The New Wine and The Final Stand

Shalom brothers and sisters,

Grace and peace to you in the name of YAHUAH.

What I’m about to share is not meant to scare or overwhelm you, but to cautiously bring awareness to something urgent we need to pay attention to in this hour.

Today I bring you a timely message titled:

      “The New Wine and the Final Stand”

Can I ask you something? When was the last time you felt spiritually full? Not just busy or entertained, but truly overflowing with the presence of YAHUAH?

If I’m honest with myself, I believe I would say, “It’s been a while.” There’s a dryness beginning to settle in. Joy is withering. Prayer feels heavy. The fire that once burned brightly in my prayer closet, my worship, and love for the Word feels dim at times.

If that’s you, hear this: You are not alone. You are not crazy. The Word of YAHUAH spoke of this very reality through the prophet Joel.

THE CRISIS JOEL REVEALS (Joel 1:1-12)

Joel ministered during a time of total devastation; not one swarm of locusts, but four.

Jol 1:4  “What the gnawing locust left the swarming locust has eaten, and what the swarming locust left the crawling locust has eaten, and what the crawling locust left the consuming locust has eaten.”

Wave after wave. Crops destroyed. No grain meant no bread. No vine meant no wine. No oil meant no light. Even Temple worship stopped.

When Joel says “the new wine has failed,” he’s pointing to more than literal drink. In Hebrew, châdâsh yayin (new wine) symbolizes joy, blessing, and YAHUAH’s favor. Its failure meant the nation’s joy had withered.

Yet through this natural disaster, YAHUAH painted a picture of a deeper spiritual reality.

THE LOCUSTS IN OUR DAY

When you read Joel chapter 

Jol 1:6  “For a nation has come up against My land, strong, and innumerable. Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness.”

This was more than insects. It was judgment. An invasion.

I believe we can see similar locusts in our generation; eating away at the new wine. Here are four major areas:

1. Environmental/Biological locusts:  
We see fields parched by excessive drought where crops should grow. The National Weather Service and forecasters are warning of "flash droughts" across the West right now, and conditions are severe. I don't know if you're aware of this, but Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam are struggling at critically low levels, threatening hydroelectric power for millions in the region. Above us, our skies are being manipulated through geoengineering programs, sprayed to block the sun, to manipulate weather patterns and what falls from those operations lands on us, our animals, and our crops.

In other places, communities are being drowned by record rains that the soil cannot absorb, with some areas getting a year's worth of rain in just a few days. At the same time, we're witnessing the rise of pests like ticks carrying Lyme disease, Alpha-gal syndrome, and other new threats creeping into homes, homesteads, and farming communities where they were never seen before. It's shocking and consuming. Farmers are calling it ruin.

Creation is groaning (Romans 8:22). These are birth pains (Matthew 24:8). The vine and fig tree of our age are being laid waste.

2. Economic Locusts
Empty shelves. Fractured supply chains. Rising costs for food and fuel.

This echoes Revelation:

Rev 6:6  And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A measure of wheat for a denarius, and three measures of barley for a denarius. And do not harm the oil and the wine.” 

A denarius was a day’s wage for a common laborer. One day’s work for barely enough to feed one person.

3. Technological locusts:
Systems of surveillance expanding. Cameras, data, facial recognition. Public authorities press into private lives in ways our fathers never imagined. Privacy is stripped bare like the vine in Joel’s day. The draw of AI and the destructiveness it causes, job loss, spiritual replacement even deaths. 

4. Financial Locusts
The push toward digital currencies and centralized control. Revelation 13 warns clearly about who will control the ability to buy and sell.

While a denarius once bought a day’s bread, today we see a deeper scarcity spreading. 

Not just of wheat and barley, but of truth, righteousness, and the fear of YAH.

Spiritual invaders are creeping in through the broken windows of our society, our homes, and our hearts: sin, fear, compromise, materialism, and unclean spirits…exactly as Joel warned:

Jol 2:9  “They rush on the city, they run on the wall. They climb into the houses, they enter at the windows like a thief.”

They are snuffing out the lamp of YAH in our midst. The new wine is failing… and it will progress even more unless we respond.

THE SHOFAR: ARE WE HEARING THE ALARM? 

Yet in the middle of it all, the shofar is sounding.

Jol 2:1   Blow a shophar in Tsiyon, and sound an alarm in My set-apart mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the earth tremble, for the day of יהוה is coming, for it is near:

This shofar was never just music. It was the ancient air-raid siren: “Wake up! The enemy is at the gate!”

Joel describes an advancing unstoppable army, leaving desolation behind. I believe we are living in the tension between Joel 1 and Joel 2. The warnings are loud: through droughts and floods, shortages and surveillance, a world accelerating toward unprecedented times, and most of all…the absence of truth, righteousness, and the fear of YAH.

Can you hear it?
Do you see it?
Do you feel the urgency in your spirit?
Or have we become so numb to the alarm that we roll over and keep sleeping?

This is why Joel’s next words carry such mercy.

REND OUR HEARTS (Joel 2:12-14)

After describing total devastation, YAHUAH speaks some of the most hopeful words in Scripture:

Jol 2:12  “Yet even now,” declares יהוה, “turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”

Even now , after the locusts, after the failure, after the compromise; mercy is still extended.
YAHUAH is not impressed with torn garments or outward religious shows. He wants something deeper: 

Jol 2:13  “And tear your heart and not your garments, and turn back to יהוה your Elohim, for He shows favour and is compassionate, patient, and of great loving-commitment, and He shall relent concerning the evil.”

What does it mean to “tear your heart”?

It means raw, gut-level honesty before Elohim and no more hiding. It means refusing to wait for the world to change before you do.

Tearing your heart is also rejecting surface-level understandings of scripture. It is a full, unreserved return to YAHUAH with a broken and contrite spirit that He has promised not to despise (Psalm 51:17).

Lay down the distractions, not just obvious sins, but the subtle ones: anxiety over the news, trading privacy for convenience, and numbing the dryness with empty activity instead of seeking His face.

The call is clear: Ask. Seek. Knock. Return actively to YAHUAH and Yahusha HaMashiach.

THE PROMISE: RESTORATION & OUTPOURING (Joel 2:18-32)

When we return, YAHUAH responds with power:

Jol 2:18  “And let יהוה be jealous for His land, and spare His people.”

Jol 2:25  “Then I shall repay you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, and the consuming locust, and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you.”

Only YAHUAH can restore years, the time anxiety stole, the joy compromise ate, and the peace fear devoured.

And then the greatest promise:

Jol 2:28  “And after this it shall be that I pour out My Spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men dream dreams, your young men see visions.”

We see that this actually began in Acts 2, but it is not finished. Fresh outpourings await those who rend their hearts.

CLOSING

1. Recognize and name the locusts eating your new wine.
2. Rend your heart in sincere repentance, not a show, but a surrender.
3. Return fully to YAHUAH through Yahusha HaMashiach, He is the Door.
4. Believe His promise of restoration, rain on dry ground, bread for empty tables, and freedom in the midst of pressure.

You may have noticed I highlighted four areas. In Scripture, the number four often speaks of completeness, the four corners of the earth, the four winds, and the totality of creation under YAHUAH’s control. These pressures show the fullness of the groaning in our day… yet YAHUAH remains sovereign.
May we have ears to hear what the Ruach HaQodesh is saying in this hour.

ENDURE TO THE END

Brothers and sisters, what is coming will be even greater than what we see now. The locusts are only the beginning. The birth pains will intensify. But take courage.

As Yahusha warned in 

Mat 24:13  “But he who shall have endured to the end shall be saved.”

Endure in repentance.

Endure in prayer.
Endure in tearing your heart and returning to Him daily.
Endure in keeping the new wine flowing by staying filled with the Ruach HaQodesh.

This is our final stand. Not in our own strength, but in total dependence on YAHUAH and Yahusha HaMashiach.

Hold fast. The One who promised restoration and outpouring is faithful. He will carry us through. May we be found enduring when the shofar sounds its final note.

Prayer
YAHUAH Elohim, we hear the sound of the shofar. We see the locusts in our land and in our hearts. We rend our hearts before You right now… not our garments, but our hearts.
Restore the years the locust has eaten. Pour out Your Set-apart Spirit upon us.

In the mighty name of Yahusha HaMashiach we pray.

HalleluYAH Amen 🙌🙏🕊️

Christine Schraufnagel 
Blog at: kmsr1700am.com
(Reflections drawn from the Book of Joel/Biblical references TS2009)

Blood On The Altar

Shalom brother and sisters, grace and peace to you in the name of Yahuah

Now Family in Messiah… What if lifting our hands in worship is deeper than we’ve been taught? What if it’s not just emotion… not just tradition… but covenant?

Yahuah is showing us something precious right now. Our bodies are His Temple… 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, and inside that temple… there’s a living altar.

Praise isn’t just sound that comes out of our mouth. It’s covenant. It’s how the natural touches the spiritual. It’s how we, as living sacrifices, connect with the One who sits on the throne.

From the patterns He gave in Scripture… to the very blood flowing in our veins this very moment… let’s stretch forth our hands together.

Let’s explore blood on the altar.

Yahuah is calling us deeper into wholehearted obedience. Not surface obedience. Not “I showed up” obedience. 

Whole

Complete

“Present your bodies” obedience Romans 12:1.

We know this truth: Our bodies are the Temple of the Ruach ha’Qodesh. 

But let me ask you something… Every temple in Scripture had an altar right? 

The altar was the center. The place of sacrifice. The place of blood.

So where is that altar in US? 

And what does it mean to have blood on the altar as a living sacrifice?

Don’t answer fast. Sit with that question.

Let’s look at the pattern Yahuah gave us in Scripture.

Lifting hands isn’t an empty ritual. It’s Yadah יָדָה. Yad means “hand”. But yadah means to throw, to cast, to extend, to lift the hands in thanks, confession, worship.

Let’s take a look Leah. Genesis 29:35. Leah was weary. Her name literally means “weary, exhausted”. Pretty interesting isnt it? Anyways, she bore Jacob son after son, and each time she hoped his heart would turn to her. Then she gives birth to Judah… Yehudah… and she says, “THIS TIME I praise Yahuah”.

Do you hear and see this? 

She is the first woman recorded in Scripture to say “I praise Yahuah”… she did it through weariness. She turned exhaustion into Yadah. She threw her hands up, not because life was perfect, but because Yahuah was worthy.

Have you ever been there? Weary? Exhausted? Leah shows us: Yadah doesn’t wait for perfect circumstances. Yadah is what we do WITH our weariness.

Yadah is a verb. And verbs require action. It’s intentional. It’s movement. Movement of your hands, your voice, your whole being.

Throughout the Word we see this pattern repeat:

Solomon stood before the altar and spread forth his hands toward heaven 1 Kings 8:22. He didn’t just pray. He stretched. He reached. He extended.

Mosheh on the mountain… Exodus 17:11. When his hands were lifted, Israel prevailed. When his hands dropped, Amalek prevailed. Brothers and sisters, your raised hands have authority. This wasn’t Mosheh’s strength. It was Yahuah’s power flowing through surrendered hands.

I picture Mosheh on that mountain, Exodus 17.

Arms stretched up for hours. I know what that feels like. My arms start shaking after a few minutes of holding them up. They get tired. They want to drop.

Well that’s when Aaron and Hur came. They didn’t tell Mosheh to try harder. They put stones under him to sit on. Then they held his hands up with him. Some of you are weary today. Your arms are shaking. You’ve been holding up your family, your prayers, your faith… alone. Yahuah is saying: Let Me be your Aaron and Hur. and let your brothers and sisters help hold your hands up too. Because when hands stay lifted… even tired hands… the enemy loses. We battle as one with YAH 🙌

This is why we stand WITH our brothers and sisters in prayer, praise and worship.

Raising hands - letting it go and worshipping - removes weariness and restores strength, hope, and life 🙌. 

In Psalm 134:2 we read “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless Yahuah”

Lift up = nasa נָשָׂא. To lift, to carry, to bear up. The same word used when Aaron lifted his hands to bless the people. Physical acts… with spiritual authority.

Now let me take you deeper… into how Yahuah designed us.

When you intentionally raise your arms and hands in worship, something happens in your body. Blood flows more readily back toward the heart. From our extremities back to the center.

Consider this example: Yahuah designed our bodies with wisdom. When my arms are down, blood pools in my hands and feet. They get cold. Heavy.But when I raise them… even for 30 seconds… I can feel the warmth return. The blood flows back toward my heart. My center.

Isn’t that just like worship?

When our hands are down, we get cold. Weary. Distant. But when we lift them to Him… life flows back to the altar of our heart. The very thing that sustains us… returns. Yahuah literally designed our bodies to show us that lifted hands bring life back to the center.

Why does that matter? 

Because “Life is in the blood” Leviticus 17:11. Yahuah told us that thousands of years ago.

The Temple altar received blood. Poured out. Sprinkled. Given wholly to Yahuah. The blood was the life of the sacrifice.

In us… the heart becomes that living altar. Your heart has four chambers. Four. Just like the altar had four horns. One at each corner. Where the blood was applied.

Fire was on that altar day and night. Jeremiah said, “There is a burning fire shut up in my bones” Jeremiah 20:9.  Shut up in bones (the location where blood is made --> marrow)

Do you feel that fire? That’s the altar burning.

Your heart has the capacity to burn with love for Yahusha. Luke 24:32. “The tables of the heart” Proverbs 3:3, 7:3… that’s where Yahuah writes His Torah.

Prov 7:2-3 (TS2009)

“Guard my commands and live, And my Torah as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.”

Just like the stone tablets were placed in the Ark… His Word is written on the tables of our heart 2Corinthians 3:3.

David understood this altar. “The sacrifices of Elohim are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart” Psalm 51:17. Not bulls and goats. A broken heart laid on the altar.

David also established the Tabernacle of Praise and Worship… And he ministered as a “priest” — even though he was a “king”… So too, we are kings and priests unto our Yahuah (see Revelation 1:6, 5:10).

Paul echoes it to us: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Elohim, which is your reasonable service” Romans 12:1.

We are lively stones 1 Peter 2:5. We are a holy priesthood. And what’s our sacrifice? The sacrifice of praise Hebrews 13:15.

But hear this clearly: Without shedding of blood there is no remission Hebrews 9:22. Blood had to be shed. Life had to be poured out.

So when we lift holy hands with a true heart 

1 Timothy 2:8… we are making a willful covenant act. Blood flows toward the heart-altar. It’s a picture of surrender. Of pouring out our lives as incense and offering. 

As Psalm 141:2 (TS2009) declares: “Let my prayer be prepared before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.”

The natural points to the spiritual every time.

Our hearts are sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb Hebrews 10:22. Exodus 29:16 we see a pattern: blood applied, covenant sealed. And Messiah dwells there by faith Ephesians 3:17.

Yahusha Himself is called the Right Hand of Yahuah Psalm 89:13, 118:16. 

His arms were lifted on the tree. His hands were stretched wide. Blood rushed to seal the ultimate sacrifice.

“A body You have prepared for Me… to do Your will” Hebrews 10:5. He became the Lamb. He became the High Priest. He became the perfect Offering… so we could become living sacrifices. Temples with altars where blood and fire meet in praise.

Let me share with you 5 reasons this matters deeply:

It’s commanded and modeled.

Where?

Psalm 134:3 “Lift up your hands in the set-apart place, and bless Yahuah”

1 Timothy 2:8: “I desire that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands”.

How can our hands be holy? Certainly not by our own righteousness. But because we’ve been washed by the blood of the Lamb our hearts sprinkled clean according to Hebrews 10:22, we lift hands in Yadah, we offer consecrated hands. Set apart. Pure in intent.

It directs life.. When you lift your hands, blood flows to the heart. The inner altar. It’s a picture of pouring out your life as a living sacrifice. Romans 12:1 reasonable worship.

It releases authority and victory Mosheh’s hands… rûm, nasa, natah… they turned a battle. Your raised hands in Yadah declare, “Yahuah, I surrender. I depend on You.” You’re not fighting alone when your hands are up.

It seals covenant… Praise with lifted hands becomes incense Revelation 8:3-4. Blood on the altar of the heart. It’s willful. Physical. It’s saying “I offer myself wholly to You, Yahuah.”

It points to Yahusha… He was lifted. His hands on the tree. Blood flowing. When we lift our hands, we participate in that finished work. We say “I am with You in this sacrifice.”

So let’s be clear: Raising hands in Yadah is wholehearted discipleship in motion.

It turns weariness like Leah into praise. It stretches forth in thirst for Yahuah Psalm 143:6. It presents your body as the Temple… with a burning, blood-sprinkled altar inside.

Are you seeing also now how this comes together?

This isn’t “nice worship posture”. This is covenant reality.

Lam 3:40 Let us search and examine our ways, And turn back to יהוה.

Lam 3:41 Let us lift our hearts and hands To Ěl in the heavens…

Prepare your heart. Stretch out your hands

Job 11:13 If you would prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands toward Him.

Philippians 4:8 (TS2009) reminds us: “For the rest, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is righteous, whatever is clean, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, if there is any uprightness and if there is any praise – think on these.”

In this act of Yadah…you pour out life on the altar of your heart. You seal covenant. You renew commitment. You glorify the Lamb who was slain.

So TODAY… lift your hands. Mean it in your heart. Let the blood-life flow to the altar within.

Yahusha is worthy! HALLELUYAH 🙌🕊️

Note: This blog was birthed after listening to a rich 1-1/2 hour message from Revelations of Jesus Christ. Yahuah used their word to stir fresh revelation in my heart about our bodies as His Temple and the deeper meaning of lifting hands in Yadah. The additional reading and discussion with a dear sister Sylvia as well….I am truly grateful for the Body of Messiah and how we sharpen one another. All esteem to Yahuah!