New Wine

By Nina Medrano –

Life has a way of leading us to certain crossroads that turn out to be a significant turning point.

Our lives become transformed by that decision. And in our heart of hearts we lay a milestone to commemorate the day we resolve to follow a certain path.

For me, that milestone is tithing.

Like many, when I began my life with the Lord, I did not tithe. As I grew in the knowledge of God’s Word, I learned that the tithe belongs to God. I also learned that when I did not tithe I was robbing God. In the early years, I struggled to maintain a lifestyle of tithing.

However, my desire to please the Lord began to outweigh my fear of not having enough.

I can testify of the Lord’s faithfulness to supply all of my financial needs. I cannot tell you how He does it; but only that He does. Many times I have compared my expenses with my income and found myself short. Yet, by God’s faithfulness, all of my needs are met. Praise is to God.

Proverbs 3:9-10 reads, “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.”

As I meditate upon these verses I realize that this is true for me and my house. Our “barn” which represents our storage of goods is full! Our fuel tanks are full, our refrigerator is full, our freezers are full, and our wallets have extra.

Then, a new revelation dawned in my spirit when I read verse 10, “And your vats will overflow with new wine.”

Wine refers to the Holy Spirit and of anointing.  New wine speaks of new experiences and encounters with the Holy Spirit. Vats are containers of wine. We are the vessels that contain the Holy Spirit of God. We are “the temple of the Holy Spirit” (I Cor. 6:19 NIV). We are carriers of spiritual treasures (II Cor. 4:6 NIV).

So, if I honor the Lord with my wealth AND with the best part of everything I produce (including my writing), then God will fill my storage places AND I will overflow with new experiences and encounters with the Holy Spirit of God!

Don’t you just want to increase your tithe just to get more new wine? God knows that I need more of his anointing to flow through my life. As a mentor, I depend on the Holy Spirit to reveal the places that need healing. As a writer, I depend on the Holy Spirit to unfold the mysteries of God’s Word to share with the body of Christ.

Could you use more anointing?

As you read this spirit-inspired article I pray that the “eyes of your understanding be enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18 NIV).

Nina Medrano writes for her church blog at http://www.cotrwomensministry.blogspot.com/

The Lost Coin

By Nina Medrano-

I remember when my Aunt Sally ran away from home. My grandmother called my mother and asked us to please pray for Sally for she was only 13 years old and could not be found.

On the third day the Holy Spirit said to me, “Thank me for bringing Sally home.”  Immediately, I gave him thanks and greatly rejoiced with the Spirit. An hour later, we got a phone call from my grandmother letting us know that Sally had returned home unharmed. Today, my Aunt Sally is a grown woman with children and grandchildren of her own.

The Holy Spirit brought back this memory the morning. He (the Holy Spirit) awakened me at 4:00 A.M., prompting me to drive around our city and pray according to Luke 15 (NIV): The Parable of the Lost Coin.

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

As I drove around our city, I began to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to sweep across our city, look for the lost coins, the lost sons, daughters, father, mothers, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, grandchildren, great grandchildren who have lost their way home.

I asked the Lord to light the demonic dark and hidden places in this city; turn on the search lights in the drug-users homes, in the houses of prostitution, under the bridges, in the night clubs, in the pornographic theaters. Drive back the demonic strongholds! Break off the chains of addiction, shame, poverty, and financial ill-gains!

By this time I was weeping uncontrollably as I asked the Spirit to search and find every loved one that is lost in this city and restore them to Abba Father’s House and to their families—restore them to Kingdom usefulness, restore them to divine purpose, restore them to their God-given destinies. Restore. Restore. Restore!

As a declaration of faith, I give God thanks and praise for hearing and honoring this prayer for my city and for yours.

Nina Medrano, a lover of God’s Word, lives in Lubbock, Texas, and writes for her church blog: http://www.cotrwomensministry.blogspot.com/

I Will Find A Way!

By Nina Medrano –

Do you ever find yourself repeatedly hum a familiar song, absentmindedly, singing only parts of the lyrics that come to mind?  Often, when this happens to me, I am preoccupied and therefore miss the message of the song stirring in my spirit.

It has been three days now that my spirit has been stirring this song in my gut.  Like a scratch on a CD, the same lyric is stuck, repeating itself over and over—unable to skip to the next stanza.

“Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be your name”

I’m sitting traffic, singing the same lyrics over and over when suddenly the Holy Spirit descends upon me a heaviness of heart for those whose road is marked with suffering and cannot bless His name because of the pain in the offering.

It’s hard to lift your arms in praise when they have grown weary year after year waiting for breakthrough.  It’s hard to praise God when you are losing your home; when your husband did not come home last night; when you can’t pay the electric in the winter; when you cannot afford to get septic; when your teen-age daughter gets diagnosed with pre-cancer cells; when your wife leaves you with three small children to care for; when your First Time Home buyers credit check is delayed—going on a year.

“…When the darkness closes in, Lord
I WILL FIND A WAY… to say…
Blessed be the name of the Lord”

Often, life’s challenges leave a mark in our lives that render us stuck and unable to skip to the next stanza of God’s “streams of abundance flow.”

The power of praise is the weapon that releases God’s power to move on our behalf.  No matter what the circumstance, whether He gives or takes away, whether there is more pain than joy in the offering, we must resolve in our heart to FIND A WAY to bless His name.  With teeth gritting, FIND A WAY!  As if your life depends on it, FIND A WAY to say “Blessed by Your Name” and watch God move like a mighty warrior on your behalf.

^“You are a hiding place for me; You, Lord, preserve me from trouble, You surround me with songs and shouts of deliverance. Selah” (Psalm 32:7 AMP).

Nina Medrano lives in Lubbock TX with Pepper Jack, her rescued Jack Russell Terrier.

Song lyrics from “Blessed Be Your Name,” by Matt Redman.

The Prairie Watch-Dog

By Nina Medrano-

My interest was piqued to research the habits of the prairie dog when I witnessed their peculiar behaviors as I traveled to and from my workplace.

I learned that prairie dogs spend a lot of time building and rebuilding their dwellings, which are marked by many mounds of packed earth at their surface entrances. The prairie dogs use these carefully maintained mounds as observation posts.

The prairie dog is well adapted to predators. Their eyes which are positioned on the sides of the head enable detection of predators from a far distance over a wide arc. When a predator approaches, the first prairie dog alerts the other prairie dogs to the danger with a special high-pitch bark.

As I read about the prairie watch-dog behaviors, immediately three verses of Scripture resonated in my spirit:

Son of man, I’ve made you a watchman for the family of Israel. Whenever you hear me say something, warn them for me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You are going to die,’ and you don’t sound the alarm warning them that it’s a matter of life or death, they will die and it will be your fault. I’ll hold you responsible. But if you warn the wicked and they keep right on sinning anyway, they’ll certainly die for their sin, but you won’t die. You’ll have saved your life (Ezekiel 3:17-19 MSG, emphasis mine).

Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil (Ephesians 6:11 NLT, emphasis mine).

Prowling around the Throne were Four Animals, all eyes. Eyes to look ahead, eyes to look behind. The first Animal like a lion, the second like an ox, the third with a human face, the fourth like an eagle in flight. The Four Animals were winged, each with six wings. They were all eyes, seeing around and within. And they chanted night and day, never taking a break:
Holy, holy, holy
Is God our Master, Sovereign-Strong,
The Was, The Is, The Coming (Revelation 4:6-8 MSG, emphasis mine).

I used to believe that a watchman is a person that has a special calling to the prophetic and intercession ministry. This led me to believe that there are persons who may not be called to be watchmen. I was mistaken.

The watchman life of the prairie dog shows me that every person shares responsibility to preach the gospel to the lost. If we do not speak God’s warning to the lost, and they perish in their sin, then the fault is ours.

The prairie dogs’ adaptability to predators, reminds me to put on the full armor of God and be prepared for the strategies of the devil.

Lastly, in order for us to communicate the Kingdom of God to the lost, we must see past our own human ability. The Apostle Paul writes, “…ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers…” (Ephesians 1:18 AMP).

Perhaps the next time you pass by a prairie dog town, the Spirit of God will bring to remembrance our call to be a watchman to the lost souls in our families, neighbors and workplace.

This article is dedicated to my beloved Jack Russell Terrier, Daisy.

Daisy Medrano

February 16^th 2003-October 12^th, 2010

Becoming a Woman of Understanding

By Nina Medrano –

Just days before I left town for a one-day business trip, the Holy Spirit brought a specific Scripture verse to my attention and prompted me to pray this verse for my life.

It’s my practice to read different versions of a Scripture verse to gain a broader understanding of God’s Word.  Proverbs 20:5 (NIV) reads that “The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.”  The Contemporary English version (CEV) reads, “Someone’s thoughts may be as deep as the ocean, but if you are smart you will discover them.”

Next, the Spirit led me to pray Proverb 20:5 for the co-worker who is to travel with me, whom I know only through e-mail. In obedience, I asked Abba Father to “make me a woman of understanding; to give me a deeper insight to the purpose and the deep thoughts of this co-worker; flood my heart with the light of your Word and Spirit so that I may focus clearly and confidently draw out the deep thoughts and concerns of this co-worker; give me godly counsel and advice; don’t let me speak from my own understanding but let every word that comes from my thoughts and heart be totally yielded to your Spirit; give me supernatural favor; let this co-worker sense your Presence in our conversation and let her trust you with the deepest thoughts that trouble her. In Jesus Name, Amen.”

The day of travel we met at the airport early in the morning. Our conversation began with work-related issues. It was not long before our conversation shifted to a more personal exchange of information. This opened the door for me to share my faith in Christ. My co-worker listened and would ask an occasional question but for the most part she remained silent. Our next opportunity to converse was not until the end of the day as we made our way to the airport for our return flight. Our flight was delayed. Silently, I prayed, “Lord, I surrender my thoughts and words to you.”

After sharing several experiences of God’s guiding hand in my life it was now time to board our flight. As we began boarding, my co-worker drew nearer to me and with tear-filled eyes she began to tell me her desperate need for God’s guidance and direction. Currently, she faces a major crossroad and must make some career choices that will impact her life and her family. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit I was able to give her godly counsel and direction to her current situation. In a matter of moments the burden she was carrying was lifted off her countenance and a gently peace settled on her face.  Before we went our separate ways, my co-worker expressed a feeling of light-heartedness and an inner peace that she had not felt in a long while.

I cannot stop giving praise to God for sending us His Holy Spirit, who brings God’s word to our remembrance and teaches us all things. I pray that the Spirit will continue to make me a woman of understanding so that I may learn to draw the deep thoughts of the lives He places in my path.

Nina Medrano is a mentor in Transformation Ministry outreach of Church on The Rock in Lubbock, Texas, she resides in the country with her two playful Jack Russell Terriers, Daisy and Pepper Jack.

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