…let the rain come!

           I heard the following song yesterday morning.  I have been hitting repeat on this one since then.  My friends, listen to the new Christian music that is coming out.   It is not merely music, but the heartbeat of our Father and what He desires to do on the earth.  He speaks through the arts.             

           This song speaks of where our heart is.  We have been waiting in Cairo.  This is a place that often feels like a desert.  It kind of looks like one, but it is more than that.  We often feel like we are like the Israelites, waiting, just waiting to get to the Promised Land that we know the Lord wants to bring the people of Cairo to.  As it turned 2008 I sensed for my life and for Cairo that it would be a year of “new beginnings”.  It turns out that 40 years ago was the height of the civil rights movement in our country and in Cairo.  Martin Luther King was killed in 1968, forty years ago.  Throughout scripture God moves in 40 year time periods.  Our address at our center is actually 2008 Martin Luther King Drive!           

            There has been a new steadfastness and perseverance in my spirit.  I now know for sure that I will not leave this “desert” until I see the rain.  I do not know how much of God’s harvest I will see in this city, but I know I will see the beginning.  We are waiting.  I am waiting.  The rain of God that I am talking about will open hearts to Him.  His Holy Spirit wants to dwell here.  The rain will till the soil here.  God will bring His people to the Promised Land.  Are we ready?  I am.  We are.           

           It just so happens that it is raining ice right now as I type this…odd, or is it?!  

“Oh, I’m waiting in this desert, just waiting for the rain.  Oh, but I won’t leave this desert until I see the rain.  And I’m waiting in the wilderness of promises yet fulfilled.  Oh, but I won’t leave this wilderness until I see the rain.  I’m waiting for the rain.  Oh, I’m waiting for the rainI’m just waiting for the rain.  Oh, I’m waiting for the rain.  For I have heard the story told of a prophet who prophetized.  Of the rain that would come in the middle of a drought of a sign of the rain to come.  And though years have come and years of gone.  We’re still waiting for the rain.  Oh, but I can see the clouds gathering now.  Are you ready, are you ready for the rain?  Open up the heavens and let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.  Open the heavens and let it rain, let it rain, let it rain“ “Let it rain God, let it rain…let it rain…”  

 -Misty Edwards (unplugged cd, for those that are not familiar with Misty, check her out, God truly speaks through her music.  Much of it is of the time we are in right now.)  

^“Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;
    his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
   as the spring rains that water the earth.”–           Hosea 6:3 

“…for waters break forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert;  The burning sand shall become a pool, And the thirsty ground springs of water…And a highway shall be there, And it shall be called the Way of Holiness;  The unclean shall not pass over it.It shall belong to those who walk on the way;  Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; They shall not be found there, But the redeemed shall walk there.And the ransomed of the Lord shall returnAnd come to Zion with singing; Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; They shall obtain gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”–           Isaiah 35:6b-10 (you should really read ALL of it!)

(A friend e-mailed this scripture to me a couple weeks ago saying that it is encouraging to people in a “desert”.  That morning, we had just been praying for the redeemed in Cairo!)