When God wants to move forward, His wine must be new - and stronger and more abundant than before. If this newer, stronger wine were put into that recently "old" wineskin, the old wineskin would not be able to contain it and would break. Both the wine and the wineskin would be lost! Therefore, for God's work in every age, He longs for - and searches to find - a new wineskin. He must find a new wineskin. And when He finds that new wineskin, He will put new wine into it! Be sure, He will do it.

The grace of God is always and forever new. God's message is new every morning. The grace that God wants to give the world is forever new, but your Lord needs a new wine-skin. Without a new wineskin no new grace can be contained. Without God's grace we cannot deal with the new needs of this particular age in which we live.

One thing is certain: this is the newest age, because it is now. And the need of this age exceeds the need of any of the past ages. The thirsting and hungering of people in this age will require God's new grace to satisfy them. God always has new grace. Everyday He has new grace to be given to the world, but there must be a new wineskin to contain it. There must be a new body. This is God's need today. I hope that you all see this.

And what is this new wineskin? Please do not misun-derstand. Please do not think the new wineskin is a new method we pick up or invent by ourselves. You know that in Paris, France there are fashion salons which design new styles every day. They want to sell all their latest designs in clothing. Not long after displaying one design, they decide on another new fashion and then they push it. In the church we never need such things. Any new fashion coming from our minds is useless. If it is out of our brain, even the newest plan is old because it comes from the old Adam. It is useless. God longs to do a work which no human has ever thought of, a work which He Himself has never done before, a work entirely new. What is this new work? Nobody knows!

When I read the four gospels, I find that Jesus only mentioned the church twice. Only twice. And after He mentioned the church, He never told the disciples how to establish it, how to organise it, or how to promote it. The disciples wanted the church, but they did not know what the church was to be! They had never seen what the church was to be. Jesus Christ only told them, "When the Holy Spirit comes, He will tell you all things. He will lead you into all truth."

Jesus did not foretell these other things to them -what the church is, how to organise the church. If the disciples had known about the church before the coming of the Holy Spirit, they would have gone back and thought it all over. They would have added something to Jesus' words with their own minds. Then the coming of the church would not have been the real church at all. It would have been men's ideas of the church. Jesus never told the disciples what the church should be. He left the secret with the Holy Spirit ...

We human beings like regulations, but when we read the Bible we cannot find rules to explain how we should establish the church. The Bible tells us a little about how we should meet, but it never tells us how we should start a meeting. We need the Holy Spirit to tell us such things at every moment.

The guidance of the Holy Spirit is always new. This newness is not new ideas worked out in our minds. It is only through the revelation and work of the Holy Spirit that we receive any new thing. Jesus told the disciples they should wait in Jerusalem for the de-scending of the Holy Spirit

And today, as God seeks a people, when the Holy Spirit comes, you wilt know Him if your heart is really open. You do not need to have any presumption as to what the Holy Spirit is like. The only thing you need is to have a heart willing to wait upon Him

I will say it again: There can be no new work of God on this earth which comes from our brain or our imagina-tion. A new work of Gad must come from the Holy Spirit. Only the work done by the Holy Spirit is new. If the work is not done by the Holy Spirit, even a new method is old I believe absolutely that God longs to do a new work. The Holy Spirit still wants to move forward, working continuously. The more He works, the more glorious shall be that new work.

This is the work of God. This is the principle of God's work. Let us only hear.

What is our human responsibility? We have only one responsibility, and that is to pray.

I add two more words: Pray as one heart with one spirit. There must be a group of people praying to-gether with one heart and one spirit. All we do is ask God to do a new thing through the Holy Spirit, a new thing through us that has never been done before, a work which we have never seen before and no one has seen before. "Oh God we ask you to do this work."

The age is very dark. The Lord will come soon. Before the coming of our Lord the world will be most dark. Out of fear, Satan will be fierce to persecute the 'children of the Lord who are bearing His testimony at that time. If we have not gained new power, if we have no new grace, no new recognition of Him, if we 'do not have new experiences, if we only have old things and have become an old wineskin, how can we contain the new wine?

Let the Holy Spirit have absolute authority. Let Him do a new work. Every work of the Lord is different....

I hope you will take up the responsibility for the church 'and for the work of God. Have more and more prayer asking God to do a new work among you. This new work should not be influenced by anybody. No human head should be put upon this work. We should let the Holy Spirit have absolute freedom. I hope this will happen among you .

These are some extracts from "The Passing of the Torch" by James Chen.