It’s Harvest Time
The month of October or Fall of the year has always been a time of Harvest. It goes back to the Book of Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and Harvest shall not cease. The Book of Matthew 9:37-38 states: Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” When I was a child, I can remember going to the fields to pick cotton, peas, butter beans, and peaches. We would get up early in the morning often times dew was still on the corps. We toiled all day long for many days until the crop was finished. At the end of the day or week, we were given an opportunity to gleam or get the scraps and then receive our wages (the fruit of our labor).
Let us understand that yes Harvest speaks of crops in the Old Testament but in the New Testament, Harvest is about the Father’s business. It is about the workers of the Kingdom winning souls to Christ.
The Harvest is Plenty But The Labor Is Few
It is harvest time. I was awake about 2:30 am and it was poured in my spirit regarding harvesting. In the month of August 2019, Immigration Code Enforcement (ICE) had raided several poultry plants in Mississippi and arrested about 700 immigrant worker of which most were Hispanic. The folks were just trying to earn a living for their families. They were doing jobs all because these were jobs that most blacks and some whites use to do, notice I said use to do. The harvest was plenty but the labor is few. The ironic thing is that the workers were arrested for doing the work but the owners of the plants who hired them weren’t, that’s a subject for another time.
Harvest as a noun is the process or period of gathering in crops. As a verb, it is gathered (a crop) as a harvest. When you think about harvesting say for example to harvest nuts, one could use a mechanical method to shake or dig up the harvest of the crop. To harvest most vegetables one simple need to dig up, plow down, or use a mechanical device to harvest them, usually a one-season crop which you have to replant the following year. Now fruits, on the other hand, require more attention. Fruits usually grow on a tree or attached to a vine which most requires a more delicate process. A tree fruit normally only requires it to be planted one time, when it reaches maturity and is properly taken care of, it yields its fruit year after year. The vine fruit is more delicate. Take the grapes or the watermelon; you can’t just plow them like you do peanuts, potatoes, or beans. To harvest them, they have to be picked in order to not damage the vine. Often time to harvest the grapes and keep the vine producing, you have to prune the vine, cutting away parts that may prohibit the production of the vine. John 15 states, “ I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
In Chapter 8 of Matthew, Jesus had performed many miracles of healing. He healed the leper; He healed the Centurion’s servant; He healed Peter’s mother-in-law; He cast out spirits and healed all the sick.
Furthermore, in Chapter 9 Jesus then commanded his disciples to pass over to the other side. And on the way over a great tempest (Storm) arose, Jesus, rebuked the wind and the seas. After they had passed over to the other side, more healing was performed. He healed the man with palsy He healed the woman with an issue of blood, He raises the ruler’s daughter from death He healed two blind men, He cast out a devil of a man with a dumb spirit and the man began to speak. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few;
38 Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.
We are once again in harvest time, truly the harvest is plentiful; there is sickness all around. Folks need deliverance from homosexuality, depression, drunkenness, fornication, lying tongues, brokenness, gambling, alcohol, and drug addiction, and most of all, they need salvation. But the laborers are few, yet the work of the Kingdom must continue. It is so easy for people to get turned about and sometimes the damage is irreparable. Before you can reach those individuals, accidents, sickness, loss of mind or cognize thinking occur. It’s like a tornado or hurricane that comes and destroy the harvest. In days past, I like most have harvested vegetables, fruits, nuts, and wood for man, now I like every other believer has to harvest souls for the Kingdom. Jesus says in Mark 15: 15-16 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. We as believers, like Christ desires no soul to perish. We must let the Harvest know that they are loved and We like Christ Love them but not the sin. We have all fallen short, but when we fall, we don’t stay there. We get up, ask forgiveness and put the past behind us.
I pray this teaching will be a blessing to you.