The Drought Is Over
“He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; there He brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could dwell.”- Psalm 107:35-36
The other day as I was driving in my neighborhood, the Holy Spirit used a growing trend to deliver a powerful and promise-filled “word of the Lord” to us in this season. As I was going down a certain street there were six straight homes which had their front yards landscape cultivated to better fit the California climate. These yards once adorned with grass lawns had been replaced with special gravel, pebbles, dirt pathways, and drought-tolerant plants. These landscapes were just as pleasing to the eyes, but more importantly are highly practical in lowering costs and conserving water. Basically, those who have chosen to go to this model have done so to better prepare for and deal with DROUGHT.
As I looked around at these landscapes, the Lord spoke to my heart, “The Drought is Over!” Please know, that there is nothing wrong with a homeowner changing their physical landscape to address the dry lands that we live in. However, in the spiritual realm we are not called to prepare for drought, rather we are to be a people of faith, boldness, and hope who prepare for rain! The promises of God are super-amazing, wide-reaching, and long-lasting. His promises speak of His love for us, His care for us, His protection over us, His provision to us, and His presence with us. There are promises that speak to…
The DAILY NEEDS we have such as food, clothing, and shelter.
The DEEP DESIRES of the human heart such as getting married, having children, owning a home, getting into a certain school, getting a certain job, having solid friends, and seeing family members saved.
The DIVINE PLAN of our heavenly father where people would be saved through grace, would live in His love, and would be filled with good works.
In the midst of all God’s faithfulness and goodness there are some which I like to call “Eternal Covenantal” promises. This means that they emanate from the fullness of God’s nature and they extend beyond a present season and pressing need. They are constant (in the present age and the age to come) reminders, evidences and blessings from the Lord to the one who puts their trust fully in Him. One of the signs of these types of promises from our Good, Good Father is that they are found in prophetic form in the Old Testament, found in the promises uttered by Jesus in the Gospels, and are vividly pictured and eternally placed in the book of Revelation. This idea of a person being filled with living water and being immune to the drought is woven throughout the Word of God.
Jeremiah 17:7-8- “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
John 4:13-14- “Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Revelation 22:2- “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations.”
The Holy Spirit is calling us to believe beyond our hardships and the hardness in the land, to hope for His rain to be poured out upon us. The person who by faith and by the Spirit prepares for rain is the one who does not allow their lives to be defined or their disposition to be affected by what they are going through, but press on, praise on, and prepare on! For example, the one who is looking for a job does not live in a “drought mode” of doubt and joylessness when a company says no or the phone does not ring; the person who needs some true friends does not allow for a pity party of loneliness, but is looking for opportunities to connect with people and is praying for God to cross paths with someone like-minded; the individual who is looking at a financial need has no reason to feel uncovered or give place to the weight of worry, rather they see their huge need as an opportunity for God’s glory to be revealed rather than their great demise to be realized.
As you take hold of this word for the places in your life that seem dry and devastated by the drought, begin to prepare your heart for a river of life, a shower of blessing, and a well of goodness. May your life be flooded by what God’s servant Ezekiel once prophesied in his letter in Ezekiel 34:26, “I will make them and the places surrounding My hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.” Allow faith to have you see the rain clouds forming; allow joy to have you praising God for His soon-coming answer; and allow hope to usher you into the wet and wonderful day of the Lord!