Old Wine Skins vs Tupperware

In my last post, I wrote about a lightning strike that hit our ranch. I thought that was the end of that story until I met a man named Josh Brewer.

One night, Josh felt like he heard the Lord tell him to go outside and look up at the sky. He looked up and saw lightning strike the foothills, at the top of 168. This would have been my town of Auberry, from his perspective in the valley. He then saw it hit one spot after another until it made a complete circle around Fresno. Every place the lightning hit, a fire began. The fires grew until they all touched each other and completed the circle around Fresno. He said he felt like the Lord was showing him how He would move on Fresno's behalf.

How interesting that God brought the following verse to mind, for me as I popped in a C.D. and drove to work, the day after lightning had actually hit our property:

Job 27:15 says, "Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes the lightning flash?"

I love how God messes with our mindsets!!! Just when I think I have Him all figured out, He throws me a curve ball just to see if I'll reach out and catch it. I grew up in a culture that explained God as a "just" god, willing to destroy entire cities for the sake of justice. I later learned to view God as a "loving Daddy" who I couldn't imagine intentionally punishing someone to get them to love Him. Currently, He is expanding my heart to see that He is super creative in His ways of getting our attention. He sent lightning to show me that I am part of a very important plan. I had to stand in Josh's shoes to see what a special gift this is. Josh's position gave me a different perspective of my situation.

God is pouring out new wine and we keep trying to put it into our old wine skins, our old ways of thinking. It's not as simple as just getting a new wine skin to hold these downloaded revelations. Our version of new wine skins tend to look just like the old ones. What if they look completely different? What if they look like Tupperware? Would we recognize and accept them as being what God needs us to have to process what He's telling us in this era?  Can we step out of our past comfort zone to embrace something new and creative (just like Him)?  These are the things we're going after. This is the thing that keeps us alive and alert. This is what we were created for.

How about you? What makes you alive? I truly want to know, because I think we were created to benefit from each other. You have something I need and visa-versa. We each fit together with each other. Imagine the possibilities of that concept. Imagine a life of connection.