Jesus promised that he would build his church and that she would be a beautiful bride, holy and blameless before him; but as I look at the modern church our experience falls far short of his promises.

The Holy Spirit has not lost his power and Jesus has not changed his mind, so the problem must be at our end. It seems that our Father is unwilling to entrust the fullness of his Spirit to our wineskins.

Desperate situations call for radical change. More of the same will not get us to where we want to be. If we want the new wine of the Holy Spirit, we must shape our wineskins according to God's plan.

Author: Ron McKenzie is a Christian writer living in Christchurch, New Zealand.  During the 1980s he served as the pastor of a church, but found that he could not manage to do everything that Jesus did. He is now employed as an economist and writes in his spare time.  He is married with three adult children.