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