Latter Rain & The Harvest
Joel 2:23-32
"Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call."
Introduction:
· Today my prayer is, “Lord, rain on us!” We need the rain of the Holy Ghost in our lives like never before.
· During a good rain, vegetation is nourished, animals are nourished, the grass gets greener; rain refreshes the land.
· Rain causes things to grow and be fruitful. We as well need to be nourished and refreshed.
· We need God to rain on us to make us fruitful for His kingdom.
· There comes a time in every person’s life they experience a drought of some type.
· It may be the drought of health when it seems like there is no end in sight to your physical problems.
· It may be the drought of finances when it seems like the bills are coming in faster than the money to pay them.
· It may be the drought of your occupation because you have lost the enjoyment of doing what you do for a living.
· There may be a drought in your marriage because you are staying together not because you love each other but just for the sake of the children.
· But of all the droughts I can think of, probably the worst is a spiritual drought.
· We have all had them.
· You pray but you feel like the prayers don’t leave the roof of your house.
· You read your Bible but it is like reading Greek and Hebrew and worse yet, it puts you to sleep; and you go to church and get absolute nothing out of it.
· Sometimes the pickings in my spiritual bean patch are pretty slim.
· Sometimes I feel like a dried out raisin instead of a plump grape.
· Lord, I need some rain. Send down the rain of the Holy Ghost and give me some life.
· Don’t you get tired of dead sermons, preached by dead preachers, in dead churches, in a dead community in a dying world?
· We need some new life poured into us. WE need a fresh anointing? We need those showers of blessings.
· We need a revival of Holy Ghost anointed sermons, preached under the power of the anointing of the Holy Ghost on the preacher, who stands behind the pulpit of a Holy Ghost powered church that can make a difference in a dying world! We need the rain, both the former rain and the latter rain together.
· Pour it on us Lord! Help us to get our buckets ready for the coming flood!
· The former rains came in Israel just after planting of the first seeds by the farmers.
· Just after the seed is dropped in and the soil covers over it, or it sits on top of the plowed ground, that’s when the rain is desired to water that seed and wash it into a place in the ground where it can grow.
· Without that rain, the seed simply dries up and dies.
· The seed has been planted in our lives by the power of the Holy Ghost.
· God’s Word is continually planting new seeds into our hearts, but we need the former rain to water it and make it grown.
· Without the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon that word that has been planted in me, the word quickly leaves me and I am left barren and dry.
· God, send down the rain, send down the former rain. Water that seed so that I may grow spiritually and know you more.
· After the former rain has fallen, the time for growth comes.
· The seed takes root and begins to grow to the place where it breaks through the crust of the earth, forcing its way into the light of the sun, then takes the power of the sun and uses it to produce the life-giving nourishment for the plant to grow.
· The roots grow down deep, searching for water and nourishment and anchoring the plant in the place that the farmer has sown it.
· That’s what the outpouring of the former rain of the Holy Ghost does for you and I.
· The Holy Ghost waters the seed of God’s Word in us.
· Then He leads us into the place where God has pre-established for us to work and grow and put down roots to become a productive plant in his garden.
· The Holy Ghost causes us to root down deep into the Word of God, anchoring our souls against the howling winds of adversity, and gives us the source of life when the ground above is parched with sin and shame.
· As we are established deeper and deeper into the Word of God, we become more and more productive in reaching out to the lost around us and God then uses us to plant some more “buckets” to hold his blessings.
· Isn’t it a wonderful thing to see God pouring out his blessings upon someone that you have led to Christ?
· Isn’t it a greater blessing for you than it is for them sometimes?
· God wants to pour out more of his blessings, so just keep putting out more buckets to receive them and we can share in those blessings together.
· In between the former rain and the latter rain is the growing time.
· It’s a lengthy time of overcoming obstacles for the plants.
· Some of them fall prey to the birds of the air, represented in the Parable of the Sower, as demonic spirits who come to steal the seed from your heart.
· Sometimes the storms of life, sand storms, wrong kind of rain, or wind storms rip the plants out of place and they are lost because their roots were not strong enough to hold.
· Sometimes there are periods of drought where the farmer’s doubts and fears are realized and the plants die because there is a lack of water – they just ceased to draw from that life giving water.
· Sometimes the cankerworms, will get at the roots and begin to eat away at them.
· The caterpillars start chewing on the beautiful green leaves that gather in the light of the sun.
· The palmerworms attack the fruit itself and sometimes ruin the fruit that comes forth.
· Those worms represent all the little sins, secret sins and weights of this life that so easily beset us, undermining the working of the Holy Spirit within us.
· Somehow though, through the knowledge and working of the farmer, representing the working of the Holy Ghost in your life, we make it through and the time for harvesting is drawing near.
· That’s when the “latter rain” begins to fall. God, in His great mercy and provision for Israel, sends the rain just in time to make the plants produce in abundance and bring forth much fruit for the harvest. Notice that it is all God!
· The seed is his; he is the former rain; he is the keeper in time of growing and troubles; and he is source of the latter rain too.
· Then he is also the giver of fruit and the harvester.
· It’s all God.
· You and I are but his planting ground, useful in producing the fruit that God wishes to bring forth through us.
· But God is telling Israel, and He is saying to you and I right now, “Rejoice, Shout for Joy!”
· God is already at work, pouring out the rain upon his children.
· He is sending both the former rain and the latter rain together to bring forth a speedy crop and a bountiful crop.
· As we are drawing nearer to that last great harvest of souls before the coming of the Lord, I can’t help but believe that God is getting ready to pour out the rain of the Holy Ghost on this world like never before.
· I am looking for, hoping for, praying for and expecting a great revival, not just in our church, our community, but around the world. America needs the former rain and the latter rain together.
· Our church needs the former rain and the latter rain together. I need the former rain and the latter rain together.
James 5:17
· "Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."
· IF I AM GOING TO COME OUT OF MY DROUGHT, I NEED TO LEARN NOT TO GIVE UP ON MY RAIN TOO SOON.
o 1 Kings 18:43 (NIV) "Go and look toward the sea," he told his servant. And he went up and looked. "There is nothing there," he said. Seven times Elijah said, "Go back."
§ Seven times Elijah sent his servant to look toward the sea to see any sign that the rains are coming.
§ The Bible doesn’t tell us what Elijah is doing while he sends his servant is off looking but I can tell you what he is doing: he is praying for the rains to come.
§ He is no less persistent the seventh time than he was the first time.
§ He was persistence despite the fact there was no evidence that the rain was coming.
§ How many of you would have quit after the first time, the second time, the third time.
§ Surely we would have quit by the fifth time.
§ None of us would have gone pass six times and no sign of rain.
· IF I AM GOING TO COME OUT OF MY DROUGHT, I NEED TO HAVE THE FAITH THAT THE SMALLEST CLOUD CAN PRODUCE THE MIGHTEST STORM.
o 1 Kings 18:44 The seventh time the servant reported, "A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea." So Elijah said, "Go and tell Ahab, ’Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’"
§ The servant reported back to Elijah on the seventh time that there was a cloud the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.
§ If you look at my hand, I can tell you that is not a very big cloud.
§ Little sign of a big breakthrough!
§ The difference is that Elijah saw that small cloud in the hands of a very big God and so it made that cloud a very big cloud.
§ The Bible is full of cases where something small became big in the hands of God.
· The little boy’s lunch in the hands of God fed 5,000; the small stone in the hands of God killed a giant; the small town of Bethlehem became the birthplace of the Savior.
§ Sometime we don’t get our rain because we haven’t given up our small things into the hands of a big God.
§ If I am having financial problems I am going to put whatever small amount of money I have into the hands of God.
§ If I only have a little bit of time, I am going to put that into the hands of a big God.
§ If I only have a little bit of health I am going to put that into the hands of a big God.
§ If I only have a little bit of spiritual life I am going to put that into the hands of a big God.
