The Latter RAIN, the Latter REIGN & the Latter REIN

Everywhere you look, you can see:

Jesus ---Christ----Lord

1. For from him
2. and through him
3. and to him
are all things.

1. For all things orginate with him and come from him
2. all things live through him
3. all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in him. Rom. 11

The RAIN,
The REIGN &
The REIN

Exactly 58 years ago this month, there was a visitation of God that swept through the Christian world. It was not given to or understood by the unenlightend world but was to restore and begin to realign the Body of Christ with the purposes of God for this time.

The church had gone into the dark ages in the years before, and had for some time had a remnant coming back into their God-given inheritance. The Holy Spirit baptism was restored and poured out afresh in the Azusa St. meetings earlier in the century (1900's), but God had more to reveal and restore of Himself to the church. And I would dare to say without reservation that just such a truth is real for today.

My Mother came to God and was filled with the spirit with the gifts working in her during that great outpouring. I was there in the midst of all of it as a child, but my spirit man was not dwarfed as my body was at that time. It received and understood fully that the rain of that time was only the seed beginning of the great storm that would envelope the church first, and world at large, in such a deluge that there would never be "dry land" again.

And God said, Let there be a firmament [the expanse of the sky] in the midst of the waters; and let it separate the waters below from the waters above.

And God called the firmament Heavens. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be collected into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was done."
And God called the dry land Earth.." Gen. 1

The first man was created out of "dry land" ie. dust.

"The first man was from out of earth, made of dust - earth minded.

And just as we have borne the image of the [man] of dust, so shall we and so let us also bear the image of the [Man] of heaven." 1 Cor. 15

The Man of heaven is the "Rain" of God, the waters above. The glory of God that shall cover the earth as the[earthly waters] waters cover the seas.

Just as the earthly understanding covers the "seas" [all the peoples and nations] the "Rain" of God shall cover the earth [the man of dust] making him a well watered garden of God which brings forth much fruit.

The following is a report of the beginnings of the latter rain outpouring of God:

"Latter Rain Outpouring

“I have heard it explained like this, the latter rain, the latter reign and the latter rein; first the spiritual outpouring, then the spirit and Bride says come in power and authority and then the ingathering.”

I now quote from a report written by one of the ministries who was a student and who was present at the time the revival broke. "For many years great numbers of consecrated Christians had been fasting and praying for long seasons that God would restore the gifts of the Spirit to the Church. In 1947 in the month of September several of the brethren were led of the Lord to open Sharon Bible College in North Battleford, Canada. The opening of the school brought a great burden for fasting and prayer upon all of the students and the staff. This settled down until it seemed that not a day passed by for months unless some were in fasting and prayer. Some fasted for three days; some for seven; some fasted for ten days; some for two weeks; some for three weeks; some for thirty days; and one man fasted for forty days. After many weeks of serious fasting and prayer, came the eleventh day of February, 1948. I shall never forget those days as long as I live. How the Spirit of the Lord came down was indescribable!

"I remember a prophecy being given by one of the young women in the Bible School, saying that we were on the verge of a great Move of God, and that all we had to do was enter the door - but I said, 'Father, we do not know where the door is, neither do we know how to enter it.' It was on the twelfth day of February that God showed us by the Spirit how to enter in through this door. On that morning one of the teachers rose to prophesy. All of the students were kneeling. He prophesied by the Spirit of God for about half an hour. During the prophecy, He called the whole school to great reverence and said that we must walk in the fear of God. Then there was a warning that we should not mention to anyone what was transpiring at the school. As the prophecy went on, these earth-shaking words were given by the Spirit of God: "Remove the shoes from off thy feet for the ground upon which thou standeth is holy ground..at this time I will restore unto my church all nine gifts of the spirit, and they shall be given by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the prebytery." This we knew was according to the Word of God, but we had not been able to understand it until the moment when it was revealed by the Spirit of God. The prophecy went on to say, 'I will indicate from time to time by My Spirit they that should be called to be prayed over to receive their gifts of the Spirit.'

"The next day, February 13, we searched the Word of God practically all day to see if these things that had been prophesied were according to God's Word. We found that Paul had said to Timothy, 'Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery...' (Tim. 4:14). And, 'Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the laying on of my hands' (II Tim. 1:6). We found how that king Saul had received the gift of prophecy by having this gift prophesied to him by Samuel. We saw how Joshua had received the Word of Wisdom when Moses laid his hands upon him. We read how Paul wrote to the Romans, 'For I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift...' (Rom. 1:11).

"On the fourteenth day of February - I can never begin to properly describe the things that happened on that day. It seemed that all Heaven broke loose upon our souls and Heaven came down to greet us. The power and glory of God was indescribable. Men and women were prophesied over and received the various gifts of the Spirit. To some it was prophesied that they would receive the gift of healing and immediately they began to heal the sick. Discernment of spirits was given and the influence of evil spirits was discerned, and these evil spirits were cast out. Some received the gift of faith, and faith began to operate mightily in our midst. Men and women prophesied like a mighty river. Heaven had truly come down to meet us. We sang new songs in the Spirit, songs that had never been sung before. Soon the multitudes were coming to North Battleford from the north, the south, east, and west. A new day arrived for the people of God. This was only the beginning!

"Soon the Lord restored unto us the ministries of apostles and prophets. All traditions and man-made divisions (denominations) were left behind. The elect remnant of God from the four winds were beginning to come together, destined to go on to perfection, ultimately to be filled with all the fullness of God and finally to stand in the last day as manifested sons of God, prepared to rule and reign in His glorious Kingdom. From now on we would be known only as 'Christians.' The last day 'Move of God,' the restoration spoken of by all the holy apostles, had begun. Its power and influence would grow until one day it would fill the whole earth. God would require of us a level of consecration and dedication never before dreamed of. We ceased to build our own little man-made kingdoms and began together to build the Kingdom of God. That was how it all began. There was much more that we would yet learn over the years" -end quote.

The effect of the move of God that began in Canada in 1948 soon spread around the whole world, and there are few places that have not felt its power in one way or another. It swept across North America, and over the continent of Europe; and also through Latin America, far away India, New Zealand, Australia, Korea and portions of Africa. God has done a great and mighty thing, but this is only the beginning. A mighty army of saints is in preparation as overcomers to take the Kingdom and rule and reign with Christ over the nations. Events of immense magnitude and universal significance loom bright upon the horizon!

Every revival, or time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord began with a visitation from God expressed in a firstfruit people who tapped a high vibration of praise and worship. In 1949 in Tulsa, Oklahoma a minister had purchased a large tabernacle down town and preached every night for months to two or three women. One night before service, he sat in his office with his head in his hands, discouraged, not knowing what to do. Someone came running in shouting, "You won't believe this!" He arose and walked to the auditorium and saw the place was packed. A little woman far in the back began to prophesy through song, "This is the latter rain the Lord has promised unto thee." From that a worship broke forth in the people and for eight months, night and day, God appeared in one of the greatest visitations since the day of Pentecost. The newspaper reported that one night a neighbor sitting on his front porch looked over and saw fire on top of the building. He called the fire wagons, but there was no natural fire to be found. Something sat on that building as cloven tongues of fire and that is how the latter rain began in that city.

In those glory days at the beginning of the latter rain cloudburst, as the saints were gathered together by the Spirit and in the power of God, the entire gathering, whether ten or ten thousand in number, would all break forth into spiritual songs and psalms and hymns, and would all sing the same song BY THAT SAME SPIRIT. One brother related the example of a large congregation singing Handel's Messiah, from beginning to end, singing every word and every note in divine harmony, under the anointing of the Spirit, although no one in the congregation knew Handel's Messiah. The Lord also revealed that as He was able to teach a gathering of believers to sing the Messiah, repeating every word and note in correct harmony, SO IS HE ABLE TO TEACH HIS PEOPLE TRUTH AND A PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM. And when the Holy Spirit imparts truth to His people, that truth becomes LIFE which can never be taken away from them. Glory!

The Word of God is very clear in its teaching, and both Old Testament and New Testament history confirm the fact that all the great revivals and movings and manifestations of the Lord through past centuries were the result of prevailing prayer and intercession and fasting."