The Fields Are White Unto Harvest

By Rev. Mike Foster

John 4:35 says, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”

Matthew 9:37-38 says, “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.”

Luke 10:2 says, “Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.

These passages indicate to us that God has surrounded us with a harvest, and if we trust in Him, we can reap that harvest for Christ. I would like to encourage you about this matter of the harvest and how we can be successful for Christ in reaping that harvest.

First of all, the harvest will be reaped by laborers. This is common sense, but I want to point out who Jesus was speaking to here in these passages. In John 4 He was speaking to His disciples. In Luke and Matthew He was again speaking to His disciples before they became apostles sent to labor in His harvest fields. When Jesus was telling people to pray for laborers, He was speaking to laborers and not those sitting around doing nothing.

We will not see the tide of sin turned in our country until Christians go from being lazy, apathetic, and complacent to laboring for Christ in the fields. Is the Christian life hard work? It most certainly is! However, it is the most rewarding work in the world because your reward is not earthly but heavenly. So, we need to realize that if we want to reap the harvest it will take intense labor and hard work on our part to get it done. That means we have to go get the harvest in the fields. The fields are the people outside the doors of our church. When the Jerusalem church started spreading the gospel and exploding with converts, they did not do so in the comfort of their own home or in the privacy of their church buildings. Their success took place on the streets, preaching and going house to house. If people don’t want to let you in the door, then stand outside and wait for them. Go where the people are. Go into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. Use the means available to you if you cannot reach people on the doorstep. Start Bible studies in those homes or the homes of others that can get in those homes. Many people just use excuses and say that nothing works. That’s not true. Something will work. We need to get the mind of the Lord on the matter and find out what does help us to reap the harvest in our communities.

Second, the harvest is plenteous, meaning that there is enough to go around. Why do we have to close our minds to the idea of working with other churches to further the cause of Christ? Many churches will refuse to work with another church in the general vicinity because they are “too close.” How selfish can we be? I have been with men that have churches in communities of several thousand people that will not work or have anything to do with the church down the road. Please understand this is not a blanket statement, because I do see reasons for separation at times. However, there are churches that won’t associate with another one because they are mad about how close they are. The harvest is plenteous. We don’t have to worry about stepping on someone else’s shoes. If your church is the Lord’s will and your neighbor’s church is the Lord’s will, then let God worry about the harvest. Just get out there and reap it.

It’s time that churches band together and stop fighting about sheep. What if McDonald’s had the same mentality that Baptist churches do today? There is a place in Saginaw, Michigan where you will find three McDonalds within a mile of each other, and they are not in competition. They are all trying to reach the same audience and they are very successful. If they started to put ads or saying to their customers that they shouldn’t go to the other store, then they would put each other out of business. Churches need to stop the bickering between each other and start working together to reach the harvest in their communities.

Finally, “the fields are white” indicates that the time to reap is now. Yes, we do live in a society filled with wickedness. Never has filth and sin been as readily accessible as it is today, and never has it been as glorified as it is today. However, we do not need to be discouraged and think that nothing can be done. The fields are still white unto harvest and they always will be.

We will many times focus on the fact that we need to pray for laborers while overlooking the fact that there is a harvest to be won. We will even admit that we can pray for someone else to go into that harvest while not reaching our own around us. As I have the opportunity to travel around, I see many people that are ready to be saved. I heard recently of a couple of men that see someone saved everyday through a commitment they made to the Lord. The harvest is for today and not just Bible times or during seasons of revival. Let me give you a few illustrations from my travels that may help show the ripe harvest.

While attending a missions conference in the Chicago area, the pastor asked us to go out soul winning on a Thursday night. After going to several doors, I came to a young man who was willing to listen to an explanation of the gospel. He listened intently and then bowed his head and accepted Christ on his front porch. During the conversation he was interrupted several times by his friends who called him on his cell phone. He could have left and gone inside, but he stayed and listened and got saved.

In the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area I was preaching at a church one Sunday. I gave an invitation and a lady raised her hand for salvation. She did not respond at the invitation, so went to her after the service and asked her if she was concerned about her soul. She said she was and then said she was afraid. I explained that her fear was a result of deception and prayed for her in my heart. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “What do I need to do?” A few minutes later she received Christ.

Speaking for some children’s meetings in Rochester, Minnesota during a missions conference, we were able to see about six children trust Christ. During a service at a church near my home, five people were saved in one Sunday while I was preaching there. Many times I have been able to lead people to the Lord during or after a church service just by talking with people that visited our church.

In one church I visited, a man walked up to my display table after the service to talk. I asked him where he was from and sensed in my spirit that he may not be saved. We talked a few more minutes and I found out that he had not been there long and was interested in finding out more about salvation. I took him into another room and led him to Christ. There are many more examples that I could give you of people that I have been able to lead to Christ right here in the United States of America. The fields are white here in the U.S.A.

Traveling abroad, the Lord has also given me opportunities to witness the salvation of many souls in other countries. While visiting the country of the Bahamas, we held children’s meetings with a church down in the Nassau area. After holding a week of meetings we rejoiced over the 85 kids that trusted Christ. The fields are white unto harvest!

While in Trinidad, which is steadily becoming more and more Muslim, we held Neighborhood Bible Time. I was impressed of the Lord before we went to pray for the salvation of 100 souls. What a time of rejoicing we had when we hit the 100 mark and exceeded it by twenty. The fields are white unto harvest!

Visiting the Hindu country of India was a great adventure, but it was also a great spiritual challenge. The devil fought us tooth and nail to insure that people did not get saved. However, we held great big evangelistic meetings in tents in several cities while we were there. Our team performed special music and preached, and we saw over 500 people come to know Christ. The fields are white unto harvest!

While in Ireland, we held teen meetings and preached the gospel to them. Catholicism has a strong hold on those people there. However, God worked in those meetings and we saw 12 precious souls come to know Christ. While waiting for our plane to take off in Detroit, the team I was leading over to Ireland went and witnessed to the many people sitting around waiting. A couple of people got saved in the airport. The fields are white unto harvest!

South Africa is a melting pot of cultures and races from all over Africa. We prayed that God would give us some souls for our labor while we were there. We held children’s and teen meetings throughout Johannesburg and the surrounding communities and preached the gospel. At the end of our time there we were able to see 120 people come to know Christ. The fields are white unto harvest!

While in the country of Jordan we were not able to witness openly, but we did meet men who did so in the countries of the Middle East. We met men and women from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan that put their lives in danger every time they open their mouth to witness. Yet, hundreds of people have been saved and lives are being transformed all over the Middle East. The fields are white unto harvest!

During a recent trip to Cambodia, my heart was stirred as I traveled south from Phnom Penh to the border of Vietnam. There are many villages along the river there where the people live simple lives in huts and have homes on stilts. They work in the morning hours and then rest in the afternoons. Many of these villages have never heard the name of Jesus Christ before. Some of the villages were decimated during the Vietnam War. We traveled and preached in the Vietnamese and Cambodian villages and saw God work in a tremendous way. We were able to see a church started and witness the salvation of 34 people in one village. At a station along the way back, we stopped and were able to see 15 more get saved. While going door-to-door, or should I say hut-to-hut, we were able to witness to many along the way and see them come to know Christ. The fields are white unto harvest!

As I made my way down to the Vietnam border, I have to admit that there was a bit of trepidation in my heart over what I was getting myself into. I had been asked to be involved in church planting and evangelism along the border there, and I did not want to come back disappointed. I cast my dependence upon the Lord and left the concern with Him. As we left the main road to head to the river, the roads changed significantly. No longer were we on decent roads; they became accessible only by motor bike or bicycle or foot. We had to cross the river away from normal civilization into the villages on other side of the Bassac River. On the ferry boat a young man came up to me and asked if he could practice his English on me as he was learning to be an interpreter. I agreed and we began to talk. After struggling to talk, I asked him what a sin was. He didn’t understand the English word but knew that he had done some things wrong. This opened the door to talk with him about the gospel, and Ming Long accepted Christ on the shores of the Bassac River. This conversion broke the ice for me and encouraged my heart that the fields are white unto harvest. We went forward in confidence believing that God was going to work, and work He did! We came home with rejoicing bringing our sheaves with us.

This story could be told again and again if the truth were known. Sometimes it takes the salvation of our first soul to break the ice and encourage us that yes, God can work in our community. The fields are white unto harvest and God wants to work.