These are notes on the sermon, Release The Blessings Of The Latter Rain, preached by Pastor Joseph Prince on Sunday, 6 January 2019, at The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore. We hope these sermon notes will be an encouragement to you!
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2019 is the year of the latter rain! Get ready to experience a downpour of God’s manifested blessings in your life. If you’ve been waiting on Him for a breakthrough, let this be the year you reap an overflowing harvest from all your seeds of faith.
In this Vision Sunday message, you’ll see how this special season of the latter rain represents an unprecedented outpouring of God’s blessings on you.
We hope these notes will show you that this year, you can believe God for:
Let hope rise in your heart as you look forward to receiving God’s bountiful blessings in your life this 2019!
Pastor Prince gives us a word of encouragement: This is going to be our greatest year yet!
All the prophecies in the Old Testament about the first coming of Jesus have been fulfilled. And the prophecies about what will happen before His second coming are being fulfilled.
The prophecies about Jesus are always fulfilled.
There’s a prophecy that before His second coming, we believers will be raptured. We won’t die.
We’ll be caught up bodily and our bodies will be transformed into a glorious body like the one Jesus had when He rose from the dead.
It’s a body that transcends time and space.
The rapture will happen at the appointed time. We are living in the end times.
God works in times and seasons.
There are 2 words for “time” in Greek:
Every year, God has a special word for our church for the season we are in.
There is a season for everything.
When Jesus was 12 years old, He was perfect in His season. At that age, He didn’t preach to the rabbis and teachers. He asked them questions and listened to them. And the Bible says that “all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.” (Luke 2:46–47).
Jesus was perfect in every season. He is altogether lovely and beautiful.
The gospels are all about Jesus.
What is the gospel?
The gospel = the good news
The world is full of bad news. But we have good news. Our good news is that the Father sent his Son to die for our sins on the cross.
Before that, God sent the Ten Commandments.
The law was sent through Moses the servant, but grace and truth came through Jesus the Son (see John 1:17).
The law was not meant to justify man before God. In the Sermon on the Mount (see Matt. 5), Jesus unveiled the real standard of the law so that man could see that no one could keep it.
The laws of society only indict the action. The laws of God indict the heart.
All of us have broken the Ten Commandments. If not in deed, then in our hearts.
The law demonstrates to us that we can’t keep God’s standards.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus brought everyone to the end of themselves.
Only when people are at the end of themselves can they recognize their need for a Savior and receive the good news.
When Jesus was born, the angels declared that our Savior had come (see Luke 2:11). Not a lawgiver, but a Savior!
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
— John 3:16 NKJV
This is the gospel!
Jesus wasn’t murdered. He was given by God and sacrificed Himself. Our entire lifetime of sins was put on Jesus. All the judgment of a holy God fell on Jesus because He bore our sins.
God has no more anger or punishment for you if you believe in Jesus.
We still fail, but Jesus bore all our sins—past, present, and future. So today, God is righteous in making us righteous.
Now, there is only favor, good things, and blessings for you. Even when you fail.
This does not produce licentiousness.
Pastor Prince shares a testimony of a man who read his book, The Power of Right Believing, believed the gospel of grace, and his life was transformed.
Pastor Prince shows a video of the theme of the year and shares how God confirmed this word for our church many times at the end of last year.
There are 2 types of rain in Israel:
God uses the land of Israel—its topography, its seasons, its rains—to teach us. So while the Bible may seem to be speaking of natural things like rains, harvests, or crops, there are hidden spiritual truths for us to learn.
“Ask the LORD for rain in the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone.”
— Zechariah 10:1 NKJV
“flashing clouds” — In Hebrew, this means “lightnings.” The YLT version is more accurate: “They asked of Jehovah rain in a time of latter rain, Jehovah is making lightnings, And rain [in] showers He doth give to them. To each — the herb in the field.”
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The first mention of the latter rain in the Bible
“Then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’”
— Deuteronomy 11:14–15 NKJV
“I will give you the rain for your land in its season” — God sends rain in seasons. If it rains all year, there won’t be a harvest. In Israel, there are 2 times a year when rain falls: In autumn, the early rain falls, and in spring, the latter rain falls.
The early rain falls in the months of October and November, and it’s for cultivating the seeds when they’re first planted.
Back then, after the Israeli farmers planted their seeds, they prayed for rain.
This is different from how they used to farm in Egypt.
“For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.”
— Deuteronomy 11:10–12 NKJV
“the land of Egypt … where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot” — When they were in Egypt, the way they farmed was by hard labor, watering their seeds by foot. Water was dispersed using a system that required pedaling.
“the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares” — When God brought them to Canaan their promised land, they no longer depended on their old system of irrigation by foot. They depended on rain from heaven.
In Egypt, they had to look down at their pedals and see their own work. In Canaan, all they had to do was look up and see God work. They depended on Him for rain. They depended on Him to care for their land.
Pastor Prince encourages us to look up and depend on God for blessings this year. The world can look down and struggle using their own efforts, depending on their own smarts, talents, and strengths. But we will look up and depend on the Lord who cares for us.
What’s the meaning of rain for us today?
“Then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’”
— Deuteronomy 11:14–15 NKJV
Early rain — In the Hebrew, early rain is “yoreh,” which means “shooting arrows.” But another word for early rain is “moreh,” a derivative of the word “yoreh.” And “moreh” means “teacher.”
Latter rain — In Hebrew, latter rain is “malqosh.” The latter rain matures the crops and brings the harvest. It ushers in the time to “gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.”
The grain and the new wine — represent the bread and wine of the Holy Communion.
The oil — represents the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
What does this mean for us?
It means that this year, the latter rain will bring:
1. The manifestation of our healing.
If you have been taking the Holy Communion—the bread and the wine—and believing for healing over a certain part of your body, you will see the harvest of it this year.
The early rain happened during the time of the early church when every sick person who was brought to the church was healed (see Acts 5:15–16).
If that was just the early rain, then how much more the latter rain? This year, we will experience supernatural healing.
Zechariah 10:1 tells us to “ask the LORD for rain in the time of the latter rain.” Even though we know that it is God’s will, it is our part to ask for it. Pray for it.
When we go to the hospital to pray for someone, we don’t pray only to soothe or comfort their souls. No, we go to the hospital to pray and see a miracle from God! We expect God to intervene in that impossible situation because “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).
We need to pray for the manifestation that God has promised. Don’t just let it remain wishful thinking that the promise of God will manifest. Ask God for it!
Ask God on behalf of your family, on behalf of your church. That’s what prayer is. That’s what intercession is.
Besides healing, the latter rain also brings:
2. An increase of anointing.
Another part of the harvest in Deuteronomy 11:14–15 is the oil, which represents the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Oil makes things smooth and easy. When a door is creaking at its hinges, you apply oil. When gears are not working as smoothly as before, you apply oil.
When God’s anointing is on you, things become renewed, supple, smooth-flowing, easy. Things go smoothly for you even though you don’t have the experience or smarts to make it happen.
Pastor Prince shares about times when the anointing was upon him as he was preaching and gave him the ability to prophesy what would happen later in the year. There were times he prophesied financial downturns and recovery when the experts were saying otherwise. And the prophecies God gave him came to pass.
There are 2 kinds of anointing:
1. The anointing upon you:
When the anointing was upon David, he killed Goliath with one slingshot (see 1 Sam. 17:50). When the anointing was upon Samson, he killed the lion with his bare hands (see Judg. 14:6).
The anointing upon you will cause you to do things far beyond your natural ability. Beyond your experience, beyond your education level, beyond your IQ.
2. The anointing within you:
The anointing within you leads you to make wise decisions.
“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.”
— 1 John 2:20 NKJV
The anointing within you is a prophetic anointing that leads you in your daily life and decisions. It’s a knowing on the inside that leads you in what to do, what to say, whom to trust. It’s a knowing not to rush into this or that contract. It’s a knowing of whether to go ahead with a decision or hold back.
God’s going to increase this anointing this year.
So in this year of the latter rain, God is going to bless the grain, the wine, and the oil. It will be a year of manifestation of the power of the Holy Communion and the anointing.
“Ask the LORD for rain in the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone.”
— Zechariah 10:1 NKJV
“showers of rain” — the Hebrew word for “showers,” is “geshem,” which actually means “torrential rain.” It refers to a heavy downpour.
The root word of “geshem” means “manifest.”
So we will see God manifest in a palpable, tangible way this year.
In the Old Testament, God traveled with His people as a pillar of cloud (see Exod. 13:21). He never traveled with them in the form of rain.
A cloud “manifests” itself in the form of rain. When it rains, we can feel and experience the water that was in the cloud. The whole time God traveled with His people in the wilderness, He was in a cloud. He never rained on them. He never manifested Himself to them in that way.
But this year, He will manifest Himself to us.
In this year of the latter rain, we will see, feel, touch, experience the presence and power of God in a way that the people in the Old Testament never experienced before.
Hundreds and thousands of tons of water are released from the clouds through rain. If all the water was released at one time, it would kill people, destroy buildings, damage everything it fell on.
But in His kindness and mercy, God releases water on the earth in rain. Rain that can drop on a little flower and not destroy it.
This is how God gives us His Word too:
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
— Isaiah 55:10–11 NKJV
“For as the rain comes down … So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth … it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” — When God’s Word, His pure concentrated wisdom, falls on us like rain, it will cause us to prosper. Just like the rain causes the seeds to bud and the trees to blossom.
The world will grow darker and darker this year. But for the church, it’s going to be a year of the latter rain. We will receive showers of blessings. It will be a time of the harvest, a time of manifestation of blessings.
These blessings are for the people who gather corporately as the church. Keep on coming to church. Don’t just come to church on Christmas or Resurrection Sunday.
“that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.”
— Deuteronomy 11:21 NKJV
“your days and the days of your children may be multiplied” — “Your days” refers to both you and your spouse. God addresses husbands and wives as one. The blessing on the husband is for the wife and vice versa. So God says you, your spouse, and your children will have days that are multiplied! This means that you all will not die young.
Jesus died young, at the age of 33, that you would live long.
He was rejected so that you would be accepted.
He was punished so that you would be favored.
“like the days of the heavens above the earth” — The long days that God will give you and your family will be like days of heaven on earth. You will have days when you suddenly stop and think, “Wow, this is life. This is heaven on earth.”
God cannot lie. This is His Word!
Ask God for these family blessings.
God works with faith. He works with you asking Him.
Why is it important to pray and ask God for the things He’s already promised? Because then you’ll know that when it comes to pass, He answered you. You’ll know that God is your source.
God wants you to covet the blessing of the Lord in every area of your life.
The last commandment in the law tells you not to covet: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Exod. 20:17).
But there’s one thing that God says we SHOULD covet—“covet earnestly the best gifts” (1 Cor. 12:31 KJV). God wants us to covet the gifts He has in store for us!
He wants you to ask for rain in the time of the latter rain!
If you’re wondering whether you matter enough for God to bless you, Zechariah 10:1 says that there will be “grass in the field for everyone.”
God loves it when you hold on to His promises and ask Him to bless you. If you look to Him—not to man or to yourself—God will get the glory.
In Daniel 9:1–19, Daniel started praying for the release of God’s people from captivity when he read the prophet Jeremiah’s words and realized that he was living in the time when God promised that Israel would be released.
He knew it was the time. And he prayed for it to happen.
In Ezekiel 36:35–37, God declared that He would restore Israel to be like the Garden of Eden, and He would increase their population. Yet He also said, “I will also let the house of Israel inquire of Me to do this for them.”
God loves it when we align ourselves with Him and pray for the blessings He wants to give us.
When you read a promise in the Word like Isaiah 58:8, “...Your healing shall spring forth speedily…” tell the Lord to do it for you, do it for your family!
Pastor Prince encourages us to keep coming to church because there’s a special corporate blessing that God reserves for the people who gather together.
“I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing.”
— Ezekiel 34:26 NKJV
“I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing” — We the church are built on God’s hill, the hill of Zion. This Scripture is about the church.
The church is not a building; it is the gathering of God’s people. Wherever we meet, whether in a building or on a field, we are the church.
“there shall be showers of blessing” — The phrase “showers of blessing” actually refers to torrential rain, heavy downpours, copious showers.
When you are drenched in the rain, you look different. Your clothes are soaked, your hair is soaked. The rain changes your appearance.
This year, when you experience the latter rain, you will look different in a good way. People around you will see it. Your relatives will see it.
Pastor Prince shares how he and all the pastors go through challenging times just like everyone else, and they too must choose to believe that they are highly favored by the Lord and that good things are coming their way.
“Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in the LORD your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you—The former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame.”
— Joel 2:23–26 NKJV
“The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.” — God promises that our harvest this year will overflow! A harvest can be meager, but ours will be overflowing.
Wheat, vats of wine, and oil are all symbols. The wheat (bread) and wine represent the Holy Communion.
We need to take the Holy Communion with a real revelation of it, not as a ritual.
As you are taking the Holy Communion, pause and think about what Jesus went through for you.
In the Old Testament, when animals were killed as a sacrifice for sins, they were never tortured. They were killed swiftly. But Jesus, our true sacrifice, was scourged and beaten.
Why?
Because:
“But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.”
— Isaiah 53:5 NKJV
By that stroke upon His back, your cancer died.
By that stroke, your diabetes was defeated.
By that stroke, your youth is renewed.
“His flesh shall be young like a child’s,
He shall return to the days of his youth.”
— Job 33:25 NKJV
The Holy Communion has to be a revelation to you. Meditate on it, listen to sermons about it, read the book. When you are partaking, don’t rush. Take time to think about what you are partaking of—the body and blood of Jesus—and what it really means.
We have seen God’s healing power flow many times in church and we have seen people healed instantly. But people are also healed incrementally.
There is an incremental harvest of healing that comes with the Holy Communion.
Ps Prince shares a testimony from a Taiwanese lady who consistently took the Holy Communion with her 85-year-old father who had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in the hospital for overdosing on medicine. After each time they partook of the Holy Communion, her father’s condition improved until he was discharged from the hospital (to the doctor’s amazement)!
This year, there will be a manifestation of healing by means of the Holy Communion.
Keep coming to church. Honor the Lord by giving Him 1 day out of 7 days. When you give God the first fruits of your time, He will bless all your other days.
Don’t try to work on the 7th day to provide for yourself or make up what you’ve lost in years past.
As you come to church and worship the Lord corporately, He will fight your battles for you.
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!”
— Psalm 133:1 NKJV
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“Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame.”
— Joel 2:23–26 NKJV
When the latter rain comes, God will restore the revelation of the Holy Communion, and He will also restore all the years you have lost.
Many of us have lost our years to the “locusts.” Locusts leave fields completely empty, destroyed, void of every green thing.
Joel 2:25 names 4 different locusts.
“Swarming locusts” — All over the world, farmers are terrified of swarming locusts. They come swiftly and suddenly and destroy everything in their path. If you’ve ever experienced something bad happen suddenly, if you’ve ever felt your life fall apart in one fell swoop, you were hit by the swarming locusts. This year, God will restore to you the years you’ve lost.
“Chewing locusts” — The chewing locusts represent things that have been stolen from you subtly and quietly. If you ever woke up one day and realized someone had underhandedly stolen your business, or you realized your health was fading slowly, that’s the work of the chewing locusts. This year, God is going to restore to you all that you’ve lost because of them.
The truth is that the people who stole from you, the people who cheated you—they’re not your real enemies. The real enemies are the locusts, and they are spiritual.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
— Ephesians 6:12 NKJV
The 4 groups of locusts in Joel 2:25 are actually the 4 ways the devil comes against us in Ephesians 6:12.
God can restore your years. He created time. He can restore and return to you the days of your youth.
“Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame.”
— Joel 2:23–26 NKJV
Before God causes your harvest of wheat, wine, and oil to overflow (healing and anointing), before He restores all the years you have lost, before you “eat in plenty and be satisfied,” God first gives you “the former rain faithfully.”
“He has given you the former rain faithfully” — In this verse, the Hebrew word used for “the former rain” is “moreh,” which can also mean “teacher.” And the Hebrew word for “faithfully” is “tzedakah,” which can also mean “righteousness.” So this phrase can also be translated to “He has given you the teacher of righteousness.”
The YLT version translates it this way: “And ye sons of Zion, joy and rejoice, In Jehovah your God, for He hath given to you the Teacher for righteousness, and causeth to come down to you a shower, sprinkling and gathered — in the beginning.”
What is the revelation of righteousness that God wants us to learn?
Righteousness is a gift (see Rom. 5:17, 2 Cor. 5:21).
Once you are a believer, God always treats you like a righteous person. Just like God treated Abraham like a righteous man even when he sinned by lying. God still blessed him and saved him from his mistake (see Gen. 20).
God is against sin.
The power to break free from sin is to believe that righteousness is a gift. When you believe this teaching of righteousness, you will live right.
And when you believe this teaching of righteousness, the latter rain will fall on you.
The more you embrace this teaching, the more you will see your years being restored. The more you will receive supernatural healing and walk in robust health.
The world will say you’re lucky. But you will know that you are blessed by God.
Pastor Prince shares that in the coming services, he will share more on the latter rain and how to practically receive the blessings that come with it.
Last year, we saw a spirit of depression and darkness released across the earth. We saw people of all ages, all occupations, all economic statuses succumb to it.
Keep on coming to church and stand under the showers of blessings that will drive depression and every evil spirit away.
The enemy likes dry places (see Matt. 12:43). When the rain comes, there will be no more dry places for the enemy to linger around.
“Father, I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice. Renew their youth and their strength and cause their health to spring forth speedily this coming year. Lord, let it be said of them that they look younger than their age. Let it be said of them that they are healthier than they think. Father, let it be testified that Jesus is alive and Lord of their lives. I pray that when other people see “luck” upon the lives of your children, you grant them a revelation to see You, want to know You, and want to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Thank You, Father, for showers of blessings coming our way this year. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the people say? Amen.”
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We hope these sermon notes blessed you! If they did, we encourage you to get the sermon and allow the Lord to speak to you personally as you watch or listen to it.
© Copyright JosephPrince.com 2019
These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.
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