God’s Workers
Next Part Even Now, God Is Looking for the Workers of His Harvest
Matthew 9:35-38
“Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.’”
All of us, who have become the righteous, pray to God and do His work. So we pray to Him, “Lord, there is much to harvest, but the laborers are few. Please raise Your workers who can spread Your gospel.” Let us, in fact, begin today’s Scripture lesson by praying together.
“Dear Lord, the age of tribulations has indeed begun in this age and time, and countless sinners are lost and wandering in their sins. Lord, we ask that You would enable each of us to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit that can save all these lost souls from their sins. Dear Lord, raise Your workers who can save these souls and who can testify Your gospel to them. We ask that You find these workers and raise them for us.”
“Our Father, we pray that you would give us the strength to save sinners. Though we are few in number, let this year be a year when we testify Your true gospel Word in this age of the end times, and we ask You to work among the righteous so that many servants of Your righteousness may arise to bear witness to Your gospel. Raise these workers for us and send them to us. We pray that You would continue to save souls, and to anoint them as Your workers. To all the righteous who has already been born again, inspire their hearts to serve You and make them Your workers, so that through these servants of Yours, Your gospel would be witnessed to all over the world, Your Word would also be testified, and Your will would be fulfilled as well.”
Only the Righteous Can Become God’s Servants
Who among the righteous can become God’s workers? First of all, it is those who definitely believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Word of our Lord, and whose souls have been born again by this gospel, that can become the workers of God’s gospel. Those who can spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to others are the righteous who have been born again by first believing in the Lord and the true gospel. Only they can preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can confirm this truth in Acts 1:8, which states, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
It is only when one receives the remission of his sins and the Holy Spirit comes into his heart by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that he can become God’s worker. When we truly believe in the perfect gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and thereby are remitted from all our sins, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit into our hearts (Acts 2:38). If one can witness that his sins has been blotted out and that he now has no sin in his heart, this is the evidence of the fact that the Holy Spirit has come into his heart. It is because the Holy Spirit in our hearts guarantees our witness that we have now become sinless by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Our Lord said, “You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” This means that He will make the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit His witnesses to the whole world. Therefore, when the righteous deny themselves, trust in the Lord and obey Him, the Lord Himself then entrusts them with His work. Because the Holy Spirit dwells in the born-again who have received the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit in their hearts leads them in every step. So the righteous who have been remitted from their sins preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit at every opportunity they get.
If you face an opportunity to preach the gospel to someone, of course, you may feel nervous about or be afraid of it. But it is ultimately the Holy Spirit who really works in your lives. The Holy Spirit gives you the right words to say for the right times: “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matthew 10:20). Therefore, it is only right for us to trust in the Holy Spirit, to boldly preach the gospel by faith at every opportunity, and to do the work of our Lord. Let us all have confidence that the Holy Spirit indeed works in our hearts!
On the contrary, anyone who does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is not qualified to become God’s worker. Why? Because sinners cannot bear witness to the righteousness of God, and because no one can be washed from his sins but only through this gospel of the water and the Spirit, for the Lord took upon all our sins through the baptism that He received. As such, all those sinners whose hearts have retained their sins cannot be used by the Holy Spirit as His instruments.
If anyone claims to have become God’s worker without even believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, he is someone who has become a worker all on his own —and a false one at that—and is not someone who was really called by God to become His true worker. No matter how hard such sinners do the work of God—to be more exact, think that they are doing His works—everything is in vain.
We see many such people all around us. There are many sinners on this earth who suffer from such bizarre delusions. One of their defining characteristics is that even as they are oblivious to the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they are still devoted to what they are doing so much. Hence, I sometimes wish our born-again saints would be as devoted to the true gospel as these people are.
The Second Qualification to Be God’s Workers: To Love the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
I have told you that the first qualification of God’s workers is to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words, only the righteous can be called as His workers. But you must know that all the born-again are called as His workers. Among the righteous, it is only those who have compassion for the souls of sinners and whose hearts desire to save them, that can become the workers of God’s gospel. This is the second qualification to become His workers. They may not be particularly gifted, nor articulate, nor have anything else that is even remotely remarkable, but the righteous whose hearts desire every soul to be saved are qualified as God’s workers. Among the righteous, those who love other souls, even though they themselves have no power, still desire others to be saved; and because these souls must be saved, they rise to meet the challenge despite their insufficiencies, and they are willing to do anything to save these souls. It is precisely such righteous people, who love other souls, that are qualified to become God’s workers.
Is there, however, anyone who says, “Yes, I have such a heart, but I am still too insufficient to become God’s worker”? But this cannot be a reason for you to be disqualified as one of His workers; whatever you may lack can be filled by faith and be taught by God’s Church.
My fellow believers, the righteous who have this caring heart that loves the gospel of the water and the Spirit and other souls need to be trained in all things, from the art to how to handle a soul, and to the knowledge of the Word. If only our hearts truly desire to serve God’s gospel and to spread it, all that we have to do is just receive all abilities through our faith. Therefore, what is needed for you to become His workers is this fundamental heart that desires to serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that loves other souls, and that wants to dedicate yourselves to God. Only when our hearts desire to serve the gospel can we do the work of God in all its variations.
It is not easy to save life, whether spiritually or physically, and so proper discipline of faith is really necessary. Before a doctor becomes a specialist, he must go through an arduous period of extensive training as an intern. Just like this, before the righteous become God’s expert workers, they all should go through a period of apprenticeship. My fellow believers, we must discipline ourselves until we all become experts at preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
When souls meet intern workers, they frequently become the object of research for the spreading of the gospel. Also, there are many times when someone who is about to receive the remission of his sins is averted from doing so, and ends up going home only with a injured heart, just because the one who bore witness of the gospel to him has not been trained enough. This point is particularly more relevant when it comes to the training that is provided in our Mission School that belongs to God’s Church. When people meet the immature workers of God, it is quite possible that even those who were about to receive the remission of sin would not be able to do so. Even those who had opened the doors of their hearts may end up closing them down again.
I said that those whose hearts love other souls are qualified to become God’s workers of the gospel. But they must be filled with God’s Word to serve the gospel and to lead souls. God’s workers can have spiritual fellowship with those whom they are trying to save only when they listen sufficiently to the Word of God and they themselves have the spiritual knowledge of the Word and strong faith in it.
However, this training cannot be attained on one’s own. We must be inside God’s Church and hear the spiritual Word that the Holy Spirit speaks to His workers through the Church. No matter how much understanding one may reach of the Word of God on his own, this in itself cannot turn into a spiritual sword. Only when we hear and learn the Word through God’s Church can our knowledge of the Word turn into our spiritual weapon. It is then that when we just barely touch others with this spiritual sword, they will come to be saved from their sins and be healed from their spiritual illnesses of sin.
At issue here is whether or not there is a burning love for the gospel of the water and the Spirit in our hearts. Even if we are not particularly gifted, all that we need to be qualified to become God’s workers is a heart that loves the gospel. So the question to ask is this: Do our hearts love other souls, or do they love the world? It is the righteous who have this loving heart for other souls that are qualified to become the workers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Next Part Even Now, God Is Looking for the Workers of His Harvest