Last week, as I was continuing to work my way through a study of the word power in Scripture in my weekday devotional blog, I encountered a passage that prophesied in the very words of Jesus concerning His second coming. These words are recorded in Matthew 24:30-31:
Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all of the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
If you’d like to see my devotional comments on this passage, go to EZ710.wordpress.com and open the post titled Come Again for November 2, 2012. During this devotional study something occurred to me that was outside of the scope of EZ710, but intrigued me in regard to gcmatrix.wordpress.com.
Consider the description of that great day regarding the role of the angels. Jesus said that He would send out His angels with a loud trumpet call (see 1 Corinthians 15:52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16), and that they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to another. This is a final and ultimate harvesting of the elect, those chosen by God to be members of His eternal family.
The redeemed in heaven will be gathered from the heavens and united with their spiritual bodies; they will be changed as the Scriptures say. The redeemed on earth will be caught up with their Savior, also changed, and all believers, those who have gone before and those alive on earth at that moment, will be joined together to be His people as He will make His eternal dwelling place among them. Again, this is a final and ultimate, eternal harvesting, brought about in part by angels sent by the Second Coming King.
As I reflected on these words of Jesus, another harvesting came to mind, the harvesting found in Matthew 9:35-39:
35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Jesus came once and will come again, and in between we are living in the New Testament era, the church era. Our assignment, much like that given to the angels at Christ’s second coming, is to go out, sent by Him, to gather the harvest of the elect. Notice that there is no lack of harvest; there were plenty of sheep without a shepherd, i.e. plenty of sheep, the elect, who were at that time lost without a shepherd. There was, however, a lack of laborers willing to go into that harvest to gather them from one end of the earth to the other.
So Jesus exhorted His disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Consider these words of Jesus recorded in John 14:12-14:
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
To pray a prayer that Jesus commanded is clearly to pray in His name, and anything asked in the name of Jesus will surely be done, will surely be granted. Jesus wants that prayer prayed and guarantees a positive response.
Believers, it’s time we committed ourselves to praying this Great Commission prayer for laborers to be sent into the harvest, skilled laborers who are mobilized and trained for the ministry of harvesting. Would you not only pray for laborers, but would you pray to become a laborer, a harvest worker? The angels will get the call on the Day of the Lord. Our call is now!
