The Lord of the Harvest

Luke 10:1-2

“After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He [Yeshua] Himself was about to go.

Then He said to them, ‘The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’” 

Yeshua’s Prayer Burden

Here Yeshua shares with us a prayer burden that is at the center of His heart. Yeshua sees billions of souls in the valley of decision, deciding whether or not they will choose to spend their eternity in God’s Presence or separated from God.

These are souls who are created for Elohim, made in His image and exist because He desires a deep relationship with them.

Unknowingly, those in the valley of decision are weighing Heaven or hell. In this generation it is taboo to speak of Heaven and hell, but I assure you, the realities of Heaven and hell are ever before the Son of God’s eyes.

This awareness gives Him clarity of the stakes and, thus, He travails in intercession for the souls of man and for the disciples, “the laborers”, who our Father in Heaven will send.

Yeshua, our Great Intercessor Who never ceases to pray, invites His followers into an intimate friendship in the place of prayer, entrusting us with two of His burdens.

We join Him in praying for the “great harvest” of souls and for a revival to come to our Land that will turn hearts back to God. 

By Yeshua’s side, on our knees, we also join Him in praying that the LORD of the Harvest will equip and send out anointed disciples who have passion to boldly share with others that there is healing and forgiveness of sins in Yeshua.

“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?And how shall they preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’” Romans 10:14-15

Prayer

LORD of the Harvest of souls, we pray for those like the prophet Isaiah, who say, “Here am I, Lord! Send me!” We pray for ones like Samuel who prophesy and not one word falls to the ground.

We pray for those like Ezekiel who are called to be watchmen for Israel and warn people of unrighteousness. We ask You to send out those like John the Baptist who turn hearts to You and prepare the way of the Lord.

Abba, we pray for dreams and heavenly visions to be given to those You will send. Wake up Your people, call them forth and send them out.

Send forth disciples with an anointing to preach Your words, heal the sick, prophesy and bring the Kingdom of God to the cities of the Earth.

Raise up Your disciples who are wholeheartedly consecrated unto You. Cause this generation to fall in love with You God. We pray for ones with burning hearts who desire  to lay down their lives for You and follow the Lamb wherever He goes. 

Seeing Beauty During Surgery

The 8th Surgery

After seven brain and facial surgeries on my trigeminal nerve, I still had not yet experienced freedom from the sensations of electricity, burning and muscle spasms on the left side of my face.

For 11 years this chronic pain (trigeminal neuralgia) had inflicted me. Simple things like the rain, wind, lack of sleep, singing, touch, laughing, crying, etc. would trigger an attack. Sometimes attacks began for no reason at all.

The outer lining (the myelin sheath) of my trigeminal nerve had been damaged by surrounding blood vessels and an artery.

(For those unfamiliar with the anatomy, the trigeminal nerve originates in the brain stem and wraps over the ear and into the face with 3 primary branches and countless small branches.

In medicine it is known as the suicide disease and is considered one of the most painful diseases.)

The varying degrees of pain had been continual and were at times crippling me to extended periods in bed. To end the torment, I reluctantly agreed to an eighth surgery.

To my surprise, I needed to be awake for the surgery.

This eighth surgery was a second attempt at cutting the trigeminal nerve branches. The surgeon threaded a long needle through my face and cheek and into the 3 primary nerve branches of the trigeminal nerve.

To end the facial pain, the needle was used to pinpoint live nerve strands and crush them. Surges of torturous electricity were felt before the surgeon crushed the nerve strands.

Desperate to escape the pain, my silent cries ascended to God. I begged God to get me out of my body.

His Endearing Eyes and Smile

In my mind’s eye I saw a vision of Yeshua on a throne. He had an endearing smile and a happy countenance which drew my focus onto His face instead of the pain.

As He looked at me I understood that I am the reason He is smiling.

I am the joy set before Him. His palpable desire for me caused my inner man to know that His delight was and is in me.

The allurement of His clear eyes kept my focus and compelled me to fix my eyes on His undeviating gaze.

Enticing and captivating me, He caught me up in His Presence which surrounded me as I laid awake on the surgery table.

The attraction of His magnetic eyes drew my attention away from the pain. He settled my soul and changed an overwhelming anxiety into an incomprehensible quietness of soul that enabled me to see and hear Him.

He gave me a peace that surpassed understanding.

Trusting His Authority

Somehow He was communicating verbally to me but without speaking or moving His lips. I know this sounds strange, but by looking at Him, He would let me perceive His thoughts.

I knew He wanted me to read what was written on the right sleeve of His robe. On His right arm was written, “King of Kings.”

After reading His arm, the revelation of His authority over me strengthened my spirit and gave me peace. He was in control of my life, the nations and all the burdens I had been carrying in intercession, particularly my burden for Jerusalem.

As I uttered in my spirit, “I trust You,” a heaviness was removed as I cast my cares upon Him.

You Are Good

With tears streaming from my eyes, three words arose within me. I groaned from a depth inside that I had not known before, and I silently exclaimed, “You are good. You are good. You are good!”

I was making intercession by sounding the eternal battle cry, “For the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever.”

Deep was crying out to deep as His waves and billows were crashing over me. Even though I could not comprehend why God was waiting to end the pain, from the depths of me all I could say was, “You are good. You are good. You are good!”

My spirit fought and refused to declare anything less than the truth of Who He is.

He is good.

Surrender To His Crown

With His eyes He then drew me to look at His crown. Distracted by the surgeon crushing my nerve, I lost my focus.

Yeshua allured me to Himself again and kept my attention on Him by having me look at His crown and His smiling face. When I looked at His crown I knew He was in control and had authority over my situation.

Yeshua knew I was on the surgery table and the amount of pain I was in. He was more than capable of delivering me from the pain. My spirit responded to Him, “If You are ok with this [the surgery], then I’m ok with it, too.”

I felt my shoulders relax and drop in total surrender.

He then approached me as I was lying on the surgery table. He was in the appearance of a man dressed in clothes like we would wear; He was without a robe and the heavenly glory as before. He embraced me, and I felt safe within the arms of my Beloved God.

He began to stroke my hair and show His compassion for me. He was my Psalm 23 good Shepherd Who causes me to lie down in green pastures and beside still waters.

With His kindness He was restoring my soul. His compassions did not conjure up feelings of self-pity within me; I only felt loved.

Laughing God

Yeshua then began laughing so much so that He threw His head backward with laughter.

I could not believe He was laughing while I was having surgery. In my spirit I said to Him, “If I were in Your shoes, I would not be laughing.”

I expected Him to hold my hand and weep with me, and here He was laughing hysterically. But the more He laughed the more I became giddy inside.

He was catching me up in His joyful smile, keeping my attention, and causing the heaviness and despair to lift from me.

I wondered if my surgeon could see a smile on my face.

Faithful to Allure Me

The top branch of the nerve was particularly painful. I felt shocks of electricity on my forehead, my eyelid, and down my nose. The progression of the surgery was easily felt throughout the surgery.

At times the pain or the doctors’ conversations distracted me from the vision of Yeshua, but each time I became distracted, Yeshua faithfully allured me back to Himself with His eyes.

As soon as my eyes would lock eyes with His again, I would again know all is ok.

It was not always easy to get my attention or calm me, but He fought for my attention over and over again. He never failed to return me to serenity of spirit.

It was like He was grabbing my chin and turning my eyes back to Him so that I was not thinking about the surgeon’s conversations or the pain.

Glorious Father

Yeshua then took me by the arm and escorted me back to the throne room, but this time He was my escort to the Father.

Tears began falling as I beheld the Father, my Abba, in all His glory. He appeared as the brightest, clearest, most brilliant light.

Abba’s Being was like a churning cloud of sparkling, liquid gold Who remained seated on His throne. I knew the movement of this cloud meant that He was ever creating.

He is radiant, magnificent, and shining brighter than the sun. He is the true essence of beauty and glory. He is transcendent, preeminent, magnificent, divine.

He is The Sublime Being that is excelling the higher than what is possible to imagine. There is none like Him.

Sparkling Diamond

Seeing Him, I was surprisingly unafraid. I naturally postured my heart as “Daddy’s girl” and saw Him through the eyes of a child. “Sparkles” were all over Him; the little girl inside of me loved His sparkles.

He was like jasper diamonds that sparkled all over. It looked like He was the diamond, reflecting rainbows of color from His being. He was remarkably beautiful and strikingly bright.

Like A Child

With the joy and confidence of a secure child my spirit said, “Can I see the sardius stones and the emerald rainbow?” Suddenly fire lit up around His throne.

My spirit said, “It’s like in the book of Daniel!” [In the book of Daniel His throne is pictured as a throne on fire with a river of fire flowing forth from it.]

I thought of Song of Songs 8:6-7, “It [Love] burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away.“

In my heart I was clapping at the magnificent display of His glory. I began to sing the chorus of New Life Worship’s song “Here in Your Presence” over and over again, “Wonderful, beautiful, glorious, matchless in every way.”

Lamb of God

Yeshua then caught my eye. He was on the throne at the right hand of the Father, except now all His muscles were exposed and torn. “His appearance was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” Isaiah 52:14

I began singing a second chorus, “Worthy is the Lamb.” Somehow I was singing two choruses at the same time, “Wonderful, beautiful, glorious, matchless in every way” and “Worthy is the Lamb.”

I wondered in amazement at the newfound ability of singing two songs at the same time.

As I gazed on Yeshua’s torn body my spirit said, “You WERE marred more than any man and by Your stripes I AM healed.” At the sight of Him, a tangible faith for healing arose in me.

A scripture came to mind, “Let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in an hour of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

The throne was before me. It only made sense to come boldly before Him and ask for what I needed.

As I stood before the Father’s throne, I had a supernatural faith, a “knowing full-well” that healing would be given.

My spirit said, “My God, I come boldly before Your throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace in an hour of need, and I ask You, ‘Heal my body!’”

Comfort My People

Then Yeshua stood before me in regular clothes and for the first time He spoke audibly to me as He held my hands, “Comfort, comfort My people.”

In every way that I had been comforted by Him I was now commissioned to comfort others.

After this the surgeon tells me that the surgery is over. Yeshua had carried me through the whole surgery. Coming out of the surgery room, my friends came to me and said they prayed Yeshua would sustain me by appearing to me during the surgery.

I Will Heal You

A Jewish sister in Jerusalem sent me the scripture, “I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Surely I will heal you.” II Kings 20:5

He heard my prayer when I came boldly before His throne. Since the 8th surgery, I rarely feel electricity in my face. I am significantly improved and, yet, waiting for the fullness.

An Overflowing Heart

Introduction to Psalm 45

“Yeshua answered, ‘…But the time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.’”  Mark 2:20

There is a great deal to understand about fasting in this scripture, but in relation to Psalm 45 I want to highlight that in this passage the Messiah Yeshua refers to Himself as a “Bridegroom“.

It can be stretching for some of us. To approach Yeshua as a Bride seems to be feminine. But as women are called “sons of God,” so men are called “the Bride of Messiah.”

Women and men are “sons,” speaking of our access to the Father, inheritance in Yeshua and being seated with the Messiah in Heavenly places. Why are men and women considered the Bride? “The lovesick Bride” is a mere reflection of Yeshua’s lovesick heart.

When Yeshua returns, Revelation 19 and 21, believers will identify themselves primarily as Yeshua’s cherished Bride. The Spirit and the Bride will cry, “Come! Yeshua, come!”

John the Baptist, a real man of the earth who lived in the desert, wore camel skin and ate locust, said that in hearing the voice of the Bridegroom his own joy was made complete. (John 3:29) 

In every book of the Bible, God’s lovesick heart is the same. God cries, “…that you would be My people and I would be your God. …that I would be yours and you would be Mine. ..that you would love Me with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength.

I am yours and you are Mine.” He repeats Himself with every forefather, prophet, judge, apostle, etc. Over and over God says how He is the Lover of our souls and He is longing for people to love Him fully in return.

Now with an understanding as to why we embrace Yeshua as a Bridegroom, now let us ponder Psalm 45:1.

Psalm 45:1-2

“…Set to “The Shoshanim.” [“Shoshanim” is Hebrew for “Roses” or “Lilies”] A Contemplation… A Song of Affectionate Love. 

My heart is overflowing with a good theme. I recite my composition concerning the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.”  

As we fast, our yearning hearts long to know God and comprehend His love.

The entirety of Psalm 45 is a love song to God which gives us revelation of Yeshua’s awe-inspiring and affectionate love. The first verse reveals that the “Shoshanim” [the Roses] are singing a love song to God. 

In Song of Songs 1:2 the Bride declares, “I am the Rose of Sharon and the ‘Shoshana’ [Lily or Rose] of the Valley.” In poetic form the Bride compares herself to the beauty and fragrance of the shoshana, or rose, in the lush, life-giving fields of the valley.

Rose means “love in a vision of beauty.” A rose’s fragrance fills the air and changes the atmosphere just as did the fragrance of Mary Bethany’s worship when she poured forth the oil on Yeshua’s feet.

The fragrance of the Bride’s love and worshipful adoration changes the atmosphere.

The Shoshanim are the lovesick hearts that are pouring forth words of affection and adoration from the fiery streams that burn within them. Their tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

They are the worshippers, the intercessors, the psalmists, the songwriters, the authors, the preachers, etc. They are the ones whose hearts are on fire, the true worshippers that the Father seeks.

These Shoshanim reveal to us how we can possess an overflowing heart and how to understand what Yeshua’s love looks like. 

The Shoshanim flow in a revelation of the divine romance, the lyrical dance of the Bridegroom King and the soul who is falling in love. The Bride sees Him rightly, as He is, not according to her own imagination. 

She has beheld His holiness, goodness, purity, and nobility. He has no shadow of turning nor darkness in Him at all. He is the King that executes perfect justice, exercising great patience before He takes vengeance as a mighty,

Man of war. He burns with a zealous and jealous love for her. She is utterly addicted to the way He speaks with her. He is gracious, kind, slow to anger, and rich in love. He is so nice and so pleasant, like streams found in the heat of the desert.

He confesses His love for her and makes an everlasting covenant that will not be broken, declaring Himself as hers. He seals His covenant with His Bride with His body and blood. This is her Beloved; this is her Friend. She knows Him. Her heart overflows.

Yeshua, the Living Flame of Yah, loves her with all His heart, soul, mind and strength. She steps into His everlasting burnings, a love as strong as death, unyielding as the grave.

She steps into the vehement flames of Yah, that many waters cannot quench and floods cannot drown.

Who can dwell with these everlasting burnings? Who can stand in the devouring flame? Only the righteous, the heart that chooses the purity of being holy and blameless before God in love.

This song awakens love. This song clarifies what, or rather Who love is, and as she sings this Song of Love, she prepares her heart for the Day of her wedding. 

Prayerful Contemplation

Yeshua, as I am giving my time and sacrificing of my life to contemplate You, my heart is being flooded with a love song and my soul is being enraptured. 

Whispering to You as You whisper to me, singing to You as You sing to me, gazing at You as You gaze at me, fills my heart with a love song.

Considering the glories of the Messiah, contemplating and receiving the goodness of Your love causes my cup to overflow with a love song back to You. 

You make us ready in this hour and age before Your return. You extend the capacity of our ability to love You. You cause more and more love to abound and flow forth from this soul who sits down in Your shade with great delight. Fill me again LORD. 

Yeshua, to contemplate You fills me with the words of Who You are. My heart overflows as I steal away with thoughts of You, my Bridegroom King. 

I consider the dark day when, on pains of death, Pilate asked if You were the King of the Jews; You were not ashamed of us. You loved us to the end and answered boldly, “It is as you say.”

When the high priest raged against You, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

Without intimidation, You declared before the Sanhedrin, “You have said so, but I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 

Yeshua, You are an endless contemplation, my greatest pleasure, pleasures forevermore.

I meditate on Your words day and night. My soul breaks with longing for Your words oh God. I pant and thirst for another drink of the Revelation of You.

You are Other than what we see in this world.

Who can comprehend the spendor of Your transcendent beauty, the glory of Your humility, the height of Your throne, length of Your unfailing love and the width of Your ever-open arms? 

You are held on high and, yet, You are in us, loving on us. Yeshua, You are remarkably preeminent and You call me beloved. You are my Beloved. My heart overflows with the wonderful theme of You my King.

You taught my tongue how to recite of Your goodness.

The words that pour forth from me are words that You have given. You give me revelatory words and then I give the words back to You. You have given me all that I am.

The very words that exalt You on high, You reach out with Your holy hand and burn these words inside of my chest.

The circle, the orbit, flows and continues from You to me and me to You.

As the earth circles the sun and never ceases to orbit, so Your love orbits from You to me and me to You. Your love and Your words never cease to flow.

You and I have become one. I in You, Your words in me.

It is here in Your words that I find unity with my brothers and sisters. As we are in You, together catching mere glimpses of You as we peer deeply into Your Word, here we find unity among the Bride, Your beloved body.

You are making me a message so others can read the scroll of my life. You are making me a messenger that I may speak the words You long to say, sharing Your heart and declaring the truth of Who You are.

From my heart flow words for You my Love, for out of the heart the mouth speaks.