5 keys to a successful harvest!

In previous posts I have written about the keys to a successful harvest. There are five! And I will get to those in a moment. I like them for they are uncluttered, I believe they work in any culture or people group and they are powerful truths that are do-able for everybody.

But I found another factor that relates to this, just last week. The soil. In India the spiritual soil or the spiritual climate (especially in South India) has been plowed and it seems ready, people are responsive, churches are planted daily and relatively easy. Now compare this to the soil in Western Europe. The spiritual climate is completely different and that fact needs to be recognised. So we need to remember this as we action the 5 keys! 

Previous posts talk about, 1. Keep SOWING seed.  2. We RECEIVE in the Harvest what kind of seed we sow.  3. We always receive MORE than what we sowed.  4. You reap in ANOTHER SEASON than when you sowed.  

5. We can't do anything about yesterday's harvest, but we can effect & influence the harvest of tomorrow!

This encourages me to keep sowing, praying and labouring today. We might not see all we would like...even in our lifetime, but as we are doing our part, we will effect the harvest of tomorrow! 

A successful harvest...HOW? keys 1-4! (There are a total of 5).

I am sure there are more keys than these, but these are my 5. It was well over 20 years ago I heard them, for the life of me I can't remember where, but they have really helped me to keep focused on what God has called me to do. 

I like them for they are do-able, simple and uncluttered. I do believe we have cluttered Christianity & Church for that matter... When I hear some speakers, read some books & articles, Christinaity can seem so complicated & difficult, especially in Western Europe. Christianity is profound & supernatural, but certainly not complicated.

The first 3 keys on how to have a successful harvest are, (mentioned in previous posts): 
1. SOW SEED.
2. We RECIEVE in the harvest what kind of seed we sow.
3. We recieve in the harvest MORE than what we sowed.
Now number... 
4. We reap in ANOTHER SEASON than when we sowed. 
I remember when my mum was teaching me about gardening, I  was in primary school. We planted the seeds on a Saturday. On the Tuesdsay I came home from school and went straight to the garden. I looked & couldn't see anything! Now for a small boy, Saturday till Tuesday was eternity, so I dug up the seed to show mum. She smiled and asked me to replant it and leave it buried. She reminded me that as I have the patience to wait & trust, I WILL be able to see it rising above the ground!  Supernatural... but it's so true. Of course that's exactly what happened. 

Often we plant and expect to reap a harvest immediately. I wish... Sometimes it takes weeks, months or even years!! This is a powerful principle. We always reap in another season then when we sow!! It often takes time, personally I don't like this! I want things to happen now, today, immediately, straight away...

We always reap in another season then when we sow!!  This teaches us, to wait on God, patience, keep on sowing & simply learning the art of continuing & persevering to do what God has called us to do. And of course the biggi...keep trusting Him! 

How to have a successful Harvest...keys 1, 2 & now Number 3...

I just arrived back from the Czech Republic! What an amazing country and history. I think Prague (Praha) is one of the most beautiful cities of Europe. YET only 0.06% of the population have a personal realtionship with Jesus! So much needs to be done. Whole towns & small cities have little or no churches at all. We are losing a generation, probably more!! What can we do, here are a few thoughts? 

(See the last few BLOGs for the first 2 keys on how to have a successful harvest...)

1. SOW SEED. Just keep sowing. It is impossible to havest without sowing!! 

2. We RECEIVE in the harvest what kind of seed you sow.

3. We recieve in the harvest MORE than what you sow!

This is an amazing & encouraging supernatural truth. If I sow ONE apple seed in the ground, in time an apple tree grows. But it produces many many apples. But more than this, it produces hundreds of seeds...from ONE apple seed! If this happens in the natural, IMAGINE as you have God of Heaven backing you, (for HE want's no person to perish...He so desires people to know HIM & new churches to begin), it's called multiplication, supernatural... In fact if we are really serious about reaching countries like Czech Republic, we need to find God  inspired reproducable ways / systems of multiplying churches to reach this generation and the next!! 

Last week it was very exciting to be with a group of leaders who have the vision, faith and perseverance to plant at least one church a year. They are aiming to double this & more next year!! 

For more information: contact www.jinacirkev.cz  

How to have a successful harvest...in France & Belgium & Western Europe!

Last week, I went to Normandy and Belgium. Again this trip confirmed the huge need for new churches to be planted! The city of Le Havre for example has approx. 200,000 people. 0.5% (half a percent), are evangelical. This equates to about 1000 people!! There are about 5 evangelical churches.

I spoke to a Pastor of a church in Lillebonne a city of 15,000 people. There are only 2 churches in this town, again less than 1% have a personal relationship with Jesus.

I spoke to a number of pastors in Belgium and they confirmed that Belgium has less than 1% evangelical christians!!

Even if we DOUBLE these figures, there is still a huge need for the reality of God to breakthrough. The harvest is indeed great. The challenges and the opportunities are massive!! In fact the needs in Western Europe can certainly feel so overwhelmingly huge that one can very easily get discouraged and think what can we do in these nations. So how do we strategise for harvest in Western Europe?

Last time I blogged about the 1st key to a successful harvest.
1. Sow Seed. The tree is already in the seed. Keep sowing seed. Harvest is impossible without sowing seed.

Key no 2. 
We receive in the harvest what kind of seed we sow. 
Sow apple seeds, you receive apple trees. Like-wise when we sow Gospel seeds, we receive Gospel results. As we continue to sow seeds towards the starting of new churches - new churches will eventually be birthed!!

Focus has trememdous power! For example; water with a little sand mixed in it, pushed through a small nostle, under huge pressure, is able to cut through 1-2 cm of steal! Or can cut through rock! That's the power of focus. Focus on harvest and the starting of new churches (which is the best way to fulfill Matt 28, the Great Commission that Jesus gave to us)  ...will have the same result.  Breakthrough will happen in time. Keep sowing. Keep dreaming, talking, discussing, imagining, believing, praying, and planning for new churches and harvest, it will happen it simply takes time...

Please continue to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out workers, labourer's, in HIS harvest! Matt 9:37-38.  We need Jesus loving, bold, faith filled, pioneering people who will dare to breakthrough, persevere and begin new churches. Churches that will start churches!! Are you in?

Spain...keep sowing, 1st key for a successful Harvest!

I'm posting this again as, I was was trying to be fancy & highlight a few things, but unfortunately you can't read them!!!! haha. 

Last week I went to Spain for the 3rd time. It was so encouraging. 47 million wonderful people whom God has created live in Spain. Yet top Christian leaders who have worked in Spain for over 30 years told me only 400.000 have a personal vibrant relationship with God. (This is from research done in Spain, the 400.000 is being very generous, ). That's less than 1%...  99% to go!!!  Western Europe is THE mission field of the 21st century!  

2 years ago I came to Spain and met with a number of leaders. I must say I was somewhat disappointed, as I thought nothing had transpired from my 2 trips. As it turns out, a pastor caught the vision of "bringing church to people” from our discussions. They had a midweek food distribution Center servicing 100s of people. He was inspired to start a church service around this programme. Since then a congregation has grown and has seen over 100 people saved. (amazing for Spain!) Many healings have also taken place. This same Pastor picked up the role of church planting director for his movement & in March ran his first church planting conference. As a result many Churches are believing for one or more towns or cities near them to begin new churches.

While there this time I was invited to speak by a Pastor in Tudela (4 hours drive from Madrid) who was also at our meetings 2 years ago. We spoke on church planting, plus spoke in his church. A church of 250 people or so, which by the way is quite large for Spain. What a blast, people came to Christ, God spoke very clearly to the church which was recieved, people were healed and many simply dedicated themselves to His purposes and to the call of God. God is moving...yet Labourer's  are needed to focus on the best way to fulfill the Great Commission that Jesus gave to us in Matt 28. What can you do???

Harvest is ALWAYS dependant on the seeds we sow! Don't give up, keep sowing seeds. As in the natural, so in the spiritual, it can take months & years! But it WILL happen. The tree is in the seed! 


CONTACT US: nickandkaren@visionchurches.com
www.visionchurches.com
www.booksbynick.com

Failure & Condemnation; how we handle it in ourselves & others... (article by David Wilkenson)

Failure & condemnation, how we handle it in ourselves & others.  

This is a great Article by the late David Wilkenson (Cross & Switchblade fame), written in 1978. He was reflecting on how ungracious, condemming & hurtful he had been in his earlier years of preaching.         Full article on:  www.worldchallenge.org

Would you consider Moses a failure? Hardly! He was to Israel what Washington and Lincoln together were to America - and much more. But look closely at the great lawgiver's life. His career began with a murder, followed by forty years hiding from justice.

Moses was a man of fear and unbelief. When God called him to lead the Israelites out of slavery, he pleaded, "I am not eloquent...I am slow of speech...send...by the hand of him whom thou wilt send" (Exodus 4:10,13). this angered God (4:14). All his life, Moses longed to enter the Promised Land, but his failures kept him out. Even so, God compares Moses' faithfulness to Christ's in Hebrews 3:1,2. His failures did not keep Moses out of God's Hall of Champions.

We usually think of Jacob as the great prayer warrior who wrestled with the angel of the Lord and prevailed. Jacob was given a vision of heaven with angels ascending and descending. Yet this man's life was filled with glaring failures, and Scripture does not hide any of them.

As a youth Jacob deceived his blind father to steal his brother's inheritance. Married, he despised his wife Leah while he nursed a great secret love for her sister Rachel. He did not accept his responsibiligy as a husband. After the birth of each manchild, Leah kept saying, "Now this time my husband will be joined unto me" (Genesis 29:34). But the fact was - Jacob hated her.

Here was a man caught in a web of trickery, graft, theft, unfaithfulness and polygamy. Nevertheless, we still worship the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob.

King David, singer of psalms and mighty warrior, delighted in the law of the Lord and posed as the righteous man who would not stand among sinners. Yet, how shocking are the weaknesses of this great man. Taking Bathsheba from her husband Uriah, he sent that unsuspecting man to death at the front lines of his army. The prophet Nathan declared this double sin gave great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.

Picture the great king standing by the casket of his dead illegitimate child, a stolen wife at his side and a world filled with enemies who cursed God because of his notorious sins. David stands there a total failure. Yet, God called David a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). He blessed the murderer Moses and the schemer Jacob, too, because these men learned how to profit from their failures and go on to victory.

If you are discouraged by your failures, I have good news for you. No one is closer to the Kingdom of God than the man or woman or young person who can look defeat in the eye, learn to face it, and move on to a life of peace and victory. Here is the program to do this.

1. Don't be afraid of failure. This seems like an automatic reaction. When Adam sinned, he tried to hide from God. When Peter had denied Christ, he was afraid to face Him. When Jonah refused to preach to Nineveh, his fear drove him into the ocean to flee from the presence of the Lord.

But God has shown me a truth that has helped me many times: Something much worse than failure is the fear that goes with it. Adam, Jonah and Peter ran away from God not because they had lost their love for Him, but because they were afraid He was too angry with them to understand. Satan uses such fear to make people think there is no use trying.

That old "accuser of the brethren" waits like a vulture for you to fail in some way. Then he uses every lie in hell to make you give up, to convince you that God is too holy or you are too sinful to come back. Or he makes you afraid you are not perfect enough, or tells you that you will never rise above your failure.

It took forty years to get the fear out of Moses and to make him usable in God's program. Meanwhile, God's plan of deliverance had to be delayed for nearly half a century while one man learned to face his failure. If Moses or Jacob or David had resigned himself to failure, we might never have heard of these men again. Yet, Moses rose up again to become one of God's greatest heroes. Jacob faced his sins, was reunited with the brother he had cheated, and reached new heights of victory. David ran into the house of God, laid hold of the horns of the altar, found forgiveness and peace and returned to his finest hour. Jonah retraced his steps, did what he had refused at first to do and brought a whole city-state to repentance and deliverance. Peter rose out of the ashes of denial to lead a church to Pentecost.

2. Despite failure, keep moving on. It is always after a failure that a man does his greatest work for God.

Twenty years ago I sat in my litttle car, weeping - a terrible failure, I thought. I had been unceremoniously dumped from a courtroom after I thought I was led by God to witness to seven teen-age murderers. I had seen my picture in the tabloids over the caption, "BIBLE WAVING PREACHER INTERRUPTS MURDER TRIAL." My attempt to obey God and to help those young hoodlums looked as though it was ending in horrible failure.

I shudder to think of how much blessing I would have missed if I had given up in that dark hour. How glad I am today that God taught me to face my failure and go on to His next step for me.

I know of two outstanding men of God - both of whom had ministered to thousands of people - who fell into the sin that David committed with Bathsheba. One minister decided that he could not go on. Today he drinks and curses the Christ he once preached about. The other man repented and started all over. He now heads an international missions program that reaches thousands for Christ. His failure has been left behind. He keeps moving forward.

In my work with narcotic addicts and incorrigibles, I have observed that the majority of those who return to their old habilts become stronger than all the others when they face their failures and return to the Lord. They have a special awareness of the power of Satan, a total rejection of confidence in the flesh.

3. Despite failure, continue to worship. There was only one way for Moses to stay in victory, because he had a disposition like so many of us today. He continually communed with the Lord, "...face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend" (Exodus 33:11). Moses maintained that close friendship with God. I believe the secret of holiness is very simple: Stay close to Jesus. Keep looking into His face until you become like the image you behold.

One evening a hysterical woman stopped me on the street and blurted out a terrible confession. Clutching my sleeve so hard I thought she would tear it, she said, "Mr. Wilkerson, I am facing the darkest hour of my life. I don't know which way to turn. My husband has left me, and it's all my fault. When I think of how I failed God and my family, it is almost impossible for me to sleep at night.What in the world am I going to do?"

I was moved to tell her, "My friend, lift up your hands, right now on this street corner, and begin to worship the Lord. Tell Him that you know you are a failure, but you still love Him so. Then go home and get on your knees. Don't ask God for a thing - just lift up your heart and your hands and worship Him."

I left that lady standing on the street corner with her hands raised to heaven, tears rolling down her cheeks, praising the Lord and already tasting the victory that was beginning to surge back into her life.

Now, let me talk about your failure. Is there trouble in your home? Has some despised habit gripped your life so hard you can't seem to break it? Are you tormented in mind or spirit? Has God told you to do something you have failed to do? Are you out of the will of God? Are you hounded by memories of what you were at one time? Or by visions of what you can be?

Then worship the Lord in the midst of your failure! Praise Him! Exalt Him!

All this may sound like an oversimplification, but the way past failure is simple enought for children, fools and Ph.D.'s to follow successfully. Christ says,

"Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).

"Come unto me, all ye (failures) that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 12:28).

Don't be afraid of failure. Keep going on in spite of it. Worship God until victory comes.

The hardest part of faith is the last half hour. Keep going, and you will yet face your finest hour.

Quotable Quotes, Healing & the QUOTE of quotes!

Fidges are wonderful places to find quotes: Here is one I found on a fridge in Christchurch NZ, "Happy people don't usually have a happy set of circumstances; happy people have a happy set of attitudes". So true!

In talking to a friend he mentioned a quote from a speaker who unfortunately is unknown to me and I have no knowlege of his name...but the quote was great, the context was in praying for people's healing needs, he stated; "I am not going to talk to God about your problem, I am going to talk to your problem about God". Now that's a great one!!!  I so believe and know God heals today! So much so that in most public settings I feel empowered to declare healing over peoples lives. Also I have written, what I believe is a helpful tool for encouraging people contend & persevere for their miracle. It's called, "Daily Medicine". It know this will nurture your faith.  

(www.booksbynick.com  has this resource plus others). 

But still the greatest commission summed up profoundly in few words by the greatest teacher who ever lived; "Go...Make Disciples of the Nations...Baptise...Teach everything I have commanded you", is still the greatest quote ever!!  It sums up with succinct clarity why Jesus came, our purpose in life and our mission! Lost people SO matter to God He sent His Son Jesus. The question is this: Is this our purpose, our mission?  I think if we find ourselves getting tired & weary of this...this GREAT commission quote...we loose meaning, purpose & why we have been placed on earth for, no matter what our job or vocation is... To finish...here is a great quote I heard by Dr George Sweeting in Amsterdam in 1986, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing".  

There are sooo many detours in life, even in church life, to sideline us from what the master teacher, God Himself, has Commissioned us to do. Let's follow the Master.