THE HARVEST IS RIPE RIGHT NOW
We do not have time to say tomorrow I will get busy for God. You do not have time to think about doing it later. Jesus told His disciples, “LOOK, the Harvest is Ripe Right Now!”
Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
St. John 4:35-36
People are not only ready to be saved, but there are plenty of them. Jesus said in St. Luke 10:2, “The Harvest truly is Great!” The fields that Jesus said are “white” with wheat and ready for harvest represent men and women whose hearts are eager to respond to the Gospel message of Salvation. We should be ready for them.
THIS IS THE TIME OF INGATHERING
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat,
and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22
In the seedtime and harvest there will always be a season to plant seed and a time to reap- to harvest what has been planted.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
Theses established spiritual laws are FIXED, regardless of man’s attempt to manipulate and alter the physical and natural elements of the earth. As long as the earth exists, these laws will never cease.
The harvest season in ancient Israel was celebrated as the time of the year when the grain crops matured and was ready to be gathered. Harvest is a time of Fulfillment.
Another name for “Feast of Pentecost” is the “Feast of Harvest” or “Feast of Ingathering”. (Exodus 23:16) This seasonal celebration lasted for weeks. It was a time of great excitement and joyful thanksgiving to God; acknowledging that He was the source of their total supply- their all sufficiency.
It was this celebration of the “Feast of Ingathering” that was taking place on the day we refer to as the “Day of Pentecost”- when the Holy Ghost was poured out on Jesus’ disciples and others. This day is significant because it marks the time when the crops of souls started coming into the Kingdom of God.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire,
and it sat upon each of them.
Acts 2:1-3
Peter was the first to get out into the field. When he preached the gospel of the day of Pentecost, 3,000 souls were harvested. Leaving behind a life of hopelessness and religious activity, they were gathered into a personal relationship with God through the blood and redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
Until Jesus comes back, we as the children of God are continuously to harvest souls from out of the fields of worldliness and despair. The time of harvest has come; it is time of the ingathering.
THERE WILL BE A GATHERING FROM ALL NATIONS
In this time of spiritual harvest the Spirit of God is preparing His people to be gathered into the heavenly barn; we are getting ready to leave this world.
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
St. Matthew 24:30-31
When you see people coming from every nation, tongue, and kindred, it is a sign that God is gathering His people. When you see people getting saved from every nation, tongue, and kindred, it is a sign that God is gathering His people. Jesus is soon to come.
When Peter preached the gospel on that day, devout men came from every nation under heaven. They did not come saying, “I am from here or there”, and “you are from another background”… “Therefore, we cannot get along together”. They all came under the same gospel and began to worship in one accord the One and True Living God; there were no divisions among them. They all represented wheat. The common denominator was that they were all wheat- all citizens of the Kingdom of God.
“God is sending out a call to His elect. It is for saved folks, and those who want to be saved.” They are coming out of every nation because it is “Harvest Time”. We have seen moves of God that were carried out by men in the flesh. This time we will hear the Spirit call, we are going to see people coming to Christ saying, “I heard it! I heard it! I was praying, and God spoke to me, I want to be saved!” God is going to move across the world the way His Spirit did on the Day of Pentecost, some 2,000 years ago. God is gathering His people from every nation.
The world cannot get mankind together . None of their programs, none of their laws, legislation, or their marches has brought us together as ONE. Nothing but the blood of Jesus can put Humpty Dumpty back together again. And not is the time! It is the time of the great ingathering of God’s elect.
It is HARVEST TIME leaders and lay members let us go to the fields.
God Bless this Church ( A.O.H. Church of God)
Bishop George W. Ayers
