“O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good. Do men make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!" "Therefore, I will teach them — this time I will teach them my power and might. Then they will know that my name is the Lord.” Jer. 16:19-21.
God so loves this world’s population that He will cause them to recognise there is only one refuge in distress: Himself. In order for this to happen, men and women, saint and sinner, must recognise that their focus has to turn; away from what it has been, to Him. The Psalmist wrote in 2 Sam. 22:7, “In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears.” 2 Kings 19:3 says, “Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke….”
God is calling. He is calling His Church to ‘suit up,’ for the work of the harvest, is about to begin with fresh outpourings of the Spirit. On this Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate what He did so long ago and we stand on the edge of what He is about to do, from today. When the harvest is ripe, the labourers must get to work. Labourers in the harvest only focus on the ‘people-gathering, soul-saving and, disciple-making,’ if they have truly disconnected from the world’s focus—making the best life for me. You would be a very hard-hearted person, to have an infant living in your home, and were satisfied to ignore its cries and its needs.
Everyone desires miracles. Miracles are signs that point to The Miracle-Worker. When those miracles begin again, with huge frequency and the harvest comes in, where will you be to help? Will you be a ‘watcher’ or a worker? The end of all miracles is not the immediate relief and blessing they provide, but to provide the Father with the harvest of having sown His Son into the earth. Let us freshly fix our eyes on Him. Let us ‘discern the time and season’ and “sign up” to be a co-labourer in the great harvest of redemptive history!