99: Don’t Keep Your Blessings Bottled

 My Heart’s Desire

 

The last step to developing wine is called the “bottling and aging” process whereby clarified wine is stored into either large wooden barrels, or metallic cylinders, or glass bottles to ‘rest’ for a while to age.¹ Sound familiar?  Life causes us to age as well; and we have the option to age gracefully or to grow older tumultuously.  Aging can last from 1 year up to 25 or more years depending on the type of wine.  During these years, the character of the wine experiences changes which cause its coloring and flavoring to be perfected for consumption.

A heart’s desires must also go through a process of bottling and aging in order to come out perfect for its useful purpose.  Aging comes with mistakes and victories, hard lessons and blessings—all to build our character. While inside the ‘bottle’, wine is alone; it is in a still position, and it is undergoing changes that will make it desirable to those who are waiting to enjoy its aroma and taste.

Your wine must be a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God (Philippians 4:18b).  And, if it is well pleasing to God, it will definitely be a blessing to mankind: “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!” (John 2:10).  What a commendation on Jesus’ wine—the very best indeed.  It was a miracle because it took only a few minutes to produce what normally takes almost three decades to develop.  It was a miracle because its source what not hand-picked harvested grape-fruit, pressed and crushed, fermented, clarified, and stored in bottles, but merely fetched water!  Lastly, it was a miracle because it was of a quality beyond human imagination—its aroma and flavor were extraordinary.

Your wine is extraordinary because its source is God.  Its development depends on the kind of fruit God plucks from you, your submission to be pressed so that all fleshly impurities can be crushed out (discarded, destroyed), your willingness to be formed into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), your humility to allow your wine to undergo filtration for its clarification, and your patience (long-suffering) through its processes of aging.  All these steps are unique to each individual soul that carries a heart’s desire.

Your fruit are the works of your hand—the talent(s) God gave you from the first day of your life on earth.  There will be a pressing and a crushing to make those talents into something useful to edify mankind as well as promote the Kingdom of Heaven.  Your new wine must be carried in new wine skin and therefore your soul is made new by your choice to be born again (John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17). Keep in mind: old pain (of the past) cannot be carried or stored in a life that is preparing for something new to happen.    

A born-again soul is humble unto the instructions given by the Holy Spirit: sometimes your wine will be sifted, shaken, filtered, tossed, turned, and tested by fire to find its genuineness, to examine its sustainability, its endurance. It is this anointing, this baptism in the Holy Spirit, that breaks the pain of the past.  When you’re experiencing ‘struggle’, do not go back to past pain (convincing yourself you deserve the pain as punishment for not getting it right the first time).  Instead, look forward to this new thing God is making for you.

 I don’t feel no ways tired.  I’ve come too far from where I started from.

Nobody told me that road would be easy, and I don’t believe He’s brought me this far to leave me.²

The Christian’s walk of faith will be tried by fired, so that you can get clear about your motive for living, identifying the source from which your ambition is driven, and holding on to Who is picking the “fruit” of your labor to make it ready for the enjoyment of the saints.  Your motivation for living and your ambition must be driven by the Lord.  We cannot compare ourselves with those who are “rich” in the world.  We must put our focus on Jesus who gives us the power to produce wealth (Deuteronomy 8:2, 18) by following His instructions on all things pertaining to fulfilling life more abundantly (John 10:10b).

Then it’s time to rest and be defined by your blessings.  The wine is still from one year up to twenty-five years metabolizing into a work of fine aroma and distinctive taste to the drinker’s pallet.  Your wine undergoes a rigorous process from the time God hand-picks (chooses) you and through all the ups and downs of pressing and crushing, fermenting or transforming, filtering and clarifying making you are ready for bottling and aging. 

Where can desires go when bottled up?  Nowhere.  Bottled up, your heart’s desires must take a time to perfect in the rest that only Jesus provides (Matthew 11:28-30).  This rest requires reflection on what the Lord has done for you from your birth to the present time.  This rest is requisite on the basis of your recollection of God’s many blessings:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed. When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done!³

 

This rest also requires time, or aging. Aging does not mean “getting old”.  Aging means maturity.  It indicates growth, like building a house starting from its foundation and ending at the rooftop.  Apostle Paul spoke to the church of Corinth: When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things (1 Corinthians 13:11). How many years have you grown in the Lord?  Unfortunately, many born-again souls are not growing up, but rather growing awkward.  Growing up or maturing in the Lord demands putting away childish character and working out your salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12) as we do not know the day Jesus is coming back again to take the mature with Him into heaven.  Maturity in the Lord is acquired by fervent prayer, regular (daily) study of His word, and living Romans 12:1-2. Maturity is evidenced by your bearing the fruits of godliness (Galatians 5:22-23) that later manifest as your heart’s desire, your new wine.

Just as wine is defined by its aroma and flavor over time, let your “wine” be that extraordinary miracle of the awesome power of God defined by His blessings.  And after you have counted them all, pour them out on others so that they, too, may experience the fullness of Christ.  Your life’s testimony of blessings is not meant to be bottled forever.  You’ve got some joy to share for others to marvel: You have kept the good wine until now!

 

© 2021 by Patience Osei-Anyamesem. All rights reserved.  Published by The Light In Me Enterprise.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher.  The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

 Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1. Reference for the processes of making wine: www.worldsbestwines.eu: A Detailed Guide to Winemaking.

2. Song: I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired. Lyrics by James Cleveland (1978).

3. Song: Count Your Blessings. Lyrics by Johnson Oatman, Jr. (1897).

 Take My Hand Inspirations

98: Get Clear about What You Desire

 My Heart’s Desire

 

Then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your new wine . . . .(Deuteronomy 11:14).

 

Rain signifies life for a seed germinating underground.  Just like that seed, the new wine [your heart’s desire] in a new wineskin [your soul] must receive that which will make it grow or mature.  This is called the clarification process; and it involves a lot of filtration to make new wine free of any impurities:

 

Once fermentation is completed, the clarification process begins. Winemakers have the option of racking or siphoning their wines from one tank or barrel to the next in hope of leaving the precipitates and solids called pomace in the bottom of the fermenting tank.  Filtering and fining may also be done at this stage¹.

Troubles may come, but they don’t last always; in time, they pass.  In other words, troubles are the pomace that are meant to sink to the bottom of the “barrel” so that the new wine can be perfectly clear.  Let that pain in your heart go through forgiveness in order to rid your wine of unwanted pomace—impurities that will render its taste terribly.  Your wineskin must be re”new”ed so that your new wine can be carried in it.  Otherwise, as the Bible clarifies, Nor do people 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). 

 

A new idea or thought or dream/desire must go through its processes in a re’new’ed soul—a soul free from the troubles or contaminates of past sins or guilt or regrets or simply put, any memory of pain.  Old pain cannot be carried or stored in a life that is preparing for something new to happen.  Your heart’s desire is that something new in you not yet fully seen or materialized, but is in the process of becoming something wonderful to behold publicly. 

 Let your troubles be washed away by the rains right from the start of its inception (early rains) and just at the end of its preparation process (latter rains).  You are about to burst out fresh and delicious! The harvesting of your fruit(s) has been hand-picked or chosen by the Lord.  His indwelling Holy Spirit has crushed and suppressed any urgings for furious fights of the flesh because you have fermented your wine in His holy word.  It is by staying in and doing God’s Word that gives clarity, or makes your heart’s desire absolutely clear to you.  Of course, others can never understand what the Lord is preparing in you.  He does something unique in all of us who yield to His perfect will.  It is God’s grace that filters out all impurities and sinks all your troubles to the bottom of the “barrel” so that your new wine can be made ready in its vessel of honor.

 

What is it that you want?  What is it that you desire to become real in your life?  Get clear about it now.  Write it down in full detail and description.  Leave nothing out.  Throw away whatever can distract your desire from coming true.  Reject and destroy anything that causes you pain.  Move out of the way of anyone that causes you pain. “Pomace, you’ve got to get out of my wineskin!”  Embrace who you are and what God is making you to become.  He loves you like none other.  You are the apple of His eye; and He’s cheering you on!  You’ve got God-power to trample that trouble and come out purified!

 You are no mistake.  Your life’s mission is no mistake.  The desire(s) of your heart is no mistake.  All are ordered by the Lord (if only you believe).  But you must be patient waiting during the time needed for the process of clarifying your heart’s desire to come to completion in order to enjoy its fruition.  Wait for the season of this miracle. Do not rush, and do not slumber.  Stay vigilant and on course each day taking the right steps as the Master Winemaker does His work in you.

  

© 2021 by Patience Osei-Anyamesem. All rights reserved.  Published by The Light In Me Enterprise.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher.  The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1. Reference for the processes of making wine: www.worldsbestwines.eu: A Detailed Guide to Winemaking.

 

Take My Hand Inspirations

97: Fermenting the Heart

 My Heart’s Desire

 

It seems “off the cuff” to illustrate fermentation with soul matters; but travel with me a little bit.  The fermentation process in wine-making transforms the grapes’ (fruit) juice sugar content into what is known as alcohol.  Imbibing alcohol excessively affects normal, healthy brain function with negative outcomes such as difficulty walking, impaired memory, blurred vision, slurred speech and, over time, internal organ failure.

So, why is wine drinking still as socially popular today as it was in Jesus’ time?  There is no harm when there is self-control.  Wine, in Biblical times, was not drunk to “get drunk”.  It was enjoyed socially, but it was also medicinal when swallowed in moderation. Some of the health benefits of red wine include: it’s rich in antioxidants (cell cleaners to keep us physically fit), lowers bad cholesterol thereby keeping the heart healthy, regulates blood sugar, reduces risk of cancer, helps treat common cold, keeps memory sharp, keeps one slim, reduces the risk of depression, and has positive effects on the digestive system.

Wasn’t wine recommended to Timothy by his spiritual father Paul in 1 Timothy 5:23? Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities. Here is where the treatment for digestive system troubles was made, but there is no indication as to whether the wine was fermented or unfermented pure grape juice.

Many folks rush in lust to suck down the fermented grape in excess—so much so as to lose their sobriety, which goes against God’s word according to these admonitions: Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober (1 Thessalonians 5:6). But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:8). That the older men be sober, . . . , likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded (Titus 2:2, 6).

Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age (Titus 2:12).

 

Christians are children of the day—where there is light; not of the darkness as the sinful nature of night portrays.  Therefore, we cannot drink what’s fermented, but that we only allow God’s word to ferment our hearts in transforming its evil content into that which is “high” in the spirit. Graft your heart inside the life-sustaining heavenly vine until it releases the fruit-filled fragrances of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control which can only be produced by the steps of harvesting, pressing, and fermenting into the Spirit of holiness once everything fleshly is crushed by the intoxicating presence of divinity flowing through you.

 

Fermenting your heart in the Word of God, gives you a “high” unspeakable which can never compare to mere alcoholic drunkenness.  This “high” keeps you on higher ground, releases indescribable joy, even when times are rough, makes you see clearly things that the naked eye can’t, helps you walk in spiritual power, reduces fear and anxiety, and gives you a new blood system transfused with Jesus’ blood (oh shout amen!).  With this new blood, all your diseases are healed, your life is redeemed from destruction, you are crowned with lovingkindness and tender mercies, your mouth is satisfied with good things, your strength is renewed like the eagle’s (Psalm 103:1-5); and your heart is happy holding your desires, as they manifest into your reality.

It’s all about you abiding in the vine!  It’s all about Jesus fermenting your “wine”.  You are His greatest miracle.

The wine kept in my heart is fermented in the Lord Jesus who is God’s Word (John 1:1-5). This fermentation has transformed my ungodliness into fruit of righteousness hand-picked by the Vinedresser, as He prepares me in His perfect time to pour out my wine saturating wherever He sends me.  I get “drunk” on His word all the time because it keeps me “high” in the Spirit, and sharply sober on the ground!

  

© 2021 by Patience Osei-Anyamesem. All rights reserved.  Published by The Light In Me Enterprise.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher.  The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Reference for the processes of making wine: www.worldsbestwines.eu: A Detailed Guide to Winemaking.

 Take My Hand Inspirations