PREPARING AN INSTRUMENT FOR HARVEST

“When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest’” (Matthew 9:36-38, NKJV).

We are the laborers—the instruments of harvest the Lord is sending into His harvest!

Two thousand years ago, at the time of the birth of the Church, the primary instrument used in harvest was the sickle, a curved, single-edged blade with a long handle. The sickle was a one-person harvesting tool and is still in use in many parts of the world.

Cutting tools such as the sickle were hand-forged by a blacksmith who selected a piece of metal and heated it directly in the fire. Using a hammer and an anvil, he then pounded and bent the hot metal into the required shape. Over and over the blacksmith repeated the process of heating and pounding until the metal reached its final shape and sharpness.

Whether we are willing to recognize it or not, God is forging laborers for His harvest. His testing of us through the pressures of life and His dealing with us about sin are not just His trying to make us look good; He is forging us into effective instruments of harvest.

You may be thinking, “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think God would do that.” But what I am saying is exactly what the Apostle Paul taught as being fundamental to growth in the life of grace.

In Romans 5:1-5, Paul lays out the process the Lord uses to bring us to the shape and sharpness necessary to be effective harvesting instruments.

Verses 1 and 2 contain Paul’s declaration that we have been justified by faith, that we have peace with God through Jesus Christ, and that through Christ and by faith we have been brought into the life of grace.

In Verse 3 Paul begins to speak of the process that works in us, that has a divine purpose. And he tells us that because of this divine purpose, even though it is sometimes painful to go through the pain, we rejoice, not for the process but because of our understanding of what is being worked in us.

Paul then lays out the four steps he perceives as God’s forging process in preparing us to be effective instruments of harvest.

1.    Tribulation

“Tribulation” (verse 3). In the process of fashioning an instrument that is useful in God’s harvest, tribulation is the beginning of the shaping. Tribulation is brought to bear through the use of pressure, affliction or hardship. This part of the preparation is not meant to be mean and harsh but is an essential part of the shaping process. This is the blacksmith pounding on the heated metal, and through that he begins to shape the metal for effective use.

2.    Patience

“Tribulation produces patience.” Patience is endurance that is unswerving/focused. God is never in the kind of hurry we are and He is committed to tempering the metal so that it is shaped and hardened with just the right sharpness to it—to be most effective—and that doesn’t happen overnight. Tribulation and our handling of it teaches us how to have patience, how to endure.

“For you have need of endurance (patience), so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised” (Hebrews 10:36).

3.    Character

“Tribulation produces perseverance (patience/endurance) and perseverance, character.” A man with character is a man with faith that has been tested and who has integrity that is evident to everyone.

Luke 15:11-32 is the story of two sons. The younger took his inheritance because he had the faith to ask for it but he wasted it because he did not have the integrity or the knowledge to properly handle what he had received. The older brother didn’t ask the father for anything. He was righteous and had integrity but he lacked faith so he never asked. God wants us to embrace both the elements of character—faith and integrity combined—and when we couple these two characteristics with experience, then we are showing forth true character.

4.    Hope

“Tribulation produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Hope is a very misunderstood term in our world, where it has little meaning. Biblical hope is “confident expectation that is founded on God’s Word.” Hope as it is used here in Romans 5 is not inferior to faith but is an extension of faith—putting the sharp edge of faith on the instrument of harvest.

These are the four elements that go into the making of an instrument of harvest. I wish I could say truthfully that we would go through this process only once but that’s never been God’s way. God’s way is for us to be refined continually; continually having our effectiveness improved; continually growing; continually learning. We will go through the process of refining, shaping, and sharpening over and over so that we can be the most effective instrument of harvest possible.

“When the grain is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:29).