LORD OF THE HARVEST

The story of Jesus first sending His disciples plus a further 60 people into the harvest field with power to cast out demons, heal the sick and raise the dead is a very familiar one, but there are several points in just the first few verses which are often overlooked although they are so important. Let us look at the whole passage first then look at some of the important points it contains.

"After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

"When you enter a house, first say, ‘peace to this house,' if someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

"When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.' I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

"Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you, and you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.

"Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me. "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. "He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

We see that The Lord appointed 72 people, not just 12 to go to the places where He Himself was about to go. Why would He do this – what purpose would the 72 have for going to these places, especially in pairs? Well, if you ever get the opportunity to pray for people it is a good idea to do it in pairs, so that one can listen to what the person is saying and the other can listen for what The Lord is saying.

If there is a demonic manifestation the demon will need to be bound, always spiritually but in some cases it will require the physical restraint of the person with the evil spirit in him or her. Although one person is more than enough to cast out even the strongest demon the person ministering deliverance; may be either just plain inexperienced or slightly lacking in faith and hesitation in the eyes of demons is weakness. The person ministering with you may well be able to put his/her own experience to work and save the day as it were.

The same principle applies when ministering to the sick, whilst one person listens to the person the other can listen out for what God wants to say by way of words of knowledge and/or encouragement. If you ask The Lord to show you how to pray on every occasion then He probably will do just that. Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons with a word so why do we need to take at least ten minutes praying for each person individually?

The reason that Jesus sent them out two by two was so that they could do what Daniel did in chapter 9 of that book in the bible. Do research to find what are the current sins of the place and what sins are the fathers guilty of from days gone by? Then confess those things before God along with your own sin, and who knows, you might receive an angelic visitation also.

Never forget that souls are won in one place and one place alone, in the spiritual realm through prayer, then you go out and preach the rhema, the now word that God will give you for each occasion (if you ask Him) and you will harvest the souls you won in the spiritual realm through prayer. This will not happen overnight, but will only happen through prayer and fasting continuously for two weeks before and on the night of the outreach.

You will need to put on the full armour of God because you must realize that you are not fighting flesh and blood but princes and powers of the air who seem to be ruling this present age, but who knows how much evil God has disallowed in the world because of people faithfully praying against the works of darkness, in their daily prayers and during the regular prayer meetings.

When Jesus told the parable about the sower of the seed Matthew chapter 13 verses 1 to 9 inclusive, Jesus speaks of some of the seed falling on the earth and being stolen away by the birds of the air, these are a representation of the enemy and all his evil forces who unless he remains bound will do all he can to steal away the seed of God's word from the hears of those who hear it.

"That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.

But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop - a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear."

One day a prayer team organized at an evangelistic meeting by a well known international evangelist They were to pray throughout the meeting on all six nights of the crusade. On the last night they decided to make an experiment. For the past five nights when the leader of the meeting had declared the meeting closed they stopped praying.

On the final night when there was an opportunity for people who would like to receive Jesus into their lives they continued to pray after the leader of the evening had declared the meeting closed. The longer they prayed the more people went down to the front to receive Jesus, up to 27 minutes after the meeting had been officially declared closed. This is either co-incidence or a demonstration of the power of prayer.

One of the most important things that people need to know today is why they need Jesus. In many (or is it all) the schools in the UK today they are not allowed to teach Jesus as the unique Son of God and the only way to salvation, but people are allowed to teach these things in an outreach meeting or bible study. The plan of salvation is very easy to understand and explain but most people have never heard it clearly and simply enough.

Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 to 23 talks about people coming up to Jesus on the last day expecting to get into heaven. "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. away from me, you evildoers".

Christianity is not like any other so-called religion, it is not about adhering to a set of rules day by day, it is not about doing good works but it is about a personal and intimate relationship with your creator. Most people in the world believe that if they do plenty of good works and not be particularly evil people then they are bound to get into heaven. These people did the works but did not have the relationship that could have saved them.

Many people, including some clergy who are deceived believe that heaven and hell are not actual locations but states of mind, despite the fact that the scriptures expressly speak of these as being actual locations rather than simply states of mind. If you saw somebody in a blazing building and they were going the opposite way of the fire escape wouldn't you try by calling out to them to put them on the right path so that they could escape the blaze?

Many people in churches today believe that evangelism is preaching the gospel when there are visitors at their church. Of course this is important but scripture says that we should go out to preach the gospel to everyone. That is why evangelism is called "outreach" because we go out in order to reach those who probably would never have come into our churches to hear the gospel in the first place.

There is a beautiful illustration of this in the parable of the banquet that Jesus told the crowds and is found in Luke chapter 14 verses 15 to 23 inclusive. When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. "Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.

At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.' "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.' "Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.' "Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can't come.'

"The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.' "‘Sir,' the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'

"Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.'" This parable was clearly directed at those who expected to be at the banquet – the Marriage Supper of The Lamb in heaven. If we have faithfully done what our master has commanded and we seek to follow Him day by day then we will be there, of that you can be sure.

But if people have sat back and done nothing to help bring in the harvest of souls, done nothing to help the poor, never visited the sick nor those who had been thrown into prison then according to the scriptures it is these sort of people who will not be at the Marriage Supper of The Lamb in heaven, which in Jewish festivals always takes place before the wedding. If you do not get taken up in the rapture you will have to face hell on earth under the rule of the man of sin, satan himself.

What can you do even if God is not calling you to go to the nations as an evangelist? The list is easy to write. Lead bible studies looking at these things in scripture is one way, discipling someone is another, a third way is to do one of the three Ps, though you will only be required to do one of the first two you need to know what the three Ps stand for. P1 is pray for those who do have the call to go to other nations to preach the gospel.

P2 is pay for them to go, or at least contribute to their expenses or the expenses of the organization that sends them out in Jesus name, the third P3 is seek the face of God to see if He is calling you to be an evangelical Preacher either in this nation or overseas. Either way remember the words of Jesus Luke chapter 10 verses 1 to 3 quotes Jesus as saying "The harvest is great but the labourers are few, pray therefore for The Lord to send more labourers to bring in the harvest."

Finally, in many of the meetings of evangelists the sick get healed and possibly other miracles will take place like casting out demons for example, but where does this power come from? Acts chapter 1 verse 8 makes it quite clear. "You will receive power when The Holy Spirit comes upon you. "This is a much misunderstood verse so we shall try to find the truth of it.

Luke chapter 5 verses One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus.

When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." The fact that the scripture particularly says that on this occasion the power of God was with Jesus to heal suggests that this was not always the case.

This is borne out in two New Testament scriptures, the first is from Acts chapter 1 and has already been quoted. The second is John chapter 5 verse 19 which reads: "Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. "In other words it happens "not whenever I feel like it but whenever I see Father moving that way."

Jesus told His disciples in Mark chapter 16 verses 17 to 19 which read: "And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out emons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

These things shall happen not whenever you feel like it but whenever I tell you to do these things. Our authority over sickness, demons and death itself is ours through Christ, it is His power, working through us. If we run ahead and do something that God is not doing then we are certain to fail, but if we wait for God and let Him do the leading we shall always succeed, only experience and our relationship with God will teach us these things if we are only willing to learn.

The power of God is present to heal people today if people will only do what Jesus did and do nothing except what they see The Father doing, there would be many more healings and many fewer embarrassing moments of failure which are not glorifying to God. Similarly with evangelism, we should speak only what we are told to say and the word of God will bear much fruit and win many souls for The Lord.