By Paulo Borges
Paulo is the Senior Pastor of Sal da Terra Church in Brazil, and one of the leaders of Go to the Nations Link.

I praise God because He spoke through Psalm 126 in our hearts many times, and it is making a great difference in the vision of missions and in our relationship with other ministries.

When I begun to understand this word in a eschatological perspective, I saw that it is inserted in the fulfilment of everything and brings revelation about the last days and at the same time connects us to everything that God did in the past. It brings to us a wide vision about the whole plan of God.

We hear that there is understanding and comprehension that we are living the times of the return of Jesus. Now, if we take the word of God in Acts 1:8 we will see the perspective of the going , the going from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. In this context, Asia is the beginning of the ends of the earth, because we have Jerusalem , Judea , Samaria and the ends of the earth. Therefore the ends of the earth started with Asia, with the church of Ephesus where today is Turkey, the heart of the 10 40 window. If we look at the Revelation of John, we will see that this book is the reverse of Acts 1:8 because it will start with the ends of the earth.

Now, when we look at Psalm 126 we can see the description of two distinct moments that are part of the same event. Ecclesiastes 3 says that everything has the right time , everything has its own moment and there is time for every purpose . However in in Acts 1:7 Jesus says that it doesn't belong to us to know the times and seasons because God reserved it for his own control and dominion. It means that even having a perception of time, we struggle to deal with it because we understand things as they happen. I want know to explain it better. Let's call harvest the event that includes the whole process in two seasons - the sowing and the reaping. It is like a birth that has two specific times but they belong to the same event: there is the time of conception, when the baby becomes a reality - he is alive, and he already exists. After the conception, there is a time to be born, what is the birth itself, but both conception and birth are part of the same event - to come to life. However, even belonging to the same event, they have distinct theologies and characteristics.

In Psalm 126 the theologies of sowing and reaping are completely different and distinctive from each other. They have different actions, ideas , vision and strategy. They are not only different but opposite.

To sort out the doctrinal conflict between the two moments, we need to see the event as a whole. The harmony of both together can only be seen if we are free of our idea of time - we need a vision of eternity. If we try to understand both but we are restricted by the concept of time, it can represent struggle and suffering in the lives of those involved in this event.

Let's understand these differences: While the one who is sowing is thinking about spreading, the one who is reaping is thinking about gathering. Have you ever thought about someone who gathers, working as a sower? He will not sow any seed . Now if you imagine someone who is thinking about sowing, but reaping, he will not take any seeds to his home. To be able to comprehend both together, we have to be free of our idea of time.

Another aspect that makes the theology of both different is mentioned in Psalm 126, when it says that the sower takes the seed, while the reaper brings the sheaves. The time of sowing is a time of being isolated, alone and a time of darkness sometimes . People who are sowing can feel isolated, alone, and surrounded by thick darkness. These people sometimes can feel outside God's project because they hear people talking that now is the time to walk together, to go for relationship, and to gather the sheaves. To be isolated is not a problem if we are talking about sowing, but it will be a problem if we are talking about reaping.

What is God's moment in you life? In which moment of the event called harvest you are included? Without this vision we will have personal problems and struggles with one another because the season of reaping is not a time of isolation, it's a time of gathering. It's not a time of being alone - it's a time of relationship. It's not a time of darkness, like when the seed is under the ground but it's a time of light. It's not a time to get in, but a time to come out.

The times for sowing and reaping are also different because one is a time of crying and the other is a time of joy. In the time of sowing you start rich and you finish poor. Poverty and suffering are part of the sowing and no one should be worried about that because it is part of the event. The one who sows knows that they are going to start with the storehouse full and finish with it empty. But in time of reaping you start off poor and then you end up reach. It's a time of prosperity.

Just to give you an example, something that has been effecting the church in the whole world and even dividing some brothers is prosperity. The church can go through times of prosperity because one day she sowed, she became poor to sow. People had to sell their goods, their belongings because it was a time of sowing. When the reaping comes, the church ends up rich. Why does the church ends up rich? It is to sow again, and become poor again.

There are brothers saying that now is the time of prosperity. It is not a time for sacrifices - Jesus did all the sacrifice I am a son of the King, so I have everything and I have to think about riches, goods. Those who are preaching like that, when they meet the sowers they will hear that their theology is wrong, because the gospel is about sacrifice, weeping, tears, suffering and giving. The reaper will say ‘NO!' The gospel is about riches and reaping, it's about taking the enemies goods and fill the storehouse. They will say that suffering and sacrifices are not from God, and that this is not a good theology.

Sometimes I've heard that missions is a challenge of relationship and I believe in that because this is my time, I am part of this generation and this is my theology. I also hear that to be isolated and to do mission by yourself is not biblical. However to do missions isolated is also biblical when we are sowing. Those who went to other countries by themselves died there, and many of them were forgotten. Many had no partnerships established, but they were not outside the biblical standard. It was just a different moment, with a different theology.

If we don't understand it, we will start working against the Holy Spirit because He uses different strategies which can be even opposite to each other to fulfill the Father's plan. There is a time for the church when she will move in a kind of thinking and will be impregnated by this thought. She will think only in this way, and understand that this is the only way to do things. When a new season comes, the church will think in another way, perhaps even opposite to the first one. Again she will be dominated by this idea thinking that this is the only way to do things.

Perhaps what I will share now will be a shock to many leaders. This is something that many times is our biggest problem, but I hope that you will think as a farmer and consider the whole event.

When you are sowing the quality of the seed is the most important thing. That seed will be reproduce into hundreds, so it has to be very good. The theology of the sower is the one of training, preparation, and discipleship. Quantity is not the emphases because we don't want to compromise the quality, which is the key word. It's because we cannot sow any seed. It has to be the best ones, the healthier ones, the perfect ones.

However, when are reaping, we will gather everything. Now we want all the seeds: the big ones, the small ones, the whole ones, the broken ones, all of them. Quality is not the point any longer, because the time and the purpose is different.

If we, the leaders don't understand it, we can start creating selective conditions in the wrong season, in the wrong time, or being worried about quantity or loose about quality in the season of sowing.

There is a scripture that impresses me - Luke 14, where Jesus talks about the great harvest and he says about gathering people to the supper. However on verse 23, the one who prepares the banquet will compromise with quality. He will say: ‘now you will go out to the streets and gather everyone you can. Force them to come in. Don't just invite them, don't try to convince them, but force them to come, so the house will be full.

This is the thinking of someone who reaps. He was not worried about the size of the grains or the quality of the seeds - it is time of reaping and he wants to fill the storehouse.

There are days when something different will happen, as we approach the end. As we approach eternity the time starts to make no sense because the seasons start to approach each other and they become only one time. Pastors and leaders, we have to be ready for a new time, a time were a whole city, a whole kingdom, a whole nation, can be raised in one day .

I suffered a lot with the matter of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I was already a believer and I had to have a lot of patience to be evangelised many times again by my brothers that wanted to see me converted. It was because the further we go to the past, the larger will be the distance between the conception and the birth, but they are all the same . They are 2 different moments that are part of the same event. The child is already a child since the day of the conception. It is like with our spiritual life: the Word and Spirit will produce the child's identity until the day of birth, which is not a fact in itself, isolated.

Let's go to Amos 9:13 where it says "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills.

Two things will happen at the same time and it's a problem for our theology, is a challenge for us, because if we have a specific call, and if we don't understand this clearly, we will represent difficulties to someone, resistant to one another, instead representing help and cooperation.

They have two completely different and opposite theologies: one that takes, another that brings; one that separates, another that gathers. But they will be together, in the same place at the same time. It's the Holy Spirit who is working with all this together, and through Him there is no difference or opposition between us. We are part of the same event, and they co- operate with each other.

We have to pay attention to the quality of our links, because this is the character of the event: love. What makes a net ? What is a net made of ? Strings . How is a fishing net made of ? Not only by strings, but by strings and nots. Strings are strings, and you can bring them together, and they will not be a net, if there are not links. So important as a strings are the nots, the connections, so we have to understand the connection between this two moments, that is God's love, which links these two ministries, connects these two theologies, and makes both effective.