To think of the biblical term harvest is to think of people helping people, touching people, loving people, serving people, and winning people into the love of God. On the other hand, to misplace or lose our perspective on the harvest—on serving people with life—is the surest way to short-circuit the promised possibilities of a fulfilled life.

We as branches can only have joy in fruit-bearing when we realize according to 1 Cor. 3:7 that it is not important who does the planting, or who does the watering, but that God gives the increase. God’s purpose in revealing this truth was not to put a ‘heavy one’ on His children, rather He wants our joy to be full.

Harvest time is a joyful time because it speaks of God’s abundant grace and mercy.  The believer in Psalm 1 is a blessed tree bearing fruit in its season. On the night Jesus was betrayed He declared to His faithful followers: “I am the true vine. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me and I will remain in you. You cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me… I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy.”

There is a common element in every individual who grows bitter, misses fulfilment, becomes sour, complains about God, falls into self-pity, or wonders “why nothing ever happens to me.” That common denominator is a lost sense of ministry, or preoccupation with self, forgetting to serve, love, help and reach others in Jesus’ name.

Matthew 9:26 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into his harvest field.

Every believer has written into his or her spiritual DNA the supernatural ability to bear fruit naturally – it’s part of our destiny. In the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:23, our Lord Jesus declares the same truth of fruitfulness when He says: “those who hear and understand God’s word produce a harvest of thirty, sixty and even a hundred-fold as much as had been planted.” Joy returns into our lives when we rediscover the supernatural seed.

Go! The harvest is plentiful!