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    This is a group for RHM sponsored events like corporate fasts. Everyone is welcome to join and participate in things currently going on in the ministry. We love you and thank you for being a part of Refreshing Hope!
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Plow Before The Rain Comes

  • Sow to yourselves in righteousness, Reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; For it is time to seek Yahweh, Until He comes and rains righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12 WEB

    I grew up on a farm and over the long cold winter, the ground of the fields would become so hard that water would just run off of it like rock. The rain would no longer penetrate it. When spring came, we would have to plow it with a tractor, break it all up to get it ready to plant. We could then plant the seed, the rain would come, and later we would get a harvest. Each year we had to do this to see a harvest. With no work, there was no reward.

    Left alone, our hearts will become as hard as rock. Life happens and you add a little hurt here, another disappointment there, someone lies to you again, and soon a bigger wall goes up to protect us. If the rain does come, it will run off still leaving us dry and bare because our hearts have grown hard and calloused from use, and abuse.

    There was a time in my life when I could count everyone that I loved on one hand and still have a couple of fingers left. No one hurt me anymore because they were already an enemy when I met them. I thank God that He did not leave me like that. He slowly opened me up and eventually I could show love, and be loved, something that I had never known.

    In ancient Palestine, farming was a bit different than today. They scattered the seed first, then plowed it into the ground. Think of the parable that Jesus told of the sower in Matthew 13:3. You hear the word of God, then we plow it into our ground by doing it. He will then take care of everything else and provide the rain, the nutrients and the sunshine. Working together, we bring forth a harvest.

    God can heal a hardened heart, if you allow Him, but we can hold Him at a distance as well if we choose to. We have to work with Him to advance. He gives us a word, we break up the ground by doing what He told us, then He provides the rain. We study, He reveals something new, we try and live it, then there is a reward. The rain that comes from being in the Lords presence and His word will soften our hearts, make it grow, and begin to heal.

    It is not very pleasant when our ground is being broken up. Seek the Lord and His presence each day and do not let your heart become cold and hard. Talk to Him each day and cultivate a relationship. There can be no harvest until the ground is made ready, and there are fields that have sat unchanged for decades.

    Prayer: Lord guide me, reveal to me the things that I need to change and give me the grace to do it. Show me the next step. Help me break up the pieces of my life that have hardened, and send Your rain, in the name of Jesus.

    Note: Many of the readers have been asking for some more information about fasting. Because of that, we have a new teaching up called "Fasting: A Lost Art". If you go to the website menu and click on "Teachings", you should see it at the top. It is quite in depth, with Biblical foundation, testimonies, a journal of our last long fast, and a pic of Dion with a prize-winning bass! You will have to read it to find out why ;-). Have a blessed day!

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29 comments
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Steven Dickison
Steven Dickison Awesome word brother just what the heart needed and confirmation God is watching over my life. Thank you Lord!!!!
July 9, 2015
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David and Dianna Wyles
David and Dianna Wyles So TRUE! It is not very pleasant when our ground is being broken up!! To seek the lord seems like the only possibility.  Lord please help me break up the pieces of my life that has hardened, but could we do it gingerly please as I am broken and in need of many mercies and miracles... not always sure of how strong you think I am. Even so... when the unpleasent things happen, you hold me and strengthen me so thank you for being my ROCK. ~Amen~ Thank you for a powerful message Pastor. Gods' peace & love to you
July 9, 2015
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Steven Dickison
Steven Dickison My prayer are for strength in you from the the Lord!!!!
July 9, 2015
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Valerie  King
Valerie King Amen! 
July 9, 2015
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David and Dianna Wyles
David and Dianna Wyles Thank you and blessings
July 9, 2015
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Noraima Crespo
Noraima Crespo Thank you Lord, Amen!
July 9, 2015
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Beverly Boyd
Beverly Boyd Amen.  Thank the Lord for never giving up on us and for his unconditional love.  
July 9, 2015
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Debra lynn Hubbard
Debra lynn Hubbard Thank you Lord!! The pain can't compare to the gain..keep making me...
July 9, 2015
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Kay Rushin
Kay Rushin Amen, thank you Jesus, my wall was 10 feet high, there's a song that says, the wall came tumbling down, Yes indeed, God can and will bring that wall down so you can find the "real" you! But you gotta let him. Be encouraged.
July 9, 2015
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Marisa Jackson
Marisa Jackson Very powerful read for today!  Amen Rev. Tod!  Amen!!
July 9, 2015
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Kimberly Dublin
Kimberly Dublin Thank God for the word being made applicable to my life. 
July 9, 2015
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Carol Pady
Carol Pady Amen!
July 9, 2015
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Twila Stierwalt
Twila Stierwalt A relationship with Jesus Christ is so important. We are a treasure to Him. I know that God gave me to Jesus, and no one can snatch me from His hands. I have hope in Jesus for eternal life and know I will spend eternity With my LORD and savior. While I wait for my future, I pray that I will make good choices and listen for His voice. I am so glad that if I make right choices I know the ground will be ready to let God water it and make it grow.      My life verses is Psalm 62:1-2 & 5-8,  My soul wait in silence for God only; from His is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, My strong hold; I shall not be greatly shaken. ( This is a heart thing) My soul wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. By Beth Moore- Our glorious inheritance in Christ is not meant for heaven alone. It should also have an impact on our earthly existence. God gets the glory for anything that grows.
July 9, 2015
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Yvette Cantrell
Yvette Cantrell Amen Amen Amen... Lord God, I Thank YOU for the nourishment YOU give. I Need And Depend on YOUR Guidance. Thank YOU for Your Holy Spirit. 
July 9, 2015
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Karen Pasquinelli
Karen Pasquinelli Amen
July 9, 2015
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Conchita Bowman
Conchita Bowman Oh what a wonderful blessing, thank you Pastor Dion Todd.
July 9, 2015
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Joseph Krell
Joseph Krell Ah yes, another great one Pastor Dion! The teaching on Fasting was great as well, with a champ bass to boot even. Oh yes, the Lord works in mysterious ways and you are both such a blessing. We all need zaps (energizing) in our lives to combat the saps (draining) in our lives, keep on zapping my friend! God is good all the time! Zap! Zap!
July 9, 2015
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Kathy Banfield
Kathy Banfield Sadly, with all the hurt and disappointment in life, it's easy to cultivate a hard heart when one reaches my age--55. My ex husband has grown to be a bitter, angry man, and although I tease him (I tell him all he needs is a pitchfork and he can pose as a devil) it really is very sad that the man I married has become so hardened. I notice the same in my own father. Grumpy old men, both of them!
July 9, 2015
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Linda Rogers
Linda Rogers Thank you Pastor Dion for this blessing today. I am slowing opening my heart to the hurts of long ago and trying to get over the abuses of a hurtful marriage. Thank you for your wonderful lessons and this wonderful website. I thank God for you every day. 
July 9, 2015
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Mary Bezdicek
Mary Bezdicek One of my favorite devotionals!! I remember this devotional when you sent it out with Peace Be With U in 12/2013.  It was at the end of a very, very trying year and the words brought much comfort then and helped with my healing process. My prayer is these words will help some else as they help me through troubled times.  
July 9, 2015
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Kay Rushin
Kay Rushin Nothing is impossible for God......
July 9, 2015
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Agnello Sagar
Agnello Sagar Amen!!!
July 9, 2015
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Judy  Driggers
Judy Driggers Wow! What a powerful message! It helped to clarify the relationship between hearing the Word and DOING what God is asking.
July 9, 2015
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Dion Todd
Dion Todd Thank you! It is the same theme, though now that I am blogging instead of emailing I can write lengthier articles.  :)
July 9, 2015
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Nell Neathery
Nell Neathery I witnessed my grandfather plowing a garden when I was a little girl, and there may be a photo of him in our family of him doing so. I sure would love to be shelling some beans or peas and buck'sing corn and having my grandmother or mother cooking from their garden! The Red River here was flooding when I arrived in this area of Louisiana on June 5, 2015.  From way back in the past to the present, thank You Lord for giving me life to talk about these events abd especially showing me the word "Grace" all of this week and for the Amazing Grace of rain we all need on earth as it is in Heaven.  In Jesus' name, Amen
July 9, 2015
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Nell Neathery
Nell Neathery See if I can get this right without auto-correct changing it...would like to shuck my grandfather's corn from his garden he plowed!
July 9, 2015
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Ticardo Williams
Ticardo Williams Amen.  Praise God!  Thank you!  Purify my heart, Lord.
July 10, 2015
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Cheryl Hepler
Cheryl Hepler Being a gardener of flowers, shrubs & etc I saw the soil hard in May.  Now the rains come & go.  In this sentence I see the rain coming as the word and it washes us clean & helps us grow
July 10, 2015
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Lissy Verghese
Lissy Verghese Thank you dear Pastor for the great message!
August 19, 2015