Know the Times in Which We Are Living—Harvest Time
A man had a vision from the Lord in 1984 of the world’s harvest. He left his body and found himself standing in space ‘outside of time’ looking down at the earth. He could feel the Lord close to him. “I would ask Him questions and He would answer. He showed me a wave that billowed up at a certain point of the earth. Picture looking at the earth. It billowed up and then it started to move. On the front side of that wave was a cutting edge where great and mighty things took place. On the back side there were millions of people getting saved.”[1]
In a series of three nights, the Lord showed him the front side of the wave where crippled bodies were restored to life. People preached in bar rooms and on sidewalks; souls were saved. On the back side of the wave were thousands of unsinkable boats side by side all around the earth. Harvesters in the boats grabbed others inside—so many people with arms, legs, bottoms, and elbows sticking out.
“As this wave went around the earth, the farther it got the faster it got! When the wave of glory hit where is started, a huge splash sent into the air. As that gigantic water spout went into the air, Jesus appeared, and that was the end!”[2]
Could this be what Isaiah 59:19 means? “From the west, men will fear the name of the LORD, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory. For he will come like a pentup flood that the breath of the LORD drives along.”
Are we living in this harvest time? You be the judge. Of all the signs of the end, the ones that reveal the most have to do with the extent to which the Gospel is preached and published.
Listen to the words of Jesus: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14 emphasis mine). Mark 13:10 says the same thing, only preached is interpreted as published in the King James Version. Both must happen:
- (2007) The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) has 63 satellite channels, they call ‘footprints,’ feeding over 12,000 stations, cables, small dishes, and the Internet allowing the gospel to be preached around the world, including China. They have 100 million viewers and register 30 million salvations.[3] This is only one report of many Christian television stations.
- (2007) For 60 years, the World Literature Crusade, doing business as Every Home for Christ (EHC), has shared the Gospel in “writing.” As of 2007, EHC workers (nationals of their own country) have distributed over 2.4 billion booklets in 196 nations, resulting in over 52.7 million decision cards for Christ (2,000 per day) and the formation of over 94,000 home fellowships called Christ groups. Each new convert receives a discipleship correspondence course printed in languages spoken by 96 percent of Earth’s population.
- (2007) Campus Crusade for Christ produced the Jesus film in 1979. Translated into more than 950 languages, it has been shown in every country. There have been more than six billion exposures to the Gospel with more than 200 million decisions for Jesus Christ. On their Web sites alone, someone reads the Gospel every four seconds, and someone indicates a decision every minute.[4]
- (2006) According to the report by New York Times best-selling author Joel C. Rosenberg, in excess of six million Muslims are now coming to the Lord every year. More Muslims have converted to faith in Jesus over the past decade than at any other time in human history—despite persecution, arrests, and assassinations.[5]
- (2006) According to evangelists’ newsletters, in Iraq, more than a million Bibles have been shipped into the country since 2003, and more than 5,000 new Christians now fill new churches (including fourteen in Baghdad, some with up to 800 members). A million Iranians meet in secret churches. A million Egyptians have trusted Jesus Christ in the past ten years. In Afghanistan alone, more than 10,000 Muslims have been saved. At the end of 2010, it was reported that 16,000 souls—and more—a day are turning to the Lord in the Middle East.
EHC had a vision for reaching every home in China with the Gospel by 2010.[6] When every home is reached in a nation, they start all over again and thereby reach new households. Robert Creson, president of Wycliffe Bible Translators, reports that what used to take thirteen years to translate enough of the Scriptures to start churches in a new language, now takes only two years. Wycliffe is aiming to have a translation project going in every language where one is needed by the year 2025.[7] We know that even that projection could be accelerated according to the promise in Daniel 12:4 that in the end knowledge will increase.
These rapidly changing statistics are only a sampling of what is happening around the world. It does not include what main-line denominations and independent churches are doing, or the millions who have found salvation through the Billy Graham Evangelist Association (BGEA), or other evangelists. Nothing is known about the souls common “ordinary” people are bringing into the Kingdom.
“Blessed—happy, fortunate and to be envied—are those servants whom the master finds awake and alert and watching when he comes” (Luke 12:37 Amplified). Are you watching? Better yet, are you harvesting?
Know Who the Reapers Are
Someone else was reaping the wheat as Ruth used her feet to follow along behind to harvest left-over grain. She worked from early morning until evening with only a short rest. When she was thirsty, she drank from the water jars of Boaz/Jesus. Webster’s defines reap as “to cut with a sickle, scythe, or a reaping machine.” Harvest is defined as “to gather in a crop.” Modern machinery does this all in one operation, but in Old Testament times it was a two-step process that required many people working—hands-on—reaping and harvesting together in teamwork.
The Bible is very clear on who the reapers are. “The harvest is the close and consummation of the age, and the reapers are angels” (Matt. 13:39 Amplified). Revelation 14 says that from a white cloud there was one “‘like a son of man’ with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand” (Rev. 14:14). Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to the Son of Man, who was sitting on the cloud, to put in His sickle and reap, because the harvest of the earth was ripe.
Many people in the Middle East are seeing dreams or other special appearances of Jesus. One such event is recorded in Decision magazine, put out by BGEA:
One Iranian woman was watching a broadcast of the Jesus film on SAT 7, a Christian satellite TV channel. At the close of the showing, Jesus is quoted as saying, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” Of course, the reference is to Revelation 3:20, alluding to the door of a person’s heart. But the woman misunderstood and thought Jesus was referring to the door to her room. So, she walked over to the door and opened it, only to be driven to the floor by a blinding light. As her eyes adjusted, she saw a vision of Jesus in the doorway asking, “Will you let Me in?” She came to Christ on the spot.[8]
The reapers of souls for the heavenly Kingdom, therefore, are Jesus and His angels. Reaping itself is a process of separation of good from evil. Until the harvest, the wheat and weeds are to grow together (see Matt. 13:30). After the Son of Man harvested the earth, other angels took their sickles, including the one in charge of fire, and reaped clusters of grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath (see Rev. 14:17-20).
Jesus’ feet are not standing still. You are His feet. Where are your feet?
Know Who the Harvesters Are
Jesus and his angels are the reapers. Like Ruth, we are the harvesters behind the reapers. We are harvesting people in whose Gospel seeds—planted by Christians of past generations— have matured. My first realization of this came to me in 1990 when a customer special ordered a book, Angels on Assignment, by Charles and Frances Hunter, as told by Roland Buck—now deceased. The title caught my attention so much that I could not put it down, nor could I possibly resell it.
This book is a true and living account of God sending angels to earth today in preparation for Jesus’ return. Gabriel is the primary messenger angel of about sixteen visitations [at the time of the book’s publication] to this one man, Pastor Buck of Boise, Idaho, in 1978. Gabriel told him angels had been sent to the top of every hill, every tree, and even in the holes of the ground, searching out men and women who are trying to hide from God—doing what we cannot do—and bringing them to the point of decision.
While reading the book, I was so amazed, shocked, even skeptical. I told God if this book was really true, He would have to show me personally; I was not going to believe something just because it was in print.
In the next chapter, I read about Pastor Buck speaking to the Philippine people. The audience found these messages hard to believe also, especially one man. But during prayer, he felt a warm, heavy hand on his shoulder. When he turned around, no one was there. He said, “This is real; it’s real!”
Tears came to my eyes as I recalled what happened to me in 1976. My husband and I had bought a two-story house that we were painting outside. I was searching to know God in a deeper way and reading a book about angels. I was standing in my upstairs bedroom when I felt a very warm, heavy hand on my right shoulder. I turned around and no one was there. I did see, however, our one-year-old daughter in the next room standing at an open window with no screens.
Next, I asked the Lord. “Do You want me to use what I have learned about direct mail to get this book out?”
That very afternoon a knock came at my door. It was a young man who said, “I have been working with the construction crew on this street. I saw your “Genesis Books and Mailing” sign in your yard and have thought all day long that I should talk to you. I’ve been looking at an organization I can get involved with to sell information by mail. Do you know of a good book I can sell?”
He kept repeating this over and over that he wanted to sell books by mail and asking me if I had any. I told him about this book I had been reading all day, Angels on Assignment. I was thinking this really can’t be happening.
“I think God wanted me to come to your door today,” he said.
“I think God wanted you to come to my door today,” I responded.
Immediately, I asked for his name, address, and phone number. I mailed a copy of the book to the address he gave me and later called the number. It was the neighbor’s phone number. I left a message and never heard from him again. I looked for the construction crew and never saw one.
These events, along with Scriptural teaching from each angelic visit to Pastor Buck, were all I needed to be confident of the angels’ messages. They truly are here to reap as we gather in the greatest harvest known to mankind.
Paul Keith Davis, co-founder of White Dove Ministries with his wife Wanda, published a book in 2007, Angels that Gather. The LORD has opened his eyes to see angelic activity. He says angels “are being dispatched to help free us from spirits of carnality commissioned by our adversary to cause personal failure and collapse of the perpetual outpouring we are anticipating.”[9] His book gives a blueprint for the harvest from Joseph’s time. He says there will be a harvest of harvesters who will bring souls into the storehouses—certain cities and regions. The angels’ next assignment is to co-labor with us.
Angels have been given the assignment to give us our assignments in the present harvest. They are going ahead of us to bring individuals to the point of choice—through those obedient to testify—over and over again until they choose to follow Jesus. They cannot do their job without our presenting that choice to individuals one at a time. That is why Jesus told his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2).
The LORD of the harvest—Jesus. Will you answer His call and move your feet with His? Ruth picked up grain one at a time. All we need to do is pick up people one at a time.
[1] Charles & Frances Hunter, The Angel Book, (Whitaker House, New Kensington, PA 1999) p. 180.
[2] Ibid., p. 182.
[3] Michelle Bertello, Anouncements, http://www.tbn.org/index.php/7/?nid=212 (accessed December 12, 2007).
[4] Steve Douglass, “The Coming Harvest,” Decision, (February, 2007) p. 12-13
[5] Joel C. Rosenberg, www.joelrosenberg.com, (accessed).
[6] Dick Eastman, Every Home for Christ, September 2001 letter.
[7] Douglas, Decision, p. 13.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Paul Keith Davis, Angels that Gather, (Dove Company Publishing, Orange Beach, AL, 2007) pg. 117.