I love a good rain in the summer–especially after it has been awhile since we have had a downpour. Rain changes so much. There is a fresh, sweet smell that comes with it, a coolness in the heat, and all vegetation perks up and greens up. It makes one feel good.

Rain is also a metaphor for the pouring out of the Spirit in our lives and churches. When our souls become parched and dry spiritually, we need something to fill them with fresh spiritual vigor. We need rain.

What is the rain we so long for and need? Ultimately, it is the Lord’s presence. Jesus Himself spoke of the living water that we would need in our lives. The Scripture speaks of “times of refreshing” (Acts 3:19). Such a time as this is not so much an experience as it is a Person–a waking up to the presence of Christ in our lives. The prophet Hosea spoke of this spiritual rain.

“Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hos. 6:3)

“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers righteousness on you.” (Hos. 10:12)

Whether we are asking for ourselves, our church, or our nation, Hosea chapter 10 gives us what we need to do to end drought and prepare for rain.

1. “Sow for yourselves righteousness.”

Both Old and New Testaments teach us the spiritual principles that you reap what you sow. If you plant wheat, you do not harvest corn. If you plant immorality, you will harvest immorality. Many people, including us at times, sow greed, pleasure, immorality, and self-centeredness . . . and as a result, we reap the results of that. Unfortunately, it is all too easy for the church, and us as believers, to join with society in reaping the same damaging seed. God’s Word says to sow righteousness–sow right things. We must speak right things, watch right things, read right things, and do right things. The Bible becomes the means for us to see what those right things are. God’s Word gives us a standard for righteousness. Righteousness is not what seems right to a man, but what is right to God.

If you want to move past spiritual dryness, check what you are sowing. If you are sowing damaging seed here and there, stop. Sow right things!

2. “Reap the fruit of unfailing love.”

When righteousness has been sown, we will naturally begin to harvest the fruit of unfailing love. God loves everyone, but the fruit, the benefits of that love, come to those who are moving to establish God’s righteousness as the standard for their lives. There are many unclaimed blessings. One of the most neglected is the fruit of unfailing love. It only comes to those who have sown righteousness in their lives.

As you sow righteousness, you should start to see clear signs of God’s love at work in your life. Recognize them, and praise the Lord for them. Watch what that does to your parched soul!

3. “Break up your unplowed ground.”

Unplowed ground has a hard time receiving rain. Sun-scorched, baked earth forms a hard crust. When rain comes, it simply runs off hard ground rather than soak in to soften it.

Unplowed ground is a picture of the unrepentant life. The rain of God’s righteousness will not soak in and change a life that is hard and unrepentant. So the command here is: “Repent! Change! Go a different direction!”

That is always God’s call to those seeking revival. Today so many who seek revival, the rain from heaven, seem to want just good feelings or nice meetings. However, the good things of revival come only after times of tears and repentance. God’s command is to break up the hard, unplowed ground of your lives before you will see the rain of revival.

Ask God to break up the hard ground of your heart. Repent of those things that keep your heart hard.

4. “It is time to seek the Lord.”

Those in periods of spiritual dryness often go looking for answers in many places. But God’s Word directs us to the only place where we can experience renewal–the rain of heaven–and it is to seek the Lord.

Hosea 10:12 gives great hope to us today. When we have broken up the unplowed ground in repentance and begin to seek the Lord with all our heart, then the promise comes. It is the Lord Himself who comes in response to a repentant, seeking heart, ready to shower His righteousness upon us. It is Jesus Himself in the midst of His people, receiving our worship, and showering upon us the blessings of His Presence.

A simple, but continual remembrance–and practice–of these four steps can keep your heart always soft before Him. You will experience the rain of His Presence on a regular basis in your life.

At a staff gathering recently, I was asked which Bible character was a real hero to me. My immediate answer was Moses, not so much because of his amazing miracles or leadership ability, but because of his intimacy with God. Again and again in Scripture we see Moses in wonderfully intimate conversation with his God. Exodus 33:7-11 is an excellent example of why Moses is a hero of mine.

“Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it ‘the tent of meeting.’ Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.”

I believe there is much in this story that can help each of us grow in our intimate relationship with God.

The Discipline of a Place

Moses had a regular place where he met with God. He took the time and effort to pitch a tent, which he even called “the tent of meeting,” outside the camp. There are several important items in this passage that might escape our attention if we don’t look carefully. Note the habit: “Moses used to” (v. 7). This was a regular discipline for Moses. He didn’t have an idea to just one day pitch a tent. It was the discipline of having a place to meet with God.

I think it is also important to recognize that he had this tent erected outside the camp. It was not in the middle of the hustle and bustle of everyday life . . . but outside the camp. Walking with God in the midst of all of life is important, but to draw near in intimacy, we will all need quiet places where we can withdraw and spend uninterrupted time alone with the Lord.

The Priority of a Leader

The time that Moses spent in the tent was obvious to the people. They all knew when their leader was going to spend time consulting with God. Moses made this a priority in his life as a leader of the people of God. It would amaze many leaders today to know how much their people desire that their pastor spend much time in intimacy with the Lord. It is of great comfort to God’s people to know that the priority of their leaders is to walk close to God.

The Passion for the Presence

The tent of meeting was a very visible sign to Moses of the fulfillment of God’s promise that He would go with them. Moses had begged God not to send them anywhere apart from His presence. So here, in this very portable prayer room, Moses came to spend face-to-face time with God. Moses was a man with a passion for the presence of God and the visible expression of that passion was coming to this obvious place of meeting.

The Visibility of Power

You can’t hide a life hidden with God. By its very nature, a life of spiritual intimacy and prayer is quiet and doesn’t cry out for attention, but the transformation it brings to an individual’s life begins to cry out with power. Here is an old man (Moses) trudging through the camp to a tent out beyond the others. He’s just going to pray, but the times of intimate fellowship have triggered the power of God in a visible way. As Moses walks into the tent, the heavens open and a pillar of cloud descends to guard the door to the tent. No one is going to disturb this prayer time.

The people are watching. Nothing is done in secret. The power of God has come into their midst because their leader has begun to pray. How desperate the Church is today for men and women of God who regularly come to the tent of meeting! How we long to see the pillar of God’s presence descend into our camps because a godly leader has come to meet with his God!

The Response of the People

When Moses went to talk with God, the people of Israel paid attention. As he walked to the tent, all along the way the people stood, I believe, both in honor and in anticipation. Something is going to happen! Indeed, as Moses goes in the tent, the pillar of cloud descends. As the people in the camp begin to discern God’s visible presence, they begin to worship outside their tents. The prayer of this man of God has prompted great worship among his people toward their God.

We are not Israel in the desert today. Moses’ tent of meeting became the Tabernacle, which became the Temple, which–in awe we say it–which has become us. We are now the meeting place of God. Our very bodies have become His Temple (1 Cor. 3:16). Emmanuel, God with us, has taken up residence within us through His Spirit.

We need to be careful that this truth is present reality in our lives and not just theological belief. In many ways, we have privileges that Moses could not have imagined. He had to walk outside the camp to a tent to talk with God. We have the privilege of talking with God wherever we are. Amazing! Amazing grace of God that He has come to dwell in us!

The challenge is simple. Don’t read a story like this and say, “Oh, wouldn’t it have been great like Moses to meet with God in the tent of meeting?” Today, wherever you go, your tent of meeting goes with you. If we will wake up and realize the amazing gift God has given us through Jesus, we can walk in this great intimacy each day and once again, the world will see the life of God lived out through His (new) covenant people.

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries

The United States is clearly a nation in trouble. A battered economy, political divisiveness, the culture wars, racial uneasiness, and a sidelined church, provide the dry tinder for an inflammatory national election in November of 2016. Many stake their hopes or fears on the outcome.

While believing in and encouraging the importance of exercising our right to vote, we also call the Christian Church in America to do that which is even more critical in these days…to pray! The seriousness of our day requires an intensity of prayer that is unprecedented. Accordingly, we call for 40 days and nights of unrelenting intercession on behalf of our nation from September 30 through Election Day, November 8th.

We need to do what Israel did in Joel’s day!

“Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing–grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, spare your people, O Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God” (Joel 2:12-17)?

Our focus in prayer is simple. We are praying for:

1. 1. 1.   Revival in the Church-that another Great Awakening would sweep across America as the Lord’s people humble themselves in repentance and prayer: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
      2. A standard of righteousness to be raised over this nation: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
      3. The elections- that God would intervene. This is not a partisan or political effort but a plea to bring God into a process that desperately needs His wisdom and direction: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go” (Isaiah 48:17).

      This is a call, not from one ministry or organization, but from diverse leaders from across the spectrum of the U.S. Church. It is also not a call to a particular event. It is a pleading for all Christians to do something proactive and powerful in prayer for the 40 days leading up to our fall elections. Prayer walking our neighborhoods using the prayer points above makes this a personal activity that allows us to impact our nation together.

      As leaders in the Body of Christ, we commit ourselves to prayer during these days of decision regarding the future of our nation. Even more, we commit ourselves to mobilize prayer in our spheres of influence, that every part of the Lord’s Church would join together in day and night prayer for the intervention of God on behalf of our nation.

      As in Joel’s day, the call is for everyone…all the Lord’s people from the oldest to the youngest. It’s for everyone to humble themselves and pray. How will you respond? How will you pray? 

What is it we are asking for as we pray for revival? Ultimately, it is for the people of God to begin to experience the presence of Christ in a fresh new way. All other results flow from that. Changed lives in the Church as well as transformation in a culture come not from human effort, but the power of God made manifest in the lives of His people.

This isn’t about praying for a better life or that things would go smoothly for us. It is about God and His purposes being accomplished. The acknowledged leader of the First Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, was fired by his congregation in the midst of the revival. On a much larger scale, as the Third Great Awakening was taking place in the United States, the nation was dividing into North and South and war then tore the nation into pieces.

Some look to another great awakening in this nation as the solution to all of our problems. That would be wonderful but unlikely. It is more likely to take place in the midst of great difficulties and even persecution. If it is widespread and lasting, it may well slow or delay the judgment of God against our sinful nation.

More importantly, another great awakening can empower the Church to finish the task of world evangelization. All past revivals have had tremendous evangelistic outreach, and I believe the one to come will as well. In addition, the repentance and humility that will be occurring in the Body of Christ will be a key element in preparing the Bride for the Bridegroom. Revival in the Church can bring a restoration of New Testament purity, passion, and holiness.

How do we pray for revival? Certainly Psalm 85:4-7 gives us a clear picture and we would do well to use this in our own prayers.

“Restore us again, God our Savior,
and put away your displeasure toward us.
Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger through all generations?
Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your unfailing love, Lord,
and grant us your salvation.”

One of my personal favorites in revival praying is found in Isaiah 63-64. It is a long passage of Scripture that speaks of Israel’s realization that they were missing the presence of God. They remember days in the past when that was not the case and cry out for God to come back to them. Taking this Old Testament passage and bringing it into New Testament realities is a powerful way of praying for revival. You will find yourself praying with Isaiah, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!”

Excerpted from With One Cry: A Renewed Challenge to Pray for America by David Butts, PrayerShop Publishing 2016. Used with permission.

Every election season brings a certain degree of anxiety or uneasiness. It’s a big change when one leader steps down and another takes his or her place. Recently, national elections are bringing out, what seems to me, to be a greater level of anxiety and even anger than most election cycles. Social media is a reflection of that. Try expressing an opinion on social media without someone slamming you.

Today, Christians are faced with some tough choices, and I don’t just mean which candidate to vote for. How do we handle the high level of animosity and tension that is so prevalent in our nation today? How do we live out the lifestyle of Jesus in our politically charged season?

I’m seeing a number of choices being made. Some develop a posture of being above it all. “Jesus is my King and I’m not lowering myself into the fray.” Certainly we need to have a Christian worldview that recognizes the temporary nature of nations, elections, and culture itself in the light of eternity. But I would suggest to those taking this path that Jesus himself did not withdraw from the culture or even the politics of his day. He waded into some of the most controversial issues that divided Israel in his day, while at the same time, insisting that His Kingdom was not of this world.

There’s another extreme that is also very prevalent. It happens when Christians forget that the advance of the Kingdom of Christ is not dependent upon who the president of the United States is. Ignoring that can cause us to become combative, angry, and over-emphasize the importance of this or any election. In this posture we forget that those in another political party or backing a different candidate are not our enemies. We can find ourselves demonizing others and forgetting the law of love.

May I suggest a broad middle ground that allows for many degrees of involvement or non-involvement? It recognizes that that in our nation we have been given as astonishing gift of selecting our own leaders. Yes, yes, I know they often fail us. But then, who of us doesn’t fail in our best attempts at times. The truth of the matter is that we still get the opportunity to choose, even if the choices aren’t always what I would want.

The Apostle Paul commands us in I Timothy 2, to pray for those in authority so that we might live quiet and peaceful lives. He sums up that thought in verse 4, relating it to God’s desire for everyone to be saved. Paul really was interested in who government leaders were, but not so he could have a nice, comfortable life, but so that the atmosphere of the nation would be conducive to evangelism. It seems to me that Paul demonstrates a beautiful balance for us regarding our involvement in selecting leadership and voting.

Of course, Paul could not even imagine the option of selecting his own governmental leaders. But as I hear his command to pray for those leaders in order to prepare the way for evangelism, I have no doubt that Paul today would add to his command to pray, the command to vote. Pray and vote, so that the purposes of God might be accomplished.

So in the midst of a divisive, tense, and angry time, how should we live in this political world? Again, I look to Paul for instruction. To the Philippians, and to us, Paul gives a most contemporary instruction: “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phil. 4:5-6).

What a contrast this is to what is currently taking place! Gentleness . . . peace . . . prayer! That’s how we approach an election season. And I believe Paul even shows us how to do that. In the midst of his commands he says, “The Lord is near.” We often immediately rush to the Second Coming when we read this, but I’m not sure that’s what Paul is saying. The Lord is near . . .  he is close . . . he is right beside you.

With Jesus right next to you . . .  near . . . you can live out his gentleness, his peace, and you will find yourself praying not only for your leaders, but for all that the Lord places on your heart. Eventually the nearness of Jesus breaks through the clouds with the physical return of Jesus to Planet Earth. But until then, we draw near to him in prayer and he draws near to us and we demonstrate to those around us the life of Jesus