By Keith Hazell

As a lad during World War 2, like many other children of my age, I spent a lot of time in the fields and working as much as I could to help the agricultural war effort.

One of my earliest memories of this aspect of life was to see the men in the fields at harvest time sharpening their scythes with a stone to prepare to begin working in the fields. They started off by cutting the corners of the fields to enable the equipment to come in that would harvest the bulk of the field.

These machines were really quite crude, and they were pulled by horses or tractors … their job was to cut the harvest and bind it into sheaves. It was a hard task, but it was achieved with much sweat and labor on the part of the workers.

That’s nice! But how does it really apply?

Well, I believe that the church has spent a long time concentrating on cutting the corners of the field, with the most primitive of tools.

Meanwhile, the larger part of the Harvest has been neglected because we have always considered it to be inaccessible, and the success level accomplished has been very low.

The scripture teaches us in the Old Testament, that the corners of the field were reserved to be gleaned by the widows, orphans, and strangers in Israel. This was the basis of their survival.

So also the church has usually gleaned only the leavings in the corner and never found its way into the master’s field. This has been the key to its survival, too.

I have talked in the past about the “different harvest” that we are poised to reap. This harvest requires different equipment because it’s not the same as any we have ever had to reap before, and it is in urgent need of gathering .

We are not looking at the same market or field that we have done in the past. It doesn’t respond to the same implements and methods we used in the 60s and 70s, because it comes from an entirely different background.

In the past we were able, like Billy Graham, to say, “The Bible says” and those to whom we spoke had a context. Try the same thing now, and you may well be met with “What is the Bible?” or “Why should the Bible be relevant to me because Dan Brown showed us that it’s all a fake”

We used to live in places where the Bible was taught in schools as well as in Churches, but now we have a biblically illiterate generation.

When I was growing up, “The Church” was respected and held in esteem by most people, even those who were not Christians. The lifestyle of people included a weekly visit to what was called in those days; “The Church of your Choice” Sunday without a church for the majority of folk was just not on!

Most people under 35 years of age today will laugh you out of court if you want to talk about “the church”. In North America, we have had numerous child molestations from church leaders, Catholic and Protestant alike. Prominent Charismatic Church leaders are continually involved in adultery, homosexuality, and financial fraud.

We are faced with an unprecedented rejection of the church by young adults, who are leaving at a faster rate than we can replace them from our dwindling Sunday Schools and Youth Groups. All this activity makes it very unlikely that the new generation will set foot inside classic churches. This is one of the reasons we can never get out of the corners and into the fields, we have nothing to give us an entrance to the field anymore.

Let’s try another approach, “We are holding a Revival in the football stadium, and we would like you to come” This is another one to really produce a reaction of incredulity. “What’s a Revival?” “What’s a crusade?”

“Oh it’s one of those T.V. Preachers, with the big cars, mansions, and “girlfriends” are going to tell me how to live a good life and get people healed “Do you seriously expect me to believe that any of these guys are genuine?”

What is the answer? How will we ever get to this New Harvest?
Firstly, we will have to abandon some of our long-standing dreams that are not actually based in Scripture about the Church, its existence, and its mission in the World.

We need to freely acknowledge that we are actually making very little progress in the Harvest, that actually we are merely gleaning pathetically in the corners, and are on only a survival orbit. We must recognize the truth before we can ever begin to address the solutions.

Furthermore, we should realize that what we believe is our “harvesting tools” are actually inefficient and archaic. They basically fail to be successful, especially the “user-friendly” styles which actually dilute the gospel, and produce Christians who are hybrids and unable to reproduce themselves.

Our attempts at harvest are held back by our failure to leave the shelter of our barn and actually get into the field. We have failed to realize that there is no Harvest if we keep our best harvesters and equipment in the barn to entertain the other farmers.

Our dreams of corporate castles and air-conditioned palaces need to be replaced by investing our finances in people and things that are actually bringing the Gospel into the close vicinity of those who need it. We need to suppress our “needs and comfort” in favor of moving the Gospel into the community.

Our teaching of the principles of Kingdom life and living, need to be demonstrated by the ones who teach them. Likewise, our instructors in “harvesting” need to be able to show that they actually can Harvest, and not simply hold “Harvest Festival Rallies”, with pre-tied sheaves.

We have to get rid of the concept that we have many “superheroes” who will solve the harvesting problem and have “revival” whilst the rest of us watch from “the spiritual bleachers” with spiritual relief that nothing was required of us.

There has to be a return to a new reliance on prayer as a means of finding our way into the field “Pray also the Lord of the Harvest that He send (or thrust forth) laborers into His vineyard” Prayer is the place we will begin to hear His instruction and strategy. Thus, it’s not studying a “method” used by another church or group, but a strategy from the Holy Spirit that allows us as individuals to find our way effectively into the field.

Next time, we will think about some of the actual ways that God is using to get the Harvesters into the field. A different Harvest will demand a different set of harvesting equipment and methods ……. Pray the Lord of the Harvest.

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For over 35 years, Keith Hazell traveled internationally as a prophet and teaching ministry, demonstrating the prophetic and raising up a new generation of prophets. Keith went to his eternal reward in September 2013. Copyright Keith Hazell: Used by permission