The Call of Jesus
Welcome to this lesson 6 - "The Harvest is Plentiful".
I want to say it again: the harvest is plentiful.
This is a very, very important truth
that you and me need to understand.
We all need to understand it: the harvest is plentiful.
And when you understand this truth it will set you free.
But this is the truth that will not only set you free,
but also people around you.
Because when you understand this simple truth
that the harvest is plentiful...
it will change not only your life,
but it will also change the way you share Jesus to people around you.
It will change the way you live your life with people around you,
so other people around you will also start to experience their life changed.
So, if you listen and understand what Jesus is saying,
when He said that the harvest is plentiful...
Hallelujah! It's going to change everything.
And therefore you'll also see that our enemy, Satan,
has been very, very, very busy when it comes to this.
He has been spreading lies about the harvest,
lies that say that the harvest is not plentiful.
So, I hope you are ready to listen to this teaching,
because it is so important.
So, let's start with reading here from Luke 10:2, where Jesus says this:
"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field."
And there is so much truth in those few words Jesus is saying here.
I will spend the next three videos on just this verse.
Because there is so much in this.
But, now we are going to look at the first line,
the first thing Jesus is saying.
The first thing Jesus is saying here to His disciples,
and what He's saying to you and me, to the church today
is that the harvest is plentiful.
Another translation says that the harvest is great.
So, the harvest is plentiful. The harvest is great.
But, what is the harvest?
That is the first thing.
What is the harvest?
The harvest are those people out there that need Jesus.
There is so many people out there who are just ready to receive Jesus,
who are ready for healing, who are ready for deliverance,
who are ready to hear the gospel, to repent.
There are so many people out there who are ready.
They are many.
The harvest is ready.
The harvest is plentiful.
The harvest is not the problem
and the harvest has never been the problem.
The problem is the workers.
The workers are few.
And that is something we are going to look at later.
But first I want to say that the harvest is plentiful.
The harvest is great.
But it's not only plentiful, it's not only great.
The harvest is also ready for harvest.
And we see that very clear in John 4.
In John 4 you can read that Jesus walked with His disciples
and He needed to go to Samaria.
So, here we read that Jesus came and met a woman at a well,
and He started to speak with that woman,
and that woman started to believe in Jesus.
She had faith in Jesus,
that He was the one God has promised that He would send.
And that woman believed Jesus
and later we read that that woman went down and told everyone in the city
and they all came to faith, came out and wanted to meet Jesus themselves.
We can read how Jesus' disciples then came back later,
while Jesus was still speaking with that woman,
and they were very, very surprised.
Why did Jesus speak with that woman?
A woman? A Samaritan woman?
Why did Jesus speak with that sinner?
So, Jesus' disciples were very surprised that Jesus was speaking with that woman.
But then Jesus said something to them, that is very, very, very important,
something He's saying to you and me today.
We can read that in John 4:35-38. Jesus said this:
"Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest?
Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields,
for they are already white for harvest!"
So, Jesus was saying: Don't you say that there are four months for harvest?
But then He continues: Open your eyes. Look out the harvest.
The harvest is white for harvest. The harvest is ready.
Why was Jesus saying this to His disciples?
Why is He saying that to you and me?
Because Jesus' disciples, when they came there,
they saw that woman at the well, and in their eyes,
that woman was not ready for harvest.
So, they believed in a lie.
They believed that there are still four months for harvest.
But Jesus did not believe in those lies.
Jesus knew what the truth was and what the truth is,
and the truth is that the harvest is ready. The harvest is plentiful.
And what Jesus is saying here to His disciples, and to you and me,
is so, so powerful, and it's so important,
and something Satan is trying to keep away from us.
He has been trying to say that the harvest is not ready.
No, no, the harvest is not plentiful.
No, no, no, you still need to wait four months.
You still need to wait two years. You still need to wait ten years.
And then, maybe, the harvest will be ready.
This is what Satan has been lying to us, again, and again, and again,
and many, many, many people
believe his lies.
But if you believe his lies, that the harvest is not ready,
you will not see any fruit.
You need to see it the right way.
Let me come with an example.
What do you think will happen if
it was not Jesus who came to that woman, but it was His disciples?
If it was Jesus' disciples who came there and saw that woman at the well,
first thing, they would not go to Samaria, at all.
Because why go to Samaria? Those people!
They already heard a lot of negative things about those people in Samaria,
and they did not want to go there at all.
Like many people today at church, have heard so much negative -
Oh, don't go out and share... No, no, no. Be careful.
Those people out there are dangerous. They don't want to listen to us.
So, let's say that Jesus' disciples came there, to Samaria,
and they saw that woman there. What will they see?
Will they see what Jesus saw - a harvest that was ready and plentiful?
No, they would just see a woman, a sinner,
a woman working there at the well. No, no, no.
Let's go around her. Let's not talk with her. Why?
Because they have heard a lot of negative things, a lot of rumors and
they saw her very different than how Jesus saw her.
If they have been there alone, they would not have seen her
give her life to Christ. They would not see her receive.
Why? Because they would just have gone around her.
And that shows that how we look at the harvest is very, very, very important.
If we look at the harvest like Jesus' disciples at that time,
we would not see the harvest come in. We would not see people saved.
But if we look at the harvest the way Jesus saw it,
that the harvest is ready and that the harvest is plentiful -
Hallelujah! We will see amazing things.
And I believe that Jesus needed to go to Samaria at that moment,
that time. Why? Because of her and because He wanted to teach
you and me, who are living today, this very, very important thing.
First thing, don't listen to rumors.
Don't listen to rumors.
How many times have we not heard people say:
Oh, the harvest is not ready. Oh, the harvest is not plentiful.
Oh, people don't want Jesus in our city.
Oh, in this country people don't want Jesus.
Oh, this work place. No one around here want Jesus.
Oh, this neighborhood. Oh, no one wants Jesus right now.
They are not ready yet.
Oh, how many times have we not heard people say:
Oh, the next year, not this year, but the next year.
Maybe the harvest will be ready the next year,
or the next year again. The harvest is not ready at all now.
Do you know, all of those words is a lie, from the pit of hell?
It's a lie from our enemy, Satan,
who has blinded the people with his lies,
so we, first, don't see the harvest ready, second, we don't go out
and see the harvest that is ready. Why? Because we believed in lies.
Why does Satan try to lie to us and keep us from this truth, as I said.
Because how we view the harvest determines if we see fruit or not.
Because if you see the harvest like many people do today,
you would not go out, you would not open your mouth,
you would just pass by them.
You would not spend the time to stop and share Jesus.
But if you see the harvest the way Jesus did,
you would go to them, you would speak to them,
and you would be surprised how many people there are ready and they are open
to receive Jesus.
Again, how often have you not heard, how often have we not heard
people say: the harvest is not ready yet.
It's not the time yet.
I want to read something from my book "The Call of Jesus":
"But as I said before, our enemy, Satan, has been busy blinding the church with his lies.
There are only a few who actually see this, who understand it,
and who go out to bring the harvest in.
I have traveled in many different countries. Almost everywhere I go,
I experience the same things. I always meet Christians
who have a wrong view of the harvest.
I have heard so many people tell me they think it is amazing what God is doing
in other places in the world.
But, they always tell me that no one is open for the Gospel in their city
or where they are. They often tell me that people in their own country
are too religious, or materialistic, or something else,
and they do not want God.
They say things like, 'it's so difficult in our own city'.
Yes, Christians I have met have a totally different views of the harvest
than what Jesus is saying about it."
I want to say that I've seen it all over the place.
I've been in so many, many countries, as I read here,
and every place is always the same.
Oh, it's so amazing what God is doing there, and there, and there,
but in our city... Wow! Oh, we are so religious, and our city is so materialistic,
or, in our city they are so atheistic, or, in our city are so poor,
or are so rich... And I've always heard the same again, and again, and again.
People always give the harvest the fault why things don't happen where they are.
But Jesus said the harvest is not the problem.
The problems is the workers.
Let me keep reading here.
"Please listen to the words of Jesus and open your eyes to see that the harvest is ready.
Do not say it takes four months and then the harvest will be ready
because today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).
The harvest is not and will never be the problem.
The problem is the workers.
The problem is us, but we can do something about it."
Yes, we can. We can do something about it.
And I can share so many amazing stories
of people who have never led one person to Christ,
who have never healed the sick, who have never cast out a demon,
who have never really bore fruit.
But then, suddenly, their eyes are open
and everything is changing.
Now they are seeing so many people healed, so many people set free,
so many people around them born again.
What happened with them?
It was not the harvest that suddenly changed.
No, they changed.
If it was the harvest that changed, suddenly,
then everyone around them, in their church, Christians in that city,
will also suddenly start to see the same fruit.
But, they don't.
Why? Because they did not change.
And the harvest did not change.
I have seen people sit in church for 20 years.
In 20 years they have never led one person to Christ.
And then, suddenly...
something happened.
Their eyes are opened.
The harvest is ready. The start to see. They start to experience.
And they start to lead people to Christ everywhere.
Not the rest in their church. But them.
Again, why? Because it was not the harvest that changed.
It was them that changed.
When you understand this, what Jesus is saying here,
that the harvest is ready, the harvest is plentiful,
it will change you, and it will change not only you, but people around you.
Because it will change the way you talk with people,
the way you go to people, the way you look at people.
It will change the way you pray. It will change everything
when you start to understand what Jesus is saying.
Again, if you believe that the harvest is not ready -
nothing will happen.
Or, very little will happen.
But when you see what Jesus is trying to say to you...
Hallelujah! When you see this and start to experience it,
you will every day live the life like in the Book of Acts.
Where you are led to the person of peace, and people are getting healed
and set free, and born again, all over. Why?
Because this is the truth and I've seen that again, and again, and again.
I can come with one more example.
Some years ago I was in Holland.
And there was a guy from Finland who flew to Holland to be with me,
to fly home few hours later, or the day after.
He grew up in Finland, he has been in church his whole life.
He has never led anyone to Christ, he has never healed the sick,
he has never cast out a demon. What happened?
He came to Holland, to be with me for a few hours, and then he flew home to Finland.
The next week in Finland he has healed the first sick,
he has cast out the first demon, and he has baptized the first one
in water and Holy Spirit.
30 or 40 years in church, and not seeing one person healed,
one person come to Christ.
And then he come and meet me a few hours, and then he go home,
and then the next days, the next week - he has seen it all.
What happened?
Was it the harvest that suddenly changed while he was gone?
No, the harvest did not change in those 24 hours he was gone.
He changed.
How did he change?
We walked in Holland, we talked.
I asked him if he has ever prayed for somebody who got healed.
He said: No. I said: Hey, the harvest is ready.
You can do it. Come with me. We went into McDonald's,
I went to a table, said: Anyone who's sick?
There was a girl who was sick. I said to him: Now pray for her.
And he laid hands, and he prayed, and that girl got healed.
When she got healed, by his hand... Something happened in him.
He suddenly understood that he believed in a lie his whole life.
He suddenly understood that the harvest is ready.
He understood it's easy. He understood he can do it.
That visit to McDonald's, when he prayed for somebody,
he understood that the harvest was ready.
That was what he needed.
When he went home to Finland, the next week people got healed,
set free and born again.
This is what we need.
And I could share so many testimonies like this.
The next video I'm going to do is called "Believe That the Harvest is Ready".
There I want to share more testimonies like this. Why?
Because it's not enough we hear it.
We need to believe it.
What I encourage you to do is that...
take some time, until we see the next time.
Take some time and listen to Jesus' words.
Listen to what Jesus is saying, that the harvest is plentiful,
the harvest is ripe, the harvest is plentiful, the harvest is ripe.
And then pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, that Jesus will open your eyes.
Pray that He will open your eyes so you can see what Jesus is saying.
Pray that He will help you,
because when this becomes a revelation for you,
when you start to believe
what Jesus is saying that the harvest is ripe, the harvest is plentiful,
it will change your actions toward people,
and it will, again, change the fruit you are seeing.
But if you keep believing Satan's lies and say:
the harvest is not plentiful, there are still four months to harvest,
you are not going to see anything.
You are believing in a lie.
So, take the time, take Jesus' words, listen to it.
Pray, pray that God will open your eyes.
And then, let it stir up something in you.
When you then go for a walk and when you look at people around you,
then start to look at them through the eyes of Jesus.
When you see people, instead of thinking: Ah, that person,
I don't think that person is ready, and that person looked like
he doesn't want God, and she looked like she doesn't want God,
instead of that, start to look at people through the eyes of Jesus,
like Jesus saw the woman in Samaria.
Look at them and say: Whoa. There is somebody here who can be very, very open.
There is somebody here who maybe wants God.
I know Jesus is later saying in Luke 10 that there are people
who don't want it, where we just take the dust off our hands and feet,
and it's something I'm going to talk more about later.
But that is not what we are focusing now.
We are not focused on those few people who don't want it.
We are focused on the harvest that is ready.
We are focused on those people who want it, like the woman in Samaria.
So, until I see you next time, take some time, meditate, pray,
speak out Jesus' words. The harvest is plentiful.
The harvest is ripe. The harvest is ripe.
And then when you walk out, when you drive out
and you look at people, then look at them and say:
Whoa. The harvest is ripe.
That person there could be like the woman in Samaria.
That person there could be the person who is ready to receive.
If you do that, I expect and I believe that is going to change your life
and you will see amazing, amazing fruit.
So, start to pray it out, start to speak it out,
start to believe what Jesus is saying,
and then, look forward to see you next time.
God bless you all out there! Bye-bye!
The Call of Jesus