Inspirational Thought 3

What is Delaying the Latter Rain?

Excerpted from
sermon #0426

 

"At that time the 'latter rain,' or the refreshing from the presence of the Lord, will come, to give power to the loud voice of the third angel, and prepare the saints to stand in the period when the seven last plagues shall be poured out" Early Writings, page 86.

 

We must have the latter rain to prepare us for the time of Jacob's trouble and the pouring out of the plagues. But what must we have to prepare for the latter rain? That is what I want to study.

 

"God leads His people on, step by step. He brings them up to different points calcu­lated to manifest what is in the heart. Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. . . . Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation" Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, page 187.

 

This says God leads His people step by step. Is that the way He has led you? He has led me that way for many years. The sorrow of my heart is that I have been so slow in letting Him take me from one step to another.

 

Think of the steps you took in the weeks or months before you were baptized, looking toward membership in the remnant church. Think of how many changes came into your life. How many of you changed... the day you observed as the Sabbath? How many of you made some changes in your diet? How many of you made some changes in your dress? How many of you made some changes in your amusement? How many of you started to pay tithe? I could go on with a long list, and that is a lot of changes to make.

 

How many other changes have you made since you were baptized? It would be too bad to discover that some of us have made some changes that has made us closer to the world now than the day we were baptized. That would be serious.

 

If we have picked up any idol that we once had broken, and mended it, and put it back upon the shelf, that would be too bad.

 

It is heaven's plan to get us ready for the latter rain which is to get us ready for Jacob's trouble, which is to get us ready for the last battle and the coming of Jesus. 

 

It is heaven's plan that we shall keep taking steps. They do not stop when we are baptized. They do not stop until we see Jesus coming in the clouds. Every day we are to become more like Him. We are to become less like we were and more like we shall be. It is a challenge.

 

I was holding some meetings in the Masonic Temple in Oakland, California some years ago. A woman and her daughter came to those meetings week after week, and changes began to come.

 

They began to keep the Sabbath. They joined my baptismal class. The jewelry came off. They were drinking in the truth and thanking God.

 

One night I noticed this woman and her daughter were not there. We had presented in the previous baptismal class the tithe. It touched the pocketbook which lies close to the heart in many people.

 

Although they had accepted the Sabbath and made many changes in their thinking, when the word of God touched their pocketbook, they said, This is as far as we go. Of course, they began to backtrack. They began to go down the steps instead of up.

 

It happens within the church as well as on the threshold of the church. Many a soul comes to some statement in the Spirit of Prophecy that if he would accept it would mean a change in his life.

 

He looks at it and says, My, does it say that?

 

And unless his heart is with Jesus, and he is wanting to climb those steps and climb them fast, he may go to this one and that one to try to find an excuse for evading the statement.

 

If you will look hard enough and long enough, you will find someone who will agree with you that some statement does not mean what it says. It doesn't make any difference what subject it is. Yet it is the solemn testimony on which the destiny of the church hangs.

 

Those who come up to every point and stand every test, be the price what it may, have heeded the true witness. They will receive the latter rain and be fitted for translation. We are in the training period now. The real battle lies ahead. God's people are getting ready. And He is going to have an army so fully committed to obedience to Him that anything He tells them to do, they will do it at once. We need to foster that spirit of prompt obedience.