Yesterday I was praying and came under severe conviction of something. To follow Jesus means to obey Him. If we do not obey small commands or seemingly easy commands, what makes us think we can obey bigger commands? As I was praying The Lord directed my thoughts to one of His commands. It is something that every single Christian person can do. It is not difficult. At the outset it will take very little time, yet it has the promise of being absolutely world changing.
Matthew 9:38 "The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to The Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."
Seems harmless enough right? But earnestly? Is that something we do? Is it urgent and bold that The Lord of the harvest would send out workers?
Then there is the idea of "send out" or "send forth" laborers. This means to eject, cast forth, forcibly move. Are we praying that God would violently uproot people and send them forth? I wasn't.
What are we asking The Lord of the Harvest to do exactly? Well the same word is used in Luke 11:20 "But if by the finger of God I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you."
So in both instances we are asking The Lord Jesus -- who is The Lord of the Harvest -- to forcibly remove and eject demons and forcibly remove and eject missionaries into the harvest. Can you see it? This is a not a passive prayer of "let us all be effective where we are planted."
I am not going to get into some silly debate as to whether everyone should go or not. That is irrelevant to the discussion. Instead I am asking you to join me in being obedient to earnestly pray daily that The Lord would launch out laborers into His harvest. Let Him do what He will do. Let Him send whom He will send. But will you join me in praying earnestly to The Lord of the Harvest that He will eject laborers into His harvest?
I am not asking you to move anywhere. I am not laying any sort of a guilt trip on anyone. I am simply saying that if we are followers of Jesus then let's be obedient to this command. Will you join me today in praying earnestly to The Lord of the harvest to fling forth missionaries and forcibly cast them out into the field and that He would also forcibly cast out demons from people and areas of the world?
Unless I am missing something, it does not appear that He has made this part optional.
"When The Lord of the Harvest speaks demons vacate and missionaries relocate." -quote from unknown origin.
