Rain

by

Leviticus 26:3-4 Provision Comes With Obedience

If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Leviticus 26:3-4

Every day the majority of people work long days on a job in order to bring in what is considered the needed money to provide for what is believed to be a need. As long as one obeys the rules of the company he is working for, he has a job that pays him.

If a person suddenly chooses to not obey the rules, after a time of correction, he will be released from the job and no longer have that needed provision.

God told the Israelites that if they carefully obey His commands, then He will provide rain in the right season and the crops and trees will be fruitful.

During the time of the Israelites in the Bible, farming was a major way to provide for the things needed in life. It was important to have rain at the right time and for the crops to be abundant.

In today’s society most people do not rely upon rain to provide for themselves, but rely upon a job and stores. However, if the rains do not come in season, then farmers will not be able to produce the needed food, and the workers will not be able to purchase the needed food.

When people, as a city, state or nation, obey and follow God, He gives them favor in providing the needed rain or any other provision needed to live life. As people or nations choose to walk away from God, disobeying His commands, He pulls away His favor. Drought and disasters begin to occur causing a lack for needed items.

Believers need to continue to obey God and lead others to obey Him. This brings His favor of provision upon them and their nations.

God uses many ways to provide abundantly for all of your needs. The windows of provision are opened wide when you choose to obey God in every area of your life. This provision may be with a job, but will also be with stores having the needed items in stock.

Begin by focusing on obeying all of God’s commands and trusting Him for provision for all of your needs. He will open doors to meet your needs as you obey and trust Him.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will obey God’s commands to you; that you will trust God for all of your needs; and that you will be a witness of Jesus to those around you.

by

Hebrews 6:7 Are You Producing A Crop?

Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. Hebrews 6:7

Farmers work very hard in order to get a crop that produces enough for themselves and for them to sell. One of the things that a farmer desires is rain to come, so that the things planted may grow abundantly. Without the rain, there is no production of anything.

However, even with the rain, sometimes all that grows are thorns and thistles, not giving the farmer the desired crops.

The writer talks about the land that has received rain and produces a good crop is blessed by God.

People are just like the land. God pours the rain of His Holy Spirit into their lives to grow some good crops. Just like on the fields of the earth, the rains come at different times and different ways, producing different results.

Often people receive the rain of God’s word in their lives, but only produce thorns and thistles. They do not go out a share the gospel message with others or they continue to live in ignorant, sinful ways.

Many in the church are unable to tell of a recent time in which they have grown in the Lord or sowed into the lives of someone else God’s word.

Every believer is a part of the crop of God’s kingdom. God’s word is being poured out into one’s life. The rain of His Holy Spirit is being poured out each day, allowing the person to produce fruit in alliance with His Holy Spirit.

God expects each plant to produce fruit. This fruit is a changed life that is bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit and fruit of bearing witness of who Jesus is.

As a believer, you are also a plant in God’s kingdom that is expected to grow fruit. God is raining in your life His presence and word so that you may change, grow and produce more fruit for His kingdom.

Ask yourself if you are producing God’s fruit in your own life and in the lives of others.

Do not allow yourself to go back to producing the sinful fruit of this fallen world, but produce the life-giving, life-changing fruit of God, that wells up into eternal life.

Is your land producing today?

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Savior; that you will be filled with God’s Holy Spirit; that you will change to live according to God’s ways of living; that you will produce a crop in your life for God’s use; and that you will produce a crop in this world to build God’s kingdom.

by

Noah: Building By Faith

Noah ark

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. Hebrews 11:7

This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Genesis 6:9 

Noah is the first among many of the men and women of great faith that are recorded in the Bible. His story begins in Genesis 6 and ends in Genesis 9. He is probably one of the more famous or well known people in the bible. There are very few people, churched and unchurched, who have not heard of Noah.

Recently there has been a movie made about Noah and his ark. I have not seen it, so I cannot answer to how accurate it may or may not be. However, this shows that there is some knowledge of Noah to most of the world.

During the time of Noah people had become so corrupt and refusing to follow God, that God chose to destroy all of mankind from the face of the earth. God was choosing to do something that was completely unheard of up until that time. He was going to cause the world to be flooded. The process of this flooding was to be done by rains and water coming up from the ground.

Until this time, rain had never fallen on the earth. The ground was watered by dew and springs in the earth. It was a new concept.

Noah had been faithfully walking with God. He lived his life according to God’s commands and always did what God had said to do. Because of this, God chose to save him, his family and the animals from the flooding.

The process of saving Noah would be by an ark–a very large boat. God gave him the directions on how to build the ark and what size it would be. Immediately Noah began to build the ark and it took him about one hundred years to complete it.

Now think about this for a moment. Think about what God has told Noah and what Noah had to do.

Earth destroyed

First: God said He would destroy all mankind. Wait a minute! Doesn’t God love man? Didn’t He create man to populate the earth? Why would God do this?

This took faith on Noah’s part. It went against everything that he knew about God up to this point. He had to trust that he had heard God correctly in what He had said. Noah had to believe that God would actually destroy the entire world in order for him to take the next step and actually build the ark. He trusted God’s word to him.

There may be times when God speaks to you about something that is new or different from anything else. You have to know that you have heard from God. Match it up against the word of God and see if it lines up with what God has recorded in His word. Then trust the word of God and act upon it. Do what God says to do. This is faith in action.

High water flood

Second: What is a flood? What is rain?

As long as Noah had already lived, he had never seen rain. Having never seen rain, there had never been a flood either. Yet, God was saying this was going to happen.

God was about to break the ‘rules’ of science. It had never rained, but now it would happen. God is the God of the universe, which means He can control the weather. Along with controlling the weather, He can control things in your life. He can break the ‘rules’ of science to accomplish what He needs done.

Remember that all the ‘rules’ are man-made. God did put them in place. Man is constantly learning new things. What were rules at one time, according to science, is now wrong. God can overcome the things of this world.

Trust that God is in control as Noah did and can make new things happen that have never occurred before. This is faith!

Lumber pile

Last: It took nearly 100 years to build the ark. Where did Noah get the materials from? Who paid for it? Who did the work? Why did it take so long to build? Did Noah get discouraged?

Take a moment now to think about what Noah had to do. How big was this project that God had given him to do? Think about how long it would take to get the materials to build a boat that is several hundred feet long and very tall. Then how long it would take to assemble it. Especially in a time of manual labor. There were no machines or factories. There were no automated robots to do the building. There were no computers to generate the details of how to build the boat.

Many people have visions and dreams to accomplish something great. They begin to work on it, but run into problems or it takes a long time to accomplish. As they continually hit problems or it takes too long, many give up on their dream. When they keep running into walls or barriers, they quit out of failure and give up. 

Along with those that start and never finish, there are many who never start because all they can see are the problems or challenges. They cannot see how to make the dream possible.

Believers sometimes run into this problem also. They get a vision from God for something. They don’t know how it is possible, forgetting that God is the God of impossibilities. He makes the impossible possible.

This is what faith is. It is believing that you heard what you heard God said would be possible. It is not giving up when things get tough. It is not turning down a different road when you do not understand the path. It is going forward when it does not make any sense to move forward. It is doing things that the world will ridicule and not understand. It is doing things that even many in the church will not understand or believe.

This is faith in God.