Acts 1:13-14. When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
James 5:7-8. Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains.
Luke 10:2. And He said to them, “The harvest is great, but the workers few; therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest.” Recovery Version.

The Lord is utterly consistent, in all His ways, in the types that represent His truth, and in the patterns He has established for mankind to follow. If we examine an event or process that God has set in motion, it will reveal something significant about how He works. Such is the case when we read the account concerning the clothing with power of the around a hundred and twenty on that long ago day of Pentecost. The pattern of Pentecost is a defining one.

Those gathered together, awaiting the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, had been born again when Jesus had breathed into them and said, ‘receive the Holy Spirit’. Prior to that, the faith of each one of them had failed during the time of Jesus’ greatest trial. However, it was through their experiences of failure that they had been prepared and approved by God to receive the outpoured Holy Spirit. They no longer put trust in themselves. On the great day of Pentecost, after they had been clothed with power from on high, there was the beginning of a great harvest and the church, the body of Christ came into being.

In the land of Israel there must be the provision of ‘the early and late rains’ in order to ensure an abundant harvest. The early rain in late Autumn allows the preparation of the soil, the planting of the seed and for the seed to germinate and grow. The late rain in Springtime allows the grain to swell and mature in readiness for harvest. A farmer’s livelihood depends upon the consistency of these annual rainfalls.

The passage in James informs us that the farmer, in this case our Father God, ‘waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains’. Surely what He is waiting for is the full and final harvest to be brought in at the end of the age. In order for this harvest to mature there must be the ‘late rains’.

As the early rains were provided at Pentecost, surely the late rains will be abundantly provided to bring in the final harvest at the end of the age. Right here a vital point must be made. These rains will only fall on companies of believers whose state and readiness are as those of those one hundred and twenty almost two thousand years ago.

The quotation from Luke 10 assures us that God’s ‘harvest is great, but the workers few’. The issue is that ‘the Lord of the harvest’ must be besought to thrust out those few workers into His harvest. To be thrust out they must be empowered by the Holy Spirit. To be empowered they must be approved by God.

This world’s present state and many fulfillments of prophecy have made it clear that the end times are upon us. God is looking for companies of His own who will give themselves to be qualified by their utter dependence for everything upon Him. “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.” 2 Chronicles 16:9.

All over the earth, in all nations, the Lord desires that there be gatherings of His own who are ‘all with one mind…. continually devoting themselves to prayer’ that they may, in His time, be clothed with power from on high to carry out their part in bringing in God’s full and final massive harvest. Perhaps hundreds or even thousands of such companies of the faithful will at the same instant receive the promised late rains of the Holy Spirit.

The writer senses that this will take place during the first three and a half years of the tribulation, in the face of Satan and his vassal, the antichrist. What a testimony this will be to the mighty power of God to save and to transform. What a testimony to the Person of our Lord Jesus and His love for all mankind. May we seek to be a member of such a company of which the Lord may approve that we may play our part in that final ingathering.

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