TIME FACTOR IN THE HARVEST BUSINESS - By John Abafi

Humanity heading for eternity every second

We are told in 2 Samuel 20:1-10 of Sheba’s revolt against David. He (Sheba) led a rebellion shortly after Absalom staged an unsuccessful coup d’état against David. Amasa who became the new captain of the host of Israel was given three days to mobilize the men of war in Israel and to go after Sheba the son of Bichri, but Amasa tarried beyond the three days given, and Joab rose up to salvage the situation but not without Amasa paying for his delay.

Time is key and crucial in any human endeavour. Success in life and ministry is anchored on time management. Poor management of time is the reason why most people failed in the assignment of life. Even in ministry, Jesus was very conscious of time when he told his disciples that He must go about His father’s business while it is day in John 9:4.

How to Enhance Good Management of Time in Ministry

The harvest can only be a correct harvest if they are gathered in real time. To manage our time in such a way that the harvest will not waste, we will need to be focused, organized, principled and set a time for every task. In John 13:27, Jesus instructed Judas to do that which he wanted to do quickly. It is easy to recover many things but time is unrecoverable. Once lost, it's forever lost. No amount of prayer and fasting can stop time from passing. It is either it is utilised or wasted.

Considering the limitation of time and the volume of the unfinished task, the church cannot afford to be slow anymore. As the day passes by, so the coming of the Lord draws closer. We cannot afford to go at the pace at which we are moving and expect a tremendous result. The time they say waits for no man. Even the devil and his agent are much aware of the fact that time is running out as documented in Revelation 12:12.

Many of the persons we are supposed to reach in different jungles of the world are dying by the day. As long as we fail to reach them before their death, they are deprived of the opportunity of deciding whether to accept or reject the gospel. We cannot go to hell to get them any more neither can we bring them back to the world to be given that opportunity any more. Also, if we do not take the opportunity of being alive to maximize our opportunities of reaching men and women with the gospel, we cannot do missionary work in heaven when we die. There are no unreached people in heaven.

Also, as time moves on, we grow older. Apparently, what we can do for the Lord while we are young an energetic, we may not be able to do it when we become old. With age also comes different weakening sickness. We need to wait until we are no longer useful to ourselves before we begin to talk about missions. The preacher in Ecclesiastes stresses so much on this. There is time for everything under the sun(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). Can I add to it to this is the time for harvest!

Time wastage and loss of opportunities

Like Asama, many children of God are already ‘’lying in the pool of their own blood’’ as a result of time mismanagement. The body of Christ has lost and is still losing open several doors to reach nations and peoples group as a result of procrastination. The Nigeria church, for example, uses to have free access to countries like Mauritania because of the West African community status. The church never took advantage of this opportunity until Mauritania pulled out of ECOWAS. It is now very difficult to access that country because of the restriction in the visa. It is very unfortunate that many other places that were open and receptive to the Gospel a few years ago are no more accessible today.

Sadly, souls are perishing because of the sluggishness of the church to respond quickly. Jesus says, Don't say there are four more months. It is not the time to procrastinate. We have many nations that are still open and may not be forever open. Can we repent and wake to the obedience of the Great Commission? It should be now or NEVER! The tragedy of not meeting up with time is the fact that loses are always colossal. A young man was instructed by God to tell his neighbour about Jesus; he kept postponing it, until one day the neighbour slept and did not wake up. In a bid to make it up, he offered to preach during the wake keep, but not for the dead anymore, he lost that opportunity and gone forever.

Conclusion

It is important to be sensitive to time; else the evil day will catch up with us. At a time when David ought to go to war, he stayed at home and the aftermath was disastrous. Time is not just business; time is life and ministry. Good time management in ministry will always result in a great harvest. Procrastination is dangerous, and to avoid this, you must set goals and priority which must be meticulously followed up. We must rescue sinners from eternal destruction, and that must be done within a specified time allotted by God to us as individuals and as the body of Christ.

GIVING PRIORITY TO THE HARVEST - By Olivia Nwania

One of the worst things that could ever happen to a farmer is to miss the harvest. So much sweat, toiling, pains, and work go into even getting to the point where you can see the harvest. Same with souls. The price Jesus paid on the cross of Calvary to bring humanity to the point of either yielding to His offer of salvation or ignoring it is beyond imagination. Just like the farmer cannot afford to miss the harvest when it's harvest time, the church must not take the harvest lightly.

The investment that heaven has made is a  very big one. To sacrifice one's only son is not fun. God did that by releasing Jesus to part with him for over 30 years. He left heaven to an earth full of darkness. He was conceived by a woman, born in a manger and a poor carpenter served as his foster father. He bore the pain of hunger, betrayal, molestation and death. He simply commissioned the church to tidy up the harvest.

During His sojourn on earth, Jesus Christ taught us that there is a harvest to be gathered (Matthew 9:36-38). He uses the word ‘harvest’ three times in two verses and stresses the needs for laborers.  He is ever committed to working through people. There are souls to reach, and they will come to Jesus if somebody plows the soil, plant the seed of the gospel and bring in the harvest. God will give the increase, but somebody has to plant and water it effectively.

The Scribes and Pharisees completely missed the harvest. They were very religious, but their religion did nothing to cause them to care for the needy souls. They were self-absorbed and missed the harvest. They could have been mightily used by Christ to reach people, but rather they impeded the work of Christ. They were consumed with their positions, traditions and preferences.

This can happen to any Christian or Church today. We can become so self-absorbed and inwardly focused that we become like the farmer who completely misses the harvest because he is so busy in his house. He gets so distracted in the house; he misses the harvest out in the fields. This should serve as a motivation for us.

Most often, we attend to many things that have no bearing on the salvation of men. Sometimes, the things we preoccupy ourselves with are religious stuff but self-entertaining rather than kingdom-advancing.  We must have a mission mindset like Christ.  These questions will help us realign our priorities: When is the last time you spoke to someone about Christ? When is the last time you pray for the salvation of any soul? Are you busy scanning for faults in people's life like the scribes instead of attending to their souls' need?

Jesus demonstrated the need for the church to give urgent attention to the souls of men when He met Zacchaeus sitting on the Sycamore tree. He suspended His schedule and followed him to his house. He gave Him full attention until he got saved. There are many individuals and nations that are desperate to encounter Jesus today. Would you allow divine interruption based on your passion for souls to attend to them?

Sadly, churches have become exclusive social clubs, and they don’t welcome in the sick nor care to take the gospel to the world anymore. The church is not designed to service just herself, but to meet the need of the dying world.

He that gathers in summer is a wise Son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame (Proverbs 10:5).

The above scripture teaches that it is proper to do the right thing at the right time. Specifically, Solomon did not condemn sleep, but it is wrong to sleep during harvest. In Israel, a son that sleeps during harvest time is a disgrace to the family.

This is the season of harvest. We reports of such harvests like that of China, Iran, etc. are not only mind-blowing but a call to responsibility. In Iran, about 3million persons recently embraced Jesus as Lord despite having just 100,000 in 1994. A great revival is reported to be going on in that heavily restricted country. The new believers take advantage of technology to connect to churches in United State, Germany, Canada, Malaysia, etc. Iranians coming to know the Lord as a result of supernatural dreams are no longer news. A substantial number of the new believers have migrated to countries like Turkey awaiting the formalization of refugee status to enable them to move on to other States. As they move on, the fire of revival spreads and newer believers get to know the Lord.

Recently, I had a chat with an Iraqi missionary laboring in some of the Internally Displaced Camps between Syria and Iraq, and he reported the tremendous wave of revival ushering an incredible number of persons to bow to the Lordship of Jesus. In one of the camps with a population of 5000, between 3000-4000 persons have surrendered their lives to Christ. The camp was later nicknamed Jesus Camp, and the result was heavy persecution which resulted in the government closing the camp. The closure of the camp may be uncomfortable but the over 3000 believers dispersed as unconventional missionaries spreading the good news of salvation. Some of them joined the refugees to Europe and now reached their fellow Syrians, Iraqis, and other hardened desperate Muslims.

In 1948, China had less than 1 million believers. In 2013, conservative estimates suggested they have over 90 million believers.  Most all of the growth has been in the last 35 years. Over 12,000 new Chinese believers every day!  The Chinese now has a target of deploying 50,000 missionaries to nations where Christ is not known in their  Back to Jerusalem Project.
Another mind-blowing outpouring of the Holy Spirit is in Tibet, a region in China. Tibet is considered to be the highest in the world and the home of Mount Everest, earth's highest mountain rising more than 29,009 feet above sea level. The people are mostly Buddhist. In 2015, one Tibetan Buddhist priest embraced Jesus Christ and became a Christian pastor after seeing the love of Christ shown by a group of Christian workers who helped out and provided relief goods to the people of the region when a major earthquake struck the area(Asian Access, 2016). The seed of the Christian love has grown between 2015 to 2016. The President of Asian Access, Joe Handley, reports that another 62 Buddhist monks have also embraced Christ. Also, more than 200,000 persons have responded to the gospel as a response to the labors of the Christian community there.

True Christianity has grown by more than 300 million believers in the past ten years. About 10 million of these new Christians are from North America and Europe. The rest – 290 million – are from developing countries like Nigeria, Brazil, India, and China.

Despite the staggering volume of unreached people groups in our world coupled with the unpleasant reports of the church in the West sliding back into darkness  today, Christianity is still the fastest growing religion in the world with a 6.9 percent growth rate compared to 2.7 per cent for Muslims, 2.2 per cent for Hinduism and 1.7 percent for Buddhism.

In my book, Agony of Unreached Peoples, I reported a case in Algeria, a Muslim nation, every single person in the village of Bugia became a Christian when Jesus appeared to each of them in dreams declaring His Lordship, on the same night.

We also hear of some number of Nigerian Muslims –Mullas (holy men) who were praying inside the ground mosque- the holiest place in all of Islam. Jesus appeared to them and declared that He was God. They were all converted to Christianity.

In Nepal (a Hindu nation), 200 policemen who have never heard about Jesus, saw a man nailed to a wooden cross in the clouds above their homes and became converted. As at 1953, Nepal had no known Christian, but in the past ten years, the number of believers has tripled to more than 300,000(CBN News, 2016).

What other words do we use to describe this extraordinary spiritual outpouring around the world if not that it is a particular time of harvest?

Indonesia,  the most populous Muslim nation in the world is not left out. No fewer than2 million Muslims are reported to have converted to Christianity per year.  That implies one new convert every 15 seconds(Charismas News, 2016). At this rate, Indonesia will be mostly Christian by 2035. Some Muslims are said to be so alarmed that they've created a video on YouTube to alert other Muslims to this ‘menace’ and are trying to raise $2 million to start a TV station aimed at Muslim youth to keep them in Islam(Charismas News, 2016).

The Tragedy of Ignoring this Harvest Time

Jesus did not use the word harvest in a positive way each time He taught about it. In Matthew 21:33-41 for example, Jesus tells us a parable about a harvest time that did not have a good ending.
The parable goes like this:

There was a certain householder, who planted a vineyard, and hedged  It roundabout and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went into a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it (harvest). And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another and stoned another.

This parable I guess is familiar; God sent his prophets, then Jesus, to the world but the people of the world killed both the prophets and Jesus and God never received His full share of the harvest.God was heartbroken and angry because His people could not recognize their harvest season and respond to it in complete submission to do all they could to gather in the harvest. Hear him in verse 43:

Therefore, I tell you that the  kingdom of God will be taken away
from you and given to people who
will produce fruits.

This was also the situation portrayed at the end of Christ's life when He looked down on Jerusalem, weeping and declaring God's judgment because they missed their harvest time:
And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying if thou hadst known even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they have hidden from thine eyes.
For the day shall come upon thee, that  thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation (harvest). (Luke 19:41-44).

The people of Israel missed their times of harvest and Jesus wept. Sadly today, Jesus is made to weep over similar missing of harvest time.

The Tragedy

For Jesus himself to weep because Israel missed her harvest time, means there is a great tragedy attached to the loss. But today the church with the power of the Holy Spirit at her disposal still misses her harvest time in various communities, peoples, tribes, and nations, etc.

In 1997, I had one of my greatest open-doors that would have led to the greatest record of revival /salvation in the history of South Africa. South Africa was just coming out of apartheid, and God divinely connected me to a White South African with a deep passion for revival and the salvation of the Blacks. He lived in Meyerton, a city not too far from Johannesburg.  I preached in his church which was 100% Whites on the Agony of the unreached people. He was so excited that he linked me with a group of Black people. I preached to them, and there was great joy in the community, the type that can be likened to that of Samaria when stephen preached. The Black people I preached to went about spreading the news and in few hours, a massive crowd gathered asking me to preach to them. It was such a great harvest God has made ready for himself.

Touched by this move of God, my host was willing to see the work continue. He offered to give a very big portion of land to build a church and all the money I would need where the Blacks will be discipled, and they will, in turn, spread the same gospel until South Africa was fully covered. The only condition he gave me was to deploy a missionary couple from Nigeria. Between 1997 to 2002, I traveled to Nigeria seeking for a missionary couple that will relocate to South Africa to lead this work, but I found none. Very sadly, Jesus wept again! Today, it is very difficult to reach the South Africans than it was when God effortlessly gave us the opportunity.

  The Kamberi's and the Dukawas in the northern part of Nigeria were other tribal groups that were very open to the gospel at a time but were spiritually neglected. These tribes vehemently resisted Islam and at the same time were tired of idolatry when the Grace Foundation missions first visited the two tribes. They were receptive to the gospel. Within two weeks, scores of people were converted. The Grace Foundation team returned without any proper discipleship. After several years it began to seek to send in full-time resident missionaries to these areas. Only a few responded to go to these areas as missionaries. Before we knew it, the Muslims were already taking over the place, using money and material things to woo the people. Now, it is 100 times much harder to win the people to Christ than it was in 1988 when we first visited the area.

Let me share with you the heartbreaking news of the Mongol people. I present it here as narrated by Rev. Fred Markert:

Kublai Khan, the great Mongol leader, ruled the largest Empire the world has ever seen. It extended from the Pacific Ocean on the East to Poland on the West and from Russia on the North to India on the South. Mongol warriors were so fierce and determined that they even conquered
China in spite of its Great Wall.
In 1266 A.D, Marco Polo, the great explorer, and adventurer went to Kublai Khan in his capital city. This fierce warrior's heart was touched by the news of Christ's death for the sins of the world. He sent Marco Polo back to Europe with a request to the leaders of Christianity: “Send me 100 men skilled in your religion….. And so I shall be baptized, and then all my barons and great men and their subjects. And so there will be more Christians here than they are in your parts”.

God has prepared one of the extraordinary moments of harvest for the largest empire the world had ever known, and then had delivered it to the Church! How could the Church help but jump at this incredible chance? After many years, only two missionaries came forward who were willing to endure the hardships necessary to bring the good news of Christ to the Mongolian empire and even they turned back half way into their appointment with destiny before reaching Mongolia. They left behind the legacy of the greatest missed opportunity in church history.
How did Kublai Khan respond to this silence from the west? He turned to Tibetan Buddhist, inviting them to spread their religion throughout his empire.

Dr. David Barrett's work captioned: Chaos, Cosmos and Gospel revealed that at one point more than half of the men in the nation were Buddhist Monks. I want to add to it that Jesus wept again.

Conclusion
And he also said to the people, when ye see a cloud rise out of the
west, straightway ye say, there cometh a shower; and so it is.
And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, there will be heat; and it cometh to pass… Ye can discern the face of the sky and the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time (of harvest)”. (Luke 12:54-56).

I pray God will help us to discern the time rightly and do what we are supposed to do to bring back the King.

References

Abah, A. (1995). The agony of Unreached Peoples. Jos: Grace Foundation Media Services.
CBN News(2016). This Country Has the Fastest Growing Christian Population in the World.  Retrieved from http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2016/may/this-country-has-the-fastest-growing-Christian-population-in-the-world
Charisma News (2016). Can This Be True? 2 Million Indonesian Muslims Find Jesus Per Year. Retrieved from http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/49079-can-this-be-true-2-million-Indonesian-Muslims-find-jesus-per-year
Christianity Today (2016). What showing God's love can do: 200,000 Tibetans, including 62 Buddhist monks, decide to follow Jesus. Retrieved from http://www.christiantoday.com/article/what.showing.gods.love.can.do.200000.tibetans.including.62.buddhist.monks.decide.to.follow.jesus/88890.htm