When our praise goes up, God sends the rain down. It is by our expression of worship that we usher in God’s presence. It’s our praise that invites the Holy Spirit. It’s when we lift our voices, lift our hands, bow our knees … it’s when we worship that God opens up the heavens and sends His rain.
“He pulls water up out of the sea, distills it, and fills up his rain-cloud cisterns.
Then the skies open up and pour out soaking showers on everyone.
Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion?”
Job 36:27-29
Job compares the process of clouds accumulating water vapor to the sounds coming from the tabernacle. If you want to understand the process of worship, you have to understand rain. In the bible rain represents the Holy Spirit, or God’s presence. It is sustenance. From it comes relief, refreshing, harvest, and life! But the rain can’t come down until enough water has evaporated and collected in the clouds. The more the sun shines, the more these invisible water vapors rise up, until the heavens cannot contain themselves any more.
In this hour more than ever before, we need the rain—we need His presence. Our answer is not in politics. America’s answer is not in the next president. The answer is Jesus, and now is the time to worship!
In Zechariah 14:17 it says, If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain.” Worship is all about the rain coming down; no worship, no rain; little worship, little rain. The more praise we send up, the more of His presence God will send down.
We’re given nine expressions of worship in the Bible. When we offer ourselves in worship, we’re creating these invisible vapors of praise that ascend into the heavens. We can’t see it, but we experience it. And when we fill the heavens with our worship, those “clouds” can’t contain themselves any longer and they rain down His presence, soaking every situation with His touch, reviving our spirits, renewing our lands! Just like it says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
We can worship God with our voices, with our hands, and with our whole bodies. Here are 9 expressions of worship and an example from scripture:
1. Speaking Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Psalm 150:6
2. Singing Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Psalm 105:2
3. Shouting Shout praises to the Lord! Psalm 147:1
4. Lifting hands I will lift up my hands in Your name. Psalm 63:4
5. Clapping hands Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Psalm 47:1
6. Dancing Let them praise his name with dancing … Psalm 149:3
7. Standing All the people would arise and worship. Exodus 33:10
8. Laying prostrate He fell with his face to the ground and prayed Matthew 26:39
9. Kneeling Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. Psalm 95:6
Jesus is the answer. We are a nation in turmoil. We are hours away from a pivotal election, and while I deeply believe that there will be consequences depending on the outcome, God will remain in ultimate control regardless of the man in office. And my president, and your president will be the one who wins the election. There is no way around that. Our job is to pray for that leader. We can speak against policies, but we must pray for our elected officials.
Now is the time to worship. Now is the time to lift up our voices, our hands, and our hearts in one accord to God for His mercy and grace to flow, for His will to be done, for His kingdom to be established throughout our land. As we send up our invisible vapors of worship to the heavens, I believe we can fill the clouds! I believe we can send up more praise than the heavens can contain. And I believe God will send His Holy Spirit to wash over us all!
As America goes, so goes the world. We need prayers from all over the World! Restoration, renewal, and revival in america will only come through our fervent supplication to the Lord.
