Devotions

A family in our church has a powerful testimony. The father had been abused, violated and beaten by a religious figure when he was young and he had burned with hatred for religion his entire adult life.

When he lost his job a few years ago, his wife started receiving aid from several services we offer to the families of our city. Later at Christmas, she became a volunteer, and then she made friends, and little by little, began attending church regularly.

I WILL NEVER SET FOOT IN A CHURCH AGAIN

A year later, when she was again volunteering during the Christmas distribution event, her husband warned her, “Feel free to go, but I will not pick you up! I will never set foot in a church again!”

At the end of her last day of volunteering, she called her husband and said, “Sweetheart, I’m so tired. Please come pick me up at the church.” For whatever reason, he reluctantly agreed. More than an hour later, she still hadn’t seen him so she started to be concerned for his welfare. Looking around the church, she found him in the sanctuary carrying a box of food!

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Well, I decided to come in and see all this for myself. They needed help so I’m going to stay for a little while longer, if you don’t mind.”

HE LOWERED HIS HEAD AND SOBBED

Two hours later, the couple got into their car in the church parking lot after seeing hundreds of families—the poorest of the poor—arriving at the church and receiving their baskets and gifts. The husband could no longer contain himself and lowered his head to the steering wheel and sobbed. His wife had never seen him like this.

Years of abuse at the hands of “religious” men who represented God streamed down his cheeks in those tears. He finally was able to say to his wife, “When I was a little boy, I loved to hear people talk about Jesus, and I wanted to help others like He did.”

This year their entire family volunteered at Christmas. They have become living stones, living epistles of His grace, read by all men, by the supernatural power of faith.

Claude Houde is the lead pastor of Eglise Nouvelle Vie (New Life Church) in Montreal, Canada. Under his leadership New Life Church has grown from a handful of people to more than 3500 in a part of Canada with few successful Protestant churches.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell upon a prepared people who “were all with one accord [of one mind]” (Acts 2:1). So, what does it mean that the people were of one mind? Simply put, mercy was flowing through them. Let me explain.

Consider those who were on the scene at Pentecost, people we revere today as church fathers. Some of these men had sinned grievously against the Lord and against their brethren. They all had to be forgiven and their sins covered, or the church never would have moved forward with the work the Spirit was about to do.

GRIEVOUS SINS

Consider Peter. He had blasphemed horribly, wounding Jesus as well as the other disciples. That church body forgave Peter, and they covered him so his past would never be held against him. Consider also James and John, the “Sons of Thunder.” They too had sinned grievously, offending their fellow disciples when they professed to be greater than the rest. They also were forgiven and covered.

In truth, anyone present that day might have said, “Hold it, Peter. Who made you the leader here? You denied Christ.” No one did that, because their hearts had been prepared through mercy. And they were ready to receive the Spirit when He came in the great outpouring at Pentecost.

ISSUES OF THE HEART

Beloved, this is why in Peter’s epistles his focus is on the issues of the heart. He knew firsthand all these things had to be cast out and forgiven, lest the Spirit’s work be hindered by any flesh. The same is true for Christ’s church today, we who are to receive His mighty harvest rain.

Will we hinder that work of the Spirit by failing to forgive? Or will we be prepared by allowing mercy to flow through us to others?

The devil knows what is written in God’s Word and he is determined to hinder the great harvest he knows is coming. He has unleashed a furious attack on the church, using every weapon he can to remove the peace of God’s people.

The gloom and fear hovering over every nation has left people feeling helpless. In America, courts have made laws that glory in perversions, all against the will of the people. The result is hopelessness and stress, weakening the spirit, and even causing physical sickness.

DOWNGRADING SIN

In God’s house, sin has been downgraded and hell discarded. Entire denominations are splitting apart over gay marriage. Meanwhile, evangelicals — those who are the supposed torchbearers of God’s Word — are placing their energies in movements that are not Christ-centered.

The Israelites in Haggai’s day were discouraged over the new temple they were building. Their work seemed so insignificant compared to the magnificence of the former temple. As they reflected on all God’s past glories, they wept with despair at the modest house before them. Haggai asked the people, “Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do ye see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?” (Haggai 2:3).

DO NOT COMPARE

Beloved, the same question applies today. You may recall great revivals of the past, where the Spirit fell powerfully and multitudes were being saved. Tell me, do you see the life of the church today as nothing compared to those past times?

I tell you, the word God gave Haggai for his church is meant for us today: “My spirit remaineth among you. . . . The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace” (2:5, 9).

The prophets — from Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel down to the minor prophets — reveal that in the last days God’s Spirit will once again fall on a prepared people. This event is referred to as the “harvest rain.” It is promised to be greater even than the “former rain,” which was the Spirit’s mighty outpouring at Pentecost.

This prophecy of a “last rain” refers to Israel’s two annual rains. Their seasons were opposite to ours today, with the former (or first) rain coming in the fall, watering the newly planted crops. This typifies what happened at Pentecost, when the “first rain” fell in a great outpouring of God’s Spirit. That rain watered the seed of the Word, and it grew and spread to become the worldwide church we see today.

NO HARVEST WITHOUT RAIN

Israel’s “last rain” came in the spring, ripening the crops just before harvest. Zechariah refers to this last rain, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days (see Zechariah 10:1).

Moses said there simply could be no harvest without another rain. The Lord said to Israel through him, “If ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments . . . I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil” (Deuteronomy 11:13–14).

WAKE UP, CHURCH!

Finally, Joel 2:21-27 gives us a vibrant picture of what it looks like when this harvest rain comes, saying, in effect, “Wake up, church! Look around you. What you see happening has been prophesied. It is beginning to rain, and the Lord has made the clouds bright and full of water. The Spirit is preparing all things for the last great harvest.”

In his first letter to the church, Peter bluntly speaks of the last days: “The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:7–8).

Peter also mentions the last days in his second letter, where he tells the church, “Shortly I must put off this tabernacle” (2 Peter 1:14). He’s saying, in other words, “God has shown me my time on earth is short.”

PETER’S MESSAGE OF WARNING

Peter’s message was meant for the New Testament church, both in the time he wrote it and for every succeeding generation of believers. It is a message of warning, as Peter prophesies the following:

“There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in [destructive] heresies” (2 Peter 2:1).

“There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

“[They will] walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government [the laws of the land]. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities” (2 Peter 2:10).

HASTENING THE DAY

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (2 Peter 3:10).

“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (2 Peter 3:11–12).