Joel Chapter 1 – part 8 of 10

Everyone knows that the prerequisite of drink is thirst. The Spirit is available, but only those who thirst, drink. Our prayer should not be for the infilling of the Spirit, our prayer should be that God would induce us to thirst! Once we begin to thirst we will not be long searching out the living water, but surrounded by such water we may never learn to drink till we sense our need. But because Joel has been so long neglected, those before us have neglected to tell us of these things. We have become so accustomed to parched conditions and famine of soul that to speak of the water of life is almost frowned upon. To tell of the new wine is considered so ‘far out,’ as we say, that it verges upon ‘false doctrines’ to many today. To explain the state of euphoric bliss of the heavy drinker of such wine is almost dangerous, at best ‘blasphemous,’ even though every word be backed by scripture. Only he that doeth it shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or not. Church history reveals that the so-called ‘Holy Rollers’ were driven from their assemblies, and the buildings burned as places of witchcraft. Such is the state of our enlightenment today! But witchcraft is not frowned upon, demon worship is not denounced, and every hellish evil is possible in our enlightened society because the church has become so powerless it must turn to politics, instead of to God for its authority today. Could we be wrong? Pause and reflect! Could you yourself be wrong? Well, obviously not, of course! But if you are right then Joel is wrong. And if scripture be found false where then the grounds of our salvation? We plow and plant the seed and there springs up – nothing! Why? Does not Joel tell us in verse seventeen that the seed is rotted under the clods because there is no life-giving rain to cause it to grow? Without the so-necessary water “the corn is withered,” Joel says. He depicts for us a hot, dry, arid condition of soul starvation and attrition. Yet we continue to frown when the question of rain is introduced. Are we then the enlightened? Or are we today in utter darkness? The simple reading of Joel chapter one should be enough to reveal our true position.