskin and keep shedding it off to receive the new wineskin, the ones that are continuously being molded by the Potter because they acknowledge that they are clay, these are the manifestations that would be evident in their lives as the Lord pours out His Spirit:
“…Your sons and daughters shall prophecy;
Young men shall see visions;
Your old men shall dream dreams;” Acts 2:17-18
The prophecies, visions and dreams that the Lord will be giving in these last days are not what eye has seen, nor ears heard, nor the heart of Man fathom it. Verse 19 stated, “He will show wonders in heaven and signs in the earth beneath”. It is the Man of the Spirit that will see the signs that the Lord is showing on earth as wonders of heaven or awesomeness of God. The signs will be disputed by the UNINFORMED or UNBELIEVERS as of the time of Paul or Peter. The signs will be mocked because they could not see God at work.
That is why a set of people will be taught of the new that the Lord wants to pour out, some will be able to catch it and some will not. The old wineskin is in the way.
Deut.29:29 states that "the secret things belong to the Lord". Matthew 13:11, reveals that "not all are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven". Amos 3: 7 also says, “…unless He reveals His secrets to His servants, the prophets”.
These secrets are not the letter that we read in the Bible, but the same scriptures of the Bible that the Holy Spirit breathes on which becomes life. (2 Cor. 4:6) The Lord said His thoughts are neither our thoughts, nor His ways our ways…for as the heavens are higher than our ways, so are His ways higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts. (Jeremiah 55:8)
The Lord wants to reveal His heart to His people, but the ones that are clay in His hands, and are not set in their ways but have laid off the old wineskin will be able to hear the new that the Lord has prepared for these last days.
Let go of the old wineskin!
