Up Goes The Moisture, Down Comes The Rain

UP GOES THE MOISTURE, DOWN COMES THE RAIN

Job 36:27-28; 1 Kgs. 18:43-44

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: WHOPPER OF A LIE

1. A young boy came home from his first day of school and confessed to his father that he told a lie. The father asked why he did it.

2. The boy said, "Well, dad, when they asked me where I was born it seemed so sissy to say “The Woman's Hospital,” so I said the “Yankee Stadium."

B. TEXT

“For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man” Job 36:27-28, NKJV. “Seven times Elijah said, ‘Go back.’ The seventh time the servant reported, ‘A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea’” 1 Kgs. 18:43-44

C. THESIS

1. We’re going to see that the laws that govern rain are very similar to the laws that govern revival. For it to rain there has to be evaporation, condensation, and then precipitation.

2. Since this is so, we may be confident that if we fulfill the conditions of revival, God will give the same results as He did for our spiritual fathers in scripture.

3. The title of this message is “Up Goes the Moisture, Down Comes the Rain!”

I. SIMILARITIES: WATER & HOLY SPIRIT

A. PROPERTIES OF WATER

1. ITS USES: water quenches thirst, sustains life, purifies & cleanses, moves things, and generates power.

2. ITS FORMS: water exists as a vapor, as droplets, as a liquid, & as ice. Water is required for the growth and fruitfulness of all life.

3. WATER ACROSS THE WORLD, MOVES IN A CYCLE

a. The cycle begins by evaporation. Heat over the oceans causes the water to evaporate. The more water evaporates, the higher the humidity; the higher the humidity, the more likelihood of rain.

b. The next cycle is condensation. This is when the water in the air gets more and more concentrated until it begins to form droplets. Massive clouds form and begin moving out over the land.

c. The third part of the cycle is rain. When humidity reaches a set point it will rain. Also, contact with strong winds, temperature changes, or electrical storms, can jar the droplets into forming large drops which fall to the earth. The water goes into rivers and then back into the sea.

B. SIMILARITIES: PHYSICAL & SPIRITUAL RAIN

1. DROUGHT – is a picture of spiritual barrenness or judgment on sin.

2. RAIN is paralleled by revival or the Holy Spirit outpourings (Elijah prayed & it didn’t rain, then did). The Bible speaks of “former & latter rains” equivalent to spiritual outpourings.

3. My West Texas Experience. Out there the air near the surface gets so dry that I’ve seen large clouds come over and watched the rain fall, but it never reached the ground. So the humidity near the ground has to increase in order for the rain to reach the ground! So rain is not just conditional on heavenly conditions, but on earthly ones too!

II. IMPLICATIONS FOR REVIVAL

A. APPLICATION TO PRAYER

1. So in the physical, there must be moisture present and rising, in order for the forming droplets to fall and reach the ground. The moisture must not only be forming above, but must be forming below too!

2. The principle is: “Up goes the moisture, down comes the rain.” It’s true in the spiritual. Prayer is what needs to go up, for the Holy Spirit to come down.

3. The “heat” of our prayers will cause evaporation, sending our spirit’s desire heavenward to God. Send up praise, send up worship, send up thankfulness!

4. God says, “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for [it is] time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you” Hosea 10:12.

5. So revival must be SOWN in prayer and praise before it’s reaped in outpourings of the Holy Spirit.

B. THE CONDENSING OF PRAYERS & PRAISES

1. Condensation is that mysterious process whereby God collects water until the cloud is full. It is similar to the formation of the shekinah presence of God.

2. In Ex. 40:34, God’s presence formed a cloud in response to Moses’ OBEDIENCE in setting up the tent & priesthood.

3. In 2 Chron. 5:12-14 the Presence appeared in answer to obedience, sacrifices, and praises of the people. 12 All the Levites...were...playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets 13...in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord....the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang: “He is good; his love endures forever.” Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud, 14 and the priests could not perform their service...for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.”