Why wait?

The promise of the latter rain is not for the future. It is beginning to be fulfilled today. Are you ready?

Neal Wilson, former president of the General Conference, and currently serving as special assistant to the General Conference president.

Looking down through the ages with prophetic vision, Zechariah saw our times. He was concerned about the closing events of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. Anxious lest the children of God become careless and forgetful in the last days, he counseled them to prepare for the climactic event of all history. His message was "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 every one grass in the field" (Zech. 10:1).

It is expected that I, an elected leader of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church, will help to guide our members into an ever closer relationship with our God. Because of the responsibility that you have given to me, I sense the need to set an example. The same responsibility rests upon every leader of our people, whether in a family, in a local church, or in a geographical division of the world church.

I have a growing burden for each of us to prepare to receive the outpouring of the latter rain. Is it an overstatement to say that the urgency of receiving this promised power surpasses all other matters facing the church? God is calling us into a closer relationship with Him so He can give the power of His Spirit and use us for the finishing of His work. I say this because I am convinced that the time has arrived for us to go home.

Have the Spirit now

In the past when we have talked about the latter rain and the gift of the Holy Spirit, there has been a general consensus that we need this power and that some day God will give His church the latter rain. But as long as we maintain and foster a "someday" mentality, we postpone the work that we must do to prepare to receive the promised gift.

God has tried to help us realize that we must discard the someday mentality and take Him at His word. He wants to give us the power of the Holy Spirit now.' "The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the church is looked forward to as in the future; but it is the privilege of the church to have it now. Seek for it, pray for it, believe for it. We must have it, and Heaven is waiting to bestow it" (Evangelism, p. 701). Not only does the Lord assure us that we can have the Spirit now, but He tells us, by the use of three imperatives, what we must do in order to receive it: seek, pray, and believe.

Believe for it

If God is eager to give us this gift, why are we so reluctant to ask for it and accept it—especially when we know that it will enable the church to finish its assigned mission and thus hasten the return of Jesus? God's messenger Ellen White pleads with us to seek this gift, to pray for it, and to believe that we can have it now. Fellow believers, we do not have to wait.

I dare say that many among us do not realize that Heaven waits to give us the Holy Spirit in the latter rain experience now. Perhaps Satan has caused you to forget or has hidden this promise from you. Or perhaps you have been waiting for an invitation to believe for it and accept it. I have committed myself to reminding our leaders and people of this truth at every opportunity. I believe God means what He has told us.

I thank God that some of our conference and union administrators are taking God at His word, and that they have begun adjusting their approach to the work of God to allow them to act upon their faith. It should thrill the heart of every Seventh-day Adventist to realize that God wants to give us the latter rain now. It should motivate us toward a closer relationship with our Lord and Saviour and with one another. My fellow believers, let me challenge your faith. Accept the plain statement of God's prophet. We can have the Holy Spirit now. God has promised.

Pray for it

Ellen White has told us not only that we are to believe, but that we are to act upon our belief. I have been deeply impressed with how frequently she links the reception of this gift to prayer.

This is the second imperative for reception of the latter rain—we must pray specifically for it. Too often we add the request for the Holy Spirit to our prayers almost as an afterthought, or tuck it away somewhere in a long list of items we wish to bring to God's attention. To be hon est, in the past I have not prayed for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church with the intensity and earnestness that I should have. But this is changing. Because I accept the promise that the church can have the Spirit now, I am spending a lot more time talking to God about it than I did in the past.

We should never think that the time will come when we have prayed enough for the gift of the latter rain. "We are not willing enough to trouble the Lord, and to ask Him for the gift of the Holy Spirit. And the Lord wants us to trouble Him in this matter. He wants us to press our petitions to the throne" (From Ellen G. White, Loma Linda Messages, p. 48).

Again: "The dispensation in which we are now living is to be, to those that ask, the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Ask for His blessing. . . . The outpouring of the Spirit is essential. We should pray for it. ... Pray without ceasing, and watch by working in accordance with your prayers. As you pray, believe, trust in God. It is the time of the latter rain, when the Lord will give largely of His Spirit. Be fervent in prayer, and watch in the Spirit" (Ellen G. White, in Review and Herald, Mar. 2, 1897).

When I read statements like these, I am impressed again and again with Ellen White's intensity about this matter and how urgent God must have been in communicating this instruction to His messenger. The urgency and intensity conveyed by Ellen White reflects the urgency that God feels and communicated to her. I pray that I, in turn, will be able to personally comprehend and relay to you this sense of urgency and intensity.

I am tremendously encouraged when I hear reports of church administrators who not only believe that it is possible to have the gift of the latter rain now, but are putting their belief into action. For example, the president of the Atlantic Union in the North American Division, believing that the Holy Spirit is available to him and all the church leaders and members in his union, has begun a prayer vigil for the latter rain at the union office. For more than a year now, our workers in that office have been praying three times a day for the outpouring of the latter rain upon their field and the world field.

The Greater New York Conference office staff has been following the same plan. In fact, the union modeled its plan on what was already happening at the Greater New York Conference. Not only do the workers in that conference office pray three time a day for the latter rain, but the New York van ministry workers spend three hours in prayer every Mon day morning before the vans go out onto the streets of New York. This is not all.

Every year the van ministry group enters into what they call 10 Days of Prayer, a prayer session that is open to all conference workers, according to Sister Juanita Kretschmar, wife of the conference president and director of the van ministry. In 1989 the 10 Days of Prayer resulted in the baptism of an Orthodox Catholic bishop.

Under the leadership of the union conference president, other conference presidents in the Atlantic Union are now leading their office staffs in a prayer vigil for the latter rain. At the offices of the Northern New England and New York conferences, prayer ascends three times a day for the power that we must have if the work is to be finished.

Seek for it

Up to this point we have been casual about praying for the latter rain, believing that we will receive this gift some time in the future. Very few of us have been actively seeking for it. We must change our prayers to reflect heaven's sense of urgency about this gift. Our be lief that we can have the Spirit now must be based on a dynamic, living faith. We must exert a conscious effort to under stand from God's Word and from the pen of Ellen White what God has instructed us to do to prepare ourselves for the latter rain.

God will not give His Spirit to a careless, indifferent church. Nor will He give the power contained in this gift while it remains a matter little thought of and unappreciated. Notice what God does require of us. "We need not worry about the latter rain. All we have to do is to keep the vessel clean and right side up and prepared for the reception of the heavenly rain, and keep praying, 'Let the latter rain come into my vessel. Let the light of the glorious angel which unites with the third angel shine upon me; give me a part in the work; let me sound the proclamation; let me be a colaborer with Jesus Christ' " (Ellen G. White, The Up ward Look, p. 283).

The one answer to all our needs

Repeatedly we have read the urgent calls by the messenger of the Lord to prepare ourselves for the infilling of the latter rain. She has said that the reception of this gift is essential to the church, that we must have it, that the church cannot prosper without it, and that all other blessings can be expected if we have this one gift. Yet the Holy Spirit is still little thought of, and His power and influence is not appreciated. As a church we carry on the work that God has given to us as though He were an absentee landlord.

We have lost the lesson taught by the Old Testament—God loves to act and intervene in human history. He wants to reveal Himself to the world through His people. He wants to act in history by aiding, blessing, and saving His people so the nations may behold His power and glory. Thus all the nations may see and know who He is, and some may be saved.

But He cannot work through His people in this way until they are in the right relationship with Him. The gift of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain experience will bring the church up to the right position so God can act through them. "He will impart His Holy Spirit in the plentitude of His reviving, and there shall not be room enough to receive it. Nothing but the baptism of the Holy Spirit can bring up the church to its right position, and prepare the people of God for the fast-approaching conflict" (Ellen G. White letter 15, 1889).

Fellow believers, what can be clearer? All of the power of heaven is at our command. What more can we ask for? As the General Conference president, I will actively seek the latter rain by endeavoring to fulfill the conditions outlined by Ellen White.

I do believe that the church can have the Holy Spirit now. I will express this belief at every opportunity and in every way possible. The outpouring of the latter rain will be the most important matter that I will carry to God in prayer.

Having made this commitment, I call all church leaders, pastors, and members to make the same commitment. I call you to faith, prayer, and seeking. Fellow leaders, begin prayer vigils in your institutions, organizations, and offices. Fellow pastors and church members, begin prayer groups in your churches and homes. Either we move now to align our selves with God's will and purposes, or we may be guilty of missing a golden opportunity in the history of nations to see the work completed. Let prayers for the outpouring of the latter rain ascend to Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary and to the throne of grace 24 hours a day.


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Neal Wilson, former president of the General Conference, and currently serving as special assistant to the General Conference president.

February 1990

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