Recently our Association held our almost monthly prayer meeting. At this meeting we were introduced to our new prayer coordinator, Michele. She is a great new asset to our prayer life. She has a heart for prayer and a spirit that is strong with the Lord. Pray for her as she assumes this new role and as she challenges us to fall on our faces before the Lord.
At this meeting, we were challenged to begin praying the Luke 10:2 prayer strategy. You remember this was where Jesus told us that the field where ripe unto harvest but that there were not enough laborers in the field. This was said in spite of the fact that He had just sent out 84 pairs of laborers into the harvest.
The challenge for us is to ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out more workers. We examined the fact that this is not a simple sending by God but an aggressive thrusting of motivated men and women into the harvest field and not just into any field but into specific communities. Jesus sent laborers into the villages that we was about to visit. I believe that God is about to visit our harvest fields and that we need to ask Him to send out laborers into these fields.
But what does this mean for us? It means that we need to start praying daily that Christ “thrust out these laborers into the 12 counties that He is about to visit. It means that we need to allow those laborers to go into the harvest. This will mean that we will lose some of our helpers as they move from helping us to serving Him. We need to not only we willing to let them go but we need to encourage them as they are going and maybe even encouraging them to step up and step out.
Since we started praying this request, I have seen a few strangers appear on the edge of the field. They are peering into the harvest looking and deciding is this God’s calling? Have you seen them looking in? Have you heard the voice of God whispering to your people?
Are you willing to pray Luke 10:2 with me? Are you willing to let his people go into the harvest? What are you thinking right now?
I know I have been praying faithfully with you on this great urgency to “go” into the harvest field … and also as the Lord draws my heart throughout the day. As I was reading in Matthew today Joseph jumped off of the page. In 3 separate places it said that Joseph “obeyed the Lord” or “did as the Lord directed”. Joseph led a life of quiet obedience. No fanfare. No objections. Not a give and take conversation with the Lord about his assignment. No bargaining. Just a simple, “yes, Lord, yes”. It humbled me and challenged me. Is my heart as tender as Joseph’s? Am I quietly obedient to what God asks me to do? Or do I whine, kicking and screaming … or turn my head and ignore His requests? He can just as easily go to one of His other children and allow them to do my task and reap the rewards. Which gets me back to your words of wisdom … do we want to be in on God’s blessings for Three Rivers Baptist Assn. and pray for workers unto the harvest? Or merely observers of what He is about in other avenues of ministry?