THEME: THE GREAT HARVEST
LESSON: Two
TOPIC: The Harvest; the Biblical Approach and Mindset to God’s Harvests
TEXT: John 4:31-38; Luke 10:1-22
MEMORY TRACK:
By God’s grace, we saw from the last lesson that God’s work on the face of the earth is not done yet, and as a church, we need to be positioned aright, and align our hearts individually, so we can be empowered to do all that God would require of us as a local assembly, as pertaining to the harvest. We saw that the imminent harvest would not be run with zeal alone, but with doctrinal knowledge and understanding – just like previous moves.
Some views about Harvest in Today’s Church World
When the subject of harvest is spoken of, most times in the Church, the default thinking of most of us God’s People is to think of “going to bring in the lost/unsaved or bring in other Christians who don’t have our kind of doctrine/biblical emphasis”. While this in itself is not bad or wrong, it is however, not “the biblical first step” towards harvest (John 4:31-38). God’s approach to harvest is totally different from our thinking and approach.
Don’t misconstrue what is being said, there is nothing wrong with going after the “unsaved” (not born again) or those who, though, born again but are not in a particular emphasis of the word that we may have. The proper biblical approach is to give ourselves to be harvested first or give ourselves to both hearing and doing of the word that we want to use to harvest others. It is good to note that the instruments of harvest in the kingdom, are typically a previous or early harvest themselves! SELAH!
The Jesus Approach to Harvest (John 4:31-38)
The scriptures say we should look unto Jesus Christ, the author of finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1). Jesus holds not just the standard of life that we are called to attain unto, but the ‘how/approach’ to that standard of life. The same can be said of how Jesus approached the harvest.
In John 4, the story of the Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus was vividly told. At some point, the disciples brought food for Jesus to eat as they felt He should be hungry. There, Jesus showed a unique principle of harvest which we shall look into below:
John 4:34-35: There is a great connection between doing the will that Jesus did, and the harvest that He began speaking of. Truth be told, power to carry out a particular harvest is in the meal/life/doctrine of that will. Jesus knew this. He attested to being fed a meal that his disciples knew nothing about (John 4:32). Actually, Jesus was light years ahead of the harvest the disciples had capacity for.
For example, it can only take one who is born again and probably filled with the Holy Spirit to be a tool in the hand of the Holy Ghost to get others born again. One who has not given themselves to the milk of the word, both in hearing and doing/obedience may not be an effective and useful tool in the hand of the Lord Jesus to be a sickle of harvest. So also, for the “Word of Righteousness/Faith of the Son of God”, we will not be effective and potent tools in the hand of God if we ourselves are “not being harvested in our souls” to the Lord.
The potency of the gospel is not, first of all, in what we do externally for the Lord, but who we are becoming internally in conformity to the image of the Lord Jesus. Who we become internally is what truly guarantees the harvest. There are many works/moves of the Spirit where numbers were gathered in the name of harvesting for the Lord (which is not bad in itself), but the gathered number were not harvested! Satan and his cohorts still succeeded to destroy the harvest because those who were pursuing the harvest themselves were not given to the demands of the word/doctrine that they were preaching.
Harvest; a Call for Growth in Your Soul
Individually, we should be so passionate about growth in our souls. The power of harvest lies in our change. We will not be effective in the hands of the Lord of the harvest if we are not products from the harvest! May the Lord grant us all speed and diligence in all things growth in Jesus’ name.