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The Early and the Latter Rain, July 30
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God:
for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to
come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in
the first month.
Joel 2:23
.
There is to be in the churches a wonderful manifestation of the power
of God, but it will not move upon those who have not humbled themselves
before the Lord, and opened the door of their heart by confession and
repentance. In the manifestation of that power which lightens the earth with
the glory of God, they will see only something which in their blindness
they think dangerous, something which will arouse their fears, and they will
brace themselves to resist it. Because the Lord does not work according to
their expectations and ideal, they will oppose the work. “Why,” they say,
“should we not know the Spirit of God, when we have been in the work so
many years?” Because they did not respond to the warnings, the entreaties,
of the messages of God, but persistently said, “I am rich, and increased with
goods, and have need of nothing.”
Talent, long experience, will not make men channels of light unless they
place themselves under the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and
are called, and chosen, and prepared by the endowment of the Holy Spirit.
When men who handle sacred things will humble themselves under the
mighty hand of God, the Lord will lift them up. He will make them men of
discernment—men rich in the grace of His Spirit. Their strong, selfish traits
of character and their stubbornness will be seen in the light shining from
the Light of the world. “I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy
candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” If you seek the Lord with
all your heart, He will be found of you.
There must be no neglect of the grace represented by the former rain.
Only those who are living up to the light they have will receive greater light.
Unless we are daily advancing in the exemplification of the active Christian
virtues, we shall not recognize the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the
latter rain. It may be falling on hearts all around us, but we shall not discern
or receive it.
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