#1

THE HARVEST YOU ARE CALLED TO MAY NOT BE ON YOUR "OWN" FIELD A Word through Steve Shultz

We live on a small but beautiful hillside, though we don't own the house or the land. My family and I are surrounded by hundreds of acres of beautiful grass. It's a grass seed farm. In fact, much of the area around this part of Oregon is farmed for grass seed. Many of the farmers are faithful Mennonite farmers who have been here for decades.

TIME TO GATHER THE SEED

As summer arrived a few weeks ago, the harvest was ripe. Time to gather the seed for others to plant. Sounds like the Lord's Harvest, doesn't it?

Rick Joyner, a prophetic voice to the church speaks of a harvest coming which will be so huge, many will think it to be the final harvest, yet this huge harvest will only be the seed of newly saved laborers who will eventually bring in the final harvest.

Since our house is surrounded by these grass fields, which are not our own--- one night, at just the right time-- the combines showed up and began the work of the harvest--suddenly and without notice. Right up to our house they came, passing by close to the midnight hour. Once these farmers start the harvest, they work 12-16 hours a day, often using younger members of the household to drive these huge machines. Spiritual analogies abound here, of course.

When it's time, IT'S TIME!

As we turned in for the night, we could see four to five combines coming close to our back yard with bright headlights showing them the way. Modern equipment allows for work late into the night--and even all night, if necessary.

In the morning, the harvest on all sides of our house was completed. Yet our family of five had a great night of peaceful sleep while this harvest around us had been gathered. With a fan blowing to drown out the sound, we had no disturbance to our rest. And we had no guilty conscience that we should be out working in THAT FIELD--because it wasn't our harvest field, even though it was all around us.

HARVEST YOUR OWN FIELD--NO MATTER WHERE THAT FIELD IS LOCATED

My harvest field, both spiritually and physically, has been recently for the most part, the various ministries of THE ELIJAH LIST. I'm able to minister all around the world from way out here in the middle of nowhere.

Don't misunderstand me though. I have local projects--people I'm "watering" and tending to. But for the most part, my harvest field is often over the phone lines to the "utter parts of the world." That's even how I earn my living as well.

My neighbors earn their living through harvesting what appears to be my field--but it's not my field at all.

The Lord began to speak to me through this "natural" lesson--as He often does.

THOUGH OTHERS ARE CONVENTIONAL, GOD MAY CALL YOU TO A DIFFERENT FIELD

Voices all around you and I can make one feel "guilty" if we are not taking part in the harvest in the "traditional" or "conventional" way. I'm blessed not to be experiencing that kind of guilt in my life right now, but for much of my life, I did experience it, as have many of you have---am I right?

God has assigned each of you a harvest field but it may not be what is right in front of your eyes. It might be over the hills or through the woods, on the internet, the telephone, or simply at work--every day. Or it may in fact be right IN your own home. There are mothers whose harvest field cannot be more important than the field of their children's' lives--raising them to follow Jesus. Some mothers with new or large families find themselves devoted to nearly 24-hour care and nurturing of their young "upstarts." Raising children to love the Lord, while interceding for others is as important a harvest field as a harvest field gets.

THE HARDEST PART OF THE HARVEST

Here's what the Lord said was the hardest part of the Harvest. Watch closely:

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John 4:36-38 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower AND the reaper may be glad TOGETHER. Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the HARD WORK, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
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You may have worked all your life and never been able to lead one person to the Lord. But you've sown seeds, ministered to, befriended, and loved the unsaved, the unlovely, and the unlikely. One day, when you least expect it, someone may, or someone has, or someone will--come along and suddenly "harvest" that person for the Kingdom--and you may not appear to "get credit" for it.

But you know what? Jesus HIMSELF said that the sowing was the HARD WORK (read the Scripture above again if you missed it), and if someone comes along and reaps where YOU have sown, YOU DID THE HARD WORK, and by inference, what they did was easier in comparison to your long-term sacrifice of time, energy, and resources on behalf of "the sowing."

SOWING AND NURTURING IS PART OF THE HARVEST--AND IT'S HARDER

So . . . Look to whatever field the Lord has given you. The HARVEST has two parts--sowing and reaping. Sowing is the harder work. If you are sowing---and if you are doing it faithfully in the field you have been called to--then don't worry if harvesting is happening all around you. Sleep guilt-free and in peace. They are harvesting what they have been called to harvest.

If you are one that harvests wherever you go, God has gifted you immensely. But remember this, you are often reaping where others have sowed. That means you must remain humble in your harvesting, knowing full-well that if others had not spent great amounts of love in the sowing, you would not now be reaping. And after you reap, still others will clean, heal, teach, and restore what you have harvested. So again, harvesters, STAY HUMBLE.

As Jesus said, " . . so that the sower AND the reaper may be glad TOGETHER."

Just ask the Lord to have you sow or reap where YOU are called to sow or reap. And then, if others are harvesting their own crops right up to your back door, you can still sleep peacefully and guilt-free while they labor.

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#2

FIELD OF STONES

A Word through John L. Moore

Many are weary for they have labored removing stones from the fields they were never assigned to, and exhausted, they are tempted to fall asleep now during the time of Harvest. The Lord would say, "Arouse yourself and look around. There is a field over the hill that has been rightly prepared for you.

The time of harvest is a time of entering in and redeeming and honoring the times of those who went before you.

LATER ARRIVERS GET PAID THE SAME

The time of harvest is to reap where you have not sown and experience the reward of those who have arrived late to labor but share in the full reward.

BEWARE THE FIELD OF STONES

Beware the field of stones. This is the land of hardened hearts and the Lord Himself will deal with this earth. Cross over into the prepared field, the one staked for you, measured by His hand and allotted as the land of your anointing. Even the rows are measured according to each harvester's pace. There is joy in this field, not burden. Lay down the false burden before it lays you down for it is a rock of stumbling, a stone of offense.