Lord of 🌾The Harvest, Send Workers Mt 9:37-38, w/ Holy Spirit Power Acts 1:8, To Seek & Save The Lost 🐑 Lk 19:10, Repent None Perish 2Pet 3:9...

[Chrysostom]

The prayer you offer is a faithful echo of our Lord’s own command. The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few; therefore plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. Yet consider this mystery: when Christ beheld the multitudes and spoke those words, He sent forth only twelve. He did not add to their number, but He gave them power. At Pentecost, the sickle of the Word came down, keen-edged, as the Spirit descended with a sound from heaven and rested upon each of them like cloven tongues of fire. That sitting signified settledness and continuance. So those few became many, not by multiplication of heads, but by the might of the Holy Spirit. Pray therefore not merely for more workers, but for that very Spirit to fill them with power from on high, that they may be witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Take heed, though, to the manner of your prayer. The Spirit is the law of life in Christ Jesus, freeing us from the law of sin and death. If any would go into that harvest, his first labor must be in his own soul, to be cleansed and sanctified. The sickle cannot reap if it is dull with sin. Let love be in your hearts, as you ask, and unity among the brethren, so that the heavens be not shut against your cry. The time is short: the fields are white already to harvest. Today is the day of salvation; night is coming when no one can work. Do not let the acceptable hour pass while you delay in vain regrets or unpreparedness.

Search the Scriptures, for in them the Spirit speaks and makes strong soldiers, able not only to stand firm but to free others from the snares of the enemy. The Lord of the harvest will provide passports and plane tickets, daily bread and protection from the evil one, for He cares for His own. But the deeper provision is the Spirit’s abiding power, intimacy with Christ, and a conscience kept pure. Continue, then, to pray with fervent urgency, and as you pray, live in peace and holiness, that the Gospel may go forth under open heavens. The Lord is not slow but patient, not willing that any should perish. So let your request be joined to a life worthy of the calling, and the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers, and you yourself may be among them.

 

[Silas]

What you are asking for goes to the very heart of our calling. Jesus told us plainly that the harvest is plentiful, and He commanded us to plead with the Lord of the harvest to thrust laborers into the fields. So this urgency you feel, this sense that the acceptable time is now and today is the day of salvation, is exactly the burden He wants us to carry. But we must also understand how those laborers are equipped. They are not sent out armed only with their own zeal or clever strategies. The promise is that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and only then are we truly effective witnesses.

It is vital to see that while every believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them from the moment of new birth, there is a distinct infilling, an empowering that comes upon a person for service. Jesus Himself, the Son of God, did not launch His public ministry until the Spirit had descended upon Him and He was full of the Holy Spirit. If He, who was perfectly sinless, depended entirely on that anointing to proclaim good tidings and to break the powers of darkness, we must recognize our absolute need for the same. We cannot lend a single ounce of spiritual life to anyone in our own strength. We cannot love the unlovely, forgive the deep wounds, or see through the enemy's deceptions by sheer willpower. The Spirit alone gives the power to be like Christ and to do the works of Christ.

When you pray for the Lord to send workers, understand that the sending is tied directly to this outpouring. The early church did not begin the great harvest of the nations through committee planning and careful budgets alone, though God uses those. They began when the Holy Spirit fell upon them. When Peter and John were sent to Samaria, the believers had already received the gospel, but there was a critical need for them to receive the Holy Spirit to be endued with power. That was a real, recognizable event, not a vague religious idea. Something visible or audible gave evidence that the power of God had been imparted, something so tangible that a man like Simon desired to buy the ability to lay hands and see it happen. The gift of the Holy Spirit is not a quiet, static possession; it is a dynamic force that turns a hesitant disciple into a bold spokesman and a leader.

So, let your urgent prayer for workers be first a prayer that you yourself, and every believer, would be filled and then overflowing with the Spirit. Pray that we would not just carry the truth in our minds but have it quickened by the power that worked in John the Baptist before he was even born, the power that filled Zacharias to prophesy, and the power that overshadowed Mary. This is the promised teaching Spirit who takes the things of God and reveals them to us, so that we do not speak with worldly wisdom but in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, and the armor of our own making is a poor substitute for the power from on high.

As you ask for provision, for open doors, for tickets and safe lodging, do not let those practical needs overshadow the foundational one. Those things are easily added by the Father who knows what we need. The greater question for every laborer we ask the Lord to send is the one asked long ago: "Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?" The presence of spiritual deadness, a lack of real enthusiasm for the things of God, often points directly to the absence of this conscious empowering. The harvest is indeed great, and the laborers are indeed few, but a handful of workers clothed with the power of the Spirit will do more than legions operating in the energy of the flesh. Rejoice that the authority over the powers of darkness is real, and that the Spirit has been poured out. Pray for the sending, and be ready to step into the field yourself, fully expecting the Spirit’s power to be the evidence of the risen Lord working with you.