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To God be the Glory. It is raining or it has rained in every state of Australia in the last 5 weeks, and there is lot more rain on its way. (See BOM Rainfall maps below).

Ever since the intense burst of prayer in the first week of January, rain has been falling consistently somewhere in our wide brown land. The rain in the south of the continent is unseasonal.

Heavy rains expected to raise NSW dam catchment areas to close to 70% (7NEWS):

The fire risk has dropped massively, and if the rain falls as predicted in the maps below over the next 8 days, almost all the fires burning in Australia will have been put out!!!!!

Senior BOM meteorologist Dean Sgarbossa said,

“We haven’t seen rainfall totals of this significance in a couple of years.”

The intense burst of prayer for rain and against the fires came from within Australia and the global church, particularly in the USA, China, Canada, the UK and other countries of the world.

We here in Australia are grateful for our brothers and sisters in Christ who have been praying for Australia, especially in our recent catastrophic bushfire tragedy. Many more would have died, but for their/your combined prayers!

It should be noted that many people and Churches have been praying, and in many cases fasting, over the last two or three years for the drought to end, and for our nation’s healing and the grace for repentance.

The drought, the fires and now the Coronavirus has driven us to our knees. Let us press on in prayer.

Let us keep praying for more rain, but particularly the rain of the Holy Spirit, and the grace for repentance as a nation.

Lou Engle said you should look for your answers to corporate prayer and fasting in the headlines of the secular newspapers.

The choice of words is exquisite in the page three headline of Australia’s largest newspaper, “Prayers answered as heavens open”.

God has received the glory through this national headline. Every drop of rain says to Australia, “I love you!”

The grace of God is leading us to repentance (Acts 11:18, Romans 2:4).

Thank you for your prayers. Soli Deo Gloria!

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Prayers Answered As Heavens Open (headline from The Australian newspaper)

by Emily Ritchie, The Australian

A massive trough which dumped hundreds of millimetres from southern Queensland down to the NSW south coast gave locals a “pinch-me” moment near Moree in northern NSW after photos emerged of the once dried-up Barwon River flowing with water on Friday.

As farmers celebrated, the week’s rain activity began to flow into the Murray-Darling Basin, with the northern Warrego and Maranoa catchments recording up to 51mm.

Significant falls were recorded across Sydney’s main drinking water catchments, which are at 42 per cent capacity.

In the 24 hours to 9am on Friday­, 47mm fell in the Blue Mountains catchments, while 41mm fell in the Nepean catchment and 19mm at Warragamba.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting that 300mm of rain could fall along much of coastal NSW, which would be a month’s worth of rain in just three days.

“It could be a potentially dangerous situation as we haven’t seen rainfall totals of this significance in a couple of years,” said senior meteorologist Dean Sgarbossa.

As much as 225mm of rain is predicted to fall on bushfire-affect­ed towns on the NSW south coast this weekend, while Canberra could get 75mm.

Heavy rain drenched the east coast on Friday morning, causing flash flooding and peak-hour chaos across central NSW and southeast Queensland, with Sydney recording its highest 24-hour rain total since November 2018.

The downpour forced road closures­, there were more than 600 calls to the State Emergency Service, and the BOM issued an ­urgent weather warning stretching 1000km from the NSW south coast to southern Queensland.

The rain has offered hope to farmers in NSW’s parched Liverpool Plains region on the northwest slopes.

James Pursehouse, whose family has a farm south of Breeza, welcomed about 20mm on Thursday and had his fingers crossed for more over the weekend. He said there was “definitely a bit of optimism­ in the community” and the rain had “sparked everyone up” but it wasn’t enough to make a significant difference.

Farmers Steven and Therese Moffitt were in high spirits after 24mm of rain fell on their cattle and poultry farm in the NSW Hunter Valley.

“If you hear the tank dripping, you know you had some really good rain overnight,” said Mr Moffitt. “I really can’t explain it, you just feel your spirits lift.”

The Moffitts, who live in the hamlet of McCullys Gap, had run out of money to buy hay and were preparing to sell their 30 remaining cattle, including 15 prized studs, after the unrelenting drought crept in three years ago and forced them to slash their herd by half. Their beloved farm had been on the verge of collapsing.

The BOM predicts that up to 100mm more could fall in the drought- and fire-ravaged region by Monday. “The last decent rain we had was nearly 12 months ago and with this bit of rain we will have grass that the cattle can ­actually eat,” Ms Moffitt said.

More than 250mm fell in some parts of the NSW Northern Rivers region in the early hours of Friday, with Byron Bay receiving the most rain — 283mm by 9am — its heaviest falls in 47 years, causing widespread flooding.

The BOM reported that the Moree Plains, near Collarenebri, had been drenched with 87mm, meaning the drought-ravaged re­g­ion­ has now recorded more rainfall so far this year than all of 2019.

“It’s wonderful, it’s a beautiful sight,” Moree Plains Shire Council Mayor Katrina Humphries told The Weekend Australian of seeing water in the Barwon once again. But she added: “The pressure’s not off yet. Follow-up rain is needed to break a drought.

“We’re all nervous because this is very exciting, it’s a pinch-me moment, and it’s nothing like we’ve seen in a long time.”

Some rivers, such as the Darling in western NSW, have not flowed for a year or more, and towns such as Pooncarie have had to put down bores as the stagnant pool the village­ relied on turned putrid. NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey told The Weekend Australian town water supplies remain­ critically low across the far west of NSW.

If more substantial rain reaches rivers supporting such communities, it may avoid the need for the state government to take extreme actions such as putting down bores, building pipelines, or even carting water.

Additional reporting: Ean Higgins, AAP