WHAT COULD LIMIT A BELIEVER'S PROGRESS

37 AND NO ONE PUTS NEW WINE INTO OLD WINESKINS; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.
38 BUT NEW WINE MUST BE PUT INTO NEW WINESKINS, AND BOTH ARE PRESERVED."
Luke 5:37-38 (NKJV)

It is not the number of years which you have been in the Christian faith that matters but your alignment or
adjustment into proper relationship with God's order of doing things.
One thing which a lot of believers find difficult to do is to renounce old ways of life. Some claim to have been in the Christian faith for a number of years now, but they have not allowed the necessary transformation to take place in their lives (Romans 12:2). They still held on to their old behaviours, wrong patterns of living, and mindsets and belief systems which they have had over the years.

Some people want to bring their old ways of life, how they used to live, into their new life in Christ Jesus; which would be unwholesome and impossible. The new wine cannot be put in the old wineskins, If that was done, the new wine will definitely destroy the old wineskin (Luke 5:37,38).

Whoever you were and whatever you were doing before you came to Christ Jesus, all had to be done away with. In other words, whatever kind of life you were living, before you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, had to be done with. If you had character defects or any underhanded dealings which you were involved in, any dubious activity, all should be put away—If you truly wanted to walk with God when you professed to be His.

An attempt to continue in your old ways that are not thorough or good or wholesome enough would be counterproductive. If you had a way which you had been making money that is not good or ethical or right, you would have to do away with it. If you wanted to continue in It, It may end you in serious problems.
Either you are a believer who has just found a new path to follow or a believer who has been in the faith for a number of years, you should completely allow the old things to pass away in your life: "THEREFORE, IF ANYONE IS IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATION; OLD THINGS HAVE PASSED AWAY; BEHOLD, ALL THINGS HAVE BECOME NEW" (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV).

If, as a believer in Christ Jesus, you are bringing your old way of life to your new life in Christ, you would not be able to get the best of God. Instead of making progress you would find yourself stunted in your growth or progress in God. Thus, you would have to let your old pattern of life go and allow or embrace the new way of life charted for you, that is, God's new way or plan for your life. Know that, if you are adamant and did not let go of the old way of life which was planned by you, through your flesh and human nature; It would be difficult for you to discover the new way of life or plan which God has charted or prepared for you.

A lot of believers have problem in the point being shared or discussed here. The old life had to be completely released for that new divine plan be made room for in your life—for the new plan to be made known to you, be embraced by you, and be put to work.
As long as you are still holding on to the past, mixing your old ways of life with your Christian life, there would not be any meaningful progress in your life, either physically or in the things of the spirit—thus, the way or the pattern or the norm of the past in your life had to go.
I have watched the lives of many who have been in the church or Christian faith for a number of years without any meaningful change or difference, It is usually the issue of not giving all to God. That is, their inability to embrace the totality of the Word of God and the living by its principles. For you to actually enjoy the benefits of the new life, you would have to completely be submissive to God and be cooperative with His new order of things in your life.

The new way of life of a believer had to be established by God's pattern or plan that is shown to him or her (Hebrews 8:5). Ambition and plans you had had before you came to Christ Jesus had to go. Everything about the past had to go because they were born out of the flesh, the human nature. If you would prosper in your new found faith, you would have to agree with God's terms and conditions; anything apart from this would make your new life in Christ Jesus meaningless and unprogressive.

If I may ask, Are you ready to cooperate with God? If you are, this is where submissiveness comes in, when you have to allow God's Will or plan to be or prevail over your own personal plan or way which you had had before you surrendered your life to Christ Jesus.

Note:
a. Your dubious character of the past had to go.
b. Your craftiness or cunningness had to go.
c. Many unwholesome things, character defects, had to be released and let go.

Before God could bless Jacob, He had to change him, his craftiness and dubiousness. God changed his name from being a supplanter or heel catcher to prince with God (Genesis 32:27,28).
You who is reading this may have to consider scheduling a meeting with God like Jacob did; having an encounter with God that would bring a change of your name and that of a number of dubious things that are not right or not in agreement with God's Word and His principles in your life. New wine would never be put in the old wineskin, It has to be a new wine in a new wineskin.

Some of the things that are mentioned above and a couple of other unwholesome things of such that may be found in your life would have to go, for you to actually be whatever God wanted you to be and do whatever He wanted you to do.
Peace.