Adapt or lose relevance By Pastor Uche Onochie

To adapt simply is to change your ideas or behavior to deal with a new situation. This change enables you to fit into a new or specific situation.

It is a new year and God wants us to be prepared for any possibilities.

From our text; Luke 5:33, man is wired to be resistible to change. There’s a seed of blessing in everything that happens to you.

Numbers 11:4-6; the Israelites who had been delivered from captivity desired the things they had in captivity.

A man would typically find comfort in a space that he has gotten used to. The seasons of God are not in correspondence with man’s calendar. Get ready because something new is coming this year. This year may or may not be better than past years. This prophecy is coming because God wants you to adapt and to have a different mindset when these new things start manifesting.

Treasures can be stored in the trash! Do not despise anything that happens to you. John the Baptist was greatly criticized by the people and even when Jesus Christ did things differently from how John the Baptist did, the people still criticized Him (Luke 7:33-35). Again, don’t despise anything that will happen to you this year. You don’t know how it will come.

The lessons from this is that the time of John the Baptist has elapsed and one greater has come, Jesus (new season). Jesus told his disciples that he has come as the bridegroom and to perfect His marriage with the bride (church) and so it was the season for them to feast. The season for fast will come.

It is very pertinent to note that what you do during the season of feasting will determine what happens during the season of fasting.

Whatever life throws at you, always remember that life is in times and in seasons. You are either in the feasting mode or in the fasting mode.

Let’s look at TWO PARABLES from the scripture

1. You cannot take a new cloth, and sew it with the old. The implication of this is that the new clothe will get torn and will not match with the old clothe (Luke 5:36 NKJV). What this means is that whatever will happen to you this year may not match with the old way of doing things.

2. You cannot put a new wine into an old wine skin. It will consequently result in a burst and spill. This year, take the new wine and put it in a new wine skin.

This year will be different. You will not do things in the same way and expect a different result. The era we are, is the time when man has gotten more informed than never before.

Every time you make a new year’s resolution and at the end of the year, it didn’t turn out the way you expected. It is so because you always put a new wine in an old wine skin (i.e., doing one thing in the same way and expecting a different result).

The old wine skin for you might be the same habit, lifestyle, mindset, routine, cycle of friends etc.

For your ‘new year resolution’ to work, you need to fix ‘YOU’.

This year, you are going to adopt new patterns. Only then will you see effective results.

For marriages, relationships, family and business, it is vital to understand how to build lasting relationships (Colossians 4:6 ; Proverbs 18:24; Ecclesiastes 10:12). Your manner of approach matters.

In becoming a better version of yourself, you must see yourself as a brand (Matthew 12:35). What do people experience when they have an encounter with you? What perception do people have about you? It is critical!

Matthew 28:18; Mark 16:17; God has bestowed in you, the power and authority over all principalities. This year, tell yourself, ‘I will not agree to old wine skin’!