The Pursuit
Zechariah 10:1 (NKJV) "Ask the LORD for rain in the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone.
In our times and culture, we see prayer as a "court of last resort", as in "throw up a hail Mary", which is even in our sports vocabulary. It speaks of a desperate chance, a "shot in the dark."
Would it surprise you that God doesn't operate from our street level theology, but from a more prosperous, righteous and true point?
Take the verse above.
Israel, in all her stupidity and hubris, forsook the God of all and followed storm deities, who they thought could solve all their problems. They were so stupid in this, that even after defeating a nation and its gods, they adopted those gods as their own! The height of thickness!
God is speaking through the prophet Zechariah and telling them that He was the source of everything they needed. He wanted them to retrain their hearts so much that He told them to pray to Him for rain even in the season when that was supposed to happen.
But it is even more than that, He asked them to pray for the rain in this season to usher in what had already started in the former season.
There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer. - J. Edwin Orr
A Season of Renewal to Revival
Earlier in this year, God began to stir us in renewal. Renewal is like the early planting and rainy season. It refreshes the people of God who have grown weary in waiting and the "ponerous" (Greek for the evil that grinds you down) of life. God refreshes the heart. His face seems nearer than ever (our perspective, not His). We volunteer freely in the day of His power. (Psalm 110:3) But, we know there is more, and so does God.
Renewal should lead to revival, that is the refreshing of God's people should begin to affect people coming to Christ and the life and impact of the church in the community. You should be ablaze to ignite others!
Have you lost vision in the mundane of life? Are you feeling listless in the midst of your days? Your answer to that isn't more and newer stuff, it is Him. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matthew 6:33. Many of us have sought to multiply the things that are to be added and we end up dividing our lives and subtracting the heart of it.
How do we seek Him?
The quote by J. Edwin Orr is never truer than in our moment, "There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer." We must "ask for rain in the day of latter rain". God has begun this and is calling us to cooperate with Him in seeing it come to its natural fulness by asking Him to do that very thing.
Galatians 6:9 (ESV)
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Now is the time to press forward, to go for what God has for us. It is a season of endurance. It is a season of faithfulness in the pursuit. It is a season of focused living towards Him. This is part of the reason He has asked us to take communion more often than once a month. It is to focus on Him and His life in us.
Make the prayer for revival your daily, even hourly prayer. It is asking for rain in the season of rain, but it refocuses us on our Source - "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things." Romans 11:36a
Let's move together into this next section of our course and run the race with diligence, let's pursue the goal of the prize of the high calling of God in our lives!
