And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

Luke 5:37-38 (NIV)

When God is leading you, you cannot do things the old way.

Jesus forbade us from pouring new wine into old wineskins because they will burst and spill out the wine. Old wineskins represent the rigid and inflexible system of the Old Covenant which cannot contain the expanding "new wine" of the New Covenant. This means when you have been transformed by the Holy Spirit's new way of enjoying the freedom of your life in Christ, you can no longer fit within the old way of the law.

The Pharisees opposed Jesus because they wanted to maintain their old religious way of doing things. Legalism narrows our minds to the point that it impedes our ability to receive the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ always reveals His grace and glory. Legalism strives to regulate people's thinking and actions because it cannot accept that God's grace alone is sufficient to bring about God's desired changes.

Every time you want God to do anything new in and through you, you need a new wineskin, that is, a new mindset and way of thinking. If you want to be a prophetic presence in the world, don't hold on to what worked in the past. Be open to new strategies, ministry models, and organisations. Even the Apostle Paul had to learn this crucial lesson. When Paul felt he could reach Asia Minor on his own, the Holy Spirit inspired him to equip and teach others to work alongside him. As a result, what could have taken him years to complete was achieved in a short period of time (Acts 19:10).

Get rid of old wineskin thinking.

Be humble and be willing to listen and learn because God's ways are higher than your ways and His thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Don't lean on your own understanding. There are still plenty of gospel revelations for you to discover and experience and you cannot enjoy the fullness of Christ's life and presence in every area of life unless your mind is continually renewed.