"He Shall Come…As Showers That Water The Earth"
By W. C. Moore
When Jesus came to the earth the first time, frightful conditions prevailed. But He came according to the promises of God.
In Scripture we read, "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready" (Rev 19:7). According to the promises of God, Jesus, the Heavenly Bridegroom will come again and He will have a bride – a Blood-washed company of believers who have made themselves ready "with the washing of water by the Word" (Eph. 5:26).
God gives the Word and we make ourselves ready by obeying His Word, certainly not by dodging His Word or by excusing ourselves in a condition of unreadiness or by explaining away His Word or by ignoring what He tells us to do.
"When He shall appear, we shall be like Him…And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure" (1 John 3:2-3).
Are we like Jesus now? Let us honestly look at the condition of our hearts and seek the Lord while He may be found. Do we act like Jesus? Is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost so that we do actually and habitually love one another with a pure heart fervently? (1 Pet. 1:22).
If that real, genuine love of God is lacking, we are not ready to meet Him who loved sinners and died for them, Him who in the agony of Calvary prayed for, not against, but for the very ones who crucified Him, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:24).
Hungry Hearts
On every hand God's children are crying to Him for revival. "Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?" (Psa. 85:6). God is not unmindful of their cries by any means. "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers" (1 Pet. 3:12). "And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily" (Luke 18:7-8).
The longer the delay, the greater the "prayer pressure," and consequently the greater the outpouring of the Holy Spirit when God does answer.
"Mown Grass"
"He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth" (Psa. 72:6). Many of God's people are being purged, made white and tried, mown down as it were, in preparation, and oh, let us say "in anticipation" of the fullness of the rain – the mighty prophetically foretold outpouring of the Holy Spirit for the last days, which will come in God's harvest season to ripen His grain, that He may gather His wheat into His garner – His redeemed into His heaven. The days are upon us now! Are you ready for His rain? Are you mown down and prepared to receive the mighty outpouring that is for the "thirsty?"
"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…I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh" (Joel 2:23, 28).
Pray On – Press On!
Soldiers of Jesus Christ, the very fact that the battle is hard should encourage you, for if the enemy, the devil, did not know that great victories are in sight, he would not oppose so furiously. So press on, always pray, never faint (Luke 18:1; 21:34, 36). And at any cost, at all costs, be ready!
Thank God for a real "thirst" for God. "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink" Jesus says (John 7:37). God is faithful. "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you" (Jas. 4:8). All hell can't keep God from drawing nigh to you, my sorely tried friend. Many of us are being tried today, as by fire. Thank God for it! "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent" (Rev. 3:19).
"Hold…fast" (Rev.3:11). God wants a tried and true people, and He will have them! Let us set our faces like a flint and go through with God, trusting Him, praising and thanking Him even when we do not understand, and when we can hardly do so much as even think, we are so tested.
He knows, He understands. "He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).
"The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come…saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness" (Mal. 3:1-3).
Are you not willing to suffer, to be misunderstood by your best friends, to die out to self and selfishness, to have the old carnal mind, which is enmity against God (Rom. 8:7), crucified – that Christ may be all, and in all (Col. 3:11)? Hallelujah!