Back to Front part 3
This is one of my favorite pictures in the Bible: the former and latter rain. Or, in light of our upside down, backwards economy of the Kingdom, the LATTER and the FORMER rain. Let's look at it right side up first. "Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with win and oil" (Joel 2:23-24). The former rain is what makes the ground soft so you can plant the seed. The latter rain is what brings the harvest. The harvest of wheat, wine, and oil. Jesus is the corn of wheat that had to die in order to bring forth a great harvest. His blood is the wine of the New Covenant. His Spirit is the oil that was poured out on all flesh. It's all (always) pictures and pictures of Jesus. But this order--former THEN latter--was before the cross. Leading up to the cross. And then the harvest, of course, WAS the cross. So on THIS side of the cross, now that the Kingdom has come and the King is here, we can't keep going along in Old Covenant ways. We can't keep waiting for the harvest. Which is why Hosea 6:1-3 says, "Come, let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." The cross. After three days we were raised up in Him as He was raised up from the dead. He came as the daystar, as the dawning of the morning of the New Day. That's not something that's going to happen. That's something that happened 2,000 years ago. And that's why the order changed. On the cross it was the latter rain. The rain that brings the harvest. God poured Himself out on us. He gave us everything He had by giving us Himself. And now, when the former rain comes to soften our hearts, it's not coming so that we could GET something. We already have everything. The softening of our hearts by the former rain is what equips and empowers us to RECEIVE what we've already been given. To come into maturity. Not to BE perfected, because we are already perfect and complete in Him, but to begin to UNDERSTAND our perfection. Where it came from and what it means. We're not waiting for a harvest anymore. Remember Jesus told the disciples, "...The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few" (Matthew 9:37). We aren't waiting for anything. He did it all so we could get it all. And now we have it all. What is continually happening is a revealing of what we have. Of who we are in Him and who He is in us. The latter rain brought the harvest. The cross finished the work. And now when the former rain--the healing rain--falls it is simply washing away the surface stuff and revealing what is deep inside. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart... but no longer hidden. Christ IN you the hope of glory. REVEALED glory. Christ IN you coming OUT through you. Not getting anything, but experiencing, and enjoying, and sharing what we've got!