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.
This is about choosing between life and death!
If you make a confession for Jesus without changing into a new creature in Christ you are wasting your time and fooling no one.
The Holy Spirit who is the life of Jesus will seep out and you will be on a course leading to death and destruction.
The gift of salvation creates new life. We die to self and live for Christ.
Jesus said you must be born again. He doesn’t want anything to do with your natural life. It is old and contamined wine.
The dynamic of salvation is you are baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ.
The Spirit creates a new life in a believer and the Water cleanses you of all sin. You can stand blameless before God.
The Holy Spirit dwelling in all believers is the new wine and your transformed body is the new wine skins.
The new wine (Living Water) will transform you into the character of Jesus and make you a powerful witness for Him.
Jesus desires to preserve your new life so you can live with Him forever.
As a believer, we all need to revisit our commitment to Jesus. Have we entered through the narrow gate or taken the more comfortable wide gate?
Jesus tells us that very few enter through the narrow gate because it is a difficult pathway. You must be willing to give up everything and follow Jesus.
The new wine comes to those who “let go” and give Jesus authority over their life.
The Holy Spirit is challenging you to have a pensive attitude about your relationship with Jesus.
Ask God how you can have the fullness of the new wine skins?
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
This beautitude of Jesus is the antithesis of the inner nature of all human beings.
We are ego driven people who want to fulfill our own desires not seek the righteousness of God. And, it is impossible to hunger for God unless you are a “born again” believer.
Many Christians don’t take God seriously and fail to develop a burning desire for His purity.
We can never come close to the standards of God. This is the reaction of Isaiah when he met God.
Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips.
When God gives a believer a revelation about the contrast between his natural life and the purity of God this creates a hunger for the character of Jesus.
The righteous of God will never come through works or keeping laws. And, immersing yourself in religion will not transform you into the likeness of Jesus.
God has declared that faith in the Living Christ is the only way to be filled with His righteousness. This faith is being obedient to the voice of God without any clarity or vision about your future.
We trust in the promises of God not what we see with our eyes. The journey with Jesus is like wearing blinders and taking life one day at a time.
God is omniscient but He chooses not to disclose your future. He will give you glimpses of the future but He desires for you to accept Him by faith without any logic or rationale about your journey.
Abraham believed God and left his homeland. He had no vision or leading from God concerning where he was going or his mission with God.
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the other things will be added to you.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
This is about a parable of Jesus relating to the great tribulation.
Jesus describes all the horrific things that will take place in the tribulation before this generation will be rescued by Jesus. (Matthew 24)
Jesus explains how to prepare for the end of the tribulation by using the example of a fig tree.
When the branches become tender and leaves appear all will know that summer is near. So like the fig tree look for the signs leading up to the end of the tribulation.
When you see all the terrible things taking place you will know the end is near and Jesus is returning to claim His church.
We are told to be alert and ready for the arrival of Jesus.
Jesus is hypothetically proclaiming if heaven and earth were to pass away believers can confidently trust the Word of God which is incorruptible and will never disappear or be replaced. The Word is the one thing you can stake your life on.
The instruction is to be firmly anchored in the Word of God and do not be misled by the deception and the calamities of the tribulation.
The Word of God is infallible and it is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Build your life on the Word of God not what you see with your eyes. You can be confident of your outcome because God is truth and He never changes.
Do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. There will be many false prophets at work during the tribulation. Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
Submit to the authority of Holy Spirit. He will always bring glory to Jesus and expose the counterfeit spirit of the Antichrist.
God keeps His Word!
The words of the Lord are pure words,like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. You shall keep them, O Lord, You shall preserve them from this generation forever.
Last night the Holy Spirit kept me awake for several hours discussing this subject. He reminded me this is of utmost importance to Him. He also told me all believers have a limited view of Jesus and cannot comprehend the laborious efforts of God to save a soul.
God is loving but He is very set in His ways. The rules of salvation will never change.
This may seem very harsh but if you are a nonbeliever God will not accept you. He is vehemently opposed to all sin and will not tolerate an unclean human being in His presence. So there is a barrier to overcome if you want God.
This is because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This enmity was caused by Adam and Eve who defied God and set all mankind on a wrong track.
This does not imply that believers are any better than non believers. It just means they have accepted Jesus as an intermediary to become reconciled to God.
God is holy and pure. He lives in Heaven. God has never sinned and will not tolerate another human being unless they have been cleaned by the blood of Jesus and are a professing believer.
This barrier between God and man will never change. If anyone is not a Christian he or she is on the outside looking in.
God created Jesus as the perfect plan of salvation to correct the amoral and corrupt condition of mankind. There will never be another sacrifice by God for sin and atonement.
Why can’t a human being get past unbelief?
He has been raised in a family of nonbelievers and has accepted their doctrines or beliefs.
He has a mindset which has been blinded by Satan to the values of Jesus.
He has been deeply hurt by a calamity and blames God.
He has accepted a false religion.
He has made his priority to seek the riches and prosperity of the world.
He is in bondage to a stronghold established by Satan and is imprisoned in sin.
How to do the work of Christ?
Christ followers are instructed by Jesus to plant seeds and then leave the results up to God.
Many times, the most powerful way to influence a nonbeliever is through the Living Water flowing out of you. The love, compassion, and kindness of Christ can be a powerful influence targeting those in your life.
Pray and make intercession for the heart and soul of those who God brings to your mind. You have to get Jesus engaged in this war along with the Holy Spirit.
Ask Jesus to show you how to pray and for wisdom about the nonbeliever. Jesus is omniscient and knows everything about this person and the most powerful approach to bring him to salvation.
Speak against Satan demanding he takes his hands off this person. Remind Satan he has been defeated by the blood of Jesus and must flee.
Don’t give up! The prayers of a righteous man will bring good results. Nothing is impossible for God.
Jesus is motivated by unconditional love and desires for all to receive the gift of salvation!
There is a risk in giving up your life for Christ. Things didn’t go very well for the disciples of Jesus!
Jesus asks you to give up your rights and independence and follow Him. And, Jesus tells you come live with Him by faith.
The calling is to first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the other things shall be added unto you.
Jesus wants you to give up your worldly desires and make Him the centerpiece of your life.
Jesus warns that a believer will face calamities and fiery trials walking with Him.
The question is the risk worth the reward. Most people don’t think so or they accept a watered down version of Christ. Who wants a life turned upside down?
Let’s examine the reward side of this question. The reward promised by Jesus is the gift of salvation. If you make a genuine decision to live for Christ above all else you are given the privilege to live with God forever.
The gift of salvation initiates your baptism into the death and resurrected life of Jesus. You die to self and learn to live for Jesus.
Salvation has nothing to do with time and begins immediately and lasts forever.
You can enter into a personal and embracing relationship with Jesus.
God seals you with the Holy Spirit. He is the life of Christ and you are now personally linked with Jesus who has power and dominion over the heavens and earth.
Jesus is alive in your life and you can hear His voice and draw upon His attributes of love, joy, peace, wisdom and strength. Jesus promises to protect you from evil with a supernatural buttress of support.
Jesus promises to give you an abundant life filled with the goodness of God. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Salvation is the process of becoming transformed into a new creature filled with the character of Jesus.
The challenge is weighing the risk versus the reward. Do you want to live closely with our great and powerful God or take your chances living on your own?
This is about how the Living Christ can become alive and powerful in your life.
The definition of endemic is belonging to a specific group of people with the same characteristics.
If you are a believer, your old self has died on the Cross and you have inherited the endemic nature of God.
The Holy Spirit is sealed inside you. He is the life of Christ and is at work to transform you into the character of Jesus.
The charge from God is to set your minds on the things above, not on earthly things. This is difficult because we live in the world and our livelihood comes from laboring on the earth.
The Bible says we live in the world but we are not of the world. This is recognizing our heritage in Christ and the promises of God.
Set your mind on the things above through prayer, meditating on the Word, and listening for the voice of God.
The best way to integrate the world into your spiritual life is through the Holy Spirit. Give the Holy Spirit authority over your life and commit your works each day to God.
You will be amazed how you can walk in the light, be productive and receive the blessings of God. Jesus wants to lead you to victories and an abundant life.
The Holy Spirit will teach you how to abide in God while living in an evil world influenced by Satan. He will keep your motives pure and guide your decision making.
You are a new creature in Christ and the only way you can revert back to your old self is by living through your fleshly desires and thoughts.
Walk in oneness with Jesus anchored to the Holy Spirit. Be open to the conviction and correction of the Holy Spirit and heed His warnings and instructions.
We create problems for ourselves by not inquiring of the Lord prior to making decisions. Submit all your important decision making to God and wait upon Him before proceeding with action. Jesus is omniscient and knows every detail of your future. Don’t waste this valuable counsel and create misery for yourself.
Your new self is continually being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Ask God each day to let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you with all wisdom and understanding.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, clothe yourselves with the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will fill you with the Living Water enabling you to exude compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience everywhere you step.
God desires for all His people to have a forgiving and contrite attitude.
The unconditional love of Christ has forgiven you from all your past sins so you must forgive others who have hurt or maligned you.
Sometimes God disciplines and refines believers with what seems like cruel and harsh measures. We have to forgive God during seasons of testing and for the fiery trials coming in our lives. God knows exactly what He is doing!
Finally, we need to be thankful people and pray for the peace of Christ to be alive in our hearts at all times.
The Holy Spirit has recently been speaking to me through the Book of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel, the prophet, spoke out about the false prophets and the whitewashing of the truths of God.
He lived in both Jerusalem and as a captive in Babylon and wrote the book around 570 B. C.
The Old Testament prophets were messengers of God. They were anointed by God to speak and write His words.
Today, we have New Testament prophets with the same anointing and access to the voice of God. Unfortunately, Christianity tends to minimize or denigrate the role of prophets in the New Covenant.
Jesus, Moses, Elijah and David were all powerful prophets speaking for God and performing signs and wonders.
The message today is a warning to prophets or leaders who speak the words of God out of their own imagination. Many are speaking nonsense, false prophecy and acting with impure motives.
The religious leaders today are seducing believers with false promises and whitewashing the truths of God to create a picture of peace which is non existent in the world.
The warning also refers to those prophets or leaders in the Body of Christ who do not stand in the gap to build a strong wall around the Body of Christ to fight off the evil intentions of Satan. The principle of standing in the gap is a commitment to vigilant prayer and intercession to overcome the strongholds of Satan.
God is against those who speak nonsense and lies. He goes on to say “They shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God.”
God accuses the prophets of proclaiming peace when there is no peace and explains the wall they have built around Jerusalem was made with untempered mortar and will crumble away.
This accusation of God is very relevant today. There is no peace in the world and things will get worse not better. And, the leaders in the Body manipulate the Word of God to satisfy their own motives while presenting an unrealistic picture of God.
God is angry over the false teaching and has a strong warning to those who whitewash the truths of God.
“So I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.”
The whole point of this narrative is to understand the judgment of God is over the Body of Christ.
At this very moment the Holy Spirit is telling me the fires of God will cause weeping and gnashing of teeth upon unrepentant believers and corrupt leaders in the Body of Christ.
This speaks to the importance of living under the authority of the Holy Spirit and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ Jesus.
Come follow Me and I will do for you what you can never do for yourself!
The Holy Spiritrecently spoke to me about this topic and impressed upon me to create a glossary of the benchmarks we live by as a Christ follower. I have tried to keep this simplistic and void of religion. This is by no means a complete work but a glimpse of what to expect as a believer.
The definition of nomenclature relates to devising or choosing names of things in a specific discipline. In this context, we are referring to the Kingdom of God.
The nomenclature of Christ is laid out in the Bible. For example, salvation relates to the gift of God.
The nomenclature of God is how we navigate through life. This begins with salvation when someone makes a commitment to live for Jesus above all else.
Redemption is the work of Jesus on the Cross. Jesus sacrificed His life so a believer can overcome death and be saved from the bondage of sin and condemnation. You are purchased with the blood of Jesus and belong to Him.
You become born again by the Spirit and Truth and become a new creature in Christ Jesus. Old things pass away and all things become new.
The believer becomes baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. You die to living for self and enter into the resurrected life of Christ.
You are sealed with the Holy Spirit. He is the life of Christ and your pipeline to the reality of Christ. This enables you to hear the voice of Jesus and build a personal and embracing relationship with Him.
As a new creature in Christ you are now entitled to all the promises of God in Christ. The promises give a believer strength and hope to deal with all the challenges of life.
The Holy Spirit begins a process of transforming you into the values of Jesus.
At this point there is a red flag from the Holy Spirit. Many believers turn to religionand attempt to appease God by doing works and keeping laws.
Jesus abhors religion. This will weaken the power of the Holy Spirit within you and deprive you of discovering the reality of our great God.
The purpose of God is to draw you into an all consuming relationship with Jesus built on loyalty and obedience to Him. This is called walking with Jesus.
Jesus wants you to genuinely seek the will of God for your life under the authority of the Holy Spirit.
Your ministry and works for Jesus are subservient to building trust and oneness with Christ.
The challenge with a believer is dealing with sin. All humanity is born with an inner nature to live for self and defy God.
God deals with your corrupt inner nature through the work of sanctification which is the process of refining you into the character of Jesus.
Your role is to confess your sins, pray for the blood of Jesus to cover you and be open to the conviction and correction of the Holy Spirit.
The conflict is choosing to walk under the authority ofthe Spirit or live through your fleshly desires. There are two laws of God at work in a believer. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will set you free from the law of sin and death.
God wants you to have unshakeable faith in His promises and not give any power or credence to what you see with your eyes.
The Christ follower will face many fiery trialsin life. They are designed by God to strength your faith and give you confidence in Jesus when all you see is darkness and adversities.
Your relationship with Jesus is nourished by prayer, reading the Bible, and listening for His voice. You can also find counsel, strength and support in the Body of Christ with friends or through a local church.
In your spiritual journey, God is preparing you to become a fountain of Living Watertouching all those in your life. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
The fruit working through a believer will draw others to the authenticity of Christ. This is far more effective than quoting Bible verses which tend to turn people off.
God calls all believers to pray and make intercession in their spiritual journey. This is based on the biblical truth “Filling up the flesh with the afflictions of Christ for His body the Church”. In this role God works through your indwelling Holy Spirit to bring down strongholdsand set people free from sin. This is a laborious and pure ministry and will draw you close to the heart of Jesus.
Salvation does not relate to time. It can be defined as walking with the Living Christ by faith and seeking His will for your life. You abide with Jesus under the authority of the Holy Spirit.
The challenge is determining if Jesus was resurrected on Easter Sunday and is now seated at the right hand of God with power and dominion over all things.
Jesus proved His legitimacy by appearing and speaking to many witnesses after His death.
The Bible reports the resurrection story through many apostles and prophets.
Jesus told the religious leaders of the day “You search the scriptures for eternal life but they testify of Me.”
Probably none of these facts are not going to persuade you that Jesus is a reality and wants to have a personal and embracing relationship with you.
Easter becomes more than church and a nice brunch when you meet the Living Christ. It changes your whole life and transforms you into a new creature.
The epiphany of Easter becomes real when you open up your heart and challenge Jesus to prove His authenticity.
Don’t worry about your sin or ugly past. With Jesus they are gone as far as the East is from the West.
Jesus loves those who come to Him with doubts and unbelief.
Jesus doesn’t expect you to surrender your life to Him without some proof of who He is.
You have to approach Jesus by faith with an open heart and He will give you insurmountable proof of who He is.
Reach out to Jesus and you will have the best Easter ever.
The biggest hindrance to becoming a spiritually minded person is religion.
God is not so much concerned with what you do but in living in oneness with the Living Christ.
Religion is about works and seeking justification by keeping laws.
Jesus hates religion; it stifles the Spirit of Christ.
Jesus is a Spirit and is sealed inside you. He is the source of the Living Water.
Worship Jesus in Spirit and truth. You do this by listening for His voice, prayer and reading the Word.
Develop a mindset Jesus is alive and wants to be in every moment of your life.
Commit your works each day to God and pray for a heart of wisdom.
Inquire of God in all your decision making and seek His will for your life.
The epiphany of Christ will take place in your life when you pray “God I surrender my life to you and agree to live under the authority of your Holy Spirit. I want to walk in oneness with you. Be present in my life and guide my pathway.”
You will meet the awesome Living Christ and nothing will matter except pleasing Him. Jesus will be a reality in every moment of your life and religion will fade away.
Today is Good Friday. Let God baptize you into His death and resurrection. Then in three days you will rise with Jesus and soar on eagle’s wings.
Hal Hollister Ministry 