Escape from Christendom

Chapter five

 

THE HARVEST

 

Reaching the outer extremity of the Wilderness of Prayer, the traveler in my dream is taking in his first clear view of his destination. In the far distance, radiant with a holy splendor, is the City of God. Visibly overcome with emotion, his step quickens. Suddenly he encounters a terrible stench of smoke and decaying bodies. Now there are corpses everywhere. Forms with life left are moaning for help.

 

A woman doubled up with pain begs the traveler, "Please, please do something for me. I can't tolerate this pain anymore!"

 

"I'm powerless," he tells her. "What do you think I could do for you?"

 

"A little water is all I need. Please bring me some water!"

 

"Where am I going to find water in this desert?"

 

"How long do you think you'll last," she replies, "unless you find water for yourself? Please find some and bring it to me."

 

As the traveler scans the desert in bewilderment, his mysterious companion returns and guides him to a spring surrounded by thousands of empty flasks.

 

"Drink some yourself," she suggests, "and then fill a flask for the woman."

 

After drinking this water, the traveler is immediately strengthened and brings some to the woman. By the time she has finished drinking, her health is restored. Immediately she takes the flask, runs to the spring and begins helping her neighbors. There are men with deep wounds, children lying on their backs with faint, rapid breathing, and elderly people with dirty bandages around their worn faces. Some victims are screaming with pain and others are weeping silently to themselves. Some are revived with a single flask of water. Others need much more. I see other travelers engaged in this same effort. As victims are healed, they too participate in the labor of raising up others. As they carry water from the spring, the traveler shares this passage from the Gospel of John with another man:

 

"Meanwhile the disciples besought him saying, 'Rabbi, eat.' But he said to them, 'I have food to eat of which you do not know.' So the disciples said to one another, 'Has any one brought him food?' Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.'"

 

"I guess we're learning what this means," added the traveler.

 

He spends many days in that place involved in the work of revival. One evening as he rests by the spring his companion returns and sits down beside him.

 

"I don't suppose we'll be able to go on to the City of God until we've finished here?" the traveler asks her.

 

"That is true," she replies.

 

"But will they wait for us?"

 

"Don't worry. Just keep reviving these people until they're all on their feet. Then the gates of the City of God will open and the inhabitants will come out and escort you in. Bear this in mind.

 

'Do you not say, There are yet four months, then comes the harvest? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, "One sows and another reaps." I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."'

 

"But these needs are so staggering that I am beginning to feel overwhelmed. The joy of seeing restoration take place before my eyes is offset to some degree by the vastness of this sea of despair. Is there an end to it?"

 

"Brother," replies his companion, "Just as you had to lose yourself in God's forgiveness, and in worship and in prayer, you are now losing yourself in the harvest. It is one thing to dabble in the harvest. It's quite another to be lost in it.”

 

“But will I have the strength to keep on working among people with such great needs?"

 

"Isn't that what Jesus did?" 

 

And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

 

"It must have become discouraging for Him, though."

 

"Jesus wept over religious Jerusalem for its hardness of heart. Obviously His greatest encouragement on the human side came from these repenting sinners. Of these He never tired. You can confidently abandon yourself to this harvest without danger of being engulfed by it, provided you keep your vision of the City, and provided you do your work here with a whole heart. The Spirit of the Lord will sustain you if you will be careful to listen to these people as Jesus listened to the woman at the well, to the lepers, the lame, the blind, the father of the demon‑possessed boy. Don't be in a hurry. Take time to listen and ask the right questions. Find out where people really hurt, what they really need. Also, you must tell them about Jesus as you go about with your flask. The water in the flask and this message of yours are identical. These dying people are thirsting for Jesus ‑ not theories about Jesus, but Jesus himself. The message of Jesus is a drink of refreshing water which brings them back to life. Remember the verse, 'Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without pay, give without pay.’ Don't be satisfied until the mercy of God has raised them to their feet."

 

"Until the mercy of God has raised them all to their feet?"

 

"Yes. Think about this passage in Revelation:

 

'And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away."'

 

"As you first experience the labor of the harvest and discover you are actually able to raise these perishing ones to their feet by giving them living water from the divine spring, Jesus, you have tremendous joy. The wilderness experiences of forgiveness, worship of God and prayer have issued in the power to heal the sick in the name of Jesus.

 

'He who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.'

 

The challenge is to endure."