I feel like the prophet Elijah who told his servant to go to the sea and look for a sign of rain. The servant went not just once but seven times and finally comes back to Elijah and says, “I see a cloud the size of a man’s hand.”
At this present time our community is reeling from the devastation of two huge fires that has burned thousands of acres and approximately 90 plus homes. We have been in a serious drought and we desperately need rain.
For weeks, even before the fires, God started placing some things on my heart in regards to the need for rain in our physical and in our spiritual lives.
I happened upon a sermon by another pastor that described the process for the rain of God to come down. It is this: 1- Drought 2- Fire and 3- Rain.
Say that with me - Drought. Fire. Rain.
We’ve had drought. We’ve had fire (and it continues to burn). And I believe with all of my heart that there is a physical and a spiritual rain about to pour on the High Desert.
A few years ago much of the United States went through a severe dry spell. It was so dry that it had become an Internet joke. During that drought someone published this request online: “Please pray for rain: "It’s so dry in Tennessee that the Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling; the Methodists are using wet-wipes; the Presbyterians are giving out rain-checks; and the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water.”
A few years ago much of the United States went through a severe dry spell. It was so dry that it had become an Internet joke. During that drought someone published this request online: “Please pray for rain: "It’s so dry in Tennessee that the Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling; the Methodists are using wet-wipes; the Presbyterians are giving out rain-checks; and the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water.”
In the 1930’s severe drought brought what was known as the Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, called the worst natural disaster in recorded history. It lasted a tortuous decade, from 1930 to 1939 and destroyed farms and lives throughout Canada, the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. Some of the severest dust storms reached the eastern coast and blanketed eastern cities such as Chicago and New York in “black snow”.
The drought began in 1930 and progressed throughout the decade. During 1932 there were an estimated 14 severe dust storms. A year later there were 38 major storms and 100 million acres had been lost. As millions of acres of farmland became useless, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes. It was truly one of our nation’s greatest tragedies.
The Bible speaks of spiritual drought that can cause far greater devastation than “Black Sunday”; a drought of the outpouring of God’s power and blessing.
Just as we are in a season of drought and are desperate for rain, so the church needs to see its desperate need for a fresh rainfall from God.
Often the condition of our hearts is such that we are not aware of our need at the very time it is the greatest! For to have a fresh outpouring of God’s power and blessing we must see and admit that we have a need.
We need rain when we have become spiritual deserts, when worship becomes form without substance, when our secular lives have precedence over our spiritual lives, when we find ourselves losing battles against temptations, we doubt that we will see the outpouring of His Spirit again, and when we have lost the joy we once had in our Christian lives.
Psalm 85:6 “Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?
Hosea 6:3 "Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth."
What we need is a downpour of revival. Revival is that supreme and gracious work of God in which He visits His own people, restoring them and outpouring the fresh rain of the fulness of His blessing.
Revival is always marked by an overwhelming sense of Christ’s presence in the church.
Again, I feel like Elijah by saying, “Go to the sea again and see if there is a sign of rain.” You might not see the cloud and you might feel like things have become worse.
But mark my words, the rain is coming and it will be both a physical and a spiritual rain that will descend upon the High Desert.
I write this with anticipation. I write this with eagerness. I am believing for God for a “double portion” of God’s presence in my life, my church and in this community.
Stand with expectation with me for God to send the rain and a pouring of His spirit into our lives and may it come soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment