The Key to the Master’s Orders

Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest —Matthew 9:38

The key to the missionary’s difficult task is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work— that is, not work as the word is commonly used today, which often results in the shifting of our focus away from God. The key to the missionary’s difficult task is also not the key of common sense, nor is it the key of medicine, civilization, education, or even evangelization. The key is in following the Master’s orders— the key is prayer. “Pray the Lord of the harvest . . . .” In the natural realm, prayer is not practical but absurd. We have to realize that prayer is foolish from the commonsense point of view.

From Jesus Christ’s perspective, there are no nations, but only the world. How many of us pray without regard to the persons, but with regard to only one Person— Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced through distress and through conviction of sin. This is the harvest for which we have to pray that laborers be sent out to reap. We stay busy at work, while people all around us are ripe and ready to be harvested; we do not reap even one of them, but simply waste our Lord’s time in over-energized activities and programs. Suppose a crisis were to come into your father’s or your brother’s life— are you there as a laborer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? Is your response, “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s own, “a servant [who] is not greater than his master” (John 13:16), and someone who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls us to no special work— He calls us to Himself. “Pray the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer.

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主命令之鑰

所以，你們當求莊稼的主打發工人出去收他的莊稼。 （馬太福音9：38）

宣道的鑰匙在神手中，這鑰匙是禱告，不是工作，更不是今天一般人以為的“工作”，因為這些可能叫人逃避，不以神為中心。宣道的鑰匙不是一般常理、醫療、文化、教育，甚至不是佈道工作。鑰匙乃是禱告。 「你們當求莊稼的主」依人來看，禱告是不切實際的，是無稽的；從常理角度來看，禱告是愚蠢的。

在主耶穌眼中，沒有國族，只有全世界。我們有多少人禱告時，沒有理會人，只專注於耶穌基督？因苦知罪而生的莊稼屬於祂，這莊稼正是我們要求工人去收割的。四周熟透的莊稼等著收割，我們卻只顧從事許多忙碌的活動，一個也不收割，在虛耗精力的事工上浪費了主的時間。假如危難臨到你父親或兄弟，你會不會為主耶穌作收莊稼的人？ “啊，我另有特別的事工要做！”沒有一個信徒有特別的事工要作，信徒被召歸於主，他不能高於主人，也不能指揮主人，自作主張。主並沒有召我們做什麼特別的工作，祂只召我們歸祂。 「求莊稼的主」這樣，祂預備環境，打發你出去。