The Latter Rain

by Thurman C. Petty, Jr.

I’ve often heard Christians talk about the Latter Rain—when the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon God’s people, and they will be able to reach the world like they’ve never been able to do before. No doubt the Latter Rain will be a fantastic time for God’s people—and those who accept their message.

But we have the warning too, that the latter rain can be falling all around us and we don’t realize it. This could happen in just the same way as when the Pharisees and Sadducees asked Jesus for a sign that He was really the Messiah. And they asked this question so often just following or during a time when Jesus was in the midst of healing people of all kinds of illnesses. The Holy Spirit was falling upon the people in a way that had not happened before, and these leaders either didn’t see it, or refused to accept it.

There are four things that I see involved in the Latter Rain:

1. Those who receive the latter rain will be filled with the Holy Spirit some time before the rain begins. I realize that there will be those who will have only recently been converted and will receive the Spirit at the last moment. But the Christian who looks for the Master’s coming will have already received the Spirit, and will be surrendered to him.

2. When can a person becomes filled with the Holy Spirit—NOW! In order to have the Spirit the Christian needs to have a basic understanding of their relationship with God.

A. God owns everything:

            Psalm 50:9-12  I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

Everything that we have—our houses and lands, our gardens, our furniture, our precious possessions, the objects that we use for our personal hygiene, our clothes . . . even our bodies—belongs to God. In fact, the only thing that God doesn’t own is the will—our power to choose the good from the evil. And God wants to own our wills too.

B. The relationship God wants to have with us is one in which we have allowed Him to have control of the will. We decide to give our will to God, to surrender our use of all the things that God has put within our hands, to surrender our body and mind and soul to God, to do whatever He should ask us to do.

That does not mean that we cease using the things that God has placed within our hands. Of course we should continue making use of them, and taking care of them. But we use them with the knowledge that they belong to God, and we ask Him about the way we should use them.

3.  Total surrender is absolutely necessary in order for us to receive the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t want just part of us: He wants it all—all or nothing.

It’s like as though I decided to give you my cat, but I decide I’d like to keep its head. Such a beautiful face! I don’t want to part with that.

Would you be interested in accepting a cat without it’s head? I don’t think so.

And the same thing is true when we come to God. We must give Him everything—including the will—or He’s not interested in anything.

And the most valuable part of our lives—remember, God owns everything else—is the will. And the only way that God will accept us is if we place the will at His absolute disposal.

We have the most beautiful call in all the Bible in Rev. 3:20, 21:

            Rev 3:20, 21  Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Overcome? Overcome what? Overcome in the struggle to surrender the heart and will to God. This is the only way to receive full acceptance with God and to have the Holy spirit come into our lives.

Surrender of the will is the crux of the Covenant that God makes with us. And the only ones who will receive the latter rain are those who have already surrendered the will to Christ. God won’t give His precious Spirit to us if He can’t depend on us to decide to follow Him faithfully in all that we do.

So give all of yourself to God—including your power of choice. Let Him have your will, and when the Holy Spirit comes upon the earth in the Latter Rain, you won’t be left out, because the Spirit already has you, and you’ll rejoice in the vast amount of work He will accomplish through you.