Its raining today in Springfield. One of those days when it's seems to be raining all over the world. Rain, rain, rain. A little softer, a little harder, a light mist and then a downpour that makes the metal roof our the school rumble like the thunder-rumble of an intense East Texas storm. When one of those thunderboomer storms comes through at night complete with flashing lightning and sudden, swooshing winds you feel like God must me really emotional right now...



Here's a silly question: Where does all that rain go?



Down the gutters, drainpipes and driveways, down the streets and culverts, down the ditches and creeks, down the rivers and eventually to a lake or even to the ocean. Carried along by the powerful surge of water is all the flotsom and jetsome of life - the dirt and filth and oil from the streets, the leaves and grass clippings, the chemical residue from over-fertilized yards and the assorted other junk that was clogging up everything everywhere. Rain is God's way of cleansing the world of all the garbage of mankind. After a sweet, cleansing downpour the world looks brighter, fresher and it sparkles with the sheen of cleansing.



That's what, in part, fasting and prayer does for us. We turn our fickle, sour, self-oriented hearts to God and say, "God cleanse me, refresh me, change me, use me." The Holy Spirit is God's precious rain that does the cleansing work in our hearts.

In a larger sense the flood of God's Spirit in our world from fasting and prayer crashes through the dams and obstructions the enemy has erected to prevent God's will from happening. The result is souls saved, bodies healed, clarity in decisions, breakthrough in relationships. Your fasting is having powerful effect on the world.

Let God pour rain into your soul this month - your life will be refreshed and our church and city will be renewed as well.