“In the crushing, in the pressing, You are making new wine…”

These words perfectly express the heart of this site. Though the crushing and pressing are hard, they are necessary if our lives are to produce new wine. Why new wine? Because we can’t move forward in a new season if we’re depending on last season’s anointing. We both came to the realization at the end of 2018 that we wanted to help people and live a little bolder in 2019. 

“In the soil I now surrender. You are breaking new ground…”

In order to accomplish these goals, we’re going to have to dig a little deeper than we have before. In the breaking of new ground, old roots are unearthed. They aren’t always good roots. Often for me, they are roots of bitterness and pain. Sometimes, they are good roots, but they’re still old roots; They are roots which served a purpose for a season and I honor that, but now He is calling me to make new ones. He is calling all of us to make the bold decision to uproot what needs to be uprooted and replant something new.

Yielding to Him is hard, but worth it. We are stubborn humans and He knows this. Trust is difficult, but God is faithful. He knows we have trust issues. He knows I’m a control freak. Still, He chooses us to fulfill His purposes in the earth, if we’ll let Him. If we’ll yield to His careful hand and let Him heal us, mold us, shape us, He will do amazing Kingdom things through us. If we choose to trust that He is good, we don’t need to understand why or how. We just need to know that He is good.

Surrendering to God allows Him to do so much more with us than we could do on our own. I can do amazing things, but only because of Him. I have nothing to offer Him, except the gifts and talents He gave me in the first place. It seems strange to regift in this instance, but He can do more with it than I can. He can take the long dormant dreams and turn them into reality beyond comprehension, if we let Him. I have a picture in my head of how my dreams will turn out, but only He truly knows the future. I only know God’s reality is far better than mine. If I empty myself out as an offering to Him, the pretty along with the ugly, He can fashion a vessel exponentially greater than I can imagine.

So, what does all this add up to? We felt instinctively that 2019 was bringing something new, something different. I can’t lay my finger on it yet, but I know that as we walk this new path with God, He will reveal it. We can’t carry a torch for the past any longer. Yesterday’s fire can’t serve today’s purposes. We’re walking a new path with a new anointing and fire, but He is still the same God. His word is still infallible. We invite you to come on this journey with us and let our stories encourage you. Our goal is to write about what He is revealing to us and talk to others who have boldly obeyed His call and not looked back. We are Heaven Pressed. Join us as we embrace vulnerability, change, and the Divine unknown.

—Steph and Jules

Quoted Song – “New Wine” by Brooke Ligertwood. Copyright Hillsong Music