The Fields Are “WHITE” And Ready To Harvest

By: Pastor Donald Clarke

Senior Pastor, Harvest Fire Worship Center


In the story of the woman at the well as narrated by John in St John chapter 4 versus 4 through 35, most of us focus on her dramatic conversion when Jesus was revealed to her as the Messiah. Her discussion with Jesus revealed a tortured soul desperately seeking redemption in all the wrong places and people until she met The Man who satisfied her longing and filled her with hope. Her story has been told repeatedly by numerous pulpiteers like me countless times and from many different angles. So dramatic was her awakening that she fled the presence of Jesus back to the city of Samaria, leaving her water pot to call he male friends’ attention to A Man “who told her that she ever did”

Most of us today in the twenty-first century church however, miss the lessons that Jesus was trying to teach His disciples just as the disciples themselves also did 2007 years ago. Hidden in this heart tugging story was how desperate the Master was and the ends that He would go through to bring one lost soul into the Kingdom, albeit among the most unlikely of candidates, this Samaritan woman.

In this incident Jesus violated all His traditional Jewish customs, the most egregious violation of which included having this prolonged discussion with a woman firstly (one of whom’s character traits He was familiar), and then secondly, she was a despised half breed Samaritan whom the Jews despised so much that they would go out of their way to avoid going through Samaria for fear that they might contaminate themselves through any casual contact with them. In this story, Jesus declared that He “needs to go through Samaria” when He and His disciples left Judea on one of His many journeys.

Surprisingly, not one of the disciples volunteered to go with Him despite His expressed intent to go into an area where Jews were detested for their scorn and treatment of these people. So deep seated was the mutual animosity among Jews and Samaritans that as John narrated, Jews had nothing to do with the Samaritans and vice versa. Rather than going with Jesus the disciples went off on a mission to find food for the group. John did not say where exactly they went to buy food, but God forbid that they should have gone to the city of Samaria for something that they would consume into their bodies!

When the disciples came back and saw Jesus talking to this woman they were perplexed, probably thinking among themselves that if news of this encounter ever got back to Jerusalem, they would have a public relations nightmare on their hands. The man that they were touting as the next king of Israel had contaminated himself with this abominable woman. Here is how John recorded their reaction: “And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, what seekest thou? Or, Why talkest thou with her? (KJV) This verse clearly showed how John himself was thinking as he attempted to read the thoughts of the remaining eleven.

The woman left upon their arrival (probably sensing their icy reception) to call her friends’ attention to a man “who told her about herself”. The disciples then offered Jesus food who then promptly replied that he was full. Now, the disciples were really confused. Did Jesus not only converse with woman but had eaten from her?

He interrupts their thought process with this very profound utterance noted in verses 34-35 34 "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already WHITE for harvest! (NKJV)

What were the lessons that He the master teacher was trying to teach His disciples? 1) That He was willing to breach all customs and traditions to reach those who were lost despite the residual consequences, 2) He found soul winning more fulfilling and important than food (the basic staff of life itself) and 3) The harvest was not just ripe but WHITE and ready for harvest. Crops like wheat and corn when they are ripe are BROWN but when they stay in the fields too long, they become WHITE and are at the point of spoiling! What is truly amazing is that the disciples never asked Jesus to explain what He meant. They displayed the same indifference that some us exhibit today in the twenty-first century church.

Who can argue with a straight face that today’s church shares the passion and commitment that Jesus shared for lost humanity? To the disciples a meal took precedent over the lost Samaritan woman despite the fact that the Master, time and time again pointed out to them, Kingdom priorities. In the Lord’s Prayer for example, He told them that “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” should precede “Give us this day our daily bread” The Kingdom agenda should trump any bake sales, any programs or anything else. The primary thing on the Kingdom agenda should be to “plunder” hell and restock the earth with godly seed! The command that God gave Adam in Genesis chapter 1:26-28 to “be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth” is our first and most important mandate. We know that Adam failed because he sinned thus populating the world with ungodly seed. Jesus the second Adam however, has come and empowered us to do what the first Adam failed to accomplish.

Today’s church establishment is probably the richest and the most affluent in the history on the New Testament church but our use of Kingdom resources has not been fully deployed with sustained passion to cause the Kingdom to come in the hearts of those that are lost. We have more corporate jets, massive super structures and mega congregations than ever recorded in the annals of church history. However, global evangelism seems to have taken a back seat to our domestic agendas, primarily because traveling to some third world countries is neither glamorous nor convenient. Some have made token intrusions in these territories but such efforts have lacked the sustained efforts in both human and financial resources to register any meaningful impact.

Our commitment to global evangelism or lack thereof is evidenced by the miniscule expenditures in comparison to everything else on our financial statements each year towards this cause. We should all be reminded that God is an investor and the Kingdom resources entrusted to us are to be deployed first and foremost towards bringing lost souls into the Kingdom and not enriching ourselves. Jesus stated to His disciples “To whom much is given, much is required” suggesting the there is a day of accountability coming when He will require an account of Kingdom resources entrusted to all of us. God’s expected returns on His investment in us are the souls that we have brought into the Kingdom. In St John 15:16, Jesus said the following to His disciples: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you”. (KJV) Fruitfulness here refers to bringing other souls into the Kingdom.

Several years ago, God spoke to our church about global evangelism and He reminded me specifically through the Spirit that the Matthew 28 command to do evangelism starting with “Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth” was meant to be simultaneous and not progressive or necessarily sequential. Armed with this revelation, we made incursions into Northern India in 2006 and 2007; Ghana and Kenya in 2007 where collectively we witnessed over 40,000 come to Christ in 4 crusades. In India 2007 in our Punjab crusade, we witnessed over 25,000 Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus (per secular media) come to Christ. As good as this sound, this was only a small ripple in the world’s largest democracy with 1.3 billion people and in an area where only 1% are Christians. The travel to get there was taxing, the conditions of accommodations were not exactly the Ritz but as I stood on the platform and watched these masses of mostly men come rushing to the altar to receive Christ, I wept openly and unashamedly. It was the greatest rush that I have ever experienced in my life. When I asked God what was happening, given that I was not a household name in the Christian world and my church was relatively insignificant in the eyes of some, He referred me to Romans 8:19: “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (KJV) What He was saying to me was that anyone of us who are willing as Sons of God to show up on the mission fields would experience the same results and that actually, the entire world is eagerly and desperately waiting for the Sons of God to show up to usher them into the Kingdom!

In the Acts of the Apostles chapter 10 we observe Peter who was present when the woman at the well was brought into the Kingdom, years later still trapped by his prejudices about who should be in the Kingdom. At mealtime on the roof of Simon the tanner in Joppa Peter had a “roof top” experience with God where his prejudices were revealed and finally dealt with. He was then dispatched by the same Jesus who had given the object lesson at mealtime with the Samaritan woman, to the house of Cornelius the gentile to reap that harvest.

These lessons were not only for the disciples but for us the twentieth century church. We cannot allow ourselves to be marginalized by prejudice, fear, geographical boundaries, desires for material things or anything else, while the harvest of souls spoil in the fields. The book of Proverbs in chapter 10 and verse 5 reminds that “a son who sleeps during the harvest brings shame to the father”

The Jerusalem church as it became successful at home, despite its pedigree, demonstrated the same indifference as shown by Peter its leader before his roof top experience. Despite the fact they had twelve apostles in their midst, yet they were outshone by the Antioch church consisting of a mixture of Jewish and Gentile converts. They, the church at Antioch empowered and dispatched their founders, Paul and Barnabas to the rest of the gentile world and have left us a legacy of a church that gave its best to the cause of global evangelism. How will we the twenty-first century church explain how the Antioch church without the benefits of global television networks, cell phones, modern air travel and the likes could manage to outdo us in this crucial area in the Kingdom agenda?

The church must have the desire to reproduce displayed by Hannah who would accept no substitute including a double portion from her husband in lieu of bearing a son. Had she been deterred in her passion to reproduce she would have died with a prophet and a king maker in her womb!

On my first evangelism trip to Ludhiana, Punjab, India, I had an experience that has resonated with me since then. At the hotel we stayed during the crusade, I met a nineteen year old Indian young man named Barat. He was the bellboy at the hotel. He packed a radiant smile, always hustling to lend my group a helping hand with our luggage. One afternoon on my way to the crusade grounds I ran into Barat in the elevator, dressed sharply in his white uniform. The Holy Spirit led me to ask him: “Barat, do you know Jesus?” To my dismay, he looked bewilderedly at me and asked: “Jesus, what Jesus, who Jesus?” Is not amazing that today, 2009 years later that some people have not heard of Jesus? Do you ever wonder how many more Barats are out there?

Global evangelism is expensive. At Harvest Fire we not only pay our way to the harvest sites but we also fund ground operations and we do not take offerings from those we are trying to win for the Kingdom. Yet through much teaching our people have gone with us to the fields funding their own way to experience the rush that comes from seeing the masses come to Christ. No matter how much it costs us, God paid the dearest price, His only Son! The silent pen of history now writing about us will speak loudly in the years to come. How will we be remembered and what will our legacy be?

This week, starting March 16, 2009, under the worst of financial times and difficulties, we are embarking on a mission trip to Douala, Cameroon, West Africa in search of souls. Is the timing right? Not exactly! We are operating on a shoe string budget with little to spare but yet we press on. Our passion is unrelenting, our hunger for souls unquenched and we will not be deterred by recession or demonic attacks as we attempt to reap the harvest!

THE FIELDS ARE ALREADY WHITE AND READY TO HARVEST!