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.