Lord, When Will The Rains Come?

As I sit here in Southern California in the midst of all the fires that are burning out of control, myself and so many others are asking, “Lord, when will the rains come?” When will the Lord hear our pleas for help? There are times in our lives where our prayers appear to go unanswered. There is no visible change in our circumstances no matter how many prayers we say, how many days we fast, how many prayer requests we send out. It looks as if the Lord isn’t listening or caring about our situation. We automatically assume He isn’t there for us.
There was another time when someone asked, “Lord, when will the rains come?” It was a very long time before that prayer was answered. It was an even more impossible situation than many of us have experienced.
In the days of Noah, it had never even rained before. The earth was covered by a mist that moistened and watered the vegetation. Noah was given a vision that was so detailed, right down to the type of wood and the measurements to build a boat in the middle of dry land without any water nearby. This man continued to work on this structure for 120 years. Can you imagine what kind of faith he would have to have? His own wife thinking he's a fool. This thing called rain that no one even knew about. Yet, he pushed forward one day at a time clinging to the vision and promise God gave him that the rains would come and to be prepared. That is the most important element isn’t it? Being prepared?
We are told over and over again to wait on the Lord. “Wait on the Lord.” “God’s timing is perfect.” I'm sure Noah asked God over and over again ,  “Lord, when are the rains going to come?” Yet, God is sitting up there saying to Noah, “I’m waiting for you to finish that boat!” The boat has to be perfect without leaks, completely finished so that when the rains do come, everyone involved will be safe and without harm. Any time before the assigned day, the results could be disastrous. “Be anxious for nothing” is imperative when it comes to building a sturdy enough boat to withstand a global catastrophe. If Noah rushed through the job just so he could have the rains come, the preparation would not be sufficient enough for survival.
Instead of us waiting on the Lord, maybe He's waiting on us. In order for his perfect purpose to be carried out, He is having to wait on us to become righteous enough and wise enough to handle the purpose that He designed us for. Anytime sooner, could lead to fatal results.
We must remember that if there are a number of people that are supposed to be involved in the vision or purpose God gave us, our “waiting on the Lord” may be the fact that He is waiting on everyone who is called, to get to a place where they are fully prepared as well.
We can sit here thinking that God has changed us and given us a vision and a purpose and wonder why things aren't happening to move us forward in making it happen now. With any huge vision or dream, it doesn't take the integrity of just one visionary to achieve what God has called them to, but it takes the integrity of many people to make it come to fruition.
I know that God had me go through this suffering for higher purpose. He gave me a clear vision in April of 2016. It was extremely detailed. As I have moved forward trying to make this vision happen through faith and prayers, I have trusted the wrong people to come alongside and make it happen. Unfortunately, the lack of integrity or them giving in to fear has caused moving forward with the vision to be stalled and halted.
Not only that, my trust in people that made promises that they didn't keep, caused me horrible hardship both financially and emotionally. I'm still suffering so much from trusting people who never kept their promises.  God obviously needed me to learn some really important things through these painful times.
I might be able to keep my promises, but if I trust someone to keep their promises and they don't, the vision doesn't happen…or the marriage, or the business, or the agreement. This has been the hardest lesson to learn. You can be a person of integrity and keep your promises, but if you continue to trust those who don't, the vision God gave you won't happen. It's just as important to have wise discernment as it is to have integrity.
So, while were waiting on the Lord, He's waiting on us. He's waiting on us to not only be righteous, but also be wise. Only through learning the hard way do we become wise. Only by making mistakes and having failures, do we find out the correct way to do something. Only by waiting on the Lord, is He able to prepare everyone involved before the plans can be made. You might be ready, but that other person involved still has to go through some trials and experiences to prepare them as well.
Only by learning this and clinging to the fact that God’s timing is perfect, are we able to persevere until all the people who are to be involved are fully prepared. Ready to build a boat without holes to withstand the trials and attacks and pounding rain that may come against the vision and those involved. The faith of these individuals has to be strong enough to withstand the storms. They have to have such a faith that no matter what the circumstances, they still believe and stand strong in God’s promises. Like a house built on the rock instead of the sand. It takes much longer to prepare the house for the storm.
So we wait in confidence knowing that God has made the promise that He will see to completion every good work that He has prepared us for. That we just move forward one moment at a time, one day at a time, and before we know it, all those moments turn into days and those days turn into weeks , and those weeks turn into months, and those months turn into years.
When you see something successful already built, it always started with just an idea or a vision in someone’s mind. We forget the frustration and the pain and the day-to-day torment of failures that it took to finally see the vision realized.
When you look at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, people don't sit there and think about all the horrible things that Walt went through to make it happen. His horrible abusive childhood and his poverty living homeless on the streets. Not many people know that the inspiration for Mickey Mouse was a mouse he found that he kept in his pocket, while he was in a back alley eating a sandwich out of the garbage can.
How many times did he feel like giving up? How many times did he trust the wrong people that tried to destroy him and his vision? It's only through him finally going to people that he knew for years that he could count on, that had strong faith in him and his vision to make the dream happen…one day at a time.
So, we sit here waiting on the Lord and He's sitting there waiting on us preparing us for His big purpose and also preparing everyone involved. So stay strong knowing that every day is a lesson and we can choose to focus on hope or focus on letting what happened to us destroy us.
Who are we going to let win? Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy and anyone involved who is focused on that, we must flee from and ask for God’s strength and protection and faith as we cling to what God has called us to do. Just one day at a time.
And eventually the rains will come and we will be fully prepared to withstand the storm and be okay knowing the God kept His promises and always does.