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And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain.
Zechariah 14:17
Several years ago, I went through a season of blessing that absolutely astounded me. God began to pour blessings upon me until I literally had no room to contain. It was a glorious time.
A few months after that, I asked God why He had blessed me so, when there were so many people I knew who prayed more, knew more scripture and were, quite honestly, better Christians and He said ‘because you worshipped me.’
That day I knew God had a place in His heart for worshippers. During those years and even before, I felt that I was born to worship God, it came so easy for me and it always had. Looking back I now see why my relationship with God has always been so intimate, it was the worship.
I have served the Lord for over 20 years now, and it has always been easy for me to worship God. Even when battles and trials came, it seemed my safe place was in worshipping Him. And worship, I did. It has brought me through many difficult times.
However, without my even noticing it, my times of worship had diminished during a difficult season in my life. I have no excuse; I got my eyes on the cares of this world and the battle that was shaking every part of my life. Yet, even through this time, the Lord gave me a word of prophecy saying I had His word and I would not go under, but would come out with plunder. I have declared that word and that word alone through all these months.
After a while, the Lord began to speak something to me; He said ‘no worship, no rain.’ I thought that was the strangest statement. But it just kept coming to me. One day, I thought ‘that can’t be scriptural.’ So I looked it up and it is scriptural. Zachariah 14:17 declares those who will not worship God, on them there shall be no rain.
I still did not know what God was trying to tell me fully but I knew He was trying to get something vital across to me. So, I began to meditate, no worship, no rain. A couple of days passed and I still did not have the revelation of it. I know from scripture that until I get the revelation of a thing, I cannot walk in it or have the fruit of it.
Yesterday, I was so frustrated, knowing God was trying to show me something but not quite getting it. I knew that He was telling me that my times of worship had been greatly lacking but I also knew that wasn’t the fullness of what He was saying. I keep meditating and studying that scripture.
Last night, when I was ready for bed, I decided to simply do what the scripture said and worship. For me, worship has always come from the heart; I had never worshipped by faith before. However, in walking through this season the past couple years, it seemed my heart worship was nowhere to be found. Therefore, I did what the word says to do: I had to worship by faith until the passion for worship returned.
Just 12 hours later God gave me the revelation of what He was saying to me.
Keep in mind my prophecy from God at the beginning of this battle: You have My word, you’ll not go under, but will come out with plunder. Now, in the natural, it appeared I had GONE under, but I kept saying what God said ‘I would not go under, but would come out with plunder.’
When God showed me the revelation about bringing it into the now, I began to confess ‘I did not go under, but I have already come out with plunder.’
When God was saying to me ‘no worship, no rain’ what He was saying was; if you don’t take time to worship me, all those seeds you have sown to bring you through this, all the word you have sown to enable you to come out with plunder, on those seed there will be no rain and if there is no rain, your seeds will not mature and will not be harvested, there will be no plunder without rain, and no rain without worship.
You see in Joel 2:23 the Bible says that He will give us the former and the latter rain together in the first month. If you do a word study on that scripture, you will find that rain means: the rain which matures crop, to glean, to gather, to take the plunder, to spoil the enemy, to gather everything.
Friends, according to the Jewish calendar we are in that ‘first month.’ The first month of the Jewish calendar is Nissan, we entered into Nissan on sundown last week.
Oh, I hope you can get this in your spirit. God was saying, ‘yes, you have seed in the ground, enough to give you plunder, but you have to have rain on that seed so I can bring it forth to maturity, and you can’t have rain without worship. Worship brings rain. Rain follows one thing; worship. We don’t have to pray for rain, we only have to worship.
Many of my friends have sown and sown. They have sown the word for years and they have sown financial seeds for years and have yet to see a harvest, here is the key, when you worship, God will send the former and latter rain and cause your harvest to come up quickly. The seed is already in the ground, it just needs water.
I think of our local farmers who had very little crop last year because of drought. It should not be that way. You see, if there had been rain, our farmers would have had enough crops to sell to prosper them for an entire year plus enough surpluses for them and their family to eat until next season. This is what God is talking about when He said we would have to clear out the old harvest to make room for the new harvest.
The rain causes the harvest to keep coming and coming. Showers of blessing.
Rain symbolizes the blessings of God. Are you one of those who have stood and stood on His word waiting on a breakthrough? Or have you stood and stood on a financial breakthrough and sown all you have? If so all your seed needs is water, it only needs the rain of God. Worship God and He will rain on your seed. I know this to be not only a truth but I lived it. One thing caused God to bless me that year, only one thing. I worshipped Him every day; from the depths of my soul I worshipped Him. Looking back, from the time I began to worship God to the time that I was walking in the fullness of His blessing was a very short time. It happened so quickly, because He hastens His word to perform it.
I encourage you today, worship God. If you don’t know how, begin by faith. When you worship God you are not thanking Him for what He has done, that’s praise. Worship is all about God. Tell Him who He is to you. Magnify His name. Call out His names. Talk about how wonderful He is, how mighty He is.
King David was a worshipper; you can find so many ways to worship God in the book of Psalms. I am telling you, He will move heaven and earth to move on the behalf of a worshipper, I know, He did just that for me.
