“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest”. (Matthew 9:37-38).  

As a business owner, I have been praying that God would provide me the manpower to perform the work He has given me.  As in Proverbs 3, my “barns are filled with plenty, and my vats are overflowing.”  That is to say, I have a super abundant amount of work, but too few workers to do it.  

“Now you know how I feel,” the Lord seems to say.  “There is a plentiful harvest, but I’ve too few workers.  For this reason pray.”  

I wonder at what to do with this.  I myself have ‘volunteered’ freely over the years; I’ve prayed the prayer and said, “Use me and Barb.”  But no reason to wonder, as the Lord tells me what to do.  He says, “Beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”  So what am I to do?  Pray.  Make it a daily request.  

Actually, it needs to go beyond just asking.  Jesus says, “Beseech the Lord.”  Meaning, “to beg for urgently or anxiously.”  In other words, it is not just a perfunctory prayer; there is to be heart and soul behind it, a sense of desperation.  Similar to what I feel when I look at what I’ve to do and the limited resources I have to do it.  

We all (the church, that is) speak regularly of the great coming harvest of souls, such as has never been seen before.  Seems to me it is already upon us.  That is, the Lord says “the harvest is plentiful.”  It is already plentiful.  There is just no one to harvest it.  And what happens when a crop comes to fruition and doesn’t get harvested?  It rots and goes to waste.  How many souls are ‘wasted’ because there is no one to ‘harvest’ them?  They, through the activity of the Holy Spirit drawing them to Jesus, come to the place where they are ready to receive Him (though they likely know it not), but there is no one to lead the way.

In our case and at this time it is hard to get workers because many are on the government dole.  During this so-called pandemic crisis, where much of the economy is shut down, the government is paying workers more to not work that they would make if they were working.  They are comfortable right where they are at.  Why work?  

This seems like a type of the church–don’t get me wrong, I am part of the church; I speak with regards to myself.  We are quite comfortable where we are at; we don’t feel the need.  All the while, however,  there are people ready to meet the Lord, and the Lord needs workers.  Which is why He says, “Now you know how I feel.”  

Here Jesus says to His disciples, “pray”–or “beseech,” rather.  A few years later He says, “Go.”  That is to say, you pray and then you go.  

I note that the prayer is for the Lord to “send out workers.”  Really, the word is “thrust,” or “force.”  Two pictures come to mind.  The little bird whose mother feels it is time for her to fly, so she kicks the little one out of the nest.   And this one: the parachutist who for fear is reluctant to make the jump, but his friend pushes him out into the air.  What the Lord is saying is that we pray God would do a similar thing to His workers.  We are all workers, you know; every Christian is a worker.  Not that we all work; actually, the point is we don’t.  But the prayer is that God will give us a ‘little boost.’  

So it is, “Lord, thrust out workers into Your harvest. Force them out!”  

This happened in Acts chapter 8.  It took a little persecution to get the church moving.  Actually, it took a “great persecution” to get it moving.  Will this be needed in our day?  I pray not.  I would rather volunteer freely (see Psalm 110:3).   Yet something like this seems to me to be a real possibility in the days to come.  

I think there is a “Help Wanted” sign on the door of the church.   The Lord calls for His workers.  I come, Lord.  I come.   Sign me up.  

“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25).

This is the testimony of every person who has received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior: he is able to see.

While not many of us were actually blind as was this man, we were all spiritually blind, unable to see things as they really are on account of our sin. Sin blinds a man; not only is he not able to view himself or the world properly, or at all, he cannot see the glory of God in the face of Christ. Not until the Son comes along and touches him, that is.

O how the masses are blind to the truth! There are far more of them than there are us. I recently read that among the 7,000 or so languages in the world, the Bible has been translated but into 700. And it is the Bible that gives light to a man’s eyes.

I recall Derek Prince telling of his experience. An honored Cambridge scholar, a philosopher, he was drafted into the British army and, deciding upon a book to take along with him, took the Bible, reasoning that given he had read all the other great works of the world, he should read this one also. Well, he did, and God opened his eyes to the truth; he was never the same.

“The entrance of Your word gives light.”

We are born blind just as the man in John 9 was, only spiritually so. Every single person on the planet is ‘naturally’ blind to the truth. Sadly, many who are exposed to the truth remain so deliberately.

“The Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, ‘We are not blind too, are we?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, “We see,” your sin remains’” (verses 40-41).

The world is filled with these sorts too, persons who deny the reality of sin and the need for a Savior. Though they ‘see,’ they are the most blind of all.

For those of us who have received Christ, we are able to see; but not all do. The ability is there, but the pursuit of it is not. The eyes are opened, yes; but the mind is not. We all know that it is possible to be seeing the world around us, but to be missing the most of it. So too are many Christians, they see but they don’t. This is why, I think, Jesus clarifies His disciple-making mandate. Not only does He mandate we “go and make disciples of all the nations,” He instructs as to how this is to be accomplished. He says, “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” And so vision comes to those whose eyes are opened–if indeed they are open to be taught, and, of course, there are those to teach them.

How powerful the testimony! Here is a man who has been blind since birth. He is not a learned man, nor has he been with the Lord for but a day. In fact, he doesn’t even know who He is just yet. But he has a testimony. “Though I was blind, now I see.”

So it is that every sincere born-again Christian, no matter how long he has been one, nor even that He knows Jesus to much of a degree, he has a testimony.

I can’t help but picture Mary Magdalene in the TV series, The Chosen. She encounters the Pharisee Nicodemus after both had just witnessed a lame man healed by the Lord. Nicodemus was the one (in the series–it is a historical fiction) who had seen Mary tormented by demons and was unable to help her, and here she was completely different. She says, “I was one way, and now I am different; and the difference is Him.”

“Though I was blind, now I see.”

Every person who has had a life-changing experience with Jesus Christ has the exact same witness. “The difference is Him.” No one can argue with testimony. They may disagree with it, they many not accept it, but they cannot deny that a person has had an experience. That is the power of testimony, and every Christian has one.

In fact, a person’s testimony is so powerful that it overcomes Satan and his cohorts. Revelation 12:11 says this: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

Testimony is the primary means of evangelism. Whereas the Gospel must be both preached and received, a person’s testimony is perhaps the best way to present it.

I remember the fist few months after Barb and I became Christians. We not only testified to what the Lord had done before a crowd in the Methodist Church, we told our closest friends–who, by the way, no longer were after that, except for Steve and Shoni Smith who, many years later, themselves became Christians.

Giving one’s testimony is also the easiest way to tell about Jesus. Why? Because if your life has been touched at all by Him, and you are different, it is only natural to tell of it. It may be hard to preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in a casual conversation, but it is not so to testify to what God has done for you. You can always work that in to a conversation.

Spiritual vision–the ability to see clearly–is a gift God gives when a person’s spirit is reborn. If you are truly born again you can see the kingdom of God. You are given the ability to see the world–and the people in it, the way God does. And adapt your life and work accordingly.

So it is, that when Jesus comes upon you and He touches your eyes–He touches your life, He leaves you a different person. The difference is Him. Now you can see clearly. Now you have a testimony, something to say to the world around you. “Though I was blind, now I see.” Once I was like that, but now I am different.

Proverbs 29:18 tells us that, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.”  That is to say, without a vision for something—whether one for your health, your family, or your business, you will not do the things you need to do in order to achieve it.  You are ‘unrestrained.’ 

An athlete, for example, if he ‘sees’ the trophy, will take those steps necessary in order to put him first across the finish line.  

Parents, if they picture godly children. If they want their children to grow up in the “fear and admonition of the Lord,” will take the time to love, train, and discipline them.  

So too, the business owner, in order to fulfill his God-given role, must have a compelling vision for doing so.  What I mean is an overarching vision, a far greater one, one that is so grand, so far reaching, so motivating, that you are excited to get up in the morning to go after it.

This vision is the kingdom of God.  It is the kingdom of God here on earth, right here in Lansing, Michigan (or wherever you live).  Each of us has a vital role to play.  It is our job to bring God’s kingdom to our sphere of things.  

Three verses from the book of Matthew underscore the point.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44).

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it” (45-46).

This is how valuable the kingdom of God is—it is worth everything we have.  It is so great, so glorious, so much the treasure, so much the pearl of great price, that it is worth everything in order to have it.  

Not that we go out and sell everything we have—where would that put us but homeless and broke!  What is meant is that God’s kingdom is worth giving your all.  

I believe the purpose of the Christian is twofold—he is to glorify God and further His kingdom.  This was the Lord’s purpose.  The night before He was betrayed He prayed to the Father,

“I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:3).  

So too, our purpose is to glorify God.  Paul said, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). We glorify God by doing—and accomplishing—the things He has given us to do.  

And furthering the kingdom of God?  This was the fundamental reason for Jesus coming to earth.  

We understand He came for a variety of reasons.  It was to seek and to save that which was lost; to set the captives free, and heal the broken-hearted. To destroy the works of the devil.  To bear witness to the truth. To serve as the Mediator between God and men.  He came into the world to save sinners.  These things said, they were all in the context of the kingdom.  He said, “If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20).

Jesus came to inaugurate heaven’s rule to earth.  He began His ministry preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

Fast forward to the first chapter of Acts.  There we see Jesus appearing to His disciples over a period of forty days.  What He is says here are His last words before ascending into heaven.  What was He was saying? 

“The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:1-3).  

He was “speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.”  I think it safe to say that all that follows in the New Testament has to do with one thing:  God’s kingdom.  

What does all this have to do with business?  Everything!  Inasmuch as we are told we must “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” it is our responsibility to seek God’s kingdom in everything we do—including running our businesses. 

What is the kingdom of God? Here is how the Bible defines it:  

“The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV).

The kingdom of God, then, is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Notice it is in the Holy Spirit, it is all in the context of the Holy Spirit; you won’t find it anywhere else.   And then it is a matter of power—it is all about power.  

In a prayer virtually the whole world knows, Jesus taught us to pray that God’s kingdom would come and His will would be done.

“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

This is God’s vision for the earth! His kingdom come and His will be done.  And He wants it to be ours too!

Based on this prayer, I believe the kingdom of God is that realm in which God’s will is done. God’s kingdom exists in heaven; there, His perfect will is done.  When we pray this prayer, we are asking God for that to come to earth. That’s the picture.  

Think of it this way:  your life, your family, your business, is to be a little microcosm of God’s kingdom.  That is the way Jesus would have it—this is the will of God.  In each area of your life Jesus reigns supreme as Lord, and His will rules the day.  He is Lord over all, and how you operate your business—you find out how He wants you to do that and put it into practice. The kingdom of God is to be the driving force behind everything you do and say.  That is the plan.  That is the vision.   

Here are a few more things about the kingdom of God.

It is not of this realm.  It is other-worldly.  Translated into business, that means it runs counter to the ways of the world.  Our thoughts are not God’s thoughts; therefore, our job is to find out what God’s thoughts are and operate by them.  We will do things differently in and through our businesses that will, in a worldly sort of way, not make sense.  

It is a kingdom of light.  There are but two kingdoms in the universe today:  the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light.  Through faith in Christ we have been transferred from the one to the other.  So we live our lives and operate our businesses in the realm of light.  What does that mean?  In the light of God’s presence.  In the light of His word.  We get up and we go to work and we do what we do knowing that God is both with us and watching over us.  We screen everything through the lens of the word of God.  

It is characterized by power.  That is to say we do not do things in our own strength, but in the strength that God supplies—who is the Holy Spirit.  And not only that, but we seek to operate in power, to exercise that power in terms of the miraculous.  

Its singular rule is love—the Royal Law as James would put it.  Love rules the day in our businesses.  Seems crazy—almost undoable, but do we leave off of the 2nd greatest commandment when we go to work?  No, we go to work out of obedience to it.  

While many books have been written on the kingdom of God, and I could go on, I will give this one final thought:  the kingdom of God is to be furthered.  Psalm 145 says it wonderfully,

“All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord,

And Your godly ones shall bless You.

They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom

And talk of Your power;

To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts

And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

And Your dominion endures throughout all generations” (10-13).

Jesus, just before He was taken up into heaven, put it like this,

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

Jesus is Lord—that is the message, and that is what we are charged with.  Ours is to operate under His Lordship, observe the things He has commanded us, and use our businesses to further His kingdom in the lives of others.  This is the compelling vision, the thing that should drive us.   

“And all the people would get up early in the morning to come to Him in the temple to listen to Him” (Luke 21:38).

Isn’t this way it should be, that all of us would upon rising from sleep go to Jesus and listen to what He has to say? Indeed it is. In another place it speaks of the people hanging on His words (19:48). Why? Because His words are spirit and life. And, as Peter would say to Him when eventually everyone else turned away from Him, “You have the words of eternal life” (see John 6: 63, 68).

By God’s grace and over the span of 45-plus years, I have made it a habit to go to God in His word every morning. I find it to be a spiritual experience most every time. But even when I feel as though not much is happening, I know God’s word is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12), and that it works in those who believe it (1 Thessalonians 2:13) ; therefore I come, and I read and I listen. These my journals, since 1993 when I first began journaling, testify to the living and abiding word of God. They tell the truth that God still speaks to His people. That He is intimate with the upright (Proverbs 3:32). That, “My sheep hear My voice” (John 10:27).

God, by His word, reveals Himself (1 Samuel 3:21). A man may get a good glimpse of Him in nature–he will see His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20); he will not, however, come to know His love for mankind, how He is at work in history, nor will he know His saving grace which has come to us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Nor will he know what this Christ has to say. The Scriptures are the sole source of Jesus’ words. A man can surmise all he wants, speculate, and reason within himself; but if he wants to know the teachings of Jesus, he must turn to the Bible to learn. While we cannot go to Him in the temple per se, we can go to Him in His word, the Scriptures. And, as I have found on a regular basis, if you go to Him you will find Him. And if you listen, you will hear Him. And, since His word is eternal – “heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away,” what He said then, He says now; His words are always a present reality.

It is worth noting that the people went to Him early in the morning, and this for two reasons. One, He was there. I don’t find where He was there in the evenings, nor in the nighttime–maybe He was, but I am not aware of it. Hence, if you were to go looking for Him in the evening, you would not find Him. You’ve got to go to Him when He is there. Two, the morning has a special quality to it. Each day a person starts off anew. He may have had a bad day the day before, but sleep gives him an opportunity to begin afresh. So in the early morning you are starting the day the best way possible, by listening to God.

Too, in the evening a person is typically done for the day; he is worn out and tired from the day’s work. He wants to relax, kick back and begin to wind down. His mind is filled with all the things that happened that day–in our day our heads are bombarded with all manner of news and information. It is not the best time, then, to be trying to hear the Lord.

Now I realize that some are ‘night persons’; they are most alert in later hours, and that is okay; whatever time works best for a person to be hearing from God. Yet all throughout the Bible we find the early hours of the morning to be preferred. It is really up to you; what is important is to be listening to Jesus and hanging on His words.

Of course, reading Scripture should be only part of what we do; it should both inspire and lead us to prayer. So many consider prayer to be the place where God speaks, and that may be true–many a time, countless times, has God spoken to me during prayer. Yet I often find it to be this way: if I have truly lent my ear to the word of God in Scripture, listening to the Lord speak to me, then when I go to prayer it is almost anti-climatic; in other words, I have already in large measure experienced God. So then prayer becomes for me the place of thanksgiving and one of intercession.

All of this equates to a vital, one-on-one, personal relationship with God. That is what I am talking about. And it all begins with listening to Jesus. Especially early in the morning.

I believe it was 1977 and, as I was in my little ‘sanctuary’ in the basement of our rented home in North Lansing, I heard the Lord say to me, “Start a painting business.”

I was before the Lord yesterday thanking Him for all that He has done in and through my life as the outcome of these four words. I think of all the people, the projects, the events, all the relationships–in particular the one with my mentor, the late Jim Russell, and I just have to say along with the Psalmist,

“The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad” (Psalm 126:3).

Who would have ever imagined? A man as I was–weak-willed, immature, indecisive, certainly no entrepreneur, with no knowledge or understanding of business, and who did not like to paint–God having me start a painting business!

It just goes to show that God has a plan for each life. That He knows what He is doing. That He accepts us the way we are, but is committed to making us into what He wants. It demonstrates the power of His word. Just four words changed the entire course of my life and my family.

By it He has provided, not only for me and mine, but for 100’s of employees, as well as being able to contribute to missionaries, churches, strategic thrusts of the Holy Spirit, orphans, prisoners, sex-trafficked women, abstinence programs…..why, we even paid for a page in Maoz Israel’s new Hebrew Bible, and 9 square feet in Vision for Israel’s Millennium Center in Jerusalem! He has, through my business and as a result of these four words, provided many thousands of dollars in support of the Jewish people—to whom we owe our material things (Romans 15:27).

The point of it is this: one word from God can change everything. It can alter the entire course of your life and serve to be a blessing, not only to you and your family, but to countless others beyond you. In my case it was four words, and it has.