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Day 109: Your Part in the Harvest (Bonus Lesson 17)

We have spent the last week talking about the harvest. Our discussion is incomplete if we do not know what God expects of us as laborers. God's heart according to 1 Timothy 2:4 is for all men to be saved. It's the sole reason Jesus came. Earlier in our study, we said the two closest things to Jesus our Beloved's heart are the salvation of the lost and the well-being of His Bride (the church).

If we truly love Him and desire intimacy with Him, we must commit to what is most important to Him. Just like it is injustice for a man to pay for a good and not receive it, it is inappropriate for Christ to get less than what He paid for.

While not all men will be saved because man has a will God will not bypass. Love is only love if there is a choice. We must try our best and do our part to ensure men come to know Christ's love so they can make informed decisions.

Every believer regardless of their God-ordained purpose or path in life has two responsibilities in the harvest:

     1. Pray

In Luke 10:2, Jesus said:

 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. 

Jesus' first instruction concerning the harvest was not to harvest but to pray that the Lord would send laborers into the harvest. He didn't say to ask for the Lord to bring in the harvest but to send forth laborers. This is because everyone at salvation is automatically recruited as a laborer for the kingdom. So before I talk about praying for the lost I'll say: our encounter with the Lord is not put to effective use until we become tireless laborers in the harvest.

Our labor begins in prayer. In Romans 10:1, Paul said:

 My beloved brothers and sisters, the passionate desire of my heart and constant prayer to God is for my fellow Israelites to experience salvation.

When we read through the new testament, we'll see like Ephesians 2:12 says that the unsaved are hopeless. The Bible uses terms like blind (2 Corinthians 4:4) and dead (Ephesians 2:1-3) to refer to men without Christ. Dead men are unresponsive and truly hopeless and blind eyes cannot see light (the gospel of Christ). Our prayers for them are invitations for God who quickens to quicken them to life and cause them to respond to the gospel.

So, we must pray for their eyes to be open and hearts to respond to the gospel. We must ask according to John 16:8 that the unsaved will be convicted by the Holy Spirit. We must pray for boldness to proclaim Christ as the disciples did in Acts 4. We must pray as Paul asked in Colossians 4:3 for opportunities to preach Christ. According to Ephesians 6:19, we must pray for utterance to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.

John Wesley said:

 God does nothing but in answer to prayer; and even they who have been converted to God, without praying for it themselves (which is exceeding rare), were not without the prayers of others.

    2. Go

In Luke 10, after Jesus told them to pray in verse 2, He then told them to go in verse 3. In Mark 16:15 He said:

 ...“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  

1 Corinthians 5:18-20:

 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 

Reconciliation requires both parties to agree. So as we plead with God in prayer (not in the sense of begging because it's what He desires to do, but giving Him access to invade our world: our families and communities), we must also plead with men to accept Christ's sacrifice. 

Note: The gospel is the good news. It's a message of love and acceptance into the family of God. So, when we preach to the lost, we don't preach damnation and condemnation. We proclaim Christ's sacrificial love and its benefit for all who come to Him. And we do not just proclaim in words, Jesus gave us all authority to demonstrate His love and victory to men.

Matthew 28:18-19 says:

 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

We go in His authority. Whatever stands in our way stands in His way and will flee when we use His authority in faith.

Are you doing your part in the harvest?

PRAY WITH ME:

Dear Lord, I commit myself today to the ministry of reconciliation. Give me compassion for the lost. Grant me the grace and passion to pray for, boldness, opportunities, and utterance to reach the unsaved. Amen.

REFLECT & ACT:

  • Are you a laborer in the harvest? 
  • How can you pray and reach the unsaved around you more?
  • Read and ponder on Romans 9:1-3. Is your heart for the unsaved like Paul's in this scripture? 

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