Ask Ye of the Lord Rain...

This is That…

“But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh” Acts 2:16-17

Notice that it says “shall come to pass”. This means a definite occurrence of God’s Spirit being poured out. I believe according to Zechariah 10:1 this will happen in answer to the prayers of God’s people earnestly asking to be used as vessels from whom God will “pour out of” His Spirit.

We are the containers of His Spirit and a life of continuous close fellowship with Him will cause us to “overflow” and His Glory and Anointing will be “poured out of” our inner most beings.

Take a look at John 7:38-39:

“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive...)"

The Last Days

The last days referred to in Acts 2:16-17 may be explained as follows:

Scripture teaches us in 2 Peter 3:8, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

A thousand years is known as a millennium, and presently this world and humanity is entering into the seventh millennium since Creation. We can also say according to 2 Peter 3:8 above we are approaching the seventh day of God’s “week” which is the last day(s).

You and I are therefore living in the time of the “last days” as referred to in these verses. However, we are not yet seeing the fullness of this mighty outpouring of the Spirit as prophesied by Joel.

I agree, there are pockets all over the world where the Spirit is being poured out, but generally there is not yet an outpouring on the scale we read about in the Book of Acts.

His Glory over All the Earth

A number of verses in Scripture refer to God’s Glory covering the earth:

Psalm 72:19, "And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen."

Isaiah 6:3, "And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory."

Numbers 14:21, "But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.”

Habakkuk 2:14, "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”

There is definitely a time and season where the Glory of God will be manifested all over the earth. I believe we are now entering this time where the Glory of God will cover the whole earth.

How will this happen?

As I stated previously, you and I as His children are the containers of the Glory. We are filled with His Spirit and His Presence dwells within us. Take note of the following verses:

Romans 8:18, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

Colossians 1:27, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory"

2 Thessalonians 2:14, "Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

1 Peter 4:14, "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified."

The James Murdock translation of the New Testament renders the last portion of Romans 8:18 as, “the glory which is to be developed in us”.

The 1912 Weymouth New Testament renders it as, “the glory which is soon to be manifested in us.”

It is Time to Ask!

We are at a phase in God’s dealings with mankind where we must spend more time with Him so His Glory may be developed and manifested in us. You and I have to ask Him to reveal in us anything or any sin which may be a hindrance to the manifestation of His Glory in and through us.

“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” (Zechariah 10:1).

It is time to ask without giving in to the negative reports you and I hear daily from the voices of negative people, the media and religion. It is time to “...Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9).

When we ask He will give, “...how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" Matthew 7:11.

Ask According to His Will

I believe that asking in this way is in line with the will of God for Us, our Families, our Communities, our Churches and our Nation. The problem we have had is not in the asking, but asking in faith with all our hearts and beings.

“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:14-15).

"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17 Elias 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. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit" (James 5:16)

NOTE: The word fervent is Gr. energeõ - which when translated means; with energy, with passion and great burning zeal – almost with righteous anger.

May the Lord grant us to pray and hunger after Him with this kind of energy and fervour!

The Testimony of Rev. Frank Bartleman

As you may know, God used the Rev. Frank Bartleman as a powerful intercessor during the time of the Azusa Street Revival of 1906. In his book, “Another Wave of Revival – the keys to revival”, he writes the following:

“Only the man who lives in fellowship with divine reality can be used to call the people to God” (page 14).

“I found most Christians did not wait to take on a burden of prayer. It was too hard on the flesh. I was carrying the burden now in ever increasing volume, night and day. The ministry was intense. It was ‘the fellowship of His sufferings,’ a ‘travail’ of soul, with ‘groanings that could not be uttered’ (Romans 8:26-27). Most believers find it easier to criticise than to pray” (page 14-15).

“We may cut ourselves off from God by our spiritual pride, while He may cause the weakest to repent, and go through to victory. The work in our hearts must go deeper than we have ever experienced, deep enough to destroy sectarian prejudice, party spirit, etc., on all sides. God can perfect those whom He chooses… The depth of revival will be determined exactly by the depth of the spirit of repentance. And this will hold true for all people, at all times” (page 19).

“At Pastor Smale’s church one day, I was groaning in prayer at the altar. The spirit of intercession was upon me. A brother rebuked me severely. He did not understand it. The flesh naturally shrinks from such ordeals. The ‘groans’ are no more popular in most churches than is a woman in birth-pangs in the home. Soul-travail does not make pleasant company for selfish worldlings. But we cannot have souls born without it. Child bearing is anything but a popular exercise, and so with a real revival of new born souls in the churches. Modern society has little place for a childbearing mother. They prefer society ‘flappers.’ And so with the churches regarding soul-travail. There is little burden for souls. Men run from the groans of a woman in travail of birth. And so the church desires no ‘groans’ today. She is too busy enjoying herself” (page 23-24).

“I found my soul crying out for God far beyond the seeming aspirations of most of the Holiness people. I wanted to go deeper, beneath the mere emotional realm to something more substantial and lasting that would put a rock in my soul. I was tired of so much froth and foam, so much religious ranting and pretension. And the Lord did not long disappoint me” (page 25).

“Dr. Dumble wrote again, for the same paper: ‘At Pastor Bartleman’s church, meetings are held every night, all day Sundays, and all night every Friday. There is no order of services, they are expected to run in the divine order. The blessed Holy Spirit is the executive in charge. The leaders, or pastors, will be seen most of the time on their faces on the floor, or kneeling in the place where the pulpit commonly is, but there is neither pulpit, nor organ, nor choir. A young lady, for the first time in one of these meetings, came under the power of the Spirit, and lay for half an hour with beaming face lost to all about her, beholding visions unutterable. Soon she began to say, Glory! Glory to Jesus! and spoke fluently in a strange tongue. On the last Sabbath, the meeting continued from early morning to midnight. There was no preaching, but prayer, testimony, praise, and exhortation.”

We are facing a Dilemma

It is clear to me when I read these passages from Frank Bartleman’s book that I have some way to go in order to get back to the place where I am so hungry for the Lord that I will do anything to please Him and to believe Him for His Presence to manifest as described in the book.

What about you? How are you positioned with the Lord at this point in time?

You and I must make a quality decision to spend more quality time in Prayer and the Word if we want to see any outpouring of the Spirit which will remotely resemble what happened at Azusa Street and in Wales.

I have seen Glimpses of the Glory

Over the years of ministry I have had the privilege to experience a number of manifestations of the Glory of God. However, these outpourings only happened in our meetings because I had spent weeks and months in Prayer and Fellowship with the Lord.

Most days I spent five to six hours in prayer, aside from the time I would read the Word. By the time I had to preach, the Presence of the Lord was so strong in the meetings that people would be touched by the Spirit even before a note was sung or a Word was preached.

Reading the Gospels I realised that Jesus spent many hours and nights on the mountain by Himself praying to His Father. When He came down, He would meet with the multitudes, and He would heal them and set them free.

John 4:34 reads, "Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."

John 5:19, "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."

John 12:50, "And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak."

In the time Jesus spent with our Heavenly Father, He heard what He had to say to the multitudes and He saw what He had to do for them.

Looking at these simple principles we can clearly see why Jesus was so effective in His ministry and everything else He did.

Are we desperate for an Outpouring of His Spirit?

Are we really desperate? All we have to do is to draw close to Him and He will draw close to us:

Hebrews 10:22, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."

James 4:8, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded."

Let us get rid of doubt, unbelief and double-mindedness and seek Him in earnest.

Let us Pray:

Heavenly Father, I thank You for giving me Jesus. I thank You Lord Jesus for laying Your Life down for me and allowing Yourself to be sacrificed for my sins. Lord, You died for me so I don’t have to live for me but for You and the people You allow me to minister to.

Father, I confess I have not sought You will all my heart. I confess I have allowed my first love to grow cold by letting the cares of this world influence me more than Your Spirit. I confess as sin the fact that I have not been praying and spending enough time with You.

Please forgive me! I ask You to not only wash me clean with the Blood of Jesus, but also to give me a hunger and thirst for You like never before. I receive Your forgiveness now and I receive a new hunger and passion for You by faith.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen!

In His Love and Anointing

Jan van Rooyen

(By the way, click HERE to obtain a copy of Frank Bartleman’s book)

Click HERE to download this teaching as an eBook

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