The Holy Spirit as Former and Latter Rain

Copyright © 2004, 2025¹

by
Percy Gutteridge

“…He will cause to come down for you the rain,
the former rain and the latter rain…” — Joel 2:23²

We want to consider the great subject of the Holy Spirit as early and latter rain, with a special reference to the latter rain.

“He has given you the former rain faithfully,”

that is, in due season,

“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).

The passage in Joel expands on this topic:

²³“Be glad then, you children of Zion,
And rejoice in the Lord your God;
For He has given you the former rain faithfully,
And He will cause the rain to come down for you—
The former rain,
And the latter rain in the first month.
²⁴“The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,
And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
²⁵“So I will restore to you the years
that the swarming locust has eaten,
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.
²⁶“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
And praise the name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And My people shall never be put to shame.
²⁷“Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel:
I am the Lord your God
And there is no other.
My people shall never be put to shame.”
– Joel 2:23-27 –

Now let’s look at a further reference from the Epistle of James. James is speaking about patience, and farming, and he says:

Watching for Antichrist
or Being Like Christ?

There are many different opinions about revival. There are those who actually preach that there can be no revival before Jesus comes. They say that conditions are such that no revival can happen. They are so certain that they have the right interpretation of prophecy because they have worked it out very cleverly. They say that what we should be looking for now is the antichrist and not revival.

The only scriptures that I know on the subject keep us looking for Jesus. I strongly deprecate the sort of prophecy-mongering that keeps our eyes constantly looking for an antichrist. And I especially deprecate the fixing of an antichrist, such as has been done in my short time on earth.

There were those in America who were “absolutely certain” that Henry Kissinger was to be the antichrist. Poor man, he had enough worries on his mind as it was.³ And others, of course, were   “quite certain” that John Kennedy was the antichrist. There was quite a large book written declaring that Don Juan Carlos, who has mounted the throne of Spain, will be the antichrist.

And in my time,⁴ of course, it was “quite clear” that Hitler was the antichrist. In fact you worked that out like you worked out the name Kissinger.⁵ If you know how to manipulate Kissinger’s name, it comes quite clearly to 6-6-6. And if you knew how to do it with the name Hitler (I’ve done it myself), it comes to 6-6-6. To others, however, it was “perfectly clear” that the antichrist was Mussolini, because he was raising up the old Roman Empire. And before him, it was Prince Louis Napoleon. (My father had a book on the subject.) And before then, of course, it was Napoleon Bonaparte. “Quite clearly” he was making the old Roman Empire come back again, that is, the Holy Roman Empire, in Europe. So that’s how we go on and on and on.

The subtle design of Satan in all this is to get people far more concerned about prophecy than about being like Jesus. Now the Holy Ghost doesn’t draw us to the contemplation of prophecy. I’ll say it again: The Holy Ghost does not draw us to the contemplation of prophecy to fill our heads with knowledge of how all these things are going to be worked out. The Holy Spirit draws us to the contemplation of prophecy only to remind us that of the day and the hour of the Lord’s coming, none of us know, so we had better be ready when He does come. What the Holy Spirit does impress upon us concerning prophecy is that we should be ready! “Watch therefore!”⁶

The three last parables of Jesus before He went to the cross were on this very subject:

The first parable, the one about the ten virgins, is given so that we should be watchful. “Watch, therefore, for ye know not the hour nor the day of His coming” (Matthew 25:13).

The point of the second parable, the one concerning the talents, is that you are to be faithful in what God gives you to do.

And the third parable explains the judgment of the nations, where they are judged according to how they have dealt with “little ones,” and whether they have taken care of the little ones, the weary ones, the stricken ones, the ones who had no food and clothes, the ones who were sick, and the ones that were in prison. It is according to how they have dealt with these that they are judged. This is the word of the Lord to be merciful. That is to be our state—to be full of mercy and truth.

So the Holy Spirit is deeply interested in you knowing something about prophecy, but only in order that you should be faithful, and watchful, and merciful, for these are the three tests of the genuine Christian—not whether you know who the antichrist is. In that sense I want to talk to you about this prophecy of the Latter Rain. Not that we might be able to have a deeper, greater mental knowledge of certain facts concerning the possible coming of the Lord Jesus in our time, but in order that we might be prepared for that with a quality of life. “He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain” (Joel 2:23).

Former and Latter Rain

Thus our focus will be on the Holy Spirit as former and latter rain. I have asked you the question, “Do you really expect revival?” And some say “no” because it doesn’t match up with their conception of prophecy. And others of us say “yes!” because it matches what we inwardly feel and know to be the mind of the Holy Spirit. God is a God of revival. He loves to revive His people. God is not a God of dying and of death; God is a God of life. “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Former Rain

This passage of Scripture in Joel 2:23 —

“He has given you the former rain faithfully,
and He will cause the rain to come down for you—
the former rain, and the latter rain”

—really fits in with our conception that God will revive His people. Now what is the “former and latter rain”? In this part of the world—Northern Washington State—we don’t have former and latter rain. It rains all the time! But in Palestine, where this word was written, they have very definite signs and times of rain. What David mentions in Psalm 65 is really describing for you the former and the latter rain. Here is how the former rain is characterized:

⁹You visit the earth and water it,
You greatly enrich it;
The river of God is full of water;
You provide their grain,
For so You have prepared it.
¹⁰You water its ridges abundantly,
You settle its furrows;
You make it soft with showers,
You bless its growth.
– Psalm 65:9-10 –

That is the former rain. It is given by God to soften the clods of soil that have been hardened through the long dry period, and God softens them with former rain. The seed is sown at that period. So God, by the former rain, and by the moisture in the earth, causes the seeds to germinate. “You bless its growth” (verse 10d). “You provide their grain, for so You have prepared it.” (verse 9d,e).

As there was in Bible days, there is a season still in Israel when God sends former rain. It comes usually at the end of our year, in order to soften the soil and to spring the wheat so that it can begin to grow.

“You settle its furrows; You make it soft with showers.” Have you ever noticed the difference between human watering, and God’s sprinkling with rain? Horticultural science knows the difference. When you have watering by the ordinary, mechanical means, there isn’t the same response on the part of the land. The remarkable thing is, that before a rain, after a dry period, the earth opens its mouth. That’s what the Bible says — it opens its mouth to receive the rain.⁸ It is, as it were, as though the pores are opened. The earth is longing for rain, and it opens itself to receive it. Now we are not talking about conjecture. We are talking about a fact of horticultural science. The earth desires rain—as our passage from the Psalms says here—“You visit the earth and water it, You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water” (verse 9).

The Principle of Desire

If you look in the margin of the King James Version, it says: “Thou visitest the earth after thou hast made it to desire rain” (Psalm 65:9 kjv margin). God makes things to desire. One of the great principles that God works on is to “satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145:16).

That is why if you have no desire for salvation, you’ll never get it. If you have no desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit, He will never come. He only satisfies desire.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). You can talk to a reluctant family about righteousness, and they will never, ever want it. You can talk to a reluctant church about holiness, and if you are a good speaker, and you illustrate it with good illustrations, they will say it’s a good sermon, a good address, a good talk; and they will go home and forget all about it. They have no desire. It’s desire that is the heart of the matter.

The Lord does not give the Holy Spirit to non-thirsty people. We have to thirst for Him. And some of you dear folks, mothers and fathers, who have been praying for your children, would do very well to alter your prayers. Instead of constantly praying the Lord will save them, when they have no desire of being saved, instead of asking the Lord to create in them salvation, why don’t you ask the Lord, first, to create in them desire for salvation? Oh, now we’re getting to the root of the thing — God will “satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145:16). This is a tremendous principle, the great principle of desire.

But have a care, because God can “satisfy” wicked, rebellious desires. We see this in two incidents from the history of the Jewish people. Looking back on the day of the Crucifixion, and the choice Pilate gave to the assembled crowd, Peter says that: “You desired a murderer⁹ to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of Life” (Acts 3:14 kjv). That’s an awful thing to desire. God gave them their desire; they got their murderer. They also got murder as well. What other people in the history of the world have been murdered, and murdered, and murdered again, more continually than the Jews? They got their desire. What a tragedy!

Again, when they were in the wilderness, God gave the children of Israel their desire. They desired flesh. They said, “Our soul loathes this worthless bread” (Numbers 21:5), even though such provision had come directly from God’s hand:

²³Yet He had commanded the clouds above,
And opened the doors of heaven,
²⁴Had rained down manna on them to eat,
And given them of the bread of heaven.
²⁵Men ate angels’ food;
He sent them food to the full.
– Psalm 78:23-25 –

But their desire for “the fleshpots of Egypt”¹⁰ would not be denied. So God fulfilled it:

He gave them their request,
But sent leanness into their soul.
– Psalm 106:15 –

If you keep pressing God, He will give you your desire; but you’ll get leanness in your soul. You’d better ask the Lord to cleanse your desire and create a pure desire; then God will do it.

Change your prayers, then, mothers! Change your prayers, fathers! Change your prayers, husband, or wife, or son, or daughter! Change your prayers to asking God to create desire for righteousness in your children, desire for salvation, desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then God can do it. He will not do anything against desire.

So God satisfies the desire of the longing soul in the same way that He sends the rain. “Thou visitest the earth after thou hast made it to desire rain” (Psalm 65:9 kjv margin).

God’s Dry Spell

Now those showers germinate the seeds, and the wheat begins to grow. But soon that early saturation passes away. The rains have ceased. Now the wheat has been established; its roots have gone down. It is drawing in whatever moisture there is from the drying soil and from the atmosphere. The stalk is formed, and the dryness causes that stalk not to be soft, but to be hard. Some day take the time to examine a wheat stalk.¹¹ When you do, you’ll find that the stalk has knots all up the stem. They are God’s wonderful provision to keep the stalk erect. If a wheat stalk hasn’t got those knots, it would bend over and the grain would be lost because it would be laying on the ground. But how does God make those knots, and how does God make that stalk strong? By a dry period. If the farmer has continual rain, he looks with despair upon his wheat fields, because he knows that the stalk will be so thin, so mushy, so green, that it will fall over. It may be strong and big in appearance, but it’s thin, it has no strength in it, and the slightest wind makes it bend and droop, and the farmer’s wheat is lost.

There are periods in our lives when God often brings dryness on our souls. You’ll go through a time of heartache, a time when things seem to go wrong, a time even when it seems that the Lord has left you. You have no more of that great consciousness of His abiding. There are people that will tell you that the Lord will give you joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, all day and every day. And if not, something has gone wrong—you’ve been a sinner, so you’d better repent, or else you’re not working things up properly. I would like to denounce that false theory.

Dear precious people of God, He will often bring you through times of dryness spiritually, and sorrow in order to make you strong. Much glory on your soul, and many happy meetings, and much clapping of hands and joy in the Lord will make you weak. But chastisement will make you strong. And that’s why the Lord brings you through it. It’s not a sign the Lord has abandoned you; rather, it’s a sign that the Lord loves you when He chastens you and brings you through a dry and hard period. That’s what God does in nature. That’s why, out in the Middle East, God does this, giving the former and the latter rain. In between the former and latter rain there is the dry period when God is forming the stalk and making it strong.

Latter Rain

Then afterwards comes the latter rain, about April time, before the harvest. God sends the latter rain in order that there may be an abundant harvest, for that rich, latter rain plumps the ear and gives you full ears of wheat. Then God sends the sunshine to ripen it.

So in Psalm 65, the first portion speaks of former rain: “You visit the earth and water it… You water its ridges abundantly, You settle its furrows; You make it soft with showers….” Then verse 11 brings in the Latter Rain. “You crown the year with Your goodness” (v. 11). That is the latter rain, when God crowns the harvest year with His goodness.

¹¹You crown the year with Your goodness,
And Your paths drip with abundance.
¹²They drop on the pastures of the wilderness,
And the little hills rejoice on every side.
¹³The pastures are clothed with flocks;
The valleys also are covered with grain;
They shout for joy, they also sing.
– Psalm 65:11-13 –

That’s the latter rain which gives an abundant harvest.

Have you ever heard a field of wheat singing? When you see a field of ripe wheat, it sings! It typifies the Holy Spirit coming upon His people. As the wind passes over the wheat field, all the heads bow in unison. And they start singing. You listen, if ever you have the privilege of being in a large wheat field, to the singing of ripe wheat. How it rustles and sings! But it will only do it, you see, when it’s in good, full ear. It doesn’t sing when the ear isn’t formed. It sings when the ear is formed. That is what David is speaking about.

The Bible is a much simpler book than ever you thought, but you have to have a simple attitude, that is, a clean, pure, trustful attitude, to see the glory and the beauty of it. You also have to know something about the world you live in—Nature. The “Book of Nature” is another book besides the Bible, and just as true as the Bible. It will teach you many a precious lesson, if only you can see it. Many people on earth can’t read or write, but everyone can see the book of Nature. And God has not hidden Himself; He has revealed Himself.¹² And so He does with this latter rain, which plumps the ear and gives an abundant harvest.

God Restores the Former and Latter Rains

What happened to the former and latter rains in Palestine after the time of Jesus? The Romans caused terrible depredations in the land after the two Jewish revolts, the first one in a.d. 70 and the other in about a.d. 130.

In the first Jewish revolt, Jerusalem was completely destroyed, including the Temple, and many Jews were sold into captivity (those who weren’t among the millions who died).

In the second Jewish revolt, about a.d. 130, a gigantic man named Bar Cocheba (“son of a Star”) led the Jewish people in revolt against the Romans. False prophets prophesied they would have an abundant victory. But in the end it resulted in the annihilation of the Jewish people as a people, and the scattering of Jews throughout the then known world. That was the final scattering. All Jews were banned from Jerusalem, and the name of the city was changed to Aelia Capitolina—the Capitol of Jove. The very name of Jove, the father of the Roman gods, was put upon Jerusalem. And at that time Jerusalem ceased to be the center for the Jewish people.

Now because of those wars, and the cutting down of trees, and later the coming of the Saracens who conquered Palestine, and then the Turks, the land came into an awful, dry period for many, many centuries. And because the people were taken away from it, agriculture practically ceased. Since there was insufficient grass for the cattle, and because the people were poor, they kept goats. When trees did sprout, the goats nibbled them and kept them low and short. So Palestine was deforested. There were very few trees in Palestine. And the former and the latter rain ceased. So for centuries and centuries, this cycle of former and latter rain no longer occurred in Palestine. It was almost a barren land, with only tiny little places that were cultivated.

Then God worked His miracle. After the First World War, God opened Palestine for Israel. God used that awful war as an opportunity, for the Jews began to go back to Palestine. The Zionist movement was formed. Chaim Weizmann, the great Jewish chemist,¹³ who did so much for the Allies in the First World War, was asked by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour¹⁴ what reward they could give him for his magnificent, scientific, chemical discoveries. There was a time when the Allies were baffled concerning certain problems related to explosives—and Chaim Weizmann opened up to them a wonderful, new field which enabled them to carry on the war to victory.

The government considered that Weizmann deserved the highest possible reward. In reply, he chose nothing for himself. He said, “Do something for my people, the Jews.” And then Arthur Balfour issued the statement that it was the wish of his Majesty’s government in Britain that a home for the Jewish people should be opened in Palestine.¹⁵ And there were successive governments that made progress toward that end, against constant opposition, of course.

So for hundreds of years the former and latter rains in Palestine had ceased, but then the Jews began to go back. And when the Jews went back to repopulate the land, they planted forests. In their intelligence and wisdom, they planted huge forests, with millions of trees—the Balfour forests, the George the Fifth forests. In fact, at the present day, you can make a subscription to the Zionist Movement, and they will pass it on to Palestine, to the kibbutzim, and a tree will be planted in your name. Isn’t that thrilling! I’m glad to have a certificate that says a tree was planted in my name, on one or two occasions, which means that I had a small part in reforesting Palestine. That reforestation has brought the former rains back!

So in our time God sent the former rains back to Palestine. But wonder of wonders, as the reforestation continued, another wonderful thing happened. I remember reading a letter from a correspondent in Palestine that was published in the Herald of His Coming¹⁶ that announced the truth that the latter rains had begun. So in Palestine at the present time, the old former and latter rains have come back again.

God has fulfilled His word. The people have gone back, and God has given the former and the latter rain. This is a very wonderful fulfillment of the Joel 2:23 prophecy—

“He has given you the former rain faithfully,
And He will cause the rain to come down for you—
the former rain, and the latter rain.”

Earlier I quoted James 5:7, but now we can see further spiritual significance in that verse by combining it with the next thing James says:

The Key to Prophecy: “This Is That.”

Earlier I stated that I strongly deprecate what I call prophecy mongering. There are people who read endless books on fancy views of prophecy, all of them telling you what is going to take place. But you see, that’s not God’s way. God’s key to prophecy is not “This is going to be that.” God’s key to prophecy is “This is that.” God doesn’t tell you what is going to happen, in detail, to fulfill a certain prophecy.

What God does reveal to His watching and spiritual people is the fulfillment of that prophecy when it takes place. That’s true all the way through the Scriptures. “This is that” (Acts 2:16); so Peter could announce by the inner witness of the Spirit, which is the only reliable witness. Not by mental calculation, but by the witness of the Spirit he knew that “This is that” when the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost. When Simeon and Anna came into the Temple and saw the Baby Jesus (Luke 2:25-38), by the witness of the Spirit they knew “This is that” which God had promised, and they announced, “This is the Messiah.” This is God’s way.

When Daniel knew that seventy years had passed, God witnessed to him it was time for Israel—the Jews—to go back to Palestine. And he announced it. “I, Daniel, understood by books,” that is, through Jeremiah’s writings, that the time had come (Daniel 9:1-2). Seventy years were accomplished upon God’s people. When seventy years were fulfilled, the Holy Spirit witnessed to him that the seventy years were up, and that it was time for them to go back. By Daniel’s intercession and prayers, Nehemiah and Ezra went back to the Holy Land and restored the Temple and built up Jerusalem, as God said should be done (vv. 3ff). “This is that” is the key to prophecy—not all these many, many books, exciting books which say, “This is going to be that.”

So we can truthfully say that God has fulfilled His word because the latter rains, as well as the former rains, are coming down today. “This is that” which was prophesied by the Lord. We are close to the time when the Son of Man shall reap His harvest. And latter rain always comes before the harvest. We can say that the original Pentecost was former rain. There has been a long, dry period in between. Then the latter rains began.

When did latter rain begin? I suggest it began at the time of the Reformation. And we have had showers, and showers, ever since, what we call revivals. I believe that God is going to give us an abundant, “glory shower” of latter rain before Jesus’ coming, to prepare the Church for her home-going. There has got to be an abundant harvest, because the latter rain plumps the ear.

And the Lord is not going to be the loser in this tremendous battle between sin and righteousness. It is not going to be that the Devil is going to have the vast majority of people that he has been the means of damning, in everlasting punishment. I believe that God is going to have an everlasting victory. And the number of redeemed, in the end, will show you that Calvary was not in vain. God has not snatched a handful out of the burning and saved only a few because He hadn’t got the power to save any more, and the Devil has such power he is able to rob God of Calvary’s victory. Never! Calvary will be proved an everlasting victory, and the number of those whom God has saved in the end will be, as the Scripture declares, “a great multitude which no one could number” (Revelation 7:9; cf. Genesis 13:16).

And don’t try to tell me how God is going to do it, because you don’t know. And don’t ask me, because I don’t know! I am prepared to believe the Bible. But there aren’t very many people that wholly do. They usually are prepared to believe what they can see in the Bible that fits in with their own private interpretation of Scripture.

The Great Harvest Chapter

Let’s consider what God reveals about His coming great end-time harvest by looking at Revelation 14, which I call the great harvest chapter:

Numbers in Revelation are not actual numbers; rather, they are typical numbers,¹⁷ for this whole book is a book of symbols. What’s the point of manipulating some symbols to suit your argument, as if they were fact, when they are symbolical? It would be wonderful if you and I could come to the book of Revelation without preconceived ideas, and really believe that God wants us to read it and understand it. These things are “hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed to babes” (Matthew 11:25 ∥ Luke 10:21).

I remember a woman said to me once, “Are you married?” I almost said, “Yes, thanks!” But she said, “Are you married? Then you won’t be amongst the 144,000.” Isn’t that foolish? That would cut poor Peter out, wouldn’t it? Peter couldn’t be amongst the 144,000 because the poor fellow was married. I think he was a hero for being married, not the reverse.¹⁸

Don’t you see, dear brothers and sisters, that if we are not very careful we can look at things with a fleshly mind? If the number 144,000 is symbolic, aren’t the defilement and the virginity symbolic as well? The text doesn’t say, “These have never been defiled.”¹⁹ It says something far sweeter: “They are virgins.” When the Lord really saves you and blots your sin out, and gives you a pure heart, the past is gone. You are really a new creature. “Old things have passed away” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And God has blotted out your sins and completely annihilated the things that you did, and made you a new creature when you are born of God by the Holy Spirit. You are NOT the person you were before! Now you can walk in white with your Lord. Now you can keep company with Him. Now you can lift up your face without spot. Now you can take up your cross and follow Him. Now you are not defiled, as once you were. And you can be one of the typical people, one of the “virgins” “who follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Revelation 14:4).

Firstfruits

Revelation 14:4 also speaks of “the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.” Israel was not allowed to reap their harvest until they had first offered God the firstfruits. That is why we still have “harvest homes,” that is, harvest festivals. It’s a good thing to have in the church. It’s lovely to see God’s people bring their harvest, and put it around and make the place look beautiful, and acknowledge publicly that God has fed them and God has provided and God has given the harvest. Excellent! It’s just typical of the old Feast of Firstfruits that the Jews used to have. But they only could reap their harvest, let me remind you, when they had offered that firstfruit—that which was their best—to God. The firstfruits are offered in harvest time to God. God reaps the firstfruits first.

The General Harvest

Then comes the general harvest. Verse 6 says:

“The everlasting Gospel.” There is only one Gospel. There isn’t the Gospel of Salvation, and then another Gospel called the Everlasting Gospel, and another gospel called the Gospel of the Kingdom. There is only one Gospel, and “if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you… let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8,9). And then the Lord Himself appears in verse 14.

That’s the general harvest of the Lord’s people. He reaps and gathers His own people.

The Final Reaping

Then finally there comes another reaping:

Two angels now appear on the scene. The first comes out of the heavenly temple holding a sharp sickle (verse 17). From the heavenly altar a second angel appears, and he orders the first angel to “thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe” (verse 18). The first angel thrusts in his sickle to the earth (verse 19) and gathers the vine of the earth—not the grain, not the wheat, but the vine—and casts it into the winepress of the wrath of God, and blood comes out. Those are the grapes of wrath. That’s the final reaping. That’s the doom of the wicked.

The time of reaping of the Lord Jesus is coming. And that inner witness that the Holy Ghost gives you that the time is drawing nigh, that inner witness is a safe witness. It’s far safer than reading books about the subject. We have books that go back hundreds of years which “proved” that the time of the coming of the Lord would be in the authors’ lifetimes. But all of those predictions came to nothing. And foolish people have been saying that the coming of the Lord has been drawing nigh all down the ages. Yes, but don’t let that deceive you. The Lord will come. The Lord must come. And that inner drawing of the Holy Spirit that makes you only want to please Him is a more wonderful sign than any book you could possibly read. These are the days of the last showers of the latter rain. That is why God has proved it to you in Palestine, by the Jews going back—and He said they would go back—and then by God restoring the land to prosperity.

Needed: Latter Rain Revival

Williston Walker, the historian, quotes a wise church historian named Heussi.²⁰ It’s important. He says that in a.d. 50 in the early church, one was a member of the church, one was a Christian, who had these three marks:

That was the sign of the ordinary early church Christian Apostolic days. They were baptized in water in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins, acknowledging Christ as Lord; and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit—a real, true experience of New Birth Christianity. And the third mark, where Jesus was Lord in everything, meant you were a sanctified Christian.

See how things have changed. We’ve lost the immanence²¹ of the Holy Spirit. We acknowledge Him as inspiring the Bible. We feel that He occasionally inspires the preacher. We feel also that the choruses and hymns that we sing—oh, we say we really feel moved by the Spirit when we sing those choruses.

But what we have lost is the personal presence of the Holy Spirit in the midst of His people, ruling and governing and directing us. No longer do we know anything about it. In fact, no longer do we expect it. That is what we call the immanence—the nearness, the indwelling—amongst His people. And that is what happens in revival. And that is what God means by latter rain. For that’s what God promises through Joel: that He would restore that latter rain (Joel 2:23) and that He would dwell in the midst of His people (v. 27). The Lord Jesus is Lord of His church; and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, is Lord in His church. We acknowledge Him as Lord of His church, the Christ, and sitting on the right hand of God. And we know His loving, deep, personal interest, in every one of us in the Church. But what do we know today of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, being in our midst as Lord in the church? Very, very little.

We long for and need revival. It’s the latter rain. As the word of the Lord says: “I will give you the latter rain, and…

²⁴“The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,
And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.…
²⁷“Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel:
I am the Lord your God
And there is no other.
My people shall never be put to shame.”
– Joel 2:24,27 –

I get ashamed sometimes when I lay hands on the sick and they don’t recover. The Lord said they would. I get ashamed at the lack of results from my preaching. So I need to see—and we need to see—the Holy Spirit come back to His people in glorious revival power.

The Danger of Revival

In the days of the early church the Lord could announce that He was the One “who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands” (Revelation 2:1). But He doesn’t walk in our midst today. Perhaps it’s just as well He doesn’t. If He did, Ananias and Sapphira would drop dead again for lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-11). I’ve preached in churches that I know lie to the Holy Spirit, and there are many church members that lie to the Holy Spirit. In fact, if God began to make inquisition of truth, where would we stand?

So be careful when you pray that the Holy Spirit will come back in immanence. There will be more funerals when He comes back. Literally so. It’s a serious thing. It’s reality. But He won’t walk amongst us unless He can walk in truth. And when He comes back, He has to remove all the clutter and the untruth that we’ve filled His church up with.

In Revelation the Lord walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. Because He did that, He could say to the Ephesian church, “I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent” (Revelation 2:5). And He did it! He said to the very church at Ephesus… well, have you ever read the Ephesian epistle? Of course you have. What a wonderful church that seems to be; but all the time Paul is calling them back to love. Several decades after Paul’s letter, Jesus had this to say to the same church: “You’re right in your doctrine. And you know those who are possessors of truth and those who don’t live it. Oh, you know that. You’ve sorted all that out. But you’ve left your first love. And because of that I will remove your lampstand from its place.” And today there is no church at Ephesus at all. There is one at Smyrna, interestingly enough, but not one at Ephesus, because the Lord does what He says.

We want the Lord to come back and give us abundant showers of latter rain, but it means the immanence, the personal attention and standing of the Holy Spirit.

Mown Grass

My last word to you is the promise of the Lord given in Psalm 72:6 (kjv) —“He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass.” What is the grass that God is referring to? It’s what Isaiah 40:6 reports:

The voice said, “Cry out!”
And he said, “What shall I cry?”
“All flesh is grass….”

Now link that, please, with Psalm 72:6: He will come down like showers upon the mown grass, the grass that’s cut down. What is the grass that’s cut down? It’s when we are willing to be cut down to size, when our “PUFF” has gone, when we are truly humble. It is when the Lord brings us down in humility, when we can walk before the Lord without pomp and pride, without boastfulness of our abilities. It is when all our own righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), and when we realize that we have no power within ourselves to help ourselves. It is when we realize that any good that we do must be done by the Lord Jesus through us and in spite of us, and that we are unprofitable servants even when we have done what He has told us to do (Luke 17:10). That’s the Lord cutting us down to size. That’s the Lord coming down on the mown grass. He has promised to send the latter rain, His glorious latter rain of Holy Spirit anointing upon mown grass.

Now are you willing?

The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
­– Isaiah 40:7 –

So you can either be withered by the Spirit of God, or you can be humble and the Spirit of God will come upon you as refreshing and latter rain.

“For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). We who long for the Second Coming of Jesus are also asking for judgment on the Church. When the Lord Jesus comes, He comes in judgment as well as in mercy. So only those people who are walking in holiness and righteousness have any right—have any sense!—in asking the Lord to come quickly. Get your house in order. Get things right with God. Ask Him to give you a pure heart. Ask Him that you may be humble and cut down. And if the Lord removes you from position and gives you a humble sphere, would you please accept it with gratitude, because it means the Lord can use you then. The Lord loves to get little nothings and use them. He loves to announce that a worm shall thresh the mountains. Fancy a worm threshing the mountains!

¹⁴“Fear not, you worm Jacob…
¹⁵“Behold, I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth;
You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small,
And make the hills like chaff.”
– Isaiah 41:14-15 –

But it’s only God’s worms who can do it. Ask the Lord to make you humble. Desire humility and the Lord will grant it. And then God says that He will bless you, for He will bless the humble souls.

It’s what God wants you to pray and ask for, in the words of that dear man of God, Isaac Watts.

“…But for the Showers We Plead”²³

So you can see that God says, “I will pour out My Spirit, in the last days, on all flesh.” He began it at Pentecost. But that was only a minor beginning. Before the Lord Jesus comes back, the Holy Spirit is going to come to the Church in immanence, in power, and is going to prepare the church for the coming of the Lord Jesus. And then will come that Blessed One to reap His harvest, having abundantly refreshed the Church, and filled those ears of wheat, and prepared for a most abundant and glorious harvest home. What a harvest home it will be!

And as the Lord leads you on, you will find that “the things of the earth will grow strangely dim.”²⁵ You’ll be able to drop them out of your hands without regret, because you are looking for the coming of the Blessed One, The Most High, the Lord God. And He shall reign on the earth. And He shall reign for ever and ever. And I’m glad to remind you that the saints of the Most High shall possess the kingdom.²⁶ And the Lord says, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). Amen.

(Many thanks to Lawrence R. Carlson
for the original transcription.)

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