Do We Really Want God's Help?

2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people...then I will hear from heaven...”

This verse is all about God intervening in the lives of His people. God wants us to invite Him into the affairs of our lives. He loves His creation and desires to intervene in our needs. In verse 13 God offers a litany of circumstances that would warrant His intervention. In this text, the first is, “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain...” He is literally addressing a physical lack of water. However, I believe we can also apply this in a spiritual sense and spiritual water. Jesus referred to Himself as being living water and referred to all that would believe on Him as having rivers of living waters flowing out of their belly. He was talking about His flowing through the believer by the Holy Spirit to give spiritual refreshment to all who are willing to receive.

I believe that our world is in need of spiritual rain, spiritual rain flowing from the throne of God, spiritual rain consisting of the power and presence of God in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit! How long has it been since we have seen a genuine move of the Holy Spirit? I’m not talking about an exhibition of emotions or a series of religious meetings fraught with a supposed divine encounter. What I am talking about is an undeniable, unmistakable, genuine move of the Holy Spirit that affects not only our emotions but also has an overwhelming effect on the way we talk, behave, and live. A work of God that changes attitudes as well as actions. A work of God that changes people, changes churches, changes communities, cities, states, and nations. God help us to lay hold on such a move of God!

For such a long time, the Church has been void of that intense, sustained, convicting presence of God. We must admit that we have walked away from God’s perfect will for us and His Church. We have become satisfied with a trickle of spiritual water when He wants us to experience a spiritual river. He wants to lead us out into the deep! He wants to bless His Church by His presence and He wants to flow out through His children by the Holy Spirit to bring His refreshing to a dry and thirsty land.

I suggest that our world is in the midst of a spiritual drought. The Holy Spirit is calling the Church to bring life-giving water to the thirsty and dying souls in this world. We can only do that as we seek for and participate in God’s intervention for the salvation of lost souls. Jude said, “...pulling them from the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”

In our beginning text, after solidifying His relationship with His people, God challenged them to trust and believe in Him. He said in verse 13, “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain...” and in verse 14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Are we willing to do our part so God can do His part?