Turn on the news in any city around this nation and the top story is the weather. Since when did the weather become a top story? I remember growing up and the weather was one of the last things they discussed on the news and only my dad and grandma would watch the news until the end. But today, the weather is front page news, it is one of the first stories you hear about when you turn on the news.
We hear about droughts in California, floods in Texas, snow, snow and more snow in Maryland, and Tornadoes in Oklahoma. In the past when prophetic people would try to address the reason for a storm, they would proclaim it is the judgment of God.
When New Orleans was hit with a hurricane that broke the levy and came on shore, prophets declared God’s judgment on that city. When earthquakes shake the west coast, or fires break out in San Francisco in the early 1900s we hear it echoed again, the judgment of God is the reason for it. While there may be some truth to this statement, for God uses elements to bring judgment, like the flood that came in Noah’s day, and the firestorm that took out Sodom and Gomorrah, I think we need to be careful how we label these storms. God is holy, He does not tolerate sin, but He is also a Father, He is really good and He desires that none should perish but all should come to the saving knowledge of His Son, Jesus the Christ. So, when we blame destruction on God’s judgement, we make a loving Father out to be an angry God.
Now the reality is, there are major storms happening, they are and will affect our lives here on earth, however, our interpretation of them will draw us near to God or push us away from Him. Therefore, we need to understand what the Bible stays about storms.
Nahum 1:3 “The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.”
Psalm 135:7 “He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.”
Zechariah 9:14 “Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south.”
One of the weather men here in the US said, “Storms cleanse the atmosphere!” So, with all the floods happening, snow storms blasting, earth’s shaking, storms raging, what is it all about? I believe it is God cleansing the atmosphere in preparation for the Fall Harvest Festival. Every farmer knows you need a summer soaking in order to have a bountiful fall harvest, for wheat does well only in rainy years.
We have prophesied the billion soul harvest, we have declared the next move of God is going to be beyond anything we can ask or imagine, so let’s not complain or be concerned that these storms are the judgment of God. Let’s lift up our eyes to the hills (Ps. 121), for these storms are cleansing the atmosphere in preparation for a fall harvest festival, and we all know America needs a cleansing of the atmosphere.
Lisa Great is an author, speaker and blogger with Mouthpiece Ministries International. She has been in ministry for over 25 years, she has a BA in Youth and Family Studies, a MA in Education. She can be reached at mouthpieceministries.net;
