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.
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:
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.
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).
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