Chapter 16: Filling in Gaps
EARLY RAIN & LATTER RAIN
Several passages throughout the Bible make use of the terms the Early Rain and the Latter Rain. These describe a type of weather pattern in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean. In an agrarian society the weather cycle is well known to everyone, so it’s not unusual for it to influence regional sayings. In Scripture these rains are used as an analogy for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on God’s children. The meaning of this simile can be applied in two contexts. In each context the simile indicates that the Holy Spirit comes in two main stages.
In Bible times the area around Israel experienced two periods of heavy rains during the agricultural growing season; so they planned their planting and harvesting schedules around these rainy periods. They would plant their crops just before the first rainy season, the Early Rain, so that these rains might cause the seeds to germinate and get established. The crops continued to grow even after the rains had ended, and progressed until they were nearly mature. Then came the second rainy season, the Latter Rain, and these rains would take the crops to full maturity and ripening. Then once the rains ended, the crops were harvested.
In the context of the Christian Church as a whole, this metaphor can be applied as follows. The Early Rain refers to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Early Disciples at the event of the Day of Pentecost. This outpouring equipped the Disciples with the understanding, the gifts, and the power they needed to do all the works for which they are well known and to spread the Gospel throughout the world. The Latter Rain refers to a similar large outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Latter Day Disciples just prior to Christ’s Second Coming, in what is expected to be similar to the earlier Day of Pentecost. This will then lead to the closing events of Earth’s history that culminate in the Second Coming.
In the context of an individual’s spiritual growth, the metaphor can be applied as follows. The Early Rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the soul refers to their Baptism of the Holy Spirit experience. The Latter Rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the individual refers to their personal Pentecost experience.
MISCELLANEOUS POINTS
Self-Consciousness:
When Satan sees us progressing in our relationship with God, he will bring against us all kinds of attacks and deceptions. He will cause people to criticize us, he will try to make us doubt that our new experience is real, and he will do what he can to discredit us. Those who feel a bit self-conscious about their newly-empowered relationship with God, should ask themselves the following question: “If I didn’t care what people thought of me when I was sinning, why should I care what people think of me now that I’m serving God?”
Corporate Identity:
As you learn about the HS and begin growing in your relationship with God, you will find it is very helpful to study together with others who are also seeking the same blessing. Our spiritual growth can be greatly accelerated by uniting in study and prayer with like-minded students. God is pleased to bless study groups with greater light than given to individuals. As the members study together and pray for each other, bonds of friendship develop and soon there is mutual concern for each other’s growth. After this sense of group identity develops you will likely find that if one member of the group is under attack spiritually, the other members may feel the effects; likewise, when one of the members is feeling especially close to God, the others may benefit as well.
Spiritual Characteristics:
When Ezekiel recounted his first vision of God, (Ezekiel chapters 1-3), one of the many things he described was the appearance of the Cherubim (1:5-14). Among the noteworthy things of their appearance was that each one had four faces and each face was that of a different animal — an ox, an eagle, a lion, and a man*. Likewise, when the Children of Israel were formed into a nation upon their exodus from Egypt, they were divided into 12 groups according to their ancestry, and these were directed to encamp in a square formation around the Tabernacle with three groups on each side (Numbers chapter 2). A standard (a flag) was placed on each of the four sides which bore a symbol for that side’s three groups; and the emblems on the four flags were the same animals that Ezekiel described — an ox, an eagle, a lion, and a man. There is significance to this in God’s organization, if only we care to study what it might be. (*These same four beasts are also mentioned in Rev 4:3-4.)
The Cherubim have 4 faces — those of an ox, an eagle, a lion, and a man. These represent the four needed facets of our spiritual characters: we must be as strong and enduring as an ox; we need to have sharp (spiritual) eyesight such as an eagle; we must be as brave and bold as a lion; and we need to be as discerning and compassionate as men with intelligence and holy emotions.
FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS
1Ki 13:1-32. A prophet from Judah was sent to reprove the king of Israel for making two gold calves. After delivering the message he was to return to his own country without stopping, for he had been charged by God to, “Eat no bread, drink no water, and don’t return by the same route you came.” He was on his way home when a prophet from Israel came to him on the road and invited him home to eat with him and talk. The Judah prophet at first refused and repeated the charge given him by God. But the Israel prophet insisted and told him that an angel had come and told him to bring the other prophet back to eat; (but he was lying). The Judah prophet agreed and went home with the Israel prophet and had dinner. During the dinner the Holy Spirit came over the Israel prophet and foretold to the Judah prophet that he was going to be killed by a lion on the way home because he had now disobeyed God’s instructions. Then when the Judah prophet went on his way, that is exactly what happened. The Israel prophet went to collect the body and buried it, saying, “That’s what happens if you disobey the word of the Lord.”
When we become so filled with the HS that we are on the level of prophets, we will have to be very careful to listen for God’s instructions and follow them exactly. This means not going somewhere on a mission without first checking whether or not we should go, and asking just what we are to do and say while there; then not changing any of the instructions in any particular. Once we are at that level of spirituality, every word and deed will be subject to judgment from God and men.
SELF CONTROL & OTHERS FIRST
When Jesus got angry and cleared the businessmen out of the Temple it served two purposes. First, it allowed Him to be tested with regard to anger. Second, it demonstrated that Jesus’ love for His Father was greater than His love for Himself.
As for the first point, Scriptures tell us that Jesus was tempted in all the ways we are tempted. He 4:15, “[He] has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.” (NIV) Thus He had to be tempted with respect to anger as well. Anger in itself is not sinful, if it is for the right purpose and is directed in the right way. However, once we’re angry it is very easy to lose control of ourselves and go into sin from there. Ep 4:26, “Be angry, yet sin not; don’t let the sun go down upon your wrath.”
Jesus faced the trial of anger when confronted with people disrespecting His Father and desecrating His Father’s house. Jesus was allowed to get upset at the blasphemy, and this was not sin. But the test behind this was whether or not He would succumb to using His divine power. His trial was to never use His own power while on Earth as a man, and to only call on God when power was needed (just as we must). This was a difficult task even when perfectly calm and peaceful. The temptation to use His own strength came to a climax when He had to restrain Himself while angry. Fortunately, He passed the test. He merely rebuked the offenders and confronted them only with human actions. He did nothing supernatural with His own power.
As for the second point, when we and our loved ones face a difficult situation our response is to bear the burden ourselves in order to protect them from suffering. For example, if someone says to us, “You’re stupid”; we may just shrug it off and say, “Whatever.” But when they continue and say, “Your mom and dad are stupid too”; then we get upset and respond, “I’m willing to let it pass when you insult me, but don’t you dare speak bad about my parents!” The altruism within us puts our loved ones a little higher than ourselves.
Jesus faced this test at the above referenced Temple incident. Through His actions He said, “You may disrespect Me, but don’t disrespect the Father.” Jn 2:13-17, (16b) “Get out of here! How dare you turn My Father’s house into a market!” (c.f.: Mt 21:12-13; Mk 11:15-19; Lk 19:45-48) He also said on another occasion, “You can blaspheme Me, but don’t blaspheme the Holy Spirit.” Mk 3:28-29, “All the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.”
The Father faced this same test of loving another more than Himself when He was called upon to sacrifice His Son in order to save us. I’m sure He thought, “I rather it be Me to face death instead of My Son!” With this understanding, which is the greater sacrifice? If you’d prefer to die yourself rather than see your son die, then you have placed greater value on him; therefore, for your son to die is the greater cost.
When Lucifer rebelled he was demonstrating the opposite of this principle — he thought more of himself than he did of others. He felt that he should receive honor and the highest position rather than God. Is 14:13, “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God … I will make myself like the Most High.”
Likewise, we each face this same test and must decide this same issue — to consider others before ourselves. Our actions, especially while angry, more accurately than our professions will reveal what is truly within our hearts.
SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS
2Ki 6:8-23. The king of Aram (Syria) was foiled several times in his attempts to position his army favorably to attack the king of Israel because of the intervention of the prophet Elisha. So the king of Aram decided to send his army to capture Elisha instead. They surrounded the village where Elisha was staying, but Elisha asked God to send blindness over them. Elisha went out and spoke to the commander of the army and told him that the man they were seeking (Elisha himself) wasn’t here but was in a neighboring village; Elisha then offered to show them the way. Elisha led the enemy army into the stronghold of the Israelite army where they then were surrounded by Israelite soldiers. Elisha then prayed that the blindness would be lifted. The enemy army saw they were in a position to be completely destroyed, but Elisha instead ordered them to fed and released. The Syrians then ceased attacking Israel (for a time).
The enemy army wasn’t “physically” blinded; otherwise they could not have marched to the next city. If it had been physical blindness they would have been filled with alarm and groped around for help, rather than accepting aid to continue their assault. Instead, it was their “understanding” that was blinded; so that they could not comprehend correctly what was right before their eyes physically. They saw, but did not comprehend. They didn’t see that it was their target standing before them; instead they saw a traitor who was willing to lead them to where they could still complete their mission. And they didn’t see that they were being led into a trap until after Elisha’s prayer to open their eyes.
Likewise, our churches, and all of Christianity, have been in a condition of spiritual blindness for more than 100 years. Our understanding has been darkened ever since we as a people rejected the light given by the HS following the “Great Awakening” of the mid- 1800s that affected all denominations. Since then we have been in a period of spiritual darkness corresponding to the amount of light we rejected then. This is important to understand: the depth of the darkness is equal to the amount of light that was rejected!
Following the Great Awakening several movements sprang up due to the HS’s working with all who would respond. Among these were the Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostals (of various denominations), and the Mormons. Each of these began by being willing to receive “new light”. But as these movements changed into organized denominations with official creeds, they lost their openness to continued spiritual growth. Consequently their focus changed from receiving more and more light from the HS to formalizing what they had already been given. In other words, they took their eyes of Jesus and began looking at themselves. The Mormons settled on having lots of wives and lots of children, so that they could build up their own kingdoms; rather than building up God’s kingdom. The Pentecostal groups concentrated on gaining for every member the “Gift of Tongues”; even though the Apostle Paul told us this gift only edifies the individual not the church (1Cr14:4). The Seventh-day Adventists focused on being experts of Biblical understanding, “a people of the Book”; taking Scriptural exegesis as an end in itself. Consequently, these and other denominations gradually lost touch with the HS, until they rejected His additional light altogether. The events which cut off the ministry of the Holy Spirit happened at the transition from the 19th to the 20th century: that is from the 1880s to the 1920s.
Only now is God giving Christians another chance by sending the HS with light again. We must not reject Him this time. However, it is becoming more apparent each day that only the rising generation of Christians is able to understand and receive the message of the BHS. The Christian generation that is fading cannot receive the light about the HS because they are included in the 120 year curse (three generations of 40 years each) which fell on the Christian Church at large for rejecting the Holy Spirit. Nu 14:18, “By no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” Jn 14: 17, “The Spirit of truth the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not neither knoweth Him.”
When in 1888 the Seventh-day Adventist church officially rejected the new light from the HS about Righteousness by Faith, a curse fell upon them to receive no more new light for a period. When in 1908 the Pentecostal Church rejected the message of the Holy Spirit through the work of John G. Lake, a curse fell upon them which cost them the Gift of Miraculous Healing in large measure. Similar curses fell upon other the denominations of the day as each in turn rejected the ministry of the HS for them.
Although Seventh-day Adventists later accepted the message of Righteousness by Faith, that did not lift the curse, because judgment had already been given and sentence passed. (The same with the Pentecostals and others.) This principle is illustrated by the incident in Numbers chapter 14. The Children of Israel refused to enter the Promised Land when God first took them to it, so He cursed them to wander in the desert for forty years (one generation); they tried to undo their decision and attempted to enter the land too late, but this only brought defeat and even more of God’s rebuke. (ref.: Nu 14:22-23; Nu 14:39-45)
Because the light from the Holy Spirit was rejected 120 years ago, Christians were sentenced to a period of no new light from the HS. Now the time has come when the HS is once again offering Christians an increased understanding of God and a new level of relationship with Him. Those of the cursed generations cannot comprehend it because their minds have been darkened. Those who have come out from under the curse are able to understand what is being offered and are being given an opportunity to accept what their great-grandparents rejected.
We have before us a wonderful privilege that is offered only to favored people of selected times. It was offered to the people of first century Palestine when Jesus walked among them. It was offered to the people of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe during the Reformation. It was offered to the people of nineteenth century America and Europe after the “Great Awakening”. It is now offered to the people of the twenty-first century world in preparation for the Latter Rain to close Earth’s history.
Those who can perceive the call of the Holy Spirit must not let this opportunity pass. We must take full advantage of the blessing proffered. To reject it is to face terrible spiritual darkness. To accept is to receive a wonderful relationship with our Lord that surpasses all conceptions.
THE ADVICE OF OUR PATRIARCHS
We have been given much advice through the years by many men of God and Biblical scholars on how to live the Christian life and measure up to God’s ideal for us. Yet, while we acknowledge that they have good ideas that sound very pious, we have had difficulty putting their suggestions into practice because we have a hard time getting a handle on just what to do due to the concepts being only incompletely fathomed.
The problem lies in our understanding. It’s difficult to comprehend new ideas while still stuck in the old paradigms. When we read their sage advice with our faulty reasoning, of course we end up with erroneous conclusions. But if we look at the old recommendations with a new, Spirit-guided viewpoint, we find there answers on how to really get close to God. Many times the old patriarchs had it right; but we didn’t properly grasp what they were trying to tell us. We now find that our “new” understanding isn’t really new; but is what we’ve been taught all along. It was only that our discernment was darkened.
Because we have had a faulty comprehension of what true devotion to God really is, we have created several systems of belief that are at odds with the Truth, and which have caused great numbers of believers and searchers to leave the Church and give up on God. In our unrecognized ignorance we have created several “-isms” that have been harmful to Christianity as a whole.
Formalism is little more than nominal religion which has no personal relationship with Jesus. Legalism is attempted obedience through sheer self-effort and force of will. Liberalism is claiming freedom to pursue any carnal inclination and rejecting every call to obedience.
Carefully considering Jesus’ sacrifice, and the resulting deep love that springs up within us, keeps us from a cold formalism. Recognizing that we haven’t the strength to obey the Law, and calling on Him to keep the Law for us, keeps us from a futile legalism. A genuine love for God with a strong desire to make Him happy, and recognizing that our freedom is in the Law not from the Law, keeps us from a presumptuous liberalism.
If we’re going to church just because it’s expected of us, or because it’s “the right thing to do, or because we hope to gain some advantage over others in this world or in the next, then we’re doing it for the wrong reasons. We must truly understand just what Jesus has done for us to bring us out of sin; we must recognize that only with His ongoing help can we begin to live up to His ideal; and we must realize that our love for Him and our desire to honor Him must be strengthened daily. Only in this way can we receive the Holy Spirit and develop the relationship needed to reach our highest potential as sons and daughters of God.
NOT SERVANTS BUT SONS
Mt 10:24-25, “A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant to be like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household!”
In this passage found in Mt 10:24-25, Jesus speaks of three types of relationship: that between a servant and a master, that between a student and a teacher, and that between the members of a household — father and sons. In all of them He is speaking of His followers. But WHY does Jesus mention different levels when speaking of those who are His? Because even though He doesn’t wish us to be at different levels, the fact is that we place ourselves at different levels due to stopping along the way in our spiritual growth, rather than continuing toward our high calling.
Those who are content to remain at the lowest level of commitment to Him, can only ever claim the master/servant relationship. Indeed we often say we are servants of Christ, and have come to take some pride in that designation. It gives us a feeling of being “humble” to be called servants; so we are content to remain there. However, this is actually a false humility; this isn’t where Jesus wants us to be. We can see “servant Christians” at times being critical of each other and being unwilling to accept those who don’t believe exactly as they do.
Lk 15:21-24 relates the parable of the Prodigal Son. In it the Prodigal Son presented himself to his father to be admitted into the house as a servant. However, it was the Father’s wish to receive him as a son instead. It was then up to the Prodigal to accept the offer of sonship. Next the Older Brother came along and through his dialogue showed that he too thought of himself as a servant. He went on to show that because of this self-perception his attitude was selfish and exclusive of his brother. This also is representative of a servant’s perspective.
Those who aspire to a higher relationship and who are willing to make a total surrender of everything they have and everything they are, can enter into a teacher/student relationship. They enter a program whereby they learn to be just like their Teacher in every respect. With a complete commitment, they can rightfully be called Disciples. Jn 15:15, “I no longer call you servants; because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you.”
After our discipling period is finished and we reflect the image of Jesus, we are then adopted into the family as sons and daughters. We are given full rights to everything our Father has and the right to use His means to help others come into the family.
We must be aware, however, that as members of the family with the ability to exercise our Father’s power, sons and daughters will be subjected to all manner of accusations. When ordinary men see someone performing miracles, they will attribute it to the power of “Beelzebub”; just as they said this of Jesus. Even “servant Christians” who see this happening around them among their fellow church members may bring “quotes” to show how this type of work is from Satan.
The three levels of relationship represent the following:
Those who become lazy in their spiritual growth become nothing more than “servant Christians”.
Those who receive the BHS enter a training period and become “students/disciples”.
Finally, graduation into full “sonship” is marked by receiving the full Pentecost experience.
Are you ready to become His disciples? It isn’t easy to make a total commitment to Jesus. But the end rewards are worth it. Besides, consider that Jesus made a total commitment to you; can you really do any less in return? Choose to have a higher relationship with Him; move from servant to student, and in the process become sons and daughters. He is willing to accept you; will you accept Him?
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