And He did it Again Luke 10:1-11 1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. 2 And He was saying to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few ; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. 3 Go ; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes ; and greet no one on the way. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, Peace be to this house. 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house. 8 Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; 9 and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you. 10 But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 11 Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near. Sometimes in our thinking we may fall into the delusion that we may not ask God to repeat some of the miraculous works He has done. For instance, there is a prevalent trend of thought that relegates the signs and wonders of the New Testament era as a means to get the church started. It is not that these awesome things that God did through the hands of the apostles and others did not occur, but rather that they actually did happen, and were present only for a specific time. A careful, conscientious study of scripture will not support this thought. In the case of two of the prophets of the Old Testament, Elijah and Elisha, the Spirit of God almost identically duplicates the miraculous. David believed that the precedent of God delivering him from the bear and the lion would also be present to deliver him from Goliath. And the constant rehearsal in the Psalms of Israel’s historical deliverances and provision only serve to create a witness to the wondrous things that God can do. In the Gospels, many of the miracles of Jesus are repeated; like the feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000. Was there only one blind person healed by Jesus? Was there only one person restored to life? Was there only one miraculous catch of fish? Of course not. So when Jesus sends out these additional 70 disciples, He gives them the same instructions and authority that the 12 had. Now I know that eventually God reserves a specific place for the 12, and I would never want to diminish the honor given to them. However, it was Peter himself in Acts 10 that said that “God is no respecter of persons.” Our mission, should we choose to embrace it is to simply let God be God. And their journey is another example of a faith ministry. They do however receive some additional instructions related to the harvest. Jesus reminds them to pray to the Lord of the harvest for there are many whom God desires to come to the kingdom of God. I know that little is much if God is in it, but the concept of large rather than small is the one that prevails in God’s thinking. Jesus expected these 70 to be highly successful in ministry and they were! Remember how Pau wrote, “whatever a person sows so shall they reap”? Why do we so often apply that in a negative sense? No farmer ever planted just one seed. They plant thousands and expect a huge return. So my dear brother and sister, sow in faith. Believe that while sometimes God might start something with a smaller group of people, there is no reason why growth and multiplication should not happen. The early church started with at least 120and within weeks was numbered in the thousands! Pray to the Lord of the harvest, that He will do it again.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 10:28:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015