Devotions

The planting and harvest seasons in ancient Israel were different than what we might expect in the West. The first rains that softened the ground lasted from October through December, just before the planting season. The last rains ripened the harvest between March and April, just prior to reaping. The prophet Zechariah used the rains as a metaphor for God’s intentions for Israel.

“It shall be in that day that…I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:9-10, NKJV).

Here we see Zechariah foretelling an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days. A similar deluge is described in Joel 2, which I believe to be Pentecost. “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out my Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28-29).

This is exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost! The Holy Spirit poured like a flood into the Upper Room in Jerusalem, and it has steadily continued throughout the centuries. God’s people have been daily refreshed by it for nearly 2,000 years. Isaiah refers to it as “a vineyard of red wine! I, the Lord, keep it, I water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I keep it night and day” (Isaiah 27:2-3).

The two outpourings in Zechariah and Joel are the first (former) and last (latter) rains: “And it shall be that if you diligently obey my commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil” (Deuteronomy 11:13-14).

The Spirit’s work is always focused on the harvest of precious souls. Down through the generations, God’s desire is to redeem us back to him, as many as will come.

You know when you get on a plane and the flight attendant begins giving instructions in the event of a crash? What do they say to parents of young children? That’s right. “If there is a change in cabin pressure and the oxygen mask falls, put your own mask on first.” As selfish as it sounds, it has to be done in that order. Lives may depend upon it.

Or picture this: You see a burning building surrounded by firefighters who are unrolling hoses and positioning ladders. Suddenly, you see one of them climb a ladder toward the blazing upper floor, but he has no gear on, no boots, no mask, no coat. His colleagues on the ground are frantically calling to him to come back down and suit up before going in.

What firefighter would do this? None that I know of. Without his gear, a firefighter and the desperate people in the burning building are both doomed.

Believe it or not, we often fall into this dangerous behavior, just in a different way. We attempt to take care of people when we are poorly equipped to do so. I’ve done it myself, with predictable results. Why do we live as if becoming a parent, church leader or caregiver automatically comes with superpowers?

I spoke recently with the directors of a ministry called Father’s Love. They work with at-risk kids from difficult circumstances whose spiritual and emotional oxygen levels are perilously low. The long road to a healthy adulthood stretches ahead, and it is up to their caregivers to ensure they are well nourished. In order to achieve that, they say, the caregivers themselves must be in good shape.

This can’t be emphasized enough, especially to those who are responsible for the well-being of a young person. An overworked, stressed-out parent must stop and take time, even if it is in small increments, for their own care. You can’t take the child in your care any further than you are.

Are you feeling sluggish in mind, body and spirit? “Come to me,” says the Lord. Make it your number one priority today to spend time alone with him. Ask him to show you the way back to strength and restoration. Read Psalm 23 out loud. “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:2-3, ESV). Then read it to your children.

So many believers long for revival and talk about how much we need it in this modern day. The problem is that, a lot of times, we don’t include all of the parts that are necessary for revival. Let’s look at one particular verse in the Old Testament that my friend Gary Wilkerson pointed out to me recently; it really lays out three of the important elements we need to spark revival. 

“Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:28-29, ESV).

This verse might seem a little strange at first, but bear with me. You've got the wheat, the hammer and the fire. Most of us probably like the sound of the wheat; that’s a good image generally. It implies that we’re going to eat bread, and everybody likes a good loaf of fresh-baked bread. We want to have a fulfilling spiritual life like wheat rather than straw. The fire is a little more edgy, but we all should want to have a fiery passion for God’s commands, right? The hammer of God’s Word is harder to find appealing. It represents a call to repentance, a firm order to turn from the ways of the world, a blow that breaks sin and reforms. We might want that for other people, but it’s not easy to want that hammer for ourselves. 

A lot of times, believers focus on one of these three aspects of God’s call, but none of them work well alone. They’re meant to flow together. When we speak God’s Word, it’s feeding our souls. That feeding brings a fire for the things of God. At that point, the reforming, transforming hammer is natural rather than judgmental. Without the wheat and the fire, the hammer just destroys. For a believer full of scripture and ignited by the Spirit, the hammer is a normal part of spiritual growth.  

Only then will we be able to call for repentance in a way that is heartfelt rather than judgmental because we’re also inviting people to come inside and be fed and illuminated with godly passion.  

^{John Bailey is the Vice President of World Challenge Inc. and the Founding Pastor of The Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida. John has been serving the Lord in pastoral ministry for 35 years, ministering the gospel in over 50 nations, particularly as a pastor and evangelist in Cork, Ireland.}

Because of the sins of the priesthood and the people, God wasn’t speaking to Israel. Scripture says, “And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation” (1 Samuel 3:1, NKJV). In the middle of this famine of the Word, though, the Lord appeared to the young Samuel: “The Lord called Samuel [who] did not yet know the Lord, nor was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him” (1 Samuel 3:4, 7).

Samuel was only twelve years old, but he didn’t yet recognize the voice of the Lord. So God came to his bedside and spoke his name out loud. Samuel first thought Eli was speaking; he didn’t know he was being trained to discern voices, to hear directly from God!

God wasn’t speaking to Eli the priest who had grown deaf to his voice. In fact, it seems that only one prophet was hearing from God: the unnamed man who warned Eli that God was about to cut him off (see 1 Samuel 2:27-36).

Hearing from God takes more than quiet time alone, more than simply saying, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears!” No, there is no formula for hearing God. Put simply, he speaks to those who have prepared their hearts to hear.

Samuel had no deep theological knowledge of God when the Lord first spoke to him, but he had a tender, pure, devoted heart that was open to the Lord. So what do you think was the first thing God taught him? He said, “I’m going to judge Eli because he knew his sons were wicked, but did nothing to restrain them. They should have been stripped of their robes and told, ‘You can’t go near the holy place.’ Therefore, Samuel, I‘m going to show you my hatred for sin in my house. I want to you to know what it takes to hear my voice and walk with me” (see 1 Samuel 3:11-14).

It's no wonder the Bible says Samuel spoke such sure words. He had heard the voice of the Lord! He spent much time shut in with God, praying and seeking him, and God spoke clearly to him each time.

There are people around the world who have been trained to know God’s voice. These praying saints pour out their hearts to him, and he pours himself out to them.

The prophet Samuel is a type of today’s holy generation, a prepared body of believers who rise out of the ruins of the old, decadent church.

Hannah, Samuel’s mother, birthed her son through bitter tears and much prayer. “And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish” (1 Samuel 1:10, NKJV).

Here’s the scene: Hannah was at the temple every day, on her knees before the altar, crushed and broken because she was childless. As she wept, her enemy—her husband’s other wife—made fun of her. “And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb” (1 Samuel 1:6). There are three important things to note in this passage.
•      The generation that Samuel represents is born in grief and intercession.
•      Those who pray will be provoked by adversaries.
•      God will always be misunderstood.

Notice what Hanna did. “And it happened, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her, ‘How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!’” (1 Samuel 1:12-14). Eli and his sons represent the dying, corrupt church that has forsaken the Lord’s way. Eli was so dead in his spirit that he thought Hannah was drunk.

Hannah was filled with grief and desire for a son, and all she could do was move her lips and groan in the Spirit. She prayed, “If you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me, and . . . will give your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life” (1 Samuel 1:11).

Here are two distinguishing marks of this holy generation: They pray with passion, and they give themselves to prayer every single day. Like Hannah, they make it their priority to seek God’s face.

God wants you to be able to touch and hear from him as Hannah did. He wants to give you a ministry to others who will come to you with their burdens and trials. As you pray, his Word will come forth!