The Old Testament gives many reasons for spiritual drought: - Deuteronomy 11:16–17 says, “Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the LORD's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.â€
- Jeremiah 5:24–25 says, "the LORD our God, Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest." Your iniquities have turned these things away, And your sins have withheld good from you.†Jeremiah 3:2–3: “You have polluted the land With your harlotries and your wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no latter rain. â€
Although these verses were spoken to the Israelites long ago, they also indicate reasons why the Holy Spirit stopped descending on the New Testament church as evidenced by church history. During the reign of king Ahab, the nation of Israel experienced drought for three and a half years, because Ahab led the people into idol worship and served Baal, a false god. Ahab did more to provoke God’s anger than all the kings of Israel before him (1 Kgs 16:32–33). The drought experienced in Ahab’s time is paralleled in church history after the corruption of the early church. Soon after apostle John, who recorded the problems of the seven churches in Revelation, died, the church gradually deviated from the truth. Martyrs, who died in the great persecution of Christians in early church history, were often idolized as saints. Many Christians, therefore, went astray and fell into idolatry. The Holy Spirit of truth found no truth. The church was corrupted and the Holy Spirit natually left the church. But all of this was according to God’s will. In due time, God would again send his Holy Spirit at the proper time.
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