Weather Wars

In the fall of 1983, God had led me back into full-time paint business, and at the time, he provided work with two home-builders who were building new homes in new developments of west Plano.  On one occasion, I went to work on a beautiful bright shiny sunny morning to paint the exterior of a house, and I was thanking God because the weather was perfect for painting outside.  I remember standing in front of the house and looking to the south, and with no obstruction to the view some 25 miles away, I could clearly see the skyline of Dallas.  I thought, "Man, this is gorgeous!"  Well, I began to get busy, set up my paint equipment, and start to work.  About 45 minutes later, I noticed a breeze beginning to pick up, and I went around to front of the house to find a dark cloud forming over the city of Dallas.  I knew it was a rain storm, and it was broadening fast.  In fact, within less than ten minutes, I could no longer see the city of Dallas, and if something didn't happen quickly, I knew it was going to be on me shortly.  Now, although I had heard about people in present day taking authority over storms and had read about Jesus commanding the storm to cease in Mark 4:35-41, I had not personally experienced it myself.  However, I found myself again standing in the front yard and saying, "Father, you sent me out here to do this job, and I don't believe this storm is of you!"  Without thinking (thank, God), I pointed my finger straight into the face of the storm and with a loud voice cried, "I command in the name of Jesus that this storm part like Moses parted the Red Sea!  Father, I thank you it is done in the name of Jesus!  Amen!"  Immediately, my mind was flooded with thoughts, "You're nuts!  People will think you're a fool!   Storms are acts of God! (Insurance Policies)", etc.  I won't tell you that I didn't entertain the thoughts for a second, but as I looked around, God's grace was with me, and I realized no one was in sight to see me.  By now, even if they were, I didn't care.  I quickly got hold of my mind and yelled, "I bind the devil in the name of Jesus, and I command you to depart from me!"  Then, I began to give God thanks as I watched the dark clouds fill the sky all around me.  However, within a matter of seconds, which seemed like eternity in my heart, the darkness began to lighten definitively right down the middle.  I could see the movement of the dark clouds going around to my right and to my left, and a white cloud had formed over top of me.   I really can not describe how amazing this was to my mind, but in my heart, I knew God had moved for me!  Thank God!  I returned to work, and after about fifteen minutes, the builder drove up.   He got out of his car laughing and said, "I knew it!  I told all of my builder friends at the coffee shop if anyone is working today, you would be!"  He continued, "Did you know it is raining within two blocks of this location in all directions?"  I replied,   "I'm not surprised, but thank God, it's not raining here!"  He also said further that as far he knew from all the other builders, no one else was working, but I had no more problems and finished the exterior of the house that day.  In fact, for the next four years painting houses if there ever was a problem with the weather to hinder our work, we prayed believing the Gospel, and God changed the weather on our behalf.  To me that is salvation, (safety, soundness, deliverance from every "hindering" influence).  Never did we miss any work because of the weather!  Praise God!

Although I could share many other experiences God has led me to pray regarding the weather over the past fifteen years, I'm only sharing a couple more, or we might be reading from now on.  On a Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1993, I had been doing some work at the office, and I was on my way back home.  It had been harmlessly raining off and on that day, and I didn't think much about it except being thankful for the much needed nice gentle rain.  Well, as I approached about four miles from home, I noticed some rough, strange-colored clouds swirling off to the south, and they appeared to be heading toward our house.  I was immediately prompted by the Spirit of God to begin to bind the devil over the weather, bind up violent storms, and command tornadoes away from our house.  At the same instant, I heard a warning siren sound, and the radio announced a tornado spotted on the ground and headed in our direction by description.  I continued to pray harder and harder and charged the tornado, "You will not come near our house in Jesus' name!"  Well, I arrived home to find everyone else praying too, and after about fifteen minutes, the rain began to cease, and the storm subsided.  We then heard on the radio that no one could explain it, but the tornado turned to the right and went about 3 miles to the east of us.  We all began to rejoice and praise God that he had delivered us once again out of the hands of the devil!

To continue, in April of 1995, we met with another rain storm encounter.  However, this experience involved hail also.  As a common practice, Kathy and I were out praying one night, and it began to rain harder and harder.  I decided to turn around and head for home and soon realized that we were heading into the teeth of the storm.  It also began to hail at this point, and we were praying with every bit of strength within us against the powers of the devil.  It seemed the stronger we prayed, the harder it hailed.  It sounded like hail stones larger than golf balls were literally coming through the roof, but we were not moved and continued to fight in prayer.  Finally, we mercifully arrived at home, and I looked over our vehicle.  Amazingly, there were no dents on the roof with only one small dent in the side, and we weren't even sure that dent was caused by the hail.  Praise God!

Finally, in December, 1998, I awakened one morning to discover ice all around our house on the walks and the driveway.  Well, I placed some sand on the pavements, so that we could maneuver around, and I began to pray.  By evening, much of the ice had melted, but the weather reports called for more rain turning to ice before morning.  In fact, it was to be worse than the previous morning.  Immediately God's power rose in my heart, "This is enough!"  I told Kathy, "The devil snuck in on us this morning, but he's not doing it again!", and we began to bind the devil over the weather and command his power broken over the temperature.  I know we were not the only ones praying, but isn't it good to know God hears our prayers?  Well, we awakened the following morning to find no ice and dry pavement!  Praise the Lord!

I'll conclude by saying that I do not spend all of my time demanding the weather to be perfect.  However, if the weather is a hindrance to completing God's will for my daily life and salvation is deliverance from every hindrance, God leads me to take authority over the weather, which brings salvation.  Jesus said in Luke 9:23,

If any will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross (gospel) daily and follow me. 

This is really where I saw God was to be involved in everything in our daily lives, even the weather.