Recently my husband and I went to take our son to his new college, and I began to let my thoughts run toward all of my friends who had established Facebooks and Twitters and right in the middle of my sin of comparison, the Lord interrupted my thought process and whispered this to me: “You might have gotten a late start on the social media scene, but you got a head start on ‘asking, seeking, and knocking! You’ve been pressing Me for a long time – asking for an outpouring – and I have heard your prayers. Soon I will pour out My Spirit in another Great Awakening and you will receive abundantly because you’ve been asking boldly for a long time now! Your buckets of expectation will be filled to overflowing while other Believers will be scrambling to find a container to ‘catch’ what I’m pouring out. Social marketing has nothing on the Spirit of the Living God!” Well, that little insight put things into perspective for me. Our efforts matter, yes. But God’s efforts matter more. When we access what He has promised, nothing on earth compares.

In his book, “And I will be Found by You”, Francis Frangipane wrote this: “If you are a God-seeker, you should expect to see the glory of God! There should be an anticipation that any day now – as you enter your prayer room or go for a walk, or in a dream – the Spirit of God is going to appear to you in some marvelous, life-changing way.”

One of my happy places is my cycle class at the YMCA. My instructor is an elite athlete and runs her class more like a training session than a fitness class. She regularly makes this statement: “You will not rise to the level of your intention. You will fall to the level of your training.”

Think about that for a moment. We can have the best of intentions, but at the end of the day, we land where we’ve been living. I only work out about three times a week, but during those times, I go after it hard. And this summer, when I rode my bike about 26 miles at a really fast pace, I wasn’t that surprised that I could do it, simply because I had been training to do such a thing. And when I show up at retreats and conferences and God does something great – well, I’m always thankful and He always keeps me on my toes – but I’m never shocked that God moved because I spend lots of time with Him and He’s been training me to trust Him and His promises regardless of how I feel or what my circumstances say.

Do this for me, say this out loud, every single day: ANY DAY NOW, the glory of God is going to fall afresh on me!

Also, prepare for rain. Get out your buckets of expectation (places in your life that you want God to fill). Practice the spiritual disciplines of fasting, praying and giving. Come boldly before your Father and tell Him what you need. Ask, seek, and knock! And when the sun finally breaks through the clouds, and the times of refreshing come, you won’t be surprised because you’ve been preparing for it all along.