A few days ago while celebrating Christmas early with family, I woke up after 3 am because of pain in my shoulder from an injury.

I did not want to get up and disturb others, so I raised my arm before God and in hushed tones started to worship and pray.

During this time of brokenness, God gave me the following vision for 2023. The next day, I shared it with a church leader where it resonated, and later I felt it was not just a word for his church, but the Body of Christ as a whole.

The Vision

I saw the master of a vineyard carefully looking over the grape harvest. He lovingly and carefully picked one ripe purple grape and put it on a shelf to admire its perfect mature form.

It represented the perfectly formed mature fruit. It had everything in its right place.

It was a fully grown grape that had it all together, but it lacked one thing.

The master of the vineyard lovingly and carefully picked it up and put it in the palm of his hand where he admired it.

Then in an instant, he cupped his other hand over the grape and crushed it until the juice flowed out of his hands.

I then felt God say without brokenness there is no new wine.

It was no accident that Jesus was broken in prayer before His Father while in Gethsemane, which literally means oil press.

No new wine can flow, or anointing oil poured out until there is a pressing in brokenness before our Father.

I want to finish this word with a verse from Mark 14:3:

“³And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.” (Mark 14:3 NKJV)

The Greek word for ‘broke’ in the above verse means to ‘crush completely, to shatter’.

Sounds like fun.

The vessel (church or person) may look great and have perfect form. It may have it all together but still lacks the most important thing in God’s eyes, brokenness.

God is not out to destroy us, but He wants brokenness over our sin and hard hearts to bring us to a place where His grace (new wine and oil) can be poured on us.

Not only on us but through us to a broken world.

Blessings in 2023.