Early & Latter Rains - Pt. 3

     This is a word of preparation given at a recent Chronos Ministry weekly meeting. We’ve seen in this study of the early and latter rains that they are not based on the physical rains in Israel’s natural harvest cycle of one year. Instead, spiritually speaking the early and latter rains span the one harvest cycle of the earth, which is the 3,000-year span of time of the last Days in God’s prophetic timetable of His plan of redemption.
       We know these rains are connected to the outpouring of God’s Spirit. We also know from Hosea 6:3 that they are connected to Jesus’ first and second coming. “He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth. This means the outpouring does not come before Jesus appears, but after He appears.   Each outpouring has a time-specific purpose, empowering believers of that time to complete the task at hand. In short, the latter rain is very different from the early rain because it has one component that is extremely different.
        The first outpouring, the early rain on the Day of Pentecost, came to empower Jesus’ disciples to continue His ministry of preaching the Gospel of salvation to all the world and overcoming Satan and his spiritual forces in the heavenlies with signs, miracles, and wonders following.
       The second outpouring, the latter rain that shall follow Christ’s second coming at the rapture, is likewise crucial in fulling God’s plan of redemption. Yet very few Christians understand its importance because they do not know the “one thing” that we are to consider and apply when it comes to understanding the times and the seasons of God’s plan. “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 2:8).
       It, too, is an outpouring and anointing from God to not only preach the gospel but to conduct natural warfare as well. When Jesus comes again, it is not only to gather His Body, the Church, His Bride to take us to Heaven, it is also a timely response to what is happening in Israel. The Antichrist and his coalition of Middle Eastern armies are invading the nation. Why? Because Israel had rebuilt its temple and resumed the animal sacrifices, having been deceived by their leaders that Jesus is not the real Messiah. God already has His temple made of stones. “You also [the Church], as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:5). God allows the invasion to bring His people to repentance.
            This end-time conflict shall escalate into what could be called World War III. When Jesus comes, He shall stand on Mt. Zion, splitting the mountain and making a miraculous Red-Sea type of escape for Israel. The latter rain outpouring will empower them, as in the time of the Judges, to become mighty men and women to defeat their natural enemy. This is why Zechariah 10 prophetically reminds God’s people to ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain.
        End-Time Truth. This outpouring will come because Israel has witnessed Christ’s return, the one whom they pierced, and have finally made their blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord God confession of faith. They will see that Jesus is the Messiah and shall receive His salvation. As Rev. 12:7 confirms, they are now “in Christ” in that they not only keep the commandments of God, they also now have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They shall also be empowered to take over the earthly commission to preach the Gospel to all the nations.
        This is the mystery of blindness recorded in Romans 11 and the subsequent regrafting of Israel into the Branch, for the calling of God stands. They shall fight because the Lord is with them. As Zech. 10:12 declares, So I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in His name,”  
       The latter rain will come to the whole world after Jesus visibly comes again in the rapture and we’re taken up to Father’s House to be seated as the heavenly court as joint-heirs with Jesus. Whereas the early rains were typified by the Feast of Pentecost, the latter rains will be typified by the Feast of Tabernacles.