clouds

“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.”

As I write the first words in this blog, God is bringing me out of a time of deep hurt and soul-searching and has promised for me healing rain in the months and years ahead. I look forward to hearing His words and as that “tender herb”, feeling the refreshing of the “small rain” that He will send. I pray that this blog will be a place where the name of the Lord is published, and where greatness is attributed only unto Him.

We began praying for healing rain a while back, after finding the Michael W. Smith’s song buried on the iPod and feeling it speak to our hearts:

Healing rain is coming down

It's coming nearer to this old town.

Rich and poor, weak and strong

It's bringing mercy, it won't be long.

Healing rain is coming down

It's coming closer to the lost and found.

Tears of joy and tears of shame

Are washed forever in Jesus' name.

Healing rain, it comes with fire

So let it fall and take us higher.

Healing rain, I'm not afraid

To be washed in Heaven's rain.

Lift your heads, let us return

To the mercy seat where time began.

And in your eyes I see the pain.

Come soak this dry heart with healing rain.

And only you, the Son of Man

Can take a leper and let him stand.

So lift your hands, they can be held

By someone greater, the Great I Am.

Healing rain, it comes with fire

So let it fall and take us higher.

Healing rain, I'm not afraid

To be washed in Heaven's rain.

To be washed in Heaven's rain.

Healing rain is falling down,

Healing rain is falling down,

I'm not afraid.

I'm not afraid.

Before I realized what was happening, God began to speak to me about water – and not just any water, but His water – the cleansing, the refreshing, the purifying water that He and He alone can produce. His first words were whispers – imperceptible at the time, but now that I’m looking for it, I can better understand some passages that I copied into my journal a while back.

He suggested to me that “the heavens shall give their dew…” in Zechariah 8, and in Zechariah 9 reminded me of His faithfulness to provide when we ask: “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.”

In a time of searching and forgiving, when I asked God how I could feed and give drink to my “enemy”, as we are instructed in Romans 12, God showed me Isaiah 44 and He told me, “Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help me; fear not, oh Jacob my servant, and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen: For I will pour water upon Him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses”.

God even spoke Matthew 8 to me: And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean.” He told me how it was that easy – how He could make me clean just by putting forth His hand!

He made it so clear, but it didn’t sink in and I didn’t begin to fully drink of the well of grace and healing He’s offering until He showed me that I was/am the Samaritan woman in St. John 4:

When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”

I love that the Samaritan woman was willing to be exposed in order to be healed. She testified that Jesus told her “all that ever she did”. She was willing to humble herself under God’s hand and receive living water. I felt Jesus calling me to do the same; reminding me that only under those same conditions can I receive the cleansing that I so desperately need and desire.

A few days later, a dear sister presented a Bible study on characteristics of water, and how it relates to our spiritual lives, and I was astounded that God would do that just for me. She showed us a tea cup, turned upside down. “Can it be used like this?”, she asked us. Of course not – there was darkness inside, it was upside down, so nothing could fill it up. And who knows – it could have been dirty. She turned it over to show us that indeed, it was dirty. We are that tea cup – a vessel rendered useless by filth and dirt, and certainly not in any condition to be filled up and poured out for Christ when we’re turned upside down. We have to allow Jesus to turn us right side up, and to use water and a red rag (His blood) to clean us from the inside out so that we can be useful for Him. She reminded us that it is good when God finds us weak, cast away, and disabled, because He can work with us so much better that way. If He has to take us by force, it hurts. I can testify that in my own life, He has had to take me by force far too many times than I’d like to admit.

Together, we read a progression of verses that gave me great comfort:

Psalm 119:9: “Wherewithall shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.”

Revelation 22:17: “And the Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’, and let him that heareth say, ‘Come’. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

Psalm 51:2 “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin”

Acts 9:15: “But the Lord said unto him, go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and Kings, and the children of Israel”

Psalm 81:10: “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

And so, I’m opening my mouth wide, and trusting God to fill it. Like David in Psalm 42, “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God”. As God pours water in, I’ll document it here – to remember His incredible faithfulness, and to share it for His glory.