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Building up believers and the New Testament church

The House Church

New Wine in New Wineskins

If we focus on trying to understand what was done before, rather than knowing the leading of the Spirit today, we will miss God. What we will do is "come out of" something, and react by trying to do something different from what we came out of. In so doing, we will carry right on in many of the errors we have just come out from. This is the pattern in most cases.

But God's work is a brand-new working. Most of us are acquainted with the passage that speaks about putting new wine into new wineskins. The new wineskins speak of people that are prepared, a vessel that is prepared, pliable, not moving in the flesh or in natural understanding, but moving by the Spirit of God, knowing the things of the Spirit. As an example, let us look at the preparation of the apostle Paul. Before he became an apostle and before he was sent out of Antioch to do the work God had prepared him for, we see God preparing him in the wilderness. God broke upon Paul's heart a revelation of what He wanted to do, who Christ was, and what had been accomplished at the cross. The revelation is seen throughout the writings of Paul. He drew from it when writing his epistles to different churches to help meet their needs.

Today as well, we need men that are moving by the Spirit of God. Today we have our own problems, and the Spirit of God is the only one that can meet those problems. We can't go back and copy someone else. We need a fresh speaking of God to His church, to direct us and lead us in these times we live in.

We also need to realize that the gathering of God's people is not around doctrine. We gather underneath the headship of Christ. God's people are not gathering around a man or man's teachings, but under the headship of Christ alone.

Men will often try to see the church come into expression by the natural means of trying to dissect the revelation of God, trying to understand the Greek or analyze the scriptures, rather than being led by the Spirit to see the church come into expression as it did at the very beginning. We don't need a set of doctrines. What we need is the working of the Holy Spirit in hearts that are in tune with Him. Then we can move in the fullness of what God has ordained.