Pray for the Latter Rain

“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.” (Zec 10:1 AV)

In Palestine, the rains are cyclical.  They are seasonal.  The early rain comes in our autumn time while their later rains come in April.  The former rains saturate the soil in time for planting and early growth.  The later rains saturate the soil so the fruit may increase their volume just prior to harvest.  If there is no later rain, the harvest will be, as Joseph put it, blasted with the east wind.  It will exist.  But it will be shriveled and dry.  This challenge is a metaphor.  A metaphor for prayer that God’s blessing would come after a dry growing season that the fruit would swell in abundance prior to harvest.  For Israel, it meant a prayer for God’s blessing prior to the coming of the Messiah so the nation will be prepared for Jesus when he came the first.  For the N.T. saint, it has a slightly different application.

There are times in life when we go through some dry times.  The hard growing amid affliction is the goal.  We bear under the heat of trials of faith, times of testing, periods of correction.  We are dried up by the deep growth that takes place in our souls.  It seems like a time of fruitlessness.  But in reality, it is the greatest of all growth.  It is the time of the greatest maturity.  There comes a time, though, that all that growth must result in fruit.  It is at those times when it would be advisable to pray for the later rain.   It would be a grand idea to ask for God’s great time of refreshing so that we can see genuine and copious amounts of fruit gained for the hard time of growth.

We can learn our lessons which the LORD sends our way.  But, if they do not result in fruit, they are merely academic.  There are times when we are dried up.  Dried up from hard work and toil.  Dried up from the devil’s blast.  Dried of from the old man’s fussing.  Dried up from one too many assaults from the world.  Dried up from learn the hard way that God’s way is the best way.  When we are all dried up, it is time to pray for the later rain!  Time to see what God can and has produced by the experience of our lives.