Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”—Matthew 9:37–38 NKJV
In this text, we see the word Lord in the context of the harvest. The Greek translation of Lord used here means “One who can empower harvesters; one who can literally oversee the harvest; one who can be empowered for harvest.” Interestingly, the Greek word translated as “send out,” ekballo, at the root level means “to drive out.” Ballo is where we derive the English word ballistic. In this we can see the force and sense of urgency, a driving out, a thrusting out of laborers into His harvest. We may be the instruments God uses, but God is the moving force for the harvest. We see this same word used in Mark 1:12 to describe Christ’s actions after He was filled with the Holy Spirit at the Jordon River. It says, “Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.”
With that sense of urgency, Jesus isn’t going to thrust us out ill-equipped. No, He’s going to give us His effectual wonder-working power and authority to help us bring in the harvest quickly. He’s going after the harvest, and He’s empowering us for it! As we see in Matthew 10:1, “ ...He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.” The Lord of the harvest empowers us to harvest dormant promises and re-dig old wells in desolate places so we may see His harvest. He’s giving us boldness to cast out every hindrance to breakthrough, to restore the lost dreams and visions of long ago. He’s empowering and sending us out—and quickly!
Like He commissioned and sent out His disciples, He is sending us out today:
These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.”—Matthew 10:5
Sending us where?
But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.—Matthew 10:6
To do what?
And as you go, preach, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.—Matthew 10:7–8
As you go, preach! God calls every believer to preach the gospel with power. God will empower us to preach, to heal, to cleanse, to raise the dead, and to cast out demons—all to fulfill His purposes for each one of us. It’s a multi-faceted purpose, for God will give us a word, commission us, and release us to fulfill it. Then He will give us another word and release us for another and another fulfillment of it until the harvest is in. Likewise, we’ll go from fulfillment to fulfillment to fulfillment of every true prophetic word ever spoken over our lives. His word will be in our hearts like a burning fire shut up in our bones. We won’t be able to hold it back, just like Jeremiah: “But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not” (Jer. 20:9b).
As the Word becomes as a burning fire in our hearts and bones, our focus will be on the harvest, and it won’t be denied us because we have freely received the Word and freely given the powerful Word of the Lord. With the workings of the Word in us, we will become slayers of any giants that stand in the way of the harvest. Even if there’s a wall, we will leap right over it, slaying the giants to bring forth the victory.
Get ready precious friends! The Lord of the Harvest is releasing a fresh zeal of the Lord through His Word and the power of the Lord for harvest—harvest glory. Not only will this mean multitudes of the lost coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, but also a fresh zeal to stir up the Word of the Lord for our lives that releases the perpetual and ever increasing flow of His power to see harvest of the promises of God for our lives, our families, our communities, our regions, our states, and the nations! The Word and the power of the Lord are flowing together to release the plans and purposes of the Lord, according to the constant and ever increasing flow of His power and ability.
Lord, thank You for the harvest! Empower us for the harvest, precious Lord.
Let this time be one of increase for harvest glory—harvest for Your glory, precious Lord.
