Most of us eat every day, some of us too much because yesterday's food
is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do some
of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to keep
us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change all
of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need to
live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host,
author speaker Elle David Harris. Good morning, Good morning, Good morning.
It is Wednesday, June nineteenth, twenty twenty four. Hello, my name
is El David Harris. I am your host, and this is your Daily
Portion where we give you God's word every single day, and today is no
exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study series the Great Controversy. Our
caption for today is the Early and Latter Rain. The Early and Latter Rain.
Will get it to that in just a moment, But first I like
to say welcome to you and ask you to please go over to your Daily
Portion dot com. Please join our online community, pick up the Your Daily
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your Daily Portion dot com. This is the way that we continue to build
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so please go ahead and click that joint button, and then we will
continue to grow together. Let's go ahead and pray, and then we will
get underway. Father and Heaven, thank you for giving us this new day
and for the opportunity that you have entrusted to us to open your word.
Please give us the fullness of your Holy spirit. Teach us to love you
and to serve you with everything we have and everything that we are. I
pray God now that you will give us understanding, Give us the early rain,
give us the latter rain. In Jesus' name. I pray, Amen
and Amen again, the early and latter rain. Now, of course,
there is so much that we could say concerning the early and latter rain from
the Bible perspective and from an agricultural perspective. If that's the best way of
saying it, let me just say that sometimes we look at things historically and
don't really learn to apply them for us. Now, so we know that
when you're planting and harvesting, there are two rains or times of rain,
or as we say here in Jamaica rainy season, and one is preparatory and
one gets us to the point where it's time for harvest, right, okay,
good? And so in the Bible, the early rain was I would
say about the beginning of the Christian era, if you want to call it
Christian. And God did something very special and began to add to his new
body of believers in a miraculous way based on what we saw during the time
of the Day of Pentecost, after Jesus was resurrected, okay, and so
the church grew by leaps and bounds. And ever since we have been hopefully
depending on the perspective that each of us has. Hopefully, we've been doing
what God has said that we should do, and through multiple eras until now
we His children are awaiting the second coming of Jesus Christ, the harvest okay.
And so as we await the harvest, the latter reigns must come that
power from the Holy Spirit that prepares us to be harvested, prepares us to
assist others who are not yet fully connected to God and then get them to
the point of harvest. All of this is happening as we await the coming
of Christ. We need a special unctionist. Some of the old timers used
to say, a special burst of power from God in order to make it
through these last days. Okay, And I'm thankful because in the same way
that God gave the power of the Holy Ghost to the early believers in order
to communicate his message effectively, even to the point that people who did not
understand every language of the world but their own language alone, Peter was able
to preach to all of the languages and cultures represented there without the benefit of
a translator. You see, God stopped at nothing to lead his people to
him under the Early Reign. And so in the last days do we expect
that God is going to do less? We expect that God is going to
limit his power or to expand his power, and of course to expand his
power. Now, if you were to look at the Early reign and the
latter reign as part of a continuum or part of a journey that we take
as believers, then I would say, tomorrow, if Lord bless you,
you're making a commitment to God. May not have made a commitment to God,
and under the power of the Holy Spirit you choose to serve him we
can call that conversion story the early Rain, the beginning of your experience with
God in twenty twenty four, the early Rain experience that says, I am
hearing God's voice. He is opening up my heart so I can learn to
serve him and yes, learn to confess and repent, learn to yield my
will to him, so I can be of service to other people, right
victory over things that used to bind me right or enslave me. And so
we would call that an early rain experience. And then the latter rain experience,
of course, is as we grow. As we grow, we receive
more and more power from the Holy Spirit, and we get to the point
where our characters begin and continue to match the character of Jesus. You're like,
what is that possible? Absolutely, there are people who will be alive
before Jesus returns that aren't his children, who will live in the sight or
the presence of a holy God without a mediator. And so God is giving
us the power to live holy lives fully, fully, and I'm so thankful.
And so what I want to do now is, since I've given that
quick or brief overview, I want to go into the Bible right now,
into the Book of Acts, chapter one and verse fourteen, where the Bible
reads all these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with women and
Mary and the Mother of Jesus with his brethren. And so prayer, prayer
ignites an experience with God, ignites for those who have begun to fall asleep
at the wheel spiritually, it ignites revival. Yes, it ignites an experience
with God that says, you know, status quo or the way that we
used to do it is just not enough, okay. And so during that
same experience we see in the Book of Acts, chapter two and verse four,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with
other tongues, as I mentioned earlier, as the spirit gave them utterance.
And so we are looking in such a way that we are open to the
power of the Holy Ghost. Yes, whatever it is that God wants to
do, if he wants to give you certain gifts in order to accomplish his
will to communicate the gospel better in these last days than be open to this.
Following God's instructions, He told those people during the early rain times that
he was going to do so thing special if they came together in one place
on one accord, putting their differences away and praying and waiting or tarrying as
some would say, and then he would do something very special, and they
did. And therefore we expect great things from God. Let's read from Zechariah,
chapter ten and verse one, and the Bible reads, ask ye of
the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain, so the Lord shall
make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to everyone grass in the field.
There are people right now that are not expecting anything from God. But
we, if we are His children, are saying God, the lands of
people's lives are dry, the bones of people are dry. People are not
really connecting with you, and we need special power right now in order to
assist them. We need special power even in our own lives to deal with
the trials that are right in front of us. And God is saying that
if you ask for this rain, that he will give it to you.
I remember reading a quote in the book Evangelism, pages six sixteen and sixty
seventeen where it says the power of God or the Holy Spirit is looked to
as in the future, but we are to have it now. Ask for
it, seek for it, we must have it, and God is willing
to give it. That is the rain of the Holy Spirit. And so
we give God thanks for that. And as that is the reality, we
are unified in the last days through the power of the Holy Spirit until Jesus
comes. Until then, follow us, guide us peacet Thanks for joining us
listening. Friends. Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by
every word that comes from the mouth of God. This has been your daily
portion with el David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,