Labourers and Harvesters

Sunday 22 November
READ: John 4: 37-38
MORE LESSON: I Cor. 3: 6-8

A young missionary came from Europe to Africa and after investing all his lifetime in a community, he had only one young convert. He lost his wife and child to malaria in the land and after all the years, he went back to his country, thinking he had wasted the bulk of his life. He would have died a bitter old man, but for the fact that close to his death he met someone from the same field who gave him a good report. The one convert he had for all his labour had grown to become a great evangelist and church planter in that country. Thousands of people were saved and many churches planted in many nations through him. Today, the Gospel is waxing stronger and stronger in that land. The old missionary repented of thinking that he wasted his labour and praised the Lord for the harvest that others were reaping from his labour. Then he passed on to glory.

When you look at life, you realise that everything you enjoy today is a result of the labour of people who have gone ahead of you. The technologies like cars, phones, computers etc that make life easy for us today are the results of the efforts and labour of some people in the past. Some of such people didn’t even live to benefit from the results of their labours. It was after their lifetime that the efforts began to yield results for other people.

This is true in the spiritual also. All your labour in the spirit such as your prayer, fasting, giving and diligent service to God are counted for harvests in the future. Even after you leave this world, other people, including your children, will benefit from such harvests. Many of us are reaping the good of the spiritual labours of our parents. This is the reason why each person should be very diligent in all the things of God because he is laying up harvest for his seed and the future generation.

The converse is also true. Laziness in the things of God and all the evil that men might do today would also to be paid for by future generations, including the children of the perpetrators of evil. Many countries are suffering and struggling today because of the lack of vision, corruption, embezzlement and evil of their past leaders. Of a truth, ...one soweth and another reapeth. . . other men laboureth, and ye are entered into their labors: John 4: 37-38.
Today, I charge you to start laying down spiritual and physical foundations that others will build on and reap from even when you are gone. This is the path to making everlasting impact.

Prayer/Action
* Pray that your labour in life will never be a waste, in Jesus’ mighty name.
* Pray for a life of impact that extends beyond your generation.
* Ask God for His grace to live a life filled with results, in Jesus’ mighty name.
* Pray for the power of divine speed and fulfilment in life.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
By the leading of the Holy Spirit, I shall always be at the right place at the right time all through my destiny, in the name of Jesus.