Taking the juice from grapes...

wine among us.JPG
Originally uploaded by ericblauer.

"I am sending you grain, new wine and oil
enough to satisfy you fully...
He sends you abundant showers
both autumn and spring rains as before.

The threshing floors will be filled with grain
the vats will overflow with new wine and oil...

You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
and you will praise the name of the Lord God
who has worked wonders among you..."
-Joel 2:19, 23-24, 26

This grape vine is growing behind our church. I took a picture of this ripening cluster of grapes that face our building. They are a prophetic testimony of the word of the Lord to me in seasons past. The Lord visited me in a very difficult season with a deluge of revelation, refreshing and promise download that impacted my life powerfully. It was one of the most intense times of my spiritual life. He promised that He would send me wine...

Yesterday as I was going up towards the church a bunch of little kids came from behind the building and had handfuls of grapes. I asked them what they had and they showed me and then two young girls offered me some to taste. The juice squeezed onto my hands...juice stained my hand.

The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His strong arm,
I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies;
Nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored.
But those who harvest it will eat it and praise the Lord;
And those who gather it will drink it in the courts of My sanctuary.
-Isaiah 62:8-9

What a set of promises...it is awesome to stand in the midst of the unfolding fulfillment of these words. I would have never thought how and where and with whom these words would come to pass. God's ways are mysterious indeed!

The Lord says, "The time is coming when there will be all kinds of food. People will still be harvesting crops when it's time to plow again. People will still be taking the juice from grapes when it's time to plant again. Wine will drip from the mountains and pour from the hills.

I will bring my people Israel back from captivity; they will build the ruined cities again, and they will live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink the wine from them; they will plant gardens and eat their fruit.

I will plant my people on their land, and they will not be pulled out again from the land which I have given them," says the Lord your God. -Amos 9:13-15