1 Kings 18:41
Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat, and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”
After the amazing victory on Carmel, the prophets of Baal are destroyed, and the prophets of the grooves, looking at the sequences of events, look like when the idols come down, the glory will come.
The worship of Baal involved various rituals and practices.
Here are some of the common methods of Baal worship:
Sacrifices
Altars and High Places
Fertility Rituals
Idol Worship
Feasting
Festivals
Prayers and Incantations
Priesthood
When Israel turned from God and went into the worship of Baal, they simply replaced God.
One thing that doesn’t change is God. God can’t break his word. When God makes a vow, he can’t break his word.
Before the rain last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we went 8 weeks without rain. We had a sprinkle or two but no rain, and farmers had time to get their harvests out of the fields. But there was no rain. It was so dry. My wife and I went to eat supper in Dyersburg, but on the way back, it was raining very hard. It sounded like it was sleeting. And it came to me; it had been so long since we had that kind of rain that I forgot what it sounded like.
Our churches are dry, our homes are dry, our prayer lives are dry, we need rain, and we need a move of God. I believe we have gone so long without rain from heaven that we have almost forgotten what it sounds like.
I feel like Elijah today.
I hear the sound of an abundance of rain. I hear “the sound of rain.”
God’s Spirit Poured Out
Joel 2: 28–29
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward.
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on my menservants and on my maidservants.
I will pour out my spirit in those days.
A Call to Repentance
Joel 2: 12–14
12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord,
“Turn to me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
13 So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord, your God.
For He is gracious and merciful.
Slow to anger and of great kindness;
And he relents from doing harm.
14 Who knows if He will turn and relent?
And leave a blessing behind Him.
A grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord, your God?
God has made a covenant with his church and with his people
(2 Chronicles 7:14). If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
God will honor his word to us; he will not break it.
We must tear down the altars to Baal, destroy the idols, burn the books of witchcraft, clean our homes, and sanctify our homes. God will wash our hearts.
The world is shaking right now; the world war is staring us in the face. We are looking at some 32 million youth being swept into the military to fight a war.
Hear me, Israel is at war right now. The media portrays this nation as murderers. They are fighting for survival, and if they survive, they will. On October 7th, Hamas broke through the borders of Israel; there is no turning back.
Watch this video.
https://youtu.be/bACNYtaLBQI?si=JUUmiHcRjBZvzqrV
The catastrophe of October 7th is shocking; disaster is on the horizon; America repents;
1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9.
High-intensity shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley. Devastating fires soon broke out in San Francisco and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died, and over 80% of the city was destroyed.
The event is remembered as the deadliest earthquake in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California’s history and is high on the list of American disasters.
Afterwards, in the same year, 1906, a revival had started. The Azusa Street Revival was a historic Pentecostal revival meeting that took place in Los Angeles, California, and was the origin of the Pentecostal movement.
It was led by William J. Seymour, an African-American preacher. The revival was characterized by feelings of overwhelming happiness or joyful excitement: spiritual experiences accompanied by miracles, dramatic worship services, speaking in tongues, and inter-racial mingling.
Most natural disasters have a way to open the eyes of the blind and turn us back to God.
We have forgotten the sound of rain, but as men, we have been to the Mount of God. I hear an abundance of rain.
Acts 2:17-21
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on my menservants and on my maidservants
I will pour out my spirit in those days.
And they shall prophesy.
19: I will show wonders in heaven above.
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood, fire, and the vapor of smoke
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass.
Whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’
I do believe what’s about to happen will spur a revival before the return of the Lord. It will be quick; it will be sudden.
This pastor is calling on us to repent of our deadness and forgive God for not having a spirit of worship.
Forgive us, God; we forgot what the rain sounds like.
America has had a Great Awakening about every 80 years throughout its history, roughly in 1735, 1805, 1885, and 1965.
They tend to last for about 20 years before society starts to unravel again. If that pattern holds (rooted as it seems to be in societal and cultural cycles), we should be due for another Great Awakening in 2045. But I’m not sure America can make it that far without a mighty, sweeping outpouring of grace.
Revivals in America
Below is a brief overview of the history of spirit-led revivals in the history of America. Of note, five of the seven revivals began with college students and moved to all levels of American society. It seems that perhaps we are seeing once again the beginnings of a spiritual awakening. May it be so!
7 Revivals in American History
#1 1730–40 Revival: The Great Awakening
Cotton Mather
#2 1805-06 Revival: The 2nd Great Awakening
Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia
Three students met in the dorm room for prayer and Scripture reading.
A mob gathered outside the door, swearing and shouting threats to stop.
President John Blair came to investigate. The following week, the meeting was held in the president’s parlor with ½ the students present. Revival swept the college and the country.
Haystack Prayer Meeting, August 1806
Samuel Mills and four other Williams College students caught in a Saturday afternoon rain stopped to pray at a haystack for foreign missions. They committed themselves to service unless God stopped them. The American mission movement began with these.
Motto: “We can do it if we will!”
#3 1857-58 Revival The Prayer Revival
The NYC noon prayer meeting, started by a local pastor burdened to pray for NYC,began with a noon prayer meeting in his church on Sept. 23, 1857.
Pastor Jeremiah Lanphier and six people gathered to pray for the city.
Within 6 months, 10,000 people gathered daily for noonday prayer in NYC.
Horace Greeley sent a reporter on horseback across NYC at noon looking for anyone who was not praying; he could find none!
The revival moved from NYC to campuses across America.
YMCA expanded into the collegiate ministry in 1858 to 180 campuses in 1884. YMCA staffed with student leadership dedicated to evangelism.
Carleton College (MN): In 1878, every student in all 4 classes professed Christ!
#4 1905-06 Revival
“Never in the history of universities have there been so many genuine spiritual awakenings among students.”
Seeds for this revival were planted at the July 1886 Mt. Hermon student conference for 250 students from 89 campuses with D.L. Moody.
‘The Princeton Covenant’: 100 signed at the conference to go to the mission field unless God stopped them.
Teams of students went to the campuses that fall, encouraging others to sign the covenant.
Over 100,000 signed, and over 20,000 made it overseas!
This was the greatest era of missions sent in the history of the USA. The Student Volunteer Movement
Motto: “The evangelization of the world in this generation.”
90% of the students at the University of Florida came to evangelistic meetings, and every fraternity organized bible studies.
900 men came to Penn State meetings with hundreds of decisions for Christ.
2400 of 3600 in one dorm at the University of Michigan came to hear the gospel.
500 of the graduating class at Yale were converted.
Kansas St. YMCA had 29 Bible studies for 380 men.
#5: 1949–50 Revival
Two students from Los Angeles drove 2,300 miles to Minneapolis to pray with Dr. J. Edwin Orr and Dr. Billy Graham for campus revival.
Orr preached at Bethel College chapel: “There was much prayer in the dormitories, followed by intense conviction of sin among the students in chapel and in the classroom… Conviction was relieved only by outright confession, restitution, restoration, or conversion to God.”
Oct. 1955, NY Times: “More than 1,200 of the nation’s 1,900 colleges and universities have a’religious emphasis week of some sort.”
#6: 1970’s Jesus Movement
Asbury College in Kentucky
Revival quickly moved to many state and private campuses.
U.C. Berkeley (1968)
Chuck Smith (founder of Calvary Chapel) was witnessing the hippies and radical students and began to see many converted!
As many as 250,000 students came to Christ during the next 8–10 years.
#7 Today
February 8, 2023, chapel service at Asbury College
It seems to be spreading to other campuses, both Christian colleges and state colleges.
Gen Z (iGen) students are leading this movement of the Spirit of God.
As I stand in this pulpit, I tell you, I hear the sound of rain. This day, to me, is historic. I believe we are standing where we can see the front moving in. The storm is about to send an abundance of rain right before the rapture of the church. It has already begun; this is worldwide.