國度小筆

The month of Tishrei is a month for harvest. All around the world at this time grapes are being picked, gathered, and pressed for the next batch of new wine. Normally this is a time of excitement and anticipation as the quantity and quality of the harvest is assessed. The real success of the harvest is determined by the taste of the new wine. As we enter this new year in a new seven year cycle of years God has a taste of new wine He wants to fill our mouths with. Especially in this season we know prophetically when we taste His new wine it will cause us to see the fullness of His goodness.

It is no coincidence that the current world-wide financial crisis struck right as this time period began. It is clear that the enemy wanted us to enter the new season with a "bad taste" in our mouth from the circumstances unfolding around us and out of our control. By "spoiling" a time of harvest he seeks to provoke us to either reflect longingly on past harvests ("ahhh, that was a very good year!) or to look forward to future harvests in hopes of better things to come. Either way the current vintage is disregarded and sometimes rejected so that the blessing of this season's fruitfulness is missed.

God has provided two things to help rid ourselves of the "bad taste" of today's events and experience the goodness of this season's harvest. First He has given us the days of Awe and the Day of Atonement (I am writing this on Yom Kippur) as a way to cleanse our palate from the bitterness of past and current circumstances. This is a time for God to remove any and every "bad taste" that lingers in us. We often focus on the importance of forgiveness (the releasing of emotional or spiritual debt) while neglecting the power of atonement. Atonement is all about "removal." It begins with the transference of guilt and trauma caused by us and others onto Jesus. However the power of atonement is not fully realized until Jesus removes it and disposes of it forever. When He removes the taste of our guilt and the guilt of others against us (and Him) it cleanses us spiritually so no guilt remains; it cleanses us emotionally so we are healed of trauma; and it cleanses us physically so that we are able to experience His goodness in our senses and body.

Once God removes the "bad taste" He desires to replace it with the taste of His new. Recently I did some reading on how grapes are gathered for winemaking and discovered some things I did not know. Although I already knew that grapes are harvested in clusters (not as individual grapes) I did not know why. I found that when the clusters are pressed much of the taste of the wine comes not from the fruit of each grape but from the skins of the grapes in the clusters.

As soon as I read that the Spirit spoke several things. He said that we must let God cluster us. Gathering grapes is different than picking peaches. With peaches the picker looks at each individual peach, picks the good ones (leaving the badly bruised and flawed fruit) and then groups them according to size and quality. With grapes all that matters is the cluster. In past seasons we focused on picking fruit instead of making wine. We spent a lot of time examining our own fruit and the fruit of others instead of letting God cluster us. What makes Zion Connect so refreshing to me is that I see God developing it by clusters.

The Spirit also spoke to me the danger of isolation. Isolation is a strategy of Satan whereby he uses circumstances, trauma, personal preference, and individuality to isolate us. That may work for peaches but not for wine grapes. In the days ahead we must permit the Spirit to cluster us according to His purpose rather than our preferences. This is not a time for picking and choosing according to our tastes but a time to call on the Lord to connect us in ways that will bring forth the goodness of His new wine.

Allen Faubion