I had a very unique experience a few weeks back. It was a Friday afternoon, we had not yet bought a car so one of the guys from work offered to give me a lift home. Normally I would have quickly accepted, but I noticed the sun was shining, there was only a light drizzle (sometimes so light they call it a spittle), and I was only a mile and a half from home so I politely refused. It had been a long week anyway and I could use a relaxing walk home. As I started walking I popped on my iPod and started walking. A left turn from the church parking 
lot took me directly into a slight breeze that was blowing. The mixture of the sun shining and breeze brought an amazing view of the illuminated rain drops, so small that they were being thrown and lifted effortlessly by the breeze.
As I walked I realized how strange it was because rain back home, in Las Vegas, comes in large downpours. It doesn’t really drizzle. It is not unusual to get more then a half inch of rain in just 20 minutes and the ground is so hard that the water will just run right off and never saturate the ground. The rain runoff would flood the city and wreak havoc on unsuspecting people caught in the ensuing river. The downpour would happen so fast that the streets will be dry within an hour or so. Normally if there are storm clouds in the skies of Las Vegas, and you can smell a faint odor of rain then it will definitely be raining soon. Inversely, if it is sunny then there is no way it will be raining. This rain, however was totally different. The sun was shining, there was no clouds directly overhead and no smell of rain. Based on my experience there was no reason I should worry. But the weather here is different. It may be sunny at the time but within minutes all that can change. It is not unusual for there to be multiple seasons in one day. Because it is so wet here the ground is soft and damp and additional rain can easily be absorbed. This leads to the roads and ground usually being wet but not often flooded.
This day, like most days when I walk, I used the time to pray and talk with God. I love it. Usually it is the only time I have 30 minutes of uninterrupted time where I can focus almost completely on God. I pray all kinds of things. Thanking God for His grace for us. Thanking Him for a loving family. Praying for my wife, son and family and friends, both here and back home in Las Vegas. God is always faithful to speaks if I am willing to listen and let other noises fade into the background. On this day, at some point in my walking prayer I started to get cold and I decided to zip up my jacket. As I did, I realized that the drizzle, though not heavy or intense, was starting to soak me because I had been in it so long. Because I was walking into the wind, the front of my clothes were totally soaked and now I was questioning whether I should have been so quick to refuse the ride home from a friend. Also, because the drops were so light and flying horizontal, I realized that even if I had an umbrella, it would not have protected me from the soaking that I was experiencing. Either I was going to be in the rain and damp or I was going to be out of it and dry. If you were walking next to me at the time you would have heard me say, “God I know you are trying to tell me something in this. What is it?”
And that is the moment God began to speak to me in living color. Often times we live life looking for a downpour from God. We want something heavy. Something quick. Something life changing. Something epic that affects our whole life and the whole city in an instant. Though God can and does sometimes move like that, it is not His only way. But because we are only looking for that huge downpour, our lives get hardened and unable to be affected by any small amount of His Spirit. We read books, download podcasts and go to conferences just trying to get hooked up with our next big “fix” of God. Many of us are busying ourselves just for the hope that we will be hit with a deluge of God and often times we go home disappointed because He didn’t do what we expected.
It reminds me of the story out of 1 Kings 19 where Elijah, who is hiding from an enemy in a cave, is told by God to exit the cave and go stand on a mountain because the Lord is about to pass by. Immediately a mighty wind comes and breaks the mountain. Then an earthquake comes followed by a fire. Certainly an all powerful God would use those signs to reveal His presence, but He didn’t. After each powerful sign the Bible says the Lord was not in it. Verse 12 says after the fire, came “a still small voice” and THAT is where God’s presence was. The Bible says that wasn’t until Elijah heard the voice that he wrapped his face in his cloak, stepped out of the cave and stood before the Lord. Notice that the small voice was still or as other translations put it, gentle. In all the chaos and destruction, God was calm. What would have happened had Elijah gone out of the cave to see God during the wind, earthquake or fire? Obviously there would have been a lot of physical forces at work and an epic display both audibly and visually. He would have seen and heard some amazing things that, as a prophet, he could have used to embolden himself or others, but that wasn’t Elijah’s goal. Elijah wanted something greater. He didn’t just want the physical effects. He wanted the Effector of the physical. Because Elijah had relationship with God, he knew what God sounded like. And it was at this point that God spoke to Elijah to show him the next steps to take.
As I was finishing my rain soaked walk home it became quite clear what God was trying to show me. God does not want to drop huge buckets of Holy Spirit water on us sporadically throughout life while we become dry between the downpours. Instead, He wants to constantly drizzle on us through a relationship with Him, so that we stay soft, pliable and damp. It is this constant drizzle that keep us absorbent and moldable to the fresh daily rain, ready for the future downpours when they come and able to give to others that are becoming dry and distant from God. He has great things to say to us daily if we will stay ready and willing to hear them and act accordingly. God doesn’t just speak to hear himself talk, but He is wanting a relationship with us. Who will be willing to know Him daily? Who will seek to know His voice? Those that do will be the ones that truly hear His words. Will you be one?
