The following is the introduction and first chapter of my new booklet that I wrote concerning the harvest of souls that the Lord woke me up about a few days ago about 3:20 AM. I hope you enjoy it and…

[Dr. Terrance Jenkins]

The following is the introduction and first chapter of my new booklet that I wrote concerning the harvest of souls that the Lord woke me up about a few days ago about 3:20 AM. I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think, please. Greatly appreciated!!

Ripe Unto
Harvest

Planting, Watering, Harvesting
Are you READY?

__________

Terrance U. Jenkins

Ripe Unto Harvest
Copyright © 2019 by Dr. Terrance U. Jenkins

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

means without written permission from the author.

ISBN: 978-0-9918130-5-6

Dedication

This booklet is dedicated to all those who are involved with the work of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the world.
So many have stopped planting, others have stopped watering and the harvest is falling by the wayside being trodden under foot for the enemy to destroy.
Planting the Seed is hard work, watering the Ground after planting is time consuming and takes patient waiting, and yet, everyone seems to want to reap the harvest of souls without anyone doing the hard work.
I beg of you to continue to plant the Seed and water the Ground then let God give the increase – AND HE WILL!
Harvest Time is upon us and we are NOT ready!!

Table of Contents

Introduction 
Chapter 1 - Why We Need to Plant Seed 
Chapter 2 - Water and Sun 
Chapter 3 - The Harvest 

Introduction

I came awake the other morning about 3:20 AM with the thought running over in my mind so strongly that I could not escape it - “Ripe Unto Harvest.” Throughout the day and for the next couple of days I tried to push it out of my mind but couldn’t.
I made up every kind of excuse to say or do nothing about this because I am unable to do ministry in the physical sense anymore. In 2016, I was struck down with a fatal disease after spending more than forty years in ministry, planting churches, Bible Schools, Child Development Centers in Africa, helping Orphans in India, youth conferences, minister’s conventions and tent crusades. I had written seven books and four more since this lung disease. I had preached healing and salvation (total deliverance for body, soul and spirit) all of those years and had seen God heal the sick, bring deliverance to thousands and salvation to thousands more. I have preached to almost two million at one time and I have preached to the three or four in another setting. (I do not say these things to boast – I have nothing to boast about – I say them only as an explanation for the way I felt about saying anything about the Harvest as it was rushing through my mind that morning.

I had preached on the subject of the Harvest as a pastor but the reality of it was rushing in upon me like the waves of the ocean and the thoughts that came with it was like crushing blows of a hammer as I could see where the church and ministry was and how far it has drifted from its course due to deceptive teaching that has slowly crept in with each successive generation of preachers seemingly taking it further off course.

One thing I hear continually is, (and since I am unable to get out much anymore I listen to various ministries online that I didn’t hear when I was doing ministry because I didn’t have time), we need something new. I understand that we are in a new era and this generation is different than mine was. Then, my generation was different than the one before it, and on and on it goes. Generations change, methodologies change, but the Word doesn’t change. I want the reader to understand that I am not saying anything in this writing to denigrate another person or organization but simply to explain what I sense in my heart is happening within the context of the church world of today as I look at the Ripe Unto Harvest thought.

Daniel said of his vision, “my cogitations much troubled me,…” That’s the way it is with the subject – Ripe Unto Harvest. My thoughts and what I see troubles me. One writer said of Daniel’s statement, “It was a subject which he could not avoid reflecting on, and which could not but produce deep solicitude in regard to the events which were to occur. Who could look into the future without anxious and agitating thought? These events were such as to engage the profoundest attention; such as to fix the mind in solemn thought.” This so expresses how my thoughts are that I have borrowed the writer’s statement to insert here.
The second thought that I could not escape regarding the Harvest is how that several years ago, a certain preacher who was very high within the organizational ranks of his denomination that he was a part of told me that the church in the United States and Canada had all but flat-lined – that means dead! I had not done research on the matter nor thought much about it since until that morning when I was awaken with these thoughts that troubled me so very much – and they are still troubling me as I write this.

I am not preaching here – I am not casting any disparaging remarks at any person, church or organization – I am writing as a hurting (dying) man to dying people. My thoughts trouble me because I am practically house-bound and unable to get out to win more souls to the Lord. I might sound a little old fashioned in my wording but I am very relevant in my thinking about the harvest that is ripe in the fields and while preachers play patty-cakes with the devil, the harvest is being destroyed – GOD HELP US!!
I am troubled in that with all of the ministries I listen to online, very few have an altar service to ask people about getting right with God. There are lots of altar calls for people who want to have prosperity, favor and blessing – nothing wrong with that in its place – but the emphasis MUST be upon souls and Kingdom living.

I know of many who have been set aside by man to be an Apostle but have never done the work of an Apostle. Others are set aside as Prophets but have never filled the office of Prophet and the same goes for all five ministry gifts to the church.

For me, I have never claimed to be an Apostle (others have called me an Apostle), but I have seen the Lord, I have had the privilege of seeing Him open blind eyes, unstop deaf ears and the crippled get out of wheelchairs in my services. I have done the work of an Apostle. I have been called a Prophet but I do not, and have not, claimed such an office – I have preached prophetically and prophesied many times. I have operated in all of the ministry gifting including Pastor, Teacher and Evangelist. I still claim none of them – in the words of John the Baptist, “I am the voice of one crying, prepare the way of the Lord” and get ready to meet Him at His coming.

I am more concerned with reaching the harvest of souls than I am in going deeper or preaching something new. God will do what God wants to do when God wants to do it because He is honor bound by His Word.
As to a pastor, he/she must ever be mindful of the fact that the sheep must be led from pasture to pasture and fed with both milk and meat while at the same time keeping an eye on those who might wander out of the way as well as those who need to be won into the Kingdom of God. The pastor is the under-shepherd following the lordship of Jesus Christ.

I understand that the pastor or leader does not necessarily go out to win everyone to Christ, but he/she must be able to instruct the congregation in ways of reaching the lost. The primary objective of the ministry gifting to the church is to “equip the saints for ministry.” That means:

A] visiting the sick (hospital & home)
B] praying for the sick
C] winning the lost
D] giving to help the needy
E] volunteering where needed (and more)

The pastor is the shepherd of the local flock and must lead the sheep and feed them. That is not the job of the evangelist or the Apostle. The Apostle is to plant new works and work the miracles of God which builds faith, draws men and women back to faith. The Apostle is one who has had a visitation with the God of heaven and understands the methodologies of the working of the Holy Spirit to bring about change in people’s lives. The true prophet is called by God and set apart by God and yes, the prophet often does pronounce blessings and goodness to the church but most often the prophet speaks to the nation concerning what God is doing or going to do (Amos 3:7). The prophet often reveals things that other ministries do not reveal and at times talks of judgment coming upon an unrepentant people.

In an earlier paragraph I mentioned how much I hear of everyone clamoring for something new being brought to the congregation and I fear that this thinking will bring about more deception within the church – call that “Old Fashioned” if you like. But I read in II Peter 1:3, “According as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and virtue,..” (KJV).

Young’s Literal Translation puts it this way, “As all things to us His divine power (the things pertaining unto life and piety) hath given, through the acknowledgement of Him who did call us through glory and worthiness,…”

Notice that God has given us every provision for a godly life, through the knowledge of Jesus, but that we must avail ourselves of it. The promises are great and precious, but we must appropriate and absorb them, if we are through them to partake of the divine nature. Our redemption has been secured by our Savior, but we must constantly advance and add to the golden links already securely stapled in faith.

Dear reader, we do not need something new (a new revelation) since God has given to us all that we need for life now and eternity. What we do need is a fresh light to shine upon the revelation that God has given to us and that will come about only as we pray, study and chase after the life of Christ to be revealed in us more perfectly.

That is my desire as I think about and concentrate my thoughts upon the harvest of souls yet to be brought into the Kingdom of God.

Chapter One
Why We Need To Continue Planting

With our focus fixed on the harvest that we anticipate at the appropriate time, and which cannot be seen when we begin planting the seed, we plant anyway.

Some folk will never reap a harvest because they have never planted any seed. The story that Jesus tells about sowing and reaping in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke is phenomenal. It was the same sower who sowed (planted) all of the seed. It was all planted in the same season and all the seed was good but it did not all yield an harvest.

The fact that some of the good seed went into thorny ground, others on rocky ground and so forth did not deter the one planting the seed. He kept on planting and some of it fell into good ground where it sprang up and grew to a great harvest – some 30 times as much – some 60 times as much and some 100 times as much as was planted. I am inclined to think that if the one sowing the seed had been mindful of the fact that only 25% of the seed being planted would bring forth the harvest; he may not have planted the other 75% of the seed. However, he was not concerned about that – he was focused on the reception of the harvest at harvest time.

I would like to interject here the fact that I have never been a farmer – I did not grow up in a farming community – but my family did have several acres of property that we planted with various crops each year. We did not have machinery to do the work – we did back breaking work with prongs and shovels both for planting and fertilizing the ground as well as gathering the harvest at the end.

I will not go into deep detail here but simply point out that what is true in the natural realm is also true in the spiritual realm.

To reap at the end of season, we had to dig up the ground, shape the furrows and take time to plant the seed. The germination and growth of the seed was dependent upon certain things such as:

1] how wet or dry the soil was
2] how rich the soil was in minerals
3] the type of soil (red, black or clay like)
4] how much water or lack thereof the ground received during the season
5] was the ground fertilized at the right time and with the correct amount
6] how many weeds grew up with the crops

There were many other factors included to make sure of a successful harvest but I am sure you get the point that I am trying to make. Unless we took the time and did the back-breaking work of planting the seed in the spring we could not gain an harvest in the fall. Hence, the need for planting every year at a certain season.

Having said that I think it is important that the church, (local assembly), leadership train their people and equip them for planting seed in the world of the un-regenerate. One is not truly equipped for ministry unless and until one is fully trained to plant the seed of the Gospel in the lives of those who don’t know Jesus Christ as Savior. That said, the primary objective of church leadership is to “equip the saints for ministry;” and the primary objective of those so equipped is to continue to plant the Word. That does not necessarily mean just to invite them into a local church assembly, while that is good – what it does mean is that the sower goes out into the world of darkness to win souls where they are. Bring them into the Kingdom and God will place them in the body where He wants them so that they can continue growth and then become seed planter’s themselves.

I have noticed that we have been more anxious to get them into the local assembly than we have been to get them into the Kingdom of God. The next thing to notice about planting the seed is that it takes time for it to germinate and begin to grow but this also takes much patience.

Remember that when we planted our fields in the spring time, we had to wait for several weeks before seeing any sign of the crop coming through the ground. For the first few weeks we prayed, believed and hoped with expectation that the seed would take root and begin to grow – and with the right amount of rain and sun – it would eventually push itself through the ground, at which time it could be fertilized and nourished to full growth.

We do that with the natural seed but when it comes to spiritual seed, (I am not talking about money here – most times when preachers talk about seed it has to do with money – but not this time), I am talking about souls.

Let me continue: When it comes to souls being born into the Kingdom we seem to think that they are adult (in the natural) so they ought to know how it all happens in the spiritual realm. That is not the case. The seed may have been planted in the person’s life and they may have begun to grow. You can see signs of life as the seed is growing in them but as in the natural so also in the spiritual, the person must be encouraged, taught the Word, fertilized and nurtured to continue to grow in the Lord until that person comes to the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ and then that person becomes a seed planter. We can win the world for Christ if we understand the farmer’s actions of planting, watering and reaping.

Pastor’s MUST teach their people to be seed planters if they are interested in bringing in the harvest. They must teach them that not everyone will accept the message of salvation but according to the parable that Jesus told they are not to become discouraged – keep on planting and expecting. We do not have to force the seed to grow – we are supposed to plant and water. The conditions of soil, weather, personal relationships, and so forth will determine the growth or non-growth of the seed in the individual.

Some seed will fall among thorns, some on rocky soil, some will fall among the weeds of life while others will fall on good fertile ground and grow to an abundant harvest.