Luke 10:1–2, 17–21 (NLT) The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. 2 These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” … 17 When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!” 18 “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! 19 Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. 20 But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.” 21 At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and he said, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.
Jesus sent out 72 of His committed followers (disciples) to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and as demonstration that this message was from the Lord, He gave them His authority to heal the sick and cast out demons. They came back filled with joy because of what the saw the Lord do through their ministry.
The disciples were amazed because of the powerful miracles they had performed, but Jesus said they should be amazed because of God’s salvation that they have experienced themselves and witnessed in others. Their success filled Jesus with joy as He prayed to His Father.
Eleven years ago when we started Onward Church, we determined to equip everyone to be able to make disciples who make disciples. We learned from the Disciple Making Movement practioners like Ying Kai, Troy Cooper, Jeff Sundell, Steve Parlato and others. Through this I realized that my job as pastor was to equip the saints for the work of ministry. And Jesus only left us one ministry: The Great Commission—to make disciples who make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20). So my job as pastor is to equip the congregation for this ministry of disciple-making.
This brings us to today’s text. Jesus gives His disciples a personal prayer request before sending them out. Do you ever have prayer requests that you share with your Christian brothers and sisters? Well, here is Jesus’ request. He is asking the 72 disciples, and He is asking you and me to pray for His prayer request: “So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”
If someone I loved asked me to pray an important prayer for them, I would definitely pray until the Lord answered the prayer. Jesus is asking me to pray that the Lord would send more workers into the world to harvest souls for His Kingdom.
Each day at 10:02am (because of Luke 10:2) an alarm on my phone goes off to remind me to pray that the Lord will send workers into His harvest fields.
Here is an amazing principle: Many of the workers who the Lord will send into the harvest fields are not yet harvested! This means that one of ways you can pray this prayer is to pray for those in your life who do not know the Lord. What would happen if every Christian prayed to the Lord to raise up more workers for His harvest?
So What? Who are the people in your life who are far from God? Write down their names and pray at 10:02am each day that the Lord would save them and then send them as a worker in His harvest field.
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