| Last week at our prayer meeting, Lios Friedrich shared a dream that the Lord gave her, and I was immediately reminded of another prophetic dream that was given to Beve Place in 1993 (16 years ago!). The message of each was similar, and each I believe is a call to us as a Body to get our eyes off ourselves and look to the Fields, for the are ripe for hearvest, and look also to the Lord of the Harvest, because He’s calling us out as laborers.
Matthew 9:35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” .
John 4: 34″My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
I suppose it would be prudent to ask the Lord and ourselves: have we done this? In Lois’ dream, she saw herself walking into the church building, and as she did, she suddenly realised that she had a supernatural deposit of milk to feed newborn babies. The meaning of this dream comes easily. Lois, a woman well-past her baby-rearing years, would not likely be expecting to nurse newborn babies ever again. Yet, suddenly had the means to do so, and knew that she must be ready to do so. It could be easy for many Christians to feel as if their “prime” years of ministry are over and not being expected that they would b ecalled upon to care for and nurture those who may soon be “born” into the Kingdom of God. Or, you may just not feel that you are “called” to do that. But, if you suddenly realised that you were being called to do so, would you be ready and willing? If you are, the Lord will give you the ability and the means to do so! We live in a Day when things are rapidly changing, structures are crumbling, and moral fabric continues to erode. The people we see day to day may not seem frantic (yet), nor are they running to us for answers (yet). But, how many do you think are troubled in their souls and asking “why? why? why?” and wondering where all this is heading? I think they are MANY. Will you be ready in the unexpected moment when they turn to you asking for the reason for the hope you have? 1 Peter 3:14-16 I believe that as Jesus looks at those all around us, He says “open your eyes, the harvest is RIPE!”. This should give us urgency to PRAY, and to heed the call/need for Laborers in the harvest field! Both are needed and necessary — prayer and labor! This should be the Church’s finest hour! Open our eyes, Lord! -Jessie Beve’s dream went something like this: The people all around were in chaos. There was a great shaking of the things that they put their confidence, and they were frantically looking for answers. They came running to us (God’s people) but we were not prepared! We were not ready to respond to their needs and we did not have the answers they were looking for. There was a very heavy URGENCY to the dream. But, she indicated that it wasn’t that God was angry, there was a very real sense of His love to the dream. She felt the Lord that we were to give ourselves seriously to developing our intimacy with God (“filling our lamps with oil” as in the parable of virgins, see Matthew 25), so that we would bef ully prepared and “full” when the time came to give out to the masses who would come, and be searching. |
Jessie Still 