Latter Rain & The Harvest

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.