God's call upon my life involved being a witness. I am to go about the earth and watch what He is doing and tell others. It amazes me how He makes it possible for me to do so.

In 1991 He impressed upon my spirit that I should spend the winter of 1991 and 1992 in Israel. When I prayed, His direction came to me quite clearly. He wanted me to witness some things which were very big. There would be an element of surprise in it. And He would widen the audience to hear the witness. Perhaps this book is just that.

I lived in northeastern Oklahoma near Tulsa. Our finances seemed to say that it would be stretching it to spend the winter in Oklahoma City. But as soon as I made the decision, the money began to pour in to go. I arrived at my Hebrew school in November. It was cold and it was raining!

Israel had experienced a record drought for the five preceding years. I had been there many times with groups during the drought. I had viewed the Sea of Galilee from high above on the Cliffs of Arbel. The shrinking of the beautiful little sea which is the country's reservoir was unbelievable.

Everyone said the greatest threat to Israel's survival was not war. It was lack of water. Israel's water supply was disappearing even while its population was swelling. The Russian Jews were coming home in large numbers. Strict measures were enacted. There were even rules about flushing toilets. Bright Jews were brainstorming. Bringing in an iceberg was among other desperate measures.

Scientists daily reported on the status of the Sea of Galilee with dire forecasts of just how long they could exist. Our Jewish friends asked us to pray for Rain. Group after group who came with us prayed openly the way we pray and the Jews said, "Amen."

In telephone calls before I came for the winter my friends advised me to bring warm clothes. But I was not prepared. It was so cold I sometimes put on all the clothes I could and stayed in bed under all the covers I could find. The cold was only surpassed by the rain. It rained and rained and rained. All day. Every day. It rained in sheets. Cold windy sheets.

Newspaper banner headlines in huge type read: "NES! NES! NES!"

Nes is Hebrew for miracle. And it was a miracle indeed.

Record snows fell on Mount Hermon. The dews of Hermon literally give the water of life to Israel (Psalm 133:3). Snow water runs off to fill three small tributaries which feed the Jordan above the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee overflowed its banks. Scientists had predicted it would take years to fill up in normal rainy seasons. The Jordan swelled and rolled, the news reported, "as it must have in Bible days."

Our Hebrew school went to Tiberias to take a look at it. We drove our bus through the flooded streets of the city. They so wanted us to see the miracle, they encouraged us to get out and walk to the banks of the sea where high waves were crashing.

A little Russian Jewish boy - a new immigrant - ran too close to the water's edge. His mother flew after him struggling with her umbrella in the wind. He stopped just in time. But she toppled in. She looked rather like Mary Poppins bobbing up and down in the churning sea hanging on to the umbrella over her head. Of course, someone rescued her from the miracle waters.

Those waters were so powerful and the waves so big they crumpled sidewalks and broke large glass windows in the hotels lining the shores. Making my way to class each day was a challenge. I'd seen winds and rains in Oklahoma. But not like that. For they went on day after day after day. One day the winds picked up my umbrella and me with it and flung us face down in the mud. But I was glad. It was miracle mud.

The former rains and latter rains had come heavy - and together! There was no slackening off period between them. October. November. December. January. February. March. It rained. It broke all records!

The Desert Bloomed
A tour group was to meet me in March. Now they would be witnesses. Not to the rains. They stopped in mid-March. But to their results. I have ridden many busses through the Land. But never have my eyes beheld what we saw that spring. Bright flowers carpeted the Land of Israel.

The miracle of miracles was the Judean desert. Normally a brown rocky wilderness, it was blanketed with green grasses and red and yellow and purple and blue and whatever color flowers come in. They measured one square meter, and counted the varieties of wild flowers. There were more than twenty. Veteran desert guides said through the media they had never seen the desert like that. Seed came up they didn't even know was there!

Prophecy Fulfilled
The Lord drew my attention to two things in this.

First, He told me to read Isaiah 35:1. I had read it many times, "The wilderness and the solitary place shall...blossom as the rose." I'd always interpreted it to mean the things Israel was growing from irrigation in the desert. But the Lord said to me, "Isaiah didn't write in chapters and verses. Back up to the end of chapter 34 and read it in context. I saw it! It's talking about the Ingathering of the Jews! He scattered the Jews in the Diaspora. But the Bible says in many places that just before the Messiah comes He will gather them.

The Berlin Wall fell without the influence of any super power or mighty army. God pushed it down. When it fell, the teeth of communism were pulled. In 1991 Jews from behind the Iron Curtain came home to Israel in record numbers. And the desert was blossoming for them! It was a sign of the coming of the Lord! So were the rains!

The Lord said to me, "These physical rains in Israel are a sign of what is about to happen in the Church. Israel is prophetic of what is about to occur in the Church. Tell them the rains of the Spirit are coming. And seed is going to come up they didn't even know was in the ground."

There is no describing the power and absolute "uncontrollability" of the rains. Many have seen moves of the Spirit and great revivals. Many have seen the revival of divine healing of the '40s and '50s. But not many remain who have seen an outpouring.

You and I will.

We are in the edges of it now.

Source: The Blood And The Glory by Billye Brim.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers