simulated rain?

Downpour.....it is what I have been praying for since October of last year. Sitting in the verses in Hosea 6:1-3 and crying out to heaven that He would send the rain. Over the recent months, I have spent a lot of time thinking about, praying for and longing for rain. While sifting through Hosea, I realized that Hosea 6 is connected to Hosea 5. (I know, I am a little slow) What a revelation of truth there! God tells us in chapter 5 that He will go away until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face. Basically, says that there will be no rain until we Repent and Return. (exactly what Acts 4:19 affirms.)
That hit me like a ton of bricks. We can pray for rain. We can call down heaven. We can ask for a downpour, a deluge or even hurricane-but He will withdraw from us, until we Repent (change the way we think, turn from our sin and abhor it) and Return (turn back and follow after His ways, pursue, harrass and run after Him!). We can pray for it, but it will not come without the Repenting and Returning.
While meditating on these things and asking the Lord to cause me to repent and return so rain may fall in my life, I was struck by a visual that the Lord gave me. We have really needed some rain-both spiritually and literally. My grass needed to be watered. We had run the sprinklers a couple of times, hoping to help it, but what it really needed was just a good downpour. Why? Because simulated rain is not a replacement for what only heaven can bring. I can water my grass with simulated rain (sprinklers) everyday, but it will not produce what one downpour from heaven can do. Simulated is not the same as real. And simulated will not sustain-only what is real produces the effect wanted.
The same is true for our lives. Simulated "rain" is not the same as real. We can try to simulate a downpour from heaven, but only a real one will produce the effect wanted. We can try "sprinklers", but what we really want is for the sky to open up and rain down. And THAT only happens when we repent and return.
So, I was on my way to a pool part last week and praying through all these things. NOT wanting simulated rain. NOT wanting to turn my sprinklers on and just asking the Lord to send a deluge of rain. About an hour into the party, the clouds began to brew and before we could leave and get home....a downpour came. I was telling the boys in the car how gracious the Lord was to answer my prayer, that I had prayed for rain and here it was. Naturally, they were upset that I had prayed for rain when they were going to a pool party. What was I thinking?
Isn't that how many of us think when it comes to asking the Lord to rain down? What if He does? What if He rains down and it ruins our party, our life, our plans, our comfort? What if He rains down and the wind blows and it uproots some things that have been? What if "trees" fall?
Then so be it....if God rains and things are uprooted...then they were not intended to remain. We should never fear the rain, but instead repent and return and cry out for it...so that we can live before Him, press on to know Him, be raised and revived.
But NONE of this will come without the REPENTING AND RETURNING. And NONE of it can be simulated. Everyone will eventually see that simulated won't isn't real-because simulated doesn't last.
If you are finding life dry....pray for rain.....but don't expect any-unless you repent and return. And then wait-don't simulate, because simulated is not the same as real. We don't want sprinklers. We want a deluge of heaven, raining down on us. ALL FOR YOU