Prolonging the California Drought

By David Hobbs

Man was made in God’s image, according to the Bible. So where does man’s greatest God-like power lie?

Well, first, what is God’s greatest power? It would have to be His power to create. God created the worlds out of His spoken word; He spoke everything into existence ex nihilo (out of nothing). Likewise, man’s greatest power lies, not in his brains but in his loins, where he can create new life, and in his mouth.

Proverbs says that life and death are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21). Jesus spoke a curse over a fig tree and it shriveled up from the roots. He told His followers that if they had faith, they could similarly speak to a mountain and cast it into the sea (Matt. 21:21).

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus shows up at the Battle of Armageddon to fight against the beast, the kings of the earth and their armies. Though He has His own army with Him, He alone fights and defeats them with the sword that comes from His mouth--in other words, His spoken word (Rev. 19:21).

So how are we doing at exercising this great power? Not well. We “damn” this and “damn” that, crucify people with gossip behind their backs, and in our anger say bitter and hateful things that shrivel children’s spirits and can’t be taken back. (“You’ll never amount to anything, do you hear me? NEVER!”)

Recently we had another example of negative speaking in our civic life. California has been in a prolonged drought. Since millions of people and the richest agricultural area in the nation depend on the winter rains and snowpack, people were concerned. Then after three dry years, this year the pattern suddenly changed to a wet one. We tapped into a river of atmospheric moisture streaming up from the subtropical Pacific. In one month there was a weather station halfway up the mountains that recorded almost 40 inches of rain!

So what was the problem? After every storm, no matter how big, our newspaper, in its coverage, kept up a steady drumbeat—“the drought’s not over.” “We just had a great storm, but it didn’t end the drought.” No matter who they quoted: meteorologists, state water officials, reporters, editors, it was always the same: “The drought’s not over.”

Guess what happened? They spoke the drought back into existence! After an incredibly wet December, the pattern shifted back and January was the driest on record, in what should have been the biggest rainfall month of the year. San Francisco went the entire month with no recorded rain! The drought returned with a vengeance! But we can’t blame God, or global warming, or any number of other factors. We did it! The creative power of the spoken word: we cursed ourselves.

The heavens responded to the words being spoken by officials who, like it or not, speak for us. They prophesied to the heavens, “The drought’s not over!” So the heavens brought it back. Who knows when our next chance will be?

In 1 Kings 18, when Elijah was praying to end a 3½  year drought, he sent his servant to observe the ocean. Six times he returned saying nothing was happening. The seventh time he saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand rising out of the sea. Elijah didn’t say, “What? How could that end the drought?” Instead he quit praying, told the servant to get everyone off the mountain before it turned to mud, and ran for town. Before he could get there a deluge from heaven overwhelmed them all (1 Kings 18:41-46).

America has become clueless about the ways of God and how things work in that invisible, spiritual realm that affects us all.