Showers of blessing - Chambers, Oswald

For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, and giveth seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which i please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto i sent it. Isaiah 55:1011 (RV)

. . . Giveth seed to the sower. Gods word is as a seed. The seed-thought idea is one that preachers and evangelists need to remember. We imagine we have to plough the field, sow the seed, reap the grain, bind it into sheaves, put it through the threshing machine, make the breadall in one discourse. For herein is the saying true, one soweth, and another reapeth said our lord (RV). Let each one be true to the calling given him by god. The truth is we don’t believe god can do his work without us. We are so anxious about the word, so anxious about the people who have accepted the word; we need not be, if we have preached what is a word of god it is not our business to apply it, the holy spirit will apply it. Our duty is to sow the word, see that it is the word of god we preach, and not huckster it with other things, and god says it will prosper in the thing whereto he sends it. In some cases it will be a savour of life unto life, in others a savour of death unto death; but rest assured that no individual and no community is ever the same after listening to the word of god, it profoundly alters life. The force and power of a word of god will work and work, and bring forth fruit after many days. Hence the necessity of revising much of what we preach and what we say in meetings. God has not said that the relating of my experiences, of my insight into the truth, will not return to him void; he says my word . . . Shall not return unto me void. Every temptation to exalt the human, human experiences, human interests and blessings, will fall short; the only thing that prospers in gods hands is his own word.

As the rain cometh down . . . From heaven, . . . So shall my word be. Thank god for the sweet and radiant aspect of the falling of rain from heaven, after a time of drought it is almost impossible to describe its beauty; so when a word of god comes to a soul after a time of difficulty and perplexity, it is almost impossible to tell the ineffable sweetness of that word as it comes with the unction of the holy ghost.