“Can You Hear the Rain?”

Pastor Jerry

1 Kings 18:15-20, 41-45 (NLT)

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Would you agree that every sound carries some sort of message? For instance, if your spouse slams the door, it probably carries the message of someone that is angry. Or, if you are a health worker and you hear a person gasping for breathe, it carries the message that the Covid-19 virus has disabled another person’s ability to fill their lungs with air.

Sound is simply vibrations in the airwaves that your ears pick up and translate into associated meaning.  The sounds signal something that is coming. I can’t see it, I can’t touch it, I don’t necessarily feel it – but, something is on the way. How do I know that the sound signals something is coming this way? Because it’s getting louder all the time, (the closer it gets the louder it gets). You can know rain is coming before you feel it falling on your head.

In our Bible lesson reading today it says Elijah looked up to heaven  and shouted … “I hear the sound of an abundance of rain…” and he spoke those words in a place and a time where there had not been one drop of water from the sky in more than three years. He looked up into the heavens and into a sky without a cloud and said, “I can hear the sound of rain.” Why did he say that? (Because in faith he could hear a sound only the Spirit can make.)

He heard a sound that meant something good is about to happen! God said to him to announce to the people it’s getting ready to rain, the rain is on its way, so Elijah announced, “I hear the abundance of rain coming.”

What does that mean to you today? Can you hear the rain? It may mean that somebody listening today to this message will hear the sound that God is sending. Showers of blessings are on the way.

I don’t know who I’m talking to who hears the sound of the Spirit today …but you’ve prayed, and you’ve called on the Lord. I come here today to tell you: God’s blessings are coming, the rain is coming; because God has already sent it even if you don’t see it.

Like Elijah, “I hear the sound of the Abundance of rain”: I don’t see any sign, (but I hear it). Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

“Can you hear the sound of rain?”: What is the rain to you? The rain is Gods power visiting your life in whatever area or areas that are in drought, or in lack, or that’s broken or empty. The definition of what is the rain to you is simply answered prayer. God’s gonna make it rain, even before you see it.

For every miracle (somebody has to pray). Elijah got himself in the birth position (head between his knees) and began to labor in prayer for what he heard in the Spirit.

Have you been praying? Elijah sent his servant out to look toward the sea for an answer. You have to get your eyes where God is …you do that by looking in the Word. His servant returns: I’m looking but I don’t see any evidence of an answer to your prayer. But Elijah just keeps on praying, he sends his servant back to look again, Elijah keeps on praying.

Delay is not denial (Moses was delayed 40 years before delivering the children of Israel, but not denied.) Elijah is praying: (head between his knees) prayer is serious business and hard work. Go back to the sea look again (which is like saying spend some more time in reading the Word and praying) then come tell me what you see.  On the 7th time the servant comes back with the report: Behold there arises a little cloud out of the sea. In other word: There was a little sign from the Word that came up to me.

All you need sometimes is a word from God that help is on the way.

 If you’ve got a Word from God you can make it through the storm.
If you’ve got a Word from God you can overcome the coronavirus pandemic.
All you need to hear is a word from God. It can seem to be a small Word.

That’s what happened to Elijah: He was told the cloud looks like a man’s hand (It didn’t look like much but Elijah’s faith grabbed hold of it). There’s something about faith that lets you see the greatness in little things:

Faith can see: A meal for a multitude in only a couple loaves of bread & a few fish..
Faith can see: A king in a simple smelly shepherd boy.

The servant saw a little cloud …but Elijah saw more …he saw (a river filling, ground soaking, drought busting rainstorm coming). I don’t care how big the problem may seem to you, or how long is has existed: The promises of God come in His timing and one little Word from God can set you free, and can change you forever. Jesus said: All it takes is faith.

Even a little faith like the size of a mustard seed and you can command mountains to jump into the sea and they will have to go. CAN YOU HEAR THE RAIN?

 Right now the Word from God is that the drought in your life is breaking and the rain is on the way: Can you hear the Rain? Somebody listening to this message hears the sound … Your spirit has been dry for so long, and you’ve felt so distant from the presence of God (but the Word of God is that that drought is breaking now, the wind is blowing and the rain of Gods supernatural presence is coming to flood your soul right now). Just open up and let it fall on you.

Ask God: To Send the healing rain. It’s time: You’ve been waiting; You’ve been praying. Can you hear the rain? The Rain is Here!

And while Elijah was praying the wind blew and the clouds turned black and the rain came.
Do you heard what God is saying to you? God wants to send you showers of blessings where you need it most.

Can you hear the rain? Will you receive God’s showers of blessings that are coming even when you don’t see them yet?