I don't know when John Robert Stevens preached this sermon; it was probably some time in the 1960s. I heard the tape in 1975. Stevens was one of the most prolific, eloquent, and anointed preachers this century has ever seen, in my opinion. As I mentioned in a note to Dennis Johnson, while he was still alive, he was coming out with sermons faster than I could read them or listen to them, even when I was following his activity on a nearly full-time basis during the academic year 1975-1976. The following tape, entitled "The Latter Rain," was designated tape #RN-02-A035RC by his "Living Word Tape Library":
"Now tonight we're going to talk to you about the latter rain outpouring. Or it's called the latter rain revival. I want to add just one little note to it, in case some of you during the last ten, fifteen years became acquainted with the latter rain movement. It was a movement that called itself Latter Rain. This term, latter rain, has been used many, many years. In fact, the Pentecostal publication in the Assemblies of God, wasn't it the LATTER RAIN EVANGEL originally? And then they called it the PENTECOSTAL EVANGEL, and so forth. So the term "Latter Rain" has been used a great deal. Let us get away from using it as a name referring to a movement, and go back to see the spiritual significance of what the latter rain is, as far as the Bible is concerned. And if it's a term that has fallen into reproach, well, that's too bad. But still we have to go back and see exactly what was meant. Because if the term 'salvation' came to be a term of reproach over the way people used it, it still is a Bible term and we still want to know what the Bible meaning of salvation is, you see what I mean? So the same is true of the Latter Rain outpouring.
"Now during the course of this, as we study it, we should be able to answer the first question: 'Will there be any spectacular revival in the last days?' Yes, there will be. There will be many revivals and outpourings and movements of the Spirit connected with this latter rain that the Lord is speaking about. When do these things occur? And in what event do they culminate? And we must see it as the prelude to the tribulation period. We must see this as the prelude, also, to Armageddon. And this is going to be rather astonishing to some of you, when you read the prophecies as they occur in the word. . .
"In Joel 1 the prelude to this prophecy comes in verse four. . . .
"He probably lived in the days of Elijah and Elisha. There was a great famine. And the Holy Spirit uses the picture of the whole gospel age and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit here typified in this famine that had occurred and what God was going to do to break it by sending the rain. The famine had been occasioned by the locusts destroying everything. This is not unusual. In fact, back in the history, it is said that 80,000 people in Libya and Syria and Egypt perished in one plague of locusts according to one of the historians. Some commentators said that these insects would just come over in such swarms that they would blot out the sun and just strip everything before it. So this came like a devastation; like an army from the Lord, it came and swept through the land. It had stripped the vineyards down so that there was no way that those vineyards could be fruitful, except the Lord said, 'I will pour out the former and the latter rain in the first month.' In other words, when the fall season had ended, the new year had begun. You remember that this is speaking of their agricultural year which is also now the Jewish New Year at this time. It occurs at that time, about September or so. When this outpouring of rain would come, the former and the latter rain would come in that one month. It would be all the seasons of rain in one. It wouldn't be spring rains or just fall rains, it would be a whole season of rain poured down upon these stumps to revive them and cause them to flourish right at a time they were ready to die because of the famine. Now, understanding what had gone on, this analogy, or parable, that took place as a historical event has significance when you see the prophet begins to come down to a time that the Holy Spirit is going to come like rain on the vineyard of the Lord. And we're His vineyard. See, we're His vineyard. At a time when the stripping down of God's vineyard had left them desolate. This, in other words, becomes one of the great passages of the Old Testament about the restoration of the Church. How God would pour His Spirit upon His people when they had been stripped down by invasion and satanic forces that brought the Church down to a point of dark ages, to a point of desolation. Then, the rain would descend upon them and bring forth again the great blessing of the Lord. Because, the church has been desolate. But slowly, but surely the rain is coming in order to bring the Church out again into its period of fruitfulness. . . . Joel 2:23 . . . This is actually more or less mid-season. The harvest has just been completed in one sense (but in this case there was no harvest) and in order to get a harvest that was almost out of season the rain was to come down upon it, the former rain and the latter rain. Now the former rain is called the teacher rain in the Hebrew. The teacher rain, because it is the rain that teaches the seeds to grow. Interesting the way the Hebrew was. It teaches the seeds to grow. Comes down and coaxes them and teaches them how to grow. Have you ever noticed how spring rain can cause things to just spring up so fast? And the latter rain was the pre-harvest rains that would bring the fruit right up to full maturity, and especially where there were so many vineyards that was most important, because water and rain then would bring forth the grapes into the freshness and juiciness that they would need at the time of maturity and their sweetness. Now, he said he was going to send both: both the teaching rain, and also the finishing rain. So it goes to show that what God was going to do in pouring out His Spirit was bring people into God, at the same time would bring God's people into perfection, or into the maturity that we're to have spiritually. Oh, what a beautiful type. Former rain and latter rain, meaning the Holy Spirit coming down for two purposes. To make seeds germinate, and to bring forth fruit to maturity. And that's the whole purpose of what God will be doing. The revival we will see will be two-fold. It will bring Christians out of their immaturity, but it will also bring sinners into the kingdom of God. These are two objectives that God has in mind. . . . Plenty is promised here, because the floors will be full of wheat and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil and in the restoration of everything that had been destroyed in the vineyard. Now if you use the vineyard to refer to the Church, and we can certainly refer to it, 'cause in I Corinthians 3, didn't Paul say that ye are God's husbandry? Ye are God's vineyard. You are God's vineyard. You are God' husbandry. You're the field or garden in which He is working. And we are likened in John 15 to the branches. He is the vine, and we are to bring forth fruit. So, many times the vineyard has been used as a comparison--in the Old Testament to Israel, and in the New Testament to the Church. So, here he says, 'I am going to restore. I'm going to restore the vineyard.' It's going to be like it was before the great spiritual desolation came over us. We could look dead if we interpret that quite literally. That the Lord is going to restore the church to its former purity and power. That there will be nothing lacking in the Church when He comes for it again, and we'll show you why we say that. It said, 'You shall eat of plenty and be satisfied and shall praise the name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be put to shame.' Two things--you see, the day will come that we can make claims for the Lord that will really be backed up. But if you noticed what a selling job people have to do because of the limit of restoration and power and authority that has come to the Church up to this point. And sometimes there is a sense of shame upon the people of the Lord, for they want God's presence so much. They want people who come into the assembly to be so blessed by the Lord. It would be like you invite somebody to come and eat and when you sit down to the table, the fare is rather simple, maybe it's filling, but you wish there could be all the fancy frills. Everything. You wish there could be beautiful silver and all kinds of courses, the loveliest service set before your guests. So sometimes when they want to eat aplenty, the day will come when you will eat aplenty and be satisfied. And God's people will never be put to shame. Because there will be days of such spiritual abundance, that there will be no lack for me to set before my neighbor and my friend. Don't some of you feel sometimes, "I don't have much that I can give," that's the idea. But the day will come when the storehouse of God is just going to overflow. And you won't say, 'I don't have anything to give,' but you'll say, 'I have plenty to give.'
"(v.28) . . . Now this is an outpouring upon all classes of people, and there is to be the supernatural in abundant evidence: there are to be visions, there are to be prophesyings and all of these things that are going to take place at this outpouring. So you see that while the rain that came upon the vineyards in the time of famine was the first in the picture in the prophecy, it was referring to a spiritual time when the Spirit of the Lord would be poured out. And the vineyard would be the people. You would be the people. You would prophesy. You would see visions.
". . . Now, verse 32, 'And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mt. Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those that escape as the Lord hath said. And among the remnant those whom the Lord doth call.' Now the King James gives you almost the same idea where it says that 'in Mt. Zion shall be deliverance and in the remnant whom the Lord thy God shall call.' It indicates that there is a remnant of people that will stand in that day and in them, inherent in them, by this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, will be the deliverance so that whoever calls upon the Lord during this time of tribulation shall be saved. Sure doesn't sound like a rapture has taken this elect out. But it shows that the power of God, rather, to the contrary, is so great, that there is deliverance in the remnant whom the Lord God shall call. That remnant is standing in the earth to deliver, and the promise that Peter quotes, 'It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,' has its greatest fulfillment in the days when the wonders in the heavens and the earth, blood and fire, smoke, and the sun is turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. So you see these great signs, catastrophes apparently taking place in the heavens, all the rest, these things result that it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mt. Zion and in Jerusalem are going to stand those that escape. They're going to be the ones that have escaped. They have escaped a lot of this tribulation. And whoever calls upon the name of the Lord can be delivered because the deliverance is found in this remnant, that the Lord God has preserved. Now isn't this a somber thing to consider? What does the next verse say, Joel 3:1, 'For behold, in those days and in THAT TIME when I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Jehosophat and I will execute judgment upon them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and they have parted my land, and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.' Now, what is the valley of Jehosophat in its significance? Have we not interpreted that through all of the prophecies of the Old Testament and through the New to refer to the battle of Armageddon? Isn't this a great time of disaster and catastrophe that everyone uses it as a figure of speech. 'Armageddon,' and they know that this will be the great war of all wars, and so forth. Some of the pictures of this in Zecharaiah show how in that day, when men stand how that their eyes melt away in their sockets and the skin and flesh falls off their bones, and so forth. You can't picture anything else except a war. Maybe something similar like Hiroshima or someplace like that where the blast was so great that those within a certain range literally were just almost dissolved by the heat.
" . . . Related to this is a revival first. An outpouring first. Well, you say, 'I'm really worried about that Armadeggon, that's really got me worried.' Don't worry about that, you get in on the first thing. You get in on the revival, because there's the remnant that will be delivered. There are the people that God is going to preserve. This is the thing for us to be concerned about. What God is doing now, and how closely related the outpouring of His Spirit that is just before us, we're in the preludes of it. We're like the coming events of bringing the sprinkles, what does that song say, 'Many drops around us are falling, but for the showers we plead.' And we're calling upon the Lord for those things. We're in the prelude of it. And if we know there is going to be this kind of a revival, we know what the Lord said in Matthew 24, 'And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached to all of the world for a witness, then shall the end come.' There's going to be something outstanding done for the people of God again in this generation.
"In Acts 2:14-21, Peter quotes Joel 2, 'this is that which hath been spoken through the prophet Joel.' He did not say, 'this is the fulfillment,' or 'this is the answer,' but he said, 'this is that.' We get the idea that this prophecy is a vast prophecy, and Peter very carefully wording it, so that it does not mean it was an exhaustive fulfillment--I'll show you why--because James is still quoting it over in the fifth chapter of James, 23 years later as still being a prophecy that was still to be fulfilled, in its main fulfillment, in the end time.
". . . Now, if we wonder, 'why are we believing for ministries?', why are we contending to get you people to the place where you can move in the Spirit, with spiritual perception, and prophesy and so forth? Because this is just the prelude to things. This is not an end in itself. God is preparing you people for something far greater than has faced any other generation of believers since the apostolic days. This is a very significant thing that God is preparing us for. And I'm glad I'm in it, aren't you? At least I'm glad I'm getting my feet wet. I don't think any of us are in it like we're going to be. But these are the things that are going to come to pass.
". . . This early and the latter rain is going to be poured out upon the earth. And it is done for a distinct purpose. It is to bring forth to maturity the precious fruit of the earth. Do you see that? That's us. See, the great problem of the outpouring is to take the fruit that is not yet ripe, and bring it into maturity. Now do you wonder, 'what on earth will help these Christians to grow up?'--don't you feel that sometimes when it comes to churches? What would really help them to mature? Just an outpouring of the Spirit. There isn't any other thing. See, its a spiritual growth. Just let the Holy Spirit move upon them. You say that, 'Oh, sometimes I get so discouraged with myself, and I wish I could do better at this, and I wish I could move into this, I wish I could do that.' All right, why don't you just open your heart and let the Holy Spirit just rain upon you? Let God just bless you. It's God's cure and answer for immaturity. For every problem. Just let Him bless you. That's why worship is so important, and why we must never, never turn away from worshipping the Lord. As we learn to worship the Lord, and sing in the Spirit and so forth, and really get with it, we are placing ourselves not only in a place where we are giving praise and worship to the Lord, but we are receiving, Oh, the flow of the Holy Spirit comes down upon us. We must learn to drink in of the Holy Spirit by faith. So this opens the door.
"In Zechariah, it says, 'ask of the Lord rain in the time of latter rain.' And the Lord will make the lightnings and give those showers of rain to everyone--grass in the fields. In other words, the grass springs up as a result of the rain. If you understand, then, the thing that you seek for is fruitfulness. The thing you seek for in growth and spiritual abundance and victory is not the thing for which you are to pray. You are to pray for the cause of these things, you are to ask of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain, and in order for you to get the rain, He'll make the lightning. And that will make the rain and then He'll give to everyone the grass in the fields, in other words, the fruitfulness comes from it. All right, now you want the blessing on your life. You want the blessings. You want the help that's going to come to you. Then ask the Lord for the cause of that. Ask the Lord for rain. How does He make the rain? Well as you wait before the Lord, you are like one charge of electricity, and the cloud of blessing that's prophesied is overhead, another charge. And when you begin to pray, then God will send the lightning, and releases the rain that's in the cloud. It condenses it sufficiently so that precipitation begins to fall. . . . This latter rain that I'm teaching you is not going to come to just anyone who is going to sit around and say, 'well, that's all going to come to all of us.' No, it isn't. It's going to come to those that ask of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain. There's human initiative involved. The other passage in Hosea implies the same thing. Hosea 6:3. 'Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning, and He shall come unto us as the rain. As the latter and the former rain onto the earth.' And if you have a Scofield Bible, even the Scofield Bible comes up with this--amazing thing--it says that this is the cry of the remnant in the last days. That's quite a confession. It's the cry of the remnant in the last days that there's going to be a rain. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord, now His going forth is prepared as the morning, and He'll come unto us as the latter and the former rain unto the earth. See, He comes to us first in the great parousia, in the presence of the Lord, the first real coming of the Lord is in the rain. He comes to us as the latter and the former rain. So don't look for the visitation of the Lord necessarily to be in visions, or many things, but look for it to be in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in its basic function is to reveal Christ in you. He will come unto you in the rain. Do you get that? But how do you get it? Then shall we know if we follow after . . . It says, 'know the Lord.' There's a desire in your heart to know the Lord. It is following on and pressing in. Almost the same thing as you found in Zechariah. 'Ask of the Lord rain.' You're following on to know Him. And He'll come and reveal Himself to you in the outpouring of His Spirit. Well, there are some great things before us. How many have seen something here for the first time--that when we preach a revival in the end time, it has real foundation to it. It is one of the great events. In fact, it is a thing culminating in such magnitude that it's closely associated 'in those days' and 'in that time,' comes all these amazing signs, and on into Armageddon. So God has this whole thing, I think, well in His hand. I've studied it very carefully. I've come to the conclusion that God hasn't failed at all. I don't think He has, I think we should give Him a vote of confidence. . . . And it looks like that He's going to keep on being exalted and glorified, and it's all going to come out just the way He says. But in the meantime, what do we do? Shall we look for antichrist or shall we look for Christ coming to us in the rain? Shall we look for the signs in the heavens and all of the troubles, or shall we look for the Lord as the husbandman is patient over us and blessing us and bringing us forth? What is the outstanding thing we're to look for? I think to be the remnant of God through all of these days. To be filled with the Holy Spirit. To be anointed and pressing on with everything that's within us and saying, 'Lord, this is the thing. This is the thing for which you raised me up.'"
Richard M. Riss