Title: Showers of Blessings
Bible Book: Ezekiel 34 : 26
Author: J. Mike Minnix
Subject: Restoration, Spiritual; Revival; Renewal; Showers of Blessings
Objective:
Showers of Blessing
Dr. J. Mike MInnix
Introduction
Ezekiel 34:26: “I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing.”
Here in the Book of Ezekiel is a wonderful passage – one that brings a sense of refreshing in a time of drought. The entire section of scripture describes God’s promise to His people to bless them as they seek Him. The period of time in which this was written is one of barrenness, due to the people of God being misled and not following His ways. God promises that a time of blessings will come as His people seek Him in Spirit and truth.
I want to say to the church today that it is not God's will for the church or an individual Christian to live in the arid regions of spiritual insipidness. It is not right for us to have a mixture of waterless souls and withered, barren branches in our lives. God wants us under the spout where His glory comes out. He does not determine droplets of blessing but rather desires that we are drenched in the deluge of His goodness. We are to dwell where the waters of Spiritual blessing flow freely. It is only in such a context that we can be refreshed, grow properly and see new spiritual life sprouting around us.
Heaven knows we are in need of a drenching rain from heaven in Christendom these days. With many people claiming no religious affiliation in America, with churches closing their doors, and baptisms down, every Christian must realize that something is missing. God is not weak, so we know that it must be us in need of a spiritual change. Divine drought is prevalent and the ecclesiastical ground is cracked and dry in many places in our world today. Sin is rampant within the household of faith. The heart, the home and the house of God is in danger of apostasy on a large scale. We need a Divine Downpour!
We have been fortunate in our church to experience some wonderful mercy drops in these recent days. But if you are like me, this has only served to heighten your thirst for the steady showers from the Lord. Just as showers of rain are needed in their season, likewise the kingdom of God is a place where there is a need in due season for the Spiritual rain to fall. We are in need of that all around us at this point in history.
The idea of "rain" as a picture of spiritual blessing is a fitting one. The soul can become like land when no rain has fallen for a long time. The earth becomes dry, fruitless and cracks open. In a drought the air is heavy with oppressive heat and people become lethargic and lazy. The same thing happens in the kingdom when there is a shortage of Spiritual "rain”.
I am sure you agree that in our day and in our lives we need the showers of blessing to fall upon us!
Note in our text for today four important things regarding the coming of Showers of Blessings.
I. Sovereign Sender
Only God can send the heavenly downpour upon His people. You can’t produce a spiritual downpour from heaven, nor can any preacher or minister of the gospel do so. But, does God really want us to experience true awakening?
A. God loves to send the rain
Our text reveals that God desires to send the downpour of blessing upon His people. He never desires for us to walk in the desert places when it comes to the experience of His presence. Sure, we may go through hardships and trials as part of His plan, but He does not wish for us to walk through these things alone or without a personal awareness of His blessing and power.
B. God has sent the rain
History reveals that God has poured out His Spirit upon His people in the past. The greatest of all such experiences was that of Pentecost. Yes, Pentecost was a one-time historical event, but the Lord meant for that to be a picture of His people doing His work in His world. The Spirit of God dwells in us, but that does not mean that He fills us. He may reside in us without us allowing Him to reign in us. If we aren’t experiencing the fullness of His Spirit, we need to look at where we are in our walk with Him. He loves to send spiritual rain and He has proven that in the past.
We could talk today, if we had time, of the Great Awakenings that have happened in America. There have been times when God’s Spirit swept across our land, bringing thousands of people into the kingdom within a period of months. Can God do that again? Yes! A thousand times, Yes! He has done and He can do it again.
C. God will send the rain again
In our text today, God promised His people that He would send the rain of His blessing down upon them. He will do this again – somewhere – some time – why not here and why not now - why not upon us?
II. Special Seeking
The Lord has said, “Seek me and you shall find me.” Certainly, one of the reasons that spiritual blessings are not showered down upon His people is due to a lack of desire. Note first, the need for…
A. Supplication
It was St. Augustine who declared, “God is more anxious to bestow His blessings on us than we are to receive them.” How true that is. But, how can we fall in line with God’s desire to send the heavenly rain upon us? We must pray.
Every person here today who is remotely familiar with the Bible knows the passage from 2 Chronicles 7:14: “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 I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Now, listen closely. There are those who think we need a moral revival. They complain about all the sin in the world and how bad society is. God’s judgment begins at the house of God. It is not the world that needs to change, it is US! We are to pray, and turn from our wicked ways, then God will hear and heal. Honest prayer about our own failings, along with a desire for God to do something in our presence, is the need.
B. Expectation
We must also have expectation, if indeed we seek God’s showers upon our lives. In our passage today, God promises the showers of blessings upon His people. It is important to know how profound that promise is. The Hebrew word for “shower” in this passage means to rain violently, to pour down in torrents of rain. This promise is not for droplets but for a drenching. We must believe that God can do what He promised.
Admit the need, alter your walk and assume that He will do what He says – that is what is required.
Now, to understand how possible the showers of blessings are, we need to consider the…
III. Super Source
When the source is unlimited, you never have to worry about the supply.
A. Limitless Supply
I read somewhere that there are over 3,100 cubic miles of moisture in the atmosphere around the earth at all times. There is enough water in the air that if God decided to let it all drop on the earth at one time, the driest and remote desert on earth would be flooded. There is enough water to drop one inch of rain across the entire surface of the earth at any given moment, if God wanted to do so.
Did you know that every year a layer of the ocean fourteen feet thick is picked up by evaporation and carried away to be dropped as rain? That is a lot of water!
Now, let’s apply this spiritually. God's hand is not shortened that he cannot save! All we must do is meet his conditions and the rain will fall! The supply of spiritual blessings that God has in His hand right now is beyond any known need on the earth. We must have the faith to believe that God wants to bless and has the wherewithal to bless us beyond our wildest imagination.
That’s not all, think about God as the…
B. Loving Supplier
God does not sit in Heaven hoarding up the blessings like a miser who is afraid to share what He has. God loves us and wants to bless us, but God is also just. He has established some clear-cut laws by which He works. Only when we meet the conditions will he pour out the Spiritual rain upon us!
The source of spiritual blessings is sure when the saints are situated properly.
Now, look at the…
IV. Spreading Success
Note in our text that God speaks of His “hill.”
A. Starts at an Altar (church)
The altar of God is set upon a hill. You can look at this in New Testament terms as the Church. We are a city set on a hill. Each Christian is a light reflecting the Light of the world. God always begins His revival blessings, His showers of blessings, with His own people. He wants to work in us all that is necessary to bless our lives and work for Him in this world.
Now don’t miss this – God does not bless us just so we can feel blessed. Note that His blessings…
B. Spread to the Valley (world)
God blessings on the mountain to spread it to valley. The world lacks what God desires them to have very often because God’s people are not filled with His Spirit and power.
We can’t do God’s work in our power. We must be endued from above. There are many of us who wish to see our loved ones and friends saved, but we feel powerless to reach them. We want to see our communities reflect God’s grace but what can we do? I’ll tell the answer – get under the spout where the glory comes out. Pray for the heaven showers of blessings to come on you and on your churches. Pray for this to being in YOU. Admit that your need is great and you are impotent to do God’s work in your strength. Call for the showers of blessings to fall.
Conclusion
The Rev. Carl Boberg of Mosteras, Sweden, was walking one day when it began to rain. He walked for two miles in the shower and while he walked in that downpour words started to come to him. He went to his home and penned the words which have been love by Christians all over the world.
"O Lord, my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds thy hand have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the Universe displayed.”
Under the showers of rain his heart was moved to new appreciation of who God is and what He has done for him. We must get under the divine showers if we expect to develop spiritually and see God do what we know He can do and wants to do!
Hosea 10:12 states, “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for [it is] time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”
My dear friends, it is time to seek the Lord till He comes with the showers of spiritual rain upon us. In Zechariah 10:1 we read, “Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; [so] the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.”
