In the second chapter of the book of Joel, you'll read that punishment came to the children of Israel. They were run over...bad stuff happened to them. I mean, a lot of stuff happened to them.

But in verse seventeen of chapter two, God said, "Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar. Let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine inheritance to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?"

What you read before verse seventeen is a whole bunch of judgment happening. Whether you know it or not, judgment has been falling on America for the last thirty years, and it's been intensifying.

When you go from a divorce rate of five percent to nearly fifty percent, that's judgment. When you go from hardly anybody doing drugs, to whole generations getting drugs, that's judgment. When you go where cancer rates are low and now cancer rates are high, the judgment is coming.

All the social pathologies are a result of sin that's been going on, and judgment has been falling on the earth, even in the United States, because of it.

Things have gotten more and more wicked, but when the people pray...I'm going to say it again; but when the people pray..."Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people. Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen" (Joel 2:18-19).

Right now, Christians are laughed at and reproached. They're laughed at in the media. They're laughed at wherever you go.

I was in New York at a famous television show. I won't tell you which one because you'd know exactly who it is, and I don't feel like dealing with lawsuits. I was at their show, and I was talking with this big television star and then finally they asked me, "What do you do?"

I said, "Well, I'm a minister."

They said, "Oh, no," and walked away from me, just like that.

Just because I said I'm a minister. Walked off in reproach.

But God says, "I will take away that reproach." When God takes away that reproach, things will change and people will begin to look at the believer as what they want to be. God will change what's happening with the believers.

There are believers that are caught up in the ways of the world, doing the ways of the world and supporting the ways of the world. But when believers will stand for God - because they've made a decision which way they're going to go, a decision to stand for righteousness even with great persecution - in the end, it will wind up happening that God has blessed you.

We won't be a reproach. We'll be so blessed, the whole world will see it and can't deny it. He said, ye will no more be a reproach among the heathen.

A Double Portion
"Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month" (Joel 2:23).

What happens in the time of rain? Be glad then - be glad then - ye children of Zion, of the church, and rejoice in the Lord, your God, for he has given you the former rain moderately.

Yeah, you got blessed here and you got a blessing there, and every so often you had a miracle. But He will cause to come down for you the rain - the former rain and the latter rain - in the first month. He said, "You're going to get what you used to get, and then you're going to get what I've been prophesying you're going to get."

You're going to get a double dip, a double splash, a double anointing; you're going to get it double. God is going to give it to you again and again and again. Hallelujah.

"And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you" (vv. 24-25).

Restoration - that's what happens in a time of rain. "I will restore to you the years." When you stood, and it didn't seem like anything was happening, when it looked like others were running in front of you - when you stood on the Word of God - God's going to restore to you the years that the locust have eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpillar, anything that came against you to wipe you out.

"And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed" (v. 26).

When you're satisfied is when you are filled to the rim. You're satisfied when you have more than enough. You're satisfied, praise God, when you can't take any more. Glory to God, you'll never be ashamed anymore as well.

I got a little glimpse of that just the other day. I was at the clothing store of one of our members. I intended to be there about 30 minutes; I'm a shopper - go in, look at what I want, buy it and leave. Amen. An hour and a half, almost 2 hours later, I was still there. They've got people coming in all over the store, coming in, guys buying suits and all kinds of stuff, and people in the store. And he asked me, "Will you bless this shop?"

Now, I've got to tell you, I didn't look like a bishop. I had on my disguise. I had some glasses on, I had a hat pulled down, I had a beard going on, I had blue jeans. I have to dress down you know, so people won't pick me out right away.

So I'm all dressed down. So they're saying, "Will you bless the shop?"

"Everybody!" Everybody stopped. "Everybody, Bishop Keith Butler is in the shop. And this is my pastor and he's going to pray now and he's going to bless the shop and everybody in it."

I mean, everybody in the shop stopped. Well, I wasn't ashamed, glory to God. I'm a child of God. Amen. We got everybody in the shop together, and I prayed over everybody in there, and prayed over the shop the blessing of God. When I finished praying, folks walked up to me and said, "Praise the Lord, glory to God. God is good, isn't He?"

The day is coming when we'll not be ashamed, when you walk into a shop and they'll say, "Hey, there's a believer in the shop. Let them lay hands on our dresses. Let them lay hands on the counters. Let them lay hands on us in front of everybody," and everybody will start talking that the Lord is God.

Oh, the rain is starting to fall. I mean, the rain is starting to fall!

"And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed" (v. 27).

He says it again. Never be ashamed, because their vats are full. They've got wine and all that. They're praising God because they're so blessed. Rain is falling. Go on to verse 28:

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions"

And it shall come to pass afterwards - in other words, all of this happens, and then after all of this happens, then you get this: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and also the servants and upon the handmaidens in those days will I pour out my spirit.

I want you to notice that the natural blessing even came before the spiritual blessing. And that's what God intends to happen. He intends for us to have the natural and the spiritual. He intends for us to have it both ways, praise God.

You look at us, we're blessed, and when we lay hands on you, we're blessed. That's because a time of rain is coming, praise God. In a time of rain, the world will initially be more scornful. And mock you even more.

When I went to college, I never saw such attack on anybody who dared believe in God. If you happen to be in college, recognize they're just educated fools. The Bible says that the fool said in his heart there is no God. Even the fool knows that all this didn't happen by accident. Somebody had to design everything that we see. Somebody had to place it so that it not destroy itself. It was God Almighty.

And there's no worse fool than an educated fool. I've seen them. I've seen them when they didn't believe in God; I saw them when I was a student of God. I even saw them get saved. In a time of rain, you're going to see people get saved that will make you think, "I know God can do anything because he really had to do something to get them saved."

You've got some people you've been dealing with in your life, or have dealt with in your life, and you've said, "I know they're going to hell." I know you didn't say it, but I know you thought it. Those will be some of the very people God brings in. And you've got to rejoice for what the Lord is going to do.

I'm getting more excited every day. The closer we get to the return of the Lord, the heavier the rain will get for those who will receive it, those who will accept the rain, those who will acknowledge that the rain is falling. If you have a lost loved one, if you have a lost child, if you've been broke, if you've been sick, I'm here to tell you, it's going to be restored to you. You're going to get it back.

It's yours, praise God, He has promised it to you. The Bible says, let every man be a liar, but let God be true. God is not a man that he should lie, he will do what he spoketh and he'll bring it to pass.

And when he'll do it, it will happen suddenly. You'll pick up the phone one day and there will be that person you knew was going to hell, and they'll say, "Hey, guess what? I got saved and filled with the Holy Ghost and I'm on my way." You'll walk in your house one day and that husband who smoked, drank, caroused, will be praying in tongues. Glory to God.

That drug infested kid will have thrown down all the needles and thrown out all the drugs and said, "Mama, mama, Jesus is my Lord." I'm here to tell you, the one that's persecuting you at your job and trying to hold you back, God says, no, they're not going to be promoted to the next level, but you're going to get promoted and promoted and promoted again. And they'll have to say, "I guess the Lord was with you."

It's a time of rain. Believers will open businesses and the businesses will flourish. Oh, it's a time of blessing; it's a time of rain. No wonder they're going to praise God. No wonder they're going to give Him glory. No wonder they're going to shout unto Him the victory. No wonder they'll talk about how much they love God. So it's a time of rain!

Copyright © Keith Butler Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.