Harvest, Part 3

I heard an interesting phrase spoken this morning as I was listening to the early morning news. The person who was sharing the weather forecast used the terminology "full harvest moon." She went on to explain that the moon could be observed in the sky this very morning. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked in the sky above our home as I was leaving and I noticed this large looking moon hanging in the universe. Immediately my mind went to the words "full harvest moon" and I began to listen for the whispers of the Spirit. I could sense that He was about to place inspiration and encouragement into my heart as I drove to the church for my time of morning prayer. I was not disappointed in the Spirit as He began to pour into my soul. Why should I have thought otherwise regarding the desire of the Spirit? The Word declares that God desires to give "good gifts" unto His children and through the cross of Christ I have become a child of God. I think I just heard someone rejoicing with me over the fact that Christ has made it possible that we could be included in the family of God. Some of what the Spirit shared with me was a personal word of encouragement but I also sensed that the Spirit wanted me to share some of the inspiration through the means of this blog.

The "harvest moon" serves as a reminder to the agricultural industry that we are moving toward the time of the harvest of the crops that are already in the field. The farmer begins to realize that the seed that he/she has sown is about to come to fruition and maturation. The preliminary work of planting has taken place and now the work of harvesting is at hand. The farmer takes a fresh look at the fields and realizes that his initial plan, design, and desire for that field is about to come to pass. But the final portion of the process will require equipment, laborers, time and effort. Just as the seed did not sow itself neither will the harvest reap itself. The gathering of the harvest will require the full, undivided attention of the farmer. He will make the harvest his /her first priority until the crop is in the barn and the work is completed. I could continue this process but let me move on to the analogy with the spiritual harvest fields in which we are presently working.

I believe that there are some things that we can do to prepare our hearts for the harvest. The Bible declares that the harvest is "ripe" (white) but laborers (workers) are needed. Will we turn our attention to those in our world who need the word of salvation brought to them? There a few thoughts that I want to share with you concerning some actions that we can take as we prepare to reap the harvest. 1) We begin by exercising our  spiritual arms with stretching exercises. We "stretch" our arms so that we can embrace the hurting, troubled, lost, discouraged, distraught, etc. that we will encounter. 2) We give the harvest our undivided attention. Jesus said "look" at the fields and know that they are ready to be harvested. We must not say that the participation in the harvest work is only for the ministers and leaders of the church. We must realize that ALL of us are called to the harvest field and we are ALL called to work in the field. The work may vary from believer to believer nevertheless we are called to WORK. 3) We must leave the house and be prepared to enter the field of labor. We may not be called to a "mission field" but truly we are all called to a mission field. The mission field may be our home, our school, our place of employment, our neighborhood and our surrounding community but remember that we ARE ALL CALLED. 4) We engage ourselves in the work of the harvest. There are too many believers who are disconnected or disengaged from the mission and purpose of Christ. We find it so easy to connect with many other good causes and become very involved through commitment and participation yet we find so many excuses why we can not work in the spiritual harvest field. 5) Once again we must hear the Voice of God calling us to live with hearts full of passion and compassion for the lost. God is calling us to reconnect with His heart and His heart reveals His awesome love for all of humanity!!

I saw and I see a "full harvest moon" today. What do you see or what do you want to see?