The pattern of the fall and spring rains of the land of Israel reveals God's plan for bringing forth Christ in the Church. There is the fall, planting rain, sporadic winter rains, and then the growth and maturing of the wheat in the spring as a result of the spring rains.

We now are in the days of the spring, latter rain. We are to ask the Lord for rain in the time of the spring, harvest rain.

The harvest is Christ—Christ in the believers. He has been small in us but is to become great in our day.

Paul spoke that his life was over and now it is Christ who is living in him. This is our goal--that we may decrease and Christ may increase. Is this your goal? I'm sure it is.

Zechariah urges us to ask for rain in the time of the latter, spring rain. There is a time for Christ to come to maturity in His Church. That time is now!

The twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation portrays the ruling Son being born of the woman. Satan stands before the woman to kill the Son the moment he appears. Remember that Satan is not seriously worried about our church activities. His concern is that the woman will bring forth the Son. This is a terrifying prospect for the workers of darkness.

Michael and his angels will not be empowered by the Father to cast Satan from heaven until the Son has been brought forth in the believers.

I would like to pause for station identification. The Book of Revelation is filled with the most fantastic pictures and symbols. I want you to know that all these fantastic pictures and symbols are but fancy clothes put on the most ordinary and practical of circumstances. There is no book in the Bible more down home, more practical than the Book of Revelation.

All that the twelfth chapter of Revelation means is there will come a time when Christ will be brought forth in the believers to a greater extent than we have known. When He is brought forth in us all kinds of good things will happen.

When Christ is formed in us He is caught up to the Throne of God in Heaven. Sometimes we experience this upward thrust as a kind of travail of spirit as we are determining to leave all and follow Christ. There may come a breakthrough in our prayers that causes us to sing and rejoice. We know God has heard us and that the world is under our feet.

Of course Christ is in us now if we are a genuine Christian. But the forming of Christ in us will prove to be much greater than we have realized.

It is time now for a much greater experience of Christ in us than we would have thought possible.

I would like to add one word at the risk of confusing the reader.

There is a difference between Christ being formed in us and Christ coming to dwell in us. Galatians 4:19 speaks of Christ being formed in us. John 14:23 speaks of the Father and the Son coming to dwell in us. These are not the same experience.

Christ being formed in us has to do with the death and resurrection of our own personality in Christ. It is a transformation of what we are by being impregnated with the Divine Nature of Christ. It is an eternal blend of Christ and us. It is a new creation because never before has there been an eternal blend of Christ and us as a person. We are being changed! It is still us and yet it is Christ and yet it is us. It is a new creation formed on human stock by the Divine Nature of Christ.

As this program of re-creation is taking place, the actual Father and Christ of Heaven through the Holy Spirit come to us. They dwell in the new creation. So now Christ has been formed in us and then the Christ of Heaven with the Father come and make their eternal abode in the new creation that has been formed in us.

To be continued.