"People of Zion, shout with joy..." Joel 2:23-27 (VOICE)

This prophecy of Joel speaks in two ways. This portion is interesting because it speaks of what is called “latter rain” where the natural speaks of the spiritual.

The Lord tells Zion to “shout with joy and happiness in…your God” Why?  Because God has ended the drought, there was a natural drought and spiritual drought.  The natural drought was the parched land where nothing was growing for many years, the spiritual drought was the absence of the word of God to the people for many years. 

God then says that “He has poured down heavy rain, autumn, and spring as before (the drought).”  The question that is raised for me is why the drought in the first place if God caused it and controls it, why now come in abundance and make up for it?  for what purpose? 

When God withholds His voice or His presence from a people it isn’t punitive to punish, it is to create a hunger and a thirst for Him that was missing or forgotten.

God never punishes us for forgetting Him, it is when we forget His mercies that He reminds us in natural circumstances that He is our provider for all things.  In fact, because God is just, He compensates us for the lean times of our suffering when we had little resource by giving us more than enough, an abundance to let us know that He loves us and He is our strength.  He always tries to remind us who He is, and who we are.

Joel is pointing out that this is a clash of two kingdoms, natural and spiritual, and one affects the other in dramatic ways. The locusts represent demonic destruction that blows into our lives from time to time to steal our resource. 

Jesus has reminded us that in His kingdom we are set as Kings and Priests unto our God, so we must recognize when we rule and reign with Jesus in His heavenly kingdom there are invading armies that intentionally come into our sphere of influence which try to defeat and disable us, it is these demonic influences that we must overcome with God’s resource.  In our case, it is either the attack of the mind or a physical attack on our bodies regarding our health.  We have resource which is the Word of God to speak the truth of the kingdom over these attacks and claim victory in Jesus for healing and for protection over our thoughts.

Our demonic enemies are an organized armada which are arrayed against us, we cannot approach them haphazardly for they have a claim against us through the sin of Adam, we must be clear in our defense strategy, and we must have the whole armor of God to withstand them and defeat them by canceling and revoking their claims against us with the higher claim of Jesus Christ that nothing formed against us will prosper.  Jesus Christ is over all other claims.

These attacks fall away because they cannot stand against the claim of Christ has upon our lives.

The autumn/spring rains (or latter rains) spoken of in the Joel 2 prophecy are the outpouring of the knowledge of God and the holiness (separateness) He desires for all people so that they may praise Him and partake of His resource upon the land. 

The Old Testament has many examples of Israel which was beset by invading armies which tried to defeat them, it is when Israel depended upon the Lord’s resource that they were successful in their battles and victory ensued.  When they trusted in their own strength and forgot the Lord they were defeated and overrun.

The New Testament brings out the spiritual component of  these stories and tells us who Jesus Christ is, and who we are in Him.

We are now literally in a time of Autumn rain where we live in California, God had ended the drought in our land which has gripped California for many years.  California has been overrun by many demonic entities which have brought destruction to our land during the drought; Shootings, racial injustice, crime, violence, abuse, etc.  There have both liberal and conservative ideologies and solutions to address these problems which only God could solve.  We now have a resource that God has poured out to us, that resource is the revelation of Jesus Christ and His kingdom.

Do we stand in the resource we have been given in Christ, or do we look to ourselves for political solutions to our spiritual problems?  As a people, we need an awakening to the things of God at the heart level.

There is a benefit to awakening to the things of God, He has promised to restore (or compensate) us for everything that was taken from us during the time of drought.  The added benefit is that our shame among the nations will be removed if we come to Him, and He will prove Himself to be the God who is in our midst.

This prophecy of Joel 2 goes on in verses 28-31 to be fulfilled in the New Testament 2nd chapter of Acts when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples who were gathered in the upper room who received the of the Holy Spirit in His fullness.  People are empowered by God to do miraculous things.   

However, the part of the prophecy at the top of this post was before that transpired to prepare the people and the land for what was about to happen...God shows up!

Be Blessed;

Stephen Barnett