Usually, while I’m sitting in a coffee shop the only time I give a reaction that results in slack-jawed disbelief, is when they charge one whole extra dollar for lactose-free milk. However, this time my slack-jawed reaction wasn’t because I was overcharged due to my special requirements, it was the testimony my friend was sharing of how resolute her mum’s faith was. “Then my mum said she would pray until the rain comes…and then, the whole village joined my mum in prayer and it started to rain.” I don’t know about you, but simple faith makes me sit up and pay attention. It causes me to believe that my breakthroughs are coming. Given, that the breakthrough may still be a long way off, listening to testimonies like the one my friend shared, gives me the confidence that I hear the breakthrough coming before I get to see it.     

“I hear heavy rain coming” said the prophet Elijah to King Ahab in 1 Kings 18:41. Apart from the fact they were in the throes of a three-year drought, that little detail never dampened Elijah’s belief that God was going to send rain. Elijah was still on a high from the back of a miracle where he got the prophets of Baal to pray to their god to answer with fire on an altar Elijah had dowsed with water. Of course, the prophets of Baal sent up their requests, asking the god to send down fire, however, their prayers fell on deaf ears. God, however, revealed His extraordinary power, showing He was the One True God and not the false god, Baal, by consuming with fire not only the altar but on the offering and the stones, which made the prophets cry out that the Eternal was indeed the One True God.  

Let’s read the story in 1 Kings 18:42-44. 

‘Elijah journeyed to the peak of Mount Carmel. There he bowed down on the ground and placed his head between his knees. (to his servant) “Go now and look in the direction of the sea.” (returning to Elijah) “I did as you asked, and there is nothing in the direction of the sea.” Elijah gave him the same instruction seven times, “Go back and look in the direction of the sea.” The servant did as Elijah requested each time; and on the seventh time, he told Elijah, “A minuscule cloud, as tiny as the hand of a man, is ascending from the sea.”’ 

Elijah prays until the rain comes. He believes wholeheartedly that the rain is coming. And, just like my friend’s mother, even though Elijah couldn’t see a cloud in the sky, he still believed God would come through. See, that’s the thing about breakthroughs, when we start praying for a miracle, we tend to want to at least see something, even if it’s way off and is as minuscule as a man’s hand, we feel we need to see the rain coming first.   

However, Elijah heard the rain long before he saw the rain coming and he instructed his servant to keep looking in the direction where the rain would come. Elijah wasn’t going to stop praying until his servant told him he could see a sign in the sky. 

Often, when we’re praying for a breakthrough, like the prophet Elijah, we can hear it coming long before anyone else sees it. And yet, instead of trusting the sound, the rhythm, the beat of the song that resounds out heaven’s shofar’s of triumphant victory in our arid, dry circumstances, we stop praying before the rain comes. 

We give up, and our strength gives out right before we see the breakthrough because, like Elijah’s servant, we’ve checked the sky for a sign many times and come away disappointed. But God is saying to you dear friend, ‘Look again.’ Keep listening in the direction of where the rain will come and trust God will bring your breakthrough.

Praying is a response to what God has already done in your life because you’re reminding Him that He brought a breakthrough into your circumstances before and you’re choosing to stand in faith and pray that He will do it again. That’s why a testimony shared is so powerful, as the testimony my friend recalled about her mother praying until the rain came was helping me to tune in my ears to the sound of God’s never-ending goodness and His faithfulness toward his people.

Are you praying for a breakthrough? Are you praying until the rain comes?   

Listen in dear friend, to the sound. Look in the direction the rain will be coming from, and like Elijah’s servant, you’ll see it! 

Wendy xo 

When did you hear the sound, the rhythm, the beat of the song that resounds out heaven’s shofar’s of triumphant victory in your arid, dry circumstances, however, you stopped praying because you couldn’t see the breakthrough.