In Matthew 9:37,38 we find that Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” God is not limited in the nature of the harvest, but in the laborers. On sending the 70, two and two before His face into cities and places where He Himself would later come, Jesus said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2). God has a manpower shortage in the matter of soul winning.
The same thing Jesus emphasized when the twelve disciples sat eating their lunch beside the well of Sychar in Samaria. “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?” Jesus told them, “Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” And then he assured them that the reapers would receive wages and would gather fruit unto life eternal. (John 4:35-36).
Please do not think the repetition of these three passages of scripture either thoughtless or unnecessary. God does not wait for conditions to get right; He waits for men to get right. The harvest is not waiting because it is not right, but because the laborers are few. Jesus sent the seventy, new converts whom He could not call mature sheep, but only lambs, because He had no one else to send. And as they went, they were to pray that God would send fourth laborers into the ripe harvest.
It is God’s own people, those called by His name, who must pay the price for revival. Bartenders cannot have a revival. Modernists cannot have a revival. Atheists and infidels cannot have a revival. But, thank God, they cannot stop one either. Conditions, including the hearts of sinful men, are always ripe for revival. And when God’s people meet his requirements, revival always comes.
(Taken from “We Can Have Revival Now” by John R. Rice)
