KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

Every great spiritual reality is presented to us in scripture over and over again, from various standpoints, under various emblems, and like the multi-faceted hues of the diamond, in order to exhibit the truth in its setting with accompanying truths, to make it as real as possible to us, and also in order to reach every individual on his plane of spiritual development and according to his need. Thus the coming of the Lord is set forth in scripture by prophecy, parable, and analogy, to reveal to our longing hearts all the facets, manners, and modes of His appearing and manifestation unto us. Among the various types of our Lord's return is His coming unto us AS THE RAIN.

The world cannot receive the Christ today because it SEETH Him not, neither KNOWETH Him. But to all whose hearts hunger and thirst for the fullness of His presence, power and glory the promise is sure: "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and HE SHALL COME UNTO US AS THE RAIN, as the latter and former rain unto the earth" (Hos. 6:3). The apostle James, speaking of the coming of the Lord, penned these significant words: "Be patient therefore, brethren, UNTO THE COMING OF THE LORD. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he (it) receive THE EARLY AND LATTER RAIN. Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the COMING OF THE LORD DRAWETII NIGH" (James 5:7-8). Furthermore, the prophet Zechariah gives us this inspiring admonition of hope: "Ask ye of the Lord RAIN IN THE TIME OF THE LATTER RAIN; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field" (Zech. 10:1). In that beautiful messianic Psalm, Psalm 72, the sweet singer of Israel intoned these marvelously instructive words about the coming of the King of Glory: "HE SHALL COME DOWN LIKE RAIN upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth" (Ps. 72:6). Little wonder that the scriptures reiterate again and again that the Lord comes WITH CLOUDS; for there can be no rain without clouds, and we are exhorted to ask for rain, via the avenue of clouds (Zech. 10:1).

There has been a general misunderstanding of the Word of God throughout Christendom concerning the truth of the coming of the Lord; for it is clear as we consider all the scriptures on the subject that the Lord's coming is first and foremost a spiritual visitation in the midst of His people. James therefore associates the bestowal of the latter rain with the "coming" of the Lord: "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he (it) receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." Notice in this passage how the truth concerning the latter rain is sandwiched in between these two statements concerning the "coming of the Lord," for in a very real sense the coming of the former and latter rain IS THE COMING OF THE LORD into the midst of His people. The rain is really the LORD HIMSELF coming upon us.

It is our deep conviction that Christ has appeared to His people as both the "early rain" and the "latter rain," and scattered "showers of refreshing" betwixt and between, throughout this age. Multitudinous and glorious beyond description have been the appearances of Christ as the rain. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, he clearly established the fact that the outpouring of the Spirit at that time was the early rain (Acts 2:16; Joel 2:21-32). During the mighty outpouring of the Spirit in those glory filled years following 1948, the Lord often spoke in prophecy, telling the saints that that visitation of the Spirit was CHRIST COMING TO HIS PEOPLE as the latter rain. All major denominations, including the Pentecostal denominations who were closest to that visitation of the Spirit, rejected that wonderful move of God. And when they rejected that deluge from heaven THEY ALSO REJECTED CHRIST, for it was none other than HE who came to His thirsting people at that time as latter rain.

I have often heard it said by unthinking people and preachers that God has promised a mighty "latter rain" outpouring of the Holy Spirit JUST PRIOR TO THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS. I do not hesitate to tell you that God has promised no such thing. You will not find that concept anywhere in the pages of the Bible. The preachers and teachers of our day are so totally confused and blinded by the carnal traditions and delusive dogmas of the church system, that not only do they fail to behold the glory of Christ when He is revealed, but they cannot even quote scripture correctly. There is no passage of scripture which promises a great world-wide revival BEFORE the coming of Christ. The Word of God is strangely silent about a latter rain which will fall BEFORE the coming of the Lord. Nothing could be clearer from the scriptures than the fact that the rain former and latter, I-S the coming of Christ! Just as the former rain was given moderately by the coming of the Spirit of Christ on the day of Pentecost, so the latter rain is given abundantly in the end of the age to bring forth in the earth HIS IN-CHRISTED SAINTS. Just as the glory filled the typical tabernacle in the long ago when all was complete, so will the glory fill the completed tabernacle of the body of the Christ by His coming as latter rain. How the people of God thirst today for these living streams from heaven!

There are many wonderful truths to embrace, endless revelations to inspire and thrill the heart of man, but you will never be gripped in your spirit by any more inspiring and encouraging than that penned long centuries ago by the prophet Isaiah. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isa. 55:8-11).

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord." This scripture has been misquoted so many times and has been taken out of context in so many instances, that most of the Lord's people have completely missed its real meaning. Here we see God's way of thinking and walking contrasted with the way humanity is thinking and walking. Here God sets before us the way of the Spirit and the way of the flesh. God walks in the way of Spirit. Humanity walks in the way of flesh. Because mankind walked the way of flesh, God sent His Son, the Living Word, that He might walk this LOW ROAD of flesh with the children, so that, through Him, the children might be given the ability to overcome. As God walks in Christ Jesus, He keeps to the HIGH ROAD and He walks as Spirit.

There are two ways disclosed to us. The ways of God are not our ways. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Now if we stop there it is a hopeless situation. It is hopeless because God says to us that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so is the way of God higher than our way. That is how much higher the way of the Spirit is than the way of the flesh. We cannot attain unto it. If we lift this verse out of context our soul will be cast down, disconsolate and without remedy; our fleshly condition is hopeless, there is no way to attain unto GOD'S WAY. Though we might pass lightly over the verse that follows this, I would urge it upon my reader for your prayerful and reverent consideration. After establishing that God's ways are high as the heavens, the Lord continues: "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow FROM HEAVEN, AND RETURNETH NOT THITHER, BUT WATERETH THE EARTH..." (vs. 10). God is teaching a deep spiritual truth with a natural illustration. The rain and the snow come down, and they do not return to the heavens. They do not strike the ground and then leave that ground. We know, of course, that eventually they do go back up in vapor, but there is a work for them to do before that. There is a purpose in the rain and the snow coming down. They come down to "water the earth."

The rain and the snow come down from the heavens to the earth. Just so, the place in which God is, His state of being, is so much higher than we are. In Hosea 6:3 we find that the Lord shall come unto us as the rain, even the latter and the former rain unto the earth. This is the LORD coming to His people as the rain comes to water the earth. This is the One who is higher than us coming down upon us to give us of Himself. It is not God getting in control of our thoughts and our ways, but God coming down in His thoughts and His ways into our earthiness, so that what He is in His high heaven He now BECOMES IN OUR EARTH. The rain and the snow come down from the heaven and do not return to the heaven, but WATER THE EARTH. The rain and the snow water the earth and cause it to bring forth the bud, so that the sower may have seed, and the eater may have bread.

This is why we have the rain and the snow. So that the one who sows the seed may have more seed to sow, and so there is enough left over for those who eat to have their food. The rain and the snow bless and refresh the earth, giving life, and cause it to bud and bring forth and give increase. Now God says, "So, (in just this way) shall MY WORD be that goeth forth out of My mouth. It shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Now, to what is God comparing His Word? To the rain and the snow that fall upon the earth to water it, to give life and increase. God is saying that is just exactly what HIS WORD is sent to do and shall do.

God's Word! God's Word coming down from heaven! "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn. 1:1,14). God's Word will come down from HIS HIGH ROAD, falling upon this lower road of the flesh realm. God's Word, or the Lord Jesus Christ, the Logos, the Living Word of God, will come as the former and latter rain unto His earth, or His people. He shall come upon those who are walking this lower road of the flesh. He will come upon our earth, and He will cause to spring up in our earth the seed of life that He has planted there. We are in the way or road of flesh, but down from that realm of Spirit, from God's way, God's state of being, He is pouring forth HIS VERY SELF upon humanity. God declared that His Word should not return unto Him void. Just as the rain and snow accomplish their purpose in the earth, so shall God's Word, His anointing, His Christ not return unto Him void, but it SHALL ACCOMPLISH HIS PURPOSE.

How thankful we are for this! How we praise Him for what He is doing! How marvelous are all His ways! We have talked loudly and long about the rain, but knew so little about it. This rain, this LORD was and is something that is to saturate our very beings and not run off from us. It is to bring forth the purpose of God in our lives. It is to bring forth the life of God within us. It is to produce the nature of God in us. It is to cultivate the wonderful mind of Christ in us. It is to bring God's own heavenly condition and state of being to fruition within our lives. It is heaven coming down to earth and filling it. It is the ascendancy of the Spirit within us by first falling upon our earthiness as rain from heaven, then accomplishing within God's great and eternal purpose. Oh, the mystery of it! The wonder of it!

I remember many years ago traveling down a valley in California. Barren, bare, waterless, useless, seemed a great deal of the land to me. Suddenly, however, I came to a belt of great fertility. I said, "Why is this?" "Water," they said. "Where did you get it?" I asked. "There is no water here on this plain to speak of - where did you get it?" They pointed to the beautiful Sierra Nevada, that great range of mountains which skirts that valley and is a continuation of a great range far up. They pointed to the snowy peaks, and they said, "There we get the water." They showed me how they had turned much waterless country into a vast vineyard and orchard. Some of that land sold for many thousands of dollars an acre because it was full of vines and fruit trees and brought in a splendid income. It was water, water brought down from these mountains, that wrought the transformation. I saw fine, strong cattle and lovely plains with green grass, and saw that it was alfalfa. I saw how they channeled the water and made it flow gently over the land, and how they kept it there, until the seed started to grow. They could get several crops a year of that beautiful alfalfa and other grasses. I saw at once, what I had seen in lesser degrees in other lands, the tremendous power of water as a fructifying power. That water came into these dry, barren, waterless plains from the snow-clad mountains which yielded their treasure when the summer sun shone upon them and melted the imprisoned waters, which were then guided and distributed until they gently flowed over all the wilderness wastes, and turned them into fertile fields, lovely gardens, and rich orchards and vineyards.

So it is with the coming of the Lord. All my springs are in Thee, O God! "The river of God is full of water." That river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, is the Spirit of the living Christ of God coming down as rain, and flowing through the river-bed of our earth. In that blessed stream the tree of life is growing. Christ is that tree of life, and the leaves of the tree are the words of God, and they are for the healing of the nations. Blessed be God! The power and immensity of the illustration completely staggers the imagination and floods the soul with indescribable wonder. I was interested in reading an article which contained a quote by a scientist who tells us that sixteen million tons of water fall on this earth every second. It is hard to grasp this statement, isn't it? Sixteen million tons of water fall on this earth every second. How much is that? One billion, three hundred eighty-two million, four hundred thousand tons of it every day. That is just the power and magnitude of THE COMING OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AS THE RAIN UNTO US!

A sister in Christ shares the following vision which is so very expressive and illustrative. "I was before the Lord on the evening of the 8th of July, seeking His face and pouring out my heart before Him, when suddenly I was There. IN THE SPIRIT I found myself surrounded by a sweet, powerful force of love. It not only surrounded me but invaded me to the inmost part of my being. At the same time it brought with it such a deep sense of peace, of security and of well-being. Jesus was with me. His glory shined all around and upon all. He was just like I had last seen Him and He was just loving me. It was just like being inside a dense, transparent, invisible but tangible cloud of pure LOVE. As I was completely covered in this bright cloud of love it began to rain. It rained and rained and rained. But what a strange rain it was. It was not like rain on this earth because it was not wet at all. It was a heavenly rain. The large drops were like drops of pure crystal lights, or like small diamonds that had life and light inside of them. They fell from above so softly and smoothly like little stars. Although each one gave me such a sense of joy and pleasure, my hands did not get wet. Although of substance, they were still so light and airy and I carried them about in my hand. Jesus showed me that this was His rain of blessing. Later I was so amazed for in the service that night there was a prophetic word concerning the beautiful showers of rain that He was even now sending upon His people. I had been given to see and feel that very rain" -end quote.

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die ... a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up..." (Eccles. 3:1-3).

The scriptures amply testify that there are seasons in life. We can know the seasons because each one has individual indications of when it is coming. When spring comes, the grass starts turning green and the little roots start putting out their shoots. When summer comes, the flowers bloom. When fall arrives, everything turns orange and brown. Winter brings the cold and snow. You can see the evidence and know what season it is.

Grand and glorious truths lie tucked away in the passage quoted above. "To everything there is a season" certainly applies to the "seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:19). Then there are seasons of apostasy, when men settle down in their own carnal visions, and propagate them. Then in God's own time He breaks forth in brighter light to dispel the shrouding gloom of the static traditions of religion, and raise the people above them, up into HIMSELF. There is a time for these "seasons of refreshing" to be birthed; then when their purpose has been accomplished it is their time to die, and the rain clouds blow away. Now if we can discern the signs of the times we will not try to keep alive something that has come to its death time in the providenceof God. "O ye hypocrites," said Jesus to the Pharisees and Saducees, "ye can discern the face of the sky (whether it appears to be bringing fair or foul weather); but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" (Mat. 16:3). They could discern natural things but had no insight into spiritual movings. They were not one whit different from vast multitudes of religious people today who look only to natural things for signs of the appearing of the Lord: earthquakes, economic conditions, wars, communism, European Common Market, crime, science and technology, computer systems, marks on the forehead or hand, world leaders, the Jews, moral breakdown, etc. Those who with carnal minds continually examine outward world events FOR SIGNS OF THE LORD'S COMING know absolutely nothing about the mind of God nor do they have spiritual understanding of His omniscient purposes. Oh, that God would open the eyes of His people who have believed on His name that they might leave their hopeless paths of tradition and their human ways of looking at things and begin to fall into step with the spirit of wisdom and revelation from God!

I have long been intrigued by the words spoken by Peter while preaching to the people outside the temple, after he had healed the lame man, when he said to the crowd, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:19-21). The Greek-English Interlinear gives a more literal translation of the original Greek text in this passage. "Reform, therefore, and turn, that your sins may be blotted out; so that seasons of refreshment may come from the presence of the Lord." In this verse we find the plan of salvation presented in simple terms. When we repented of our sins and turned to the Lord, we found that "seasons of refreshing" did come from the presence of the Lord. This is the Spirit of the heavens falling into our earth. Can we not now understand the true meaning of Peter's words? "...when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall (by this means, in this manner) SEND JESUS CHRIST ... whom the heaven must retain until the TIMES OF RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS. . ." Ah - as soon as He falls into our earth the times of restitution begin! The restitution of all things is not just a future glory. There are "times" of restitution. When Jesus Christ is sent into our lives in seasons of refreshing, the "times" of this glorious restitution have begun within as we are restored into the image of God.

All through this present age, the Lord has sent showers of blessing or "seasons of refreshment" upon His people. "Times of refreshing" - how meaningful are these words! They imply life and light. "From the presence of the Lord." The expression as here used, "the presence of the Lord," literally means "out from the face of the Lord." The thought is a common one in Oriental figurative language, in which turning one's face toward another denotes friendship, or favor; while to turn the back is a symbol of enmity or disfavor. Moses, the ancient lawgiver of Israel said, "The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and give thee peace." We have all experienced these seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord and we know how glorious and wonderful those seasons have been.

It seems to me that Acts 3:19-20 is the very core and heart of the whole purpose of God in sending Jesus Christ unto us as the rain. What Are these "times of refreshing" from the presence of the Lord? Verse twenty explains, it is the coming of Jesus Christ TO US. "And that He may send to you the Christ, the Messiah, who before was designated and appointed for you, Jesus" (Amplified). These times of refreshing are Jesus Christ coming in manifest presence TO His people. Now let me explain what I mean by MANIFEST PRESENCE. We all know the term - "God is omnipresent." What does that mean? It signifies that God is present everywhere. The Psalmist put in these words: "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me" (Ps. 139:7-10). Obviously you cannot escape God's omnipresence. He is equally present in all places at all times throughout the unbounded heavens.

What is the difference between that and His MANIFEST PRESENCE? The Lord made a promise to His disciples, "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will MANIFEST Myself to him" (Jn. 14:21). The word "manifest" means that He will allow you to see, to feel, to hear, to smell, to touch Him. He will manifest Himself in such a way that it will come to pass that you will KNOW HIM by His manifestation. "I will MANIFEST MYSELF unto those that love Me." The message is clear - He will come in presence, not in His omnipresence, but in His manifest presence, revealing Himself in a dimension where He can be seen, heard, felt, smelt and touched - not physically, necessarily, but in a dimension of truth and reality. I am sure that many who read these lines have been in meetings and in experiences with God where was disclosed the MANIFEST PRESENCE of the Lord. In Acts 3:19 this is what the apostle Peter is dealing with, the coming of the Lord to us in times of refreshing.

Let us define this expression: "Times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." For years I thought of it in terms of God up in heaven someplace, and from His presence up in heaven refreshing came down to earth. There is a truth there, as we have previously explained, but it is not the point of this passage. That is not what it means! It indicates times of refreshing that come BECAUSE HE IS PRESENT AMONG US - from the presence of the Lord among us. Not the presence of the Lord in some far-off heaven somewhere raining down refreshment on us, but times of refreshing that are the result of His manifest presence among us after the rain has fallen into our earth. Times of refreshing from or because of - the presence of the Lord!

There is an illustrative story in II Samuel chapter six. When in the days of king David the land of Israel was free from its enemy, the Philistines, David thought the time had come to bring the holy ark of the Lord out from its hiding place, where it had remained all through the rule of Samuel and the reign of Saul. They stood the ark on a wagon, to be drawn by oxen. At one place the road was rough, and the oxen stumbled, and the ark almost fell from the wagon. Uzzah, one of the men driving the oxen, took hold of the ark to steady it. God's law forbade anyone except a priest from touching the ark, and God was displeased with Uzzah for his carelessness; and Uzzah fell dead by the ark of the Lord. This death alarmed David and all the people. David was afraid to have the ark of God come into his city. He stopped the procession and placed the ark in the house near by of a man named Obed-edom. There it stayed three months. They were afraid that it might bring harm to Obed-edom and his family; but instead it brought a blessing upon them all. When David heard of the manifold blessings that had come to Obed-edom with the ark, he resolved to bring it into his own city on Mount Zion. When the ark of the covenant came to Obed-edom's house, what happened? All kinds of blessing - refreshing everything good started happening to him! Why? What was there? THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD. The MANIFEST PRESENCE of the God of Israel. The Lord had said, "Thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And THERE I WILL MEET WITH THEE, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from BETWEEN THE TWO CHERUBIMS which are upon the ark of the testimony" (Ex. 25:21-22). "O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that DWELLEST BETWEEN THE CHERUBIMS, Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth" (Isa. 37:16).

"'His coming forth is as sure as the sunrise; He shall come UNTO US AS THE RAIN, as the former and the latter rain unto the earth" (Hos. 6:3, Free Translation). He comes TO US as the rain. Rain brings the presence of the Lord. The presence of the Lord gives times of refreshing. Rain brings times that cause the water to soak the ground to mature the crops for the harvest. But notice! There is an "if" in there. We will know His coming as the rain IF we "follow ON to KNOW the Lord." His coming is as sure as the sunrise; we will know it IF we follow on to know Him; and He will come unto us as the rain. These are days of the coming of the Lord! He is coming to us in times and seasons of refreshing.

Seasons - if we are going to fulfill the purposes of God in our lives in our day we must walk in God's "seasons". All farmers know the importance of observing seasons. You don't expect to harvest apples in May or watermelons in December. Why? Because it's the wrong season. You always cooperate with the seasons and if you do you bring in a bountiful harvest. Now if I went out and started plowing and planting corn in September I would be in trouble. Why? Because I am not cooperating with the seasons! As that seed germinates and begins to grow, it's going to come up at the wrong time and, ere long, the cold will kill it. I must plant my corn in the spring and expect a harvest in the fall; thus I am flowing with the seasons. A good farmer will also understand that rain coming at the wrong time will only spoil his crop, for the rain will beat down the grain, making it impossible to harvest. Can we not see by this how infinitely important it is to observe God's SPIRITUAL SEASONS - God's times.

Paul wrote to the brethren at Thessalonica and said, "Ye have no need that I write unto you about the times and the seasons" (I Thes. 5:1). These saints understood something of God's seasons and worked with them. Today, when it becomes time for God to pour out His Spirit the renowned Doctors of Divinity say, "That's not for us today, that was just for the early Church." They refuse to cooperate with God's seasons. And then it becomes time to MOVE ON into the Most Holy Place, into the Order of Melchizedek, into the Kingdom of God and the Spirit-baptized ones say, "Whoa - that's not for today, that's for the millenium." The carnal minded religionist always puts everything in either the past or the future. So, what do they have right now? "oh," they say, "we have faith!" The Lord called it UNBELIEF. Thus - with all the glory of God in the past or the future, and unbelief in the present, the religionist ends up with NOTHING for today.

Most folk want to know what we WERE or what we WILL BE. They lust after past or future blessings because they are not victorious in the NOW. The plain truth is just this: the adversary doesn't care what you believe or what you experience, as long as it is in the past or the future! Multiplied thousands of the Lord's people have lived for years on a diet of TESTIMONIES. People will throng to hear the story of a man who was a warlock, a member of the Mafia, a drug addict, or a Baptist Pastor before he met the Lord. I don't want to know what you were prior to your conversion. There is no life in it! Yet people gather regularly to hear these words of death. I guess they want some soulish goose-bumps to tingle their spine. They remind me of spiritual "peeping toms" who want to peer into the darkness of what you and I were before we knew the Lord. What makes a man great in the Kingdom of God has nothing to do with what made him great in the kingdom of darkness! Faith comes by hearing the Living Word of God, not by listening to the activities of death. Thank God that many are waking up. They are tired of feeding on husks. They are tired of trying to digest the empty shell with no corn in it or any germ of life in it. It is none of your business what I was prior to conversion and it is none of my business what you were! It is over - thank God! Can't we just praise HIM that HE has forgiven, cleansed and transformed us and FORGOTTEN what we were? Hallelujah!

God has something better, greater, higher than that for us, beloved; He has SEASONS OF REFRESHING from the presence of the Lord. If we know these seasons and flow with them, there will be great fruit in our lives. I want to stir you to say, "Lord, I want Your best for my life! I want to change NOW. There are some things in my life that need to be saved NOW. I need transformation NOW." So my interest lies not with your past, for this new order of life has no pedigree (Hob. 7:3). 1 want to know what God is doing in your life and in my life NOW ... TODAY! Be encouraged from the past. Have hope for the future. But yield yourself unto God to be an overcomer in the present! Get in tune with God's season for you today. Discern His dealings, His processings, His will for today. Then cooperate with His seasons!

There is a further application of this truth, shared by another: "All of God's times are related to certain spiritual states, and we have to be in the right state and condition to be in its corresponding time. There is a right spiritual state wherein that which was either past or future becomes NOW. Others may have experienced it long ago, but I wasn't ready for it then. Some will not be ready for it for a long time to come. But our prayer is that HE WILL WORK IN US, DOING A QUICK WORK, CUTTING IT SHORT IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, that we might come into the 'now' of its fulfillment. Thus we pass from vision into reality, from profession into possession, being changed from glory to glory" - Gospel Echoes.

God in the beginning ordained in the earth the orderly progression of the seasons. Most areas of the world experience what is spoken of as a rainy or wet season and a dry season. In the land of Israel, between the early and latter rains, there was a period of great dryness and dearth. The pools dried up and the brooks ceased to flow. But there was a wise design in the dryness, even as there was a beneficent purpose in the rain. It was the time when under the intense heat of the sun the grain was able to develop in a particular stage.

We know from Church history that the Lord Jesus visits the earth with a special outpouring of Himself from time to time, in order to accomplish the work of the Kingdom. There are seasons of refreshing which come from the presence of the Lord. The Reformation, the great Methodist revivals, the move of God in Scotland, the Great Awakening in America, the revival in Wales, the Pentecostal outpouring, the Latter Rain visitation, and present movings of the Spirit in various regions of the earth - the Lord's presence and power and glory comes among His people in a mighty way, but afterwards lifts for a season so that other purposes can be accomplished. Such flowings and ebbings of divine life are according to the law and design of God. Some necessary changes are wrought in our lives through means of blessing and glory, and others take place when we go through dry seasons or through the fires of testing and refining. So there are times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and there are times when it seems He has pulled the veil over His face. There are times when there is a forward thrust - new dimensions are opened up, great revelations stream forth, mighty power is displayed, there is blessing, quickening, growth all around, and a spiritual advance is made. Then the glory lifts, the blessings diminish, the siftings and shakings commence, and that which was received with great joy is put to the test. It is during these times of "nothingness" that the elect, the remnant of the Lord are severely tried. Will the vision and deposit received during the rain now take deeper root to become a firm, stable and permanent INNER NATURE, the planting of the Lord; or will the adverse circumstances and pressures from without cause the tender shoot to wither and die?

This crucial time BETWEEN the "seasons of refreshing" will either make or break the follower of the Lord. Each refreshing begins with the Spirit of God sovereignly moving over the heads of men. God has never asked for either the approval or cooperation of any chief priest, scribe, rabbi, bishop, pope, or preacher when He is ready to visit His people in power. Suddenly, without warning, He thrusts forth upon the scene the thundering voice of a John the Baptist or a Luther; brings to the stage of action a Knox, a Wesley, a Whitefield; or showers from some bright cloud refreshing rain-drops of His life and gifts, unfolding the beautiful blossoms and exquisite flowers of glowing faces, transformed lives, burning, spontaneous testimonies, weeping, repenting sinners, mighty blessings and powerful baptisms of grace and glory. The leaders, superintendents and bishops of the time-honored religious systems beat on their desks, rant and rave, denounce it as heresy, attribute it to the devil, label it wild-fire, and declare that it will not last. And, of course, it doesn't last! In due time the fiery cloud of glory passes, the invigorating showers dissipate, the revival meetings deteriorate into monotonous form and empty tradition, men carry on, programs are instituted to fill up the void, the people get involved in round after round of religious works, and soon the self-seeking ministers are busily engaged in sprinkling rose water over decadent congregations of sleepy souls. The glories of yesteryear are but dim memories faded into insignificance. The former glory and power once so freely manifest has vanished. YET IT HAS PLEASED THE LORD TO TAKE IT AWAY.

Every time God brings a fresh revelation and new experience to His people many of them are prone to say, "This is IT! This is the ultimate truth and crowning glory of God! This is what it is going to be!" At the beginning of this century when God brought the baptism in the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, many of those people believed that such was the last great move of God. They had come out of Holiness and Evangelical churches and the Lord led them into a new experience. Very quickly they settled down in it. For fifty years they organized and systematized it and Pentecost became one of the more respected denominations among the church systems.

In 1948 God moved again with power and great glory. It was called "Latter Rain." Rain, whether it be the former or latter, or showers between, is the Lord coming to His people. When this move began, again we found many people believing that was it, this was God's greatest and final move, and thousands have settled for the blessings and manifestations which characterized that move of the Spirit as being permanent and already the clammy arms of the denominational octopus have crushed its vitality and sucked the life blood from it.

So God moves on. God brought Luther out from the Roman Catholic denomination, but God did not desire to stop there. The Holy Spirit drew the Wesleys out of the Church of England, but again He did not stop there. The Lord surely moved in the beginning of the Pentecostal movement, but He did not stop there. Latter Rain was unquestionably a shower of great refreshing and quickening power, but God did not stop there, and He is not stopping with any of the present day movings, manifestations or dealings of His Spirit. His pathway is ever onward and upward, FROM glory TO glory. What anticipation this stirs in our hearts! The fact is - there will never be any stopping with God for He ever moves ahead, and "Of the increase of His government and peace THERE SHALL BE NO END" (Isa. 9:7).

The present emphasis of the Holy Spirit is upon the imminent manifestation of the sons of God. We are privileged to be living in blessed days of preparation for this grandest of all events, days fraught with holy and solemn responsibility for God's elect. But I would be remiss if I did not acquaint the saints with the fact that even the placing of the sons of God is not the last revelation nor the final act in God's great drama of the ages. It is easy for the apprehended ones to settle down in the beautiful hope of sonship to God. But God will move on, beloved, making sonship, too, but a stepping-stone to realms higher and grander, for, as sonship is not the ultimate reality or position in the natural life, neither is it in the spiritual life. We praise God for the call to sonship, and we cannot by-pass the present processings nor the glory yet to be revealed, for it remains to be accomplished in the age and ages to come. I have nothing in common with those who presume that they have already graduated from sonship into the Fatherhood realm or some other highly exalted sphere, when the simple truth is that the nature, power and glory of MANIFESTED SONSHIP have never yet been fulfilled in their lives. Yet, deep within my ransomed being lies the sacred knowledge that even this marvelous reality of sonship, glorious and far-reaching as it is, IS NOT THE ULTIMATE IN GOD.

At this point I wish to share a beautiful admonition from the pen of George Warnock of Canada. "'As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven..' It is not just another rain, another revival, history repeating itself. Every time it rains there is a new measure of fullness wrought in the earth. It rains, and the seed that has been planted begins to sprout and break forth under the soil. It might not even be visible. Silently does the Spirit of God come into the life and such a one is 'born again' by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. But it is really just the sprouting of the seed. It is a rebirth in the inner man. It is God becoming involved in the life of the individual, that before the entrance of the Word was nothing more than earth... dark, barren, fruitless. Again it rains. Now there is a springing forth of leaves, of twigs, of branches. There is a continual unfolding. One says, 'Strange, I never saw that in the Word before.' It was there, and you read it perhaps hundreds of times, but you never saw it. Why? Because you were but a sprouting seed hidden away in darkness...or a blade ... just beginning to come forth into the light. You have been growing in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Now you are able to see what was inherent in the seed, but was never revealed. It was in the Word, but hidden away in the letter, in the shell. It rains, and rains again. The process continues to go on. 'All the rivers run into the sea, yet is the sea not full...' Because through the process of nature the sea yields its moisture back to the air, and the winds carry it across the land. The rivers are replenished, the clouds pour the water back to the earth again. The day of harvest approaches. Things begin to change once more. No sooner do we get accustomed to new revelation and settle back in satisfaction and delight of our new found joy, than God comes forth again... and there is dismay. It seemed that we were on the verge of having arrived at our true destiny. Our plant begins to take on a new measure of beauty and glory. There is liberty in the Spirit. The flowers of grace appear. There is a beauty and a glory in the life of the individual or in the assembly, such as our hearts had longed for. But it rains again, and those beautiful flowers disintegrate and fade from the vine. Soon they are trampled in the mud beneath. The once beautiful orchard becomes a picture of desolation. We had looked for much. There is nothing more beautiful than a blossoming orchard in the days of spring. But strangely enough the fruit-grower is not concerned about the fading of the flowers. In fact, he is happy! He must have the rain in due season; but in the time of harvest it is no longer necessary; because he is looking, not for rain, but for the FRUIT of the earth" -end quote.

Now, if our heavenly Father withholds the rain from our land, and leads us into a period of dryness and dearth - the wilderness experience - what is His purpose? Certainly the Holy Spirit never intended that His people should return to Egypt again. Does He want us to build a memorial on the well-watered spot where He rained glory upon us, or try to call back the same manifestation of His presence again? No! A thousand times no! We must walk in the constant assurance that never, NEVER, N-E-V-E-R does the Holy Spirit bring back the same cloud or shower, nor does He perpetuate or immortalize a prior state of development in Him. He intends to lead us on to where rivers of living water flow from out of our hearts. Many thousands of weary folk in old Samaria had slaked their thirst at Jacob's well before the day that Jesus came and asked drink of a woman who had nothing more than questions and arguments to offer Him, but to her the Saviour said, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall THIRST AGAIN: (yes, and we may add again and yet again) but whoso drinketh of the water that I shall give him... it shall be IN HIM a well of water SPRINGING UP into EVERLASTING LIFE" (Jn. 4:13-14).

The living water Jesus would have us discover lies beyond the FALLING RAIN, it is that water which has soaked so far down into our earth that it becomes IN US AN ARTESIAN WELL OF WATER SPRINGING UP INTO EVERLASTING LIFE. The truth is that as long as we live only by the rain from without, we shall finally die. Our roots must go down deep - the deposit of life within must become a deep INNER WELL of abundant and unceasing supply and whoso continually drinketh of this continual inner supply of His life SHALL NEVER DIE.

The Lord is speaking to our hearts about a life that will demonstrate itself in the cluster upon the vine. We can be a garden filled with all the fullness of God. We can be a vineyard filled with the life of Christ. God is changing a desert into a garden. The desert is to bloom as the prophet proclaimed, "And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing" (Isa. 35:1-2). If the expression of the Holy Spirit through the body of Christ, the manifestation of His glory and the going forth of His Word and of His mighty deliverance will result in the desert being filled with singing and rejoicing, with praise and with gladness, then our hearts, the hearts of God's children, must first be filled with joy and gladness, our mouths must speak forth and sing forth the praises of the Lord, our spirits must be filled with rejoicing. The rivers of living water that must flow out of the sons of God must first fall as rain into us and bring times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.

As heaven's deluge becomes channeled in the river-bed of our earth and these rivers of living water flow out, "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad." Evenas Aaron's rod budded and blossomed and brought forth almonds, so there should be a blossoming and a bringing forth of an abundance of the fruit of the Spirit. The Word tells us that the tree of life brings forth its fruit in its season every month, twelve manner of fruit. There should be a drawing on the river of the water of life, because the leaves of the tree must not wither: they are for the healing of the nations!

"The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God" (Isa. 35:2). We must first see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ shining in our hearts and then it will be radiating forth, so that all those about will see emanating from the inner life of God's people the radiance and the joy, the triumph and the victory of the Lord. "THEY SHALL SEE THE GLORY OF THE LORD." The glory of the Lord as it was on the countenance of Moses, as it radiated forth from the whole being of Jesus Christ, as it shone in the face of Stephen. And the glory of the latter house must be greater than the former! There must be a sense that the glory of the Lord is filling His temple. The glory of the Lord so filling the temple that the priests will not be able to stand and minister. That men will fall down in prostration before the very presence of the glory of God, because it is from underneath the threshold of the house that the living waters flow out, from the deepest dimensions of our lives. Out from that low place and out of the temple and the tabernacle of our God there will be that expression and that shining forth of the brightness of the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God. The beautiful expression of His life, the marvelous operation of His work, the authority and glory of His power, THE EXCELLENCY OF OUR GOD!

Forty years ago God brought the revelation that He would come unto us as the rain and we preached rain, rain, rain in the time of latter rain. We preached latter rain, former rain, and both rains at the same time. We found it in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah, Joel, Zechariah, Matthew, James and Revelation, to mention a few. The Spirit rain was falling, and we were getting some of those deluges from heaven. Today, God is saying, "It is time to go a little farther." The rain has come and the ground is wet. The rain refreshed as it fell but it did not make a flower grow so long as it was just falling on the leaves and on the ground. It had to go into the ground and be picked up by the roots and be transformed into an expression of life. SO TODAY THE RAIN HAS TURNED TO LIFE. We preached rain until the rain came. And it still comes to many. And it will surely come to us again on a higher plane. But now we must experience life and proclaim life. I am telling you that there is a place in God where you do not have to look to heaven for the rain, for in this season you must draw the life from deep within. Therefore THE RAIN MESSAGE IS CHANGED TO THE LIFE MESSAGE. We praise God for the rain, but we rejoice even more in that inner fountain of the water of life which is the result of the rain!

May we not in these moments before the manifestation of God's sons come unto Him and drink, that from the innermost being of him who drinks may flow "rivers of living water?" This, beloved, is what God is establishing in the end of this age, which is today. When the rain stops falling we will do one of two things. Either we will return to Egypt, or we will discover that within the Rock in the very midst of us THERE IS A FULL AND ABUNDANT SUPPLY!

Next to Part 21

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