Rain in the Word

Someone afflicted with suicidal ideation once related that they didn't even want to kill themselves; effectively they had a nagging woman (or man, for that matter!) in their head haranguing them about something they personally didn't care too much about: self-harm.

It is as though they were a mirror and a werewolf approached it, then went away. They recognised instinctively that the werewolf was not intrinsic to their mirror but alien to it, like another person who meant them harm. They experienced in effect a flood, a "rain", some swollen Jordan or fiery trial along the way.

"A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike" (Proverbs 27:15). 

"Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain" (Ezra 10:9).

Intrusive thoughts and intrusive actions -- varieties of nagging thoughts and compulsive actions-- "go out in the draught" if you do not pour gasoline onto the fires which these comprise. Your feeding these acts much like the Youtube recommended videos algorithm, in that feeding evil desires and behaviours selects for more of such in your content feed.

So to speak, that werewolf whereof one spoke who approached the mirror-person and then went away has, in the case of feeding evil desires and behaviours, left something of a dent on our mirrors; left something which lasts beyond this life, and which defines the length and the breadth of the life we have lived on this Earth.

"And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?" (Mark 7:18-20).

Tails/reverse "rain" tries the individual and tries the Church. That is why it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, why the Church at Sinai wandered the desert for 40 years, why Moses was said to be in seclusion for 40 days at Mt Sinai, why the book of Ezra involves the purification of a Church in the context of much rain, why Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, and why Jesus spoke of the rain and flood beating upon the houses built on rock and on sand.

"Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place" (Psalms 66:12).

We have see the "rain", the "flood", the "swollen Jordan", Nephilim-and-Pharaoh's-Army-Perishing, all trials by water. Here then are some trials by fire:

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you" (1 Peter 4:12). "Therefore because the king's command was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flames of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego" (Daniel 3:22).

Seen anything like that around these parts, neighbour? By means of such states of mind, Jesus perfects us singly and collectively, even as sand in oyster shells results in pearls, in this case pearls of great price.

"The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come."

*Note: Like many images and pairs of images, "rain" may be either heads or tails. In this place, the rain is tails/reversed: purification and trial. The heads/positive of rain would be "latter rain", for instance, or "dew".