Doesn’t Feel Like a Harvest
Whew! Since January 1st, I have blasted the nations with 88 days of travel. I have preached over a hundred messages, and counseled, prayed, and loved on 1000s from the coasts of Italy to the back country of Kenya and into the regions of Cambodia. It’s been wonderful and terrible. There was a lot of rebooting of the work around the globe post-pandemic. Drew has had a similar schedule and he’s been fantastic. The Lord has moved powerfully as we’ve had many school graduations, trained many trainers to carry on the work beyond us. We have also seen many saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and set free from sin and demonic influences. Above all, disciples of Jesus are being made who will make other disciples of Jesus, capturing hearts, homes, and communities in every realm for Jesus! There is a harvest.
More Sowers
As many of you know, our staff has grown. We’ve added two more young families. The Ryan Harris family and the Tannon Nauert family are the newest additions and I can’t say enough how impressed I am. God has sent us His very best. These two young men recently trained in our large school in the capital of Costa Rica and didn’t just hit a home run. They cleared the bases! What a gift they are. What a Father and King we have who constantly adds to this small family and team called Prepare International. He has given the very best of His sons and daughters He has to offer. Thank you, Father, and hats off to Ryan, Tannon, and their courageous families.
The Mission
It has dawned upon me again that PI’s primary mission and weapon is to be a fulfillment of the central parable of Jesus—The Parable of the Sower. You can find this Kingdom-depicting story in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. You know the story well. I will spare you a boring recap, but let me point out some key things and how the Lord has positioned us to partner with Him in the pivotal Kingdom reality. Some things Jesus said about this story:
- If you don’t understand this one, how will you understand any? This parable is a centerline of many if not most, other Kingdom truths and realities. We must understand and keep this story before us.
- The Kingdom breaks into the world and grows in this world through the sowing of seed.
- The ‘seed’ is the Word of God. Jesus even makes it much more specific in Matthew’s account—it is the message and truth of the Kingdom of God coming into our world. That is the seed that enters and changes people, families, and the nations of the earth.
- The condition of the human heart when the seed is sown and how the seed is sown is all important.
Called
As we’ve meditated upon this central Kingdom reality, it has dawned upon us that we have been set aside and called to be seed sowers of the message of His present and future Kingdom here on earth and in heaven. This parable explicitly describes our ministry here at PI. What an honor, what a privilege, what a holy responsibility. For everything we do and everywhere we go, we sow the seed of the message of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Of how it applies to our lives, families, and the society He has assigned us to invade.
Strategy
As we’ve meditated upon the soils, we have been given a pre and post-preaching and teaching prayer strategy. Break up the hard ground, remove the competition of weeds, and declare the evil one cannot steal the seed we sow. And the harvest, oh, the mighty harvest, is coming. It is a harvest of passionate lovers of Jesus who lay down their lives for the Son of Man. Both laboring and leading in their lands so that the lost will be saved and life-giving expressions of Christ’s Body will be planted and grown. A mighty harvest is upon us, but we’ve only just begun.
You are our partners, our sending army. You give and pray to enable and empower this little cluster of Kingdom seed sowers to go and sow. Continue to give generously and pray passionately. Believe with us that the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our Lord and that He shall reign forever and ever! Amen.
