WHEN YOU ASK GOD FOR RAIN, YOU ARE ASKING FOR CLOUDS BECAUSE CLOUDS PRECEDE RAIN

DARK CLOUDS NATURALLY PRECEDE SHOWERS OF BLESSINGS

IT IS THE DESIRE OF GOD THAT YOU HAVE ALL YOUR NEEDS MET, THAT IS WHY JESUS CAME BUT YOU MUST FIRST SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD

MY PRAYER FOR YOU IS THAT GOD WILL GIVE YOU ABUNDANCE BUT LET YOUR ABUNDANCE NOT TAKE YOU AWAY FROM GOD.

Our text is 1 Kings 18:45. There is a lot also to learn from this verse even though we might just take one big point or one big aspect and that is that it says there were clouds, there was wind and great rain. The heaven was black with clouds and wind and then a great rain. Our God is all-knowing and His mercy is tender, Isaiah 40:28 tells us that there is no searching His understanding. God is full of understanding and His mercy is tender. In Psalms 69:16 when the Bible was describing the kindness of God, it called it “loving kindness”.

In Psalm 103:1-4, when He was talking about the reason why we should thank Him, in verse 4 he said His mercies are tender. In Joshua 10:9-11, God knows that if the rain coming down should come down in heavy blocks it can break our heads. When it rains, the water is coming down with force, if it is too big it can break heads. In Joshua 10:9-11, when He wanted to fight the enemies of Joshua as they were running away, He just sent down blocks as it were, breaking their heads.

When God wants it to rain, He uses the cloud to break the rain into small bits. Ecclesiastes 11:3 says when the cloud is full of rain, then it is released but it comes down gently. Because you see in this story, first the clouds, then the wind and then the rain. The Bible calls clouds the bottle of God (Job 38:37). Even though God is strong and mighty, He still shows he can handle people gently.

I remember a man who was a very strong man. When his wife delivered for days he couldn’t carry the baby. He said he was afraid that his hands might not be tender enough for this little being. He is a strong man, you don’t want to shake his hand because it is strong enough to crush your bones. But God as strong as He is, Psalm 68:34 even though He is strong He still demonstrates His gentility by the way of the cloud. God is strong but He can be gentle.

So in Isaiah 5:1-6, the Bible says that when God is angry He commands the clouds not to rain. He closes the bottle. In Zechariah 10:1, when you pray to God to send rain, you are actually asking Him to make clouds because no cloud means no rain. If you have ever been to nations where you have deserts, if you look at the sky the sky will be clear because no cloud means no rain. For the rain to fall, you must have the clouds.

Next, you have the wind. When the wind blows you know. Whenever the wind is blowing it implies:
• God is about to do something new. In Genesis 2:7, after God made mud in the shape of a man, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. That must have been a very gentle wind. Something that had never been before began.

• I am praying that the Almighty God will blow into your life and produce something good, something you have never known before.

In Exodus 14:1-20, the wind blew only this time it was not gentle. It was a very strong wind blowing . It created a way where there was no way before, split the Red Sea for the children of God to pass through. The enemies followed them and as soon as they got to the other side of the sea, the wind blew again and closed over the enemies. When the wind blows it could mean that a long time problem is about to end permanently.

• I pray that the problems that have been plaguing your life for years are about to end because the wind is about to blow.

In Ezekiel 37:1-10, in the valley of dry bones. God told Ezekiel to prophesy, he prophesied and the bones came together joint to joint and flesh came upon them. But there was no life in them and God said he should prophesy again, this time prophesy to the wind. The wind blew and the irreversible became reversed. An army that had been dead and forgotten stood up again like a mighty army. When the wind blows there is restoration, opportunities that have been lost are forcefully restored.

• I am praying again for those of you reading this that the wind will blow and there will be a mighty restoration of everything you have ever lost.

In 1 Kings 19:9-18, when the wind blows it is because God has something to say and He is just using the wind as an advance team. We will come to that, later on in the series. In Acts 2:1-4, when the wind blew in the Upper Room it is a significant way to say God is not just visiting, He has come to dwell. Because after the wind blew in the Upper Room, the Church was born and the wind is still blowing till today that is why the Church is marching on.

• I am praying that the Almighty God will visit somebody today and visit never to depart even as the wind blows.

In 1 Kings 18:38-39, the people had just fallen on their faces to say Jehovah you are the Lord. The wind must blow to confirm that Jehovah had come to reclaim his throne from Baal and then the rain. The rain is a very significant thing because when it rains, it means God’s anger is over. Deuteronomy 28:15,23 and 24.

• The Lord asked me to tell someone “I am turning away my anger from you today”.

God said when I am angry, I will stop the heavens from giving rain. The heaven will become like brass and the only thing that will be falling is dust. When the anger is over, rain will fall. In Amos 4:6-8, the Bible says God can cause it to rain on one part of a city and leave the other part dry. The part that has the rain will have plenty of food, the part that does not have the rain will be in famine. When it rains it means famine is over.

According to Deuteronomy 11:16-17, it is clear that when there is no rain, there will be no harvest and when there is no harvest that will be continuous famine and continuous famine will lead to destruction. According to Isaiah 65:10 when it rains the soil will respond and produce food for the eater and seed for the sower.

It wasn’t ordinary rain that fell in this passage, it was abundant rain. Abundant rain according to Deuteronomy 11:13-15 stands for fullness of harvest. According to Joel 2:23-27, that means overflowing blessings.

• May the almighty God give you showers of blessings.

Dark clouds naturally precede showers of blessings. It was a very dark cloud that was hanging over the widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17:8-15 when that widow said there is only one meal for me and my son to eat and then we die. I have told you before that what that widow was saying is after this meal, we are going to commit suicide.

The cloud was dark but you know that very day, it became showers of blessings. She didn’t have to ration her food anymore. It became showers of blessings. In 2 Kings 4:1-7, the cloud must have been very dark when they told that widow that if she doesn’t pay her debts they will take her sons but before the end of the day the clouds had turned to shows of blessing.

• Every dark cloud in your life today will turn out to be showers of blessing.

Abundant rain could be sent to check your foundation. In Matthew 7:24-27, the Lord spoke about two houses one built on rock and the other built on sand. The two of them looked fine until the flood came. One house stood, the other fell. In Deuteronomy 8:11-20, the bible warned that when you have eaten and you are full, when you are dwelling in houses you did not build, when things begin to prosper around you mightily, don’t dare forget that it is God who gave you power to get wealth.

If you dare forget you will become an ex-rich. In 1 Kings 11:1-11, prosperity came to Solomon and he started marrying wives. Not many, just 700 and 300 concubines and the Bible tells us that the wives turned his heart from God and God took the Kingdom from him. Prosperity is good but it can be to check your foundation.

In Luke 12:16-21, the Bible tells us the story of a man whose farm brought forth plentifully and he said “I have made it, now let me relax and enjoy for the rest of my life”. God called him a fool and he died that very night and God said that would be the case for anyone who prospers and forgets heaven.

It is the desire of God that you have all your needs met, Philippians 4:19 said so. That’s why Jesus came (John 10:10). God is interested in your prosperity but He said in Matthew 6:24-33 that you should seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and every other thing shall be added to you. Matthew 16:26 says your soul is far more precious than all the wealth in the world. My prayer for you is that God will give you abundance but let your abundance not take you away from God.