03. How Well Do You See?

3 -- HOW WELL DO YOU SEE? In an earlier message, I asked you some questions concerning your ears and just how well they hear the voice of God and the voice of a lost and perishing world. Not only do our ears need to be totally committed to Christ, but our eyes also need this total commitment. Just how well do you see?

I am not speaking to you concerning your natural vision for I am well aware of the fact that natural vision varies in each individual. My question is given to you in regard to your spiritual vision. How well do you see the whitened harvest field that Jesus spoke about? Certainly we need to see the fields. Jesus said to His disciples, "Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? behold, I say unto you, lift your eyes and look on the fields: for they are white already to harvest."

I believe Jesus is making it as clear as it can be made that we must see the need of the harvest. It is absolutely essential that our eyes are open and looking upon the ripening grain. If our eyes are open to this tremendous need, we will discover that we have a vision that alerts us. It awakens us and leaves us with no excuse for further delay. What right has any individual to quiet his conscience in this regard when multitudes are perishing without the light of the Gospel? Perishing multitudes need to be harvested now. I trust that God will help us not to push this need aside into some small corner of the church program. Certainly any deferment of God’s plan is inexcusable.

Again I notice that this is a personal look. Each one of us have eyes that must see the need. There are so many that have a limited and narrow vision. Until your vision is world-wide in its scope, it is less than God intends it to be. Will you not lift up your eyes until you see clearly the fact that a perishing heathen world is entitled to have the same message of redemption that has been given to you and me. I believe we need to have our attention drawn away from the things around us. I do not say that we need to lose sight of our local responsibilities. No, not at all. But along with that local vision, you need a world-wide vision that takes in the needs of the lost everywhere. Look beyond your own doorstep; look beyond your own little circle. Look and see the staggering needs of men and women who are without opportunity to hear what you have heard. They have no way to receive what you have received. I have prayed in preparing these pages that God would anoint my heart and my efforts that your heart might be challenged to put forth more effort for His cause and kingdom. I want God to attract your attention and get your eyes fixed on the harvest that must be gathered in before the sun sets on this generation.

Notice that the lifting up of the eyes revealed the field. All the disciples had to do was look and the field was right before their eyes. There it was ripe and ready and waiting for reapers to gather it in. The laborers are needed when the fields are ready to be reaped. This is why we need your help on the mission field today. Our fields are white unto harvest, but the laborers are not too large in number. O! That God will grant that the vision of this will grip your heart. The storm clouds are gathering; can you see them? The clock on the wall is telling us that time is running out. Can you see that clock?

Again I would suggest that a real look at the need will be a costly look. There will be a price to pay if you see the need. The apostle Paul saw it and the price paid is catalogued for us in 2 Corinthians 11:1-33, where he tells us of the five beatings received from his adversaries; the three times that he was beaten with rods; the time he was stoned and the several times he had suffered shipwreck. He further says, "A night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and in thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things which are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches."

Certainly Paul paid a tremendous price when he made a total commitment of himself to Jesus Christ. I’m sure history would reveal the fact that many of God’s children paid a tremendous price to follow the Master and fulfill the great commission that He had left them. Yet with all that they have paid in the past, there is yet a price to pay today. I do not know just what that price might mean for you as an individual, but I do know it will involve your total being; it will involve all that there is of you m your time, your talents, your abilities, your material possessions; yes, it will involve everything. And yet when you have paid the full price of full surrender, you will discover that you have paid a price far less than that paid by Jesus Christ. No matter how much we may give, He has given more; no matter how much we have sacrificed, His sacrifice was greater. You and I may give our hands to the task of reaching others, but He gave His to the Roman spikes; we may give our heads to the task of thinking up ways in which to promote His interests, but He gave His head to be crowned in mockery with common thorns such as first sprung up in Adam’s Eden. Yes, you can give, but remember He gave more; you can go, but remember that He went a little farther.

We just cannot outgive God. Certainly He will be no man’s debtor. O! The debt of gratitude that is yet unpaid by those who have been the recipients of His matchless blessings. I ask you, are you satisfied to allow your debt to go unpaid? Are you satisfied to allow others to pay a tremendous price in giving themselves in total commitment when you do less than your best? I am not scolding; I am not accusing; I am only trying to challenge your hearts with the tremendous unfinished task that must be faced if we are to ever hear the "well done" of the Master. I wonder if the "well done" might be "undone" if we do not hasten and get on with the vital business of reaching the lost with the glorious Gospel of Christ? O! That God will help each individual to pay whatever price is necessary in fulfilling their obligation to the Master.

I would suggest to you that all is not cost and price in this work of reaching the lost. I’m glad that I can share with you the fact that this is also a rewarding work. You can lift up your eyes and see souls enjoying the bliss of heaven who might have been lost in Hell. The same God who fills your heart with concern and compassion will show you the fruits of that concern and compassion. I believe there are missionaries gone on to glory who are now enjoying the fellowship of those they had helped to win in the whitened harvest fields. I believe my parents are rejoicing on the banks of the river over souls they met along the Nile River in Egypt. They did not realize many earthly rewards down here, yet I believe they are realizing the rich heavenly rewards up there. I feel that if you could somehow see the rich rewards it would help you to join more earnestly in the battle. Certainly you would be asking more earnestly than ever before, "Lord, what would you have me to do?"

Child of God, are you lifting up your eyes today? Are you looking toward the fields that are white unto harvest? The song writer encourages us to do this when he writes, "Lord, give me a vision, Oh, help me to see, The needs all around me; Souls dying for thee, Oh, make me a blessing, As onward I go. By telling the story; that others may know. Lord, give me a vision, Of fields that are white, Souls that we must gather; E’er cometh the night, Dark shadows are gathering, And some will be lost. Some neighbor or brother; How awful the cost. Lord give me a vision, Lest empty I stand, There at the great judgment; No sheaves in my hand, No labour of Love, To offer my King. With nothing but leaves then; The Master to bring. Lord, give me a vision, Oh, help me to see, Some neighbor today Lord, And bring him to thee, That on that glad morning, Some soul there may say. ’Twas your prayers that saved me; you showed me the way." Yes, Ross Minkler challenges our hearts with these words that suggest we get our eyes open and look upon the fields. I challenge you to look. I’m sure if you will look, you will never be the same again. If you will look, you will see their need and you will desire to do something about it. Dare we hug our blessings to our bosoms? Can we keep God’s blessings without sharing them with others? I ask you to look with me and join with me in sharing the Gospel of Christ with a perishing world.

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