In an epoch in which result is associated with speed, and success with numbers, one can hardly desire to get involved in a task in which both attractions seem to be lacking. Who doesn’t love the sight of crowds? The quick results? The impressive altar calls or the recognition of man? Yet God is looking for lovers who can trample all of it underfoot to reach out where the Gospel has never shone. Will you be one of them? A pioneer willing to carry the reproach of Christ outside the camp (Heb. 13:13).

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was a pioneer. He preached in a wilderness, prepared a way where there was none, made the paths straight, filled the valleys, brought the mountains low, and died as a martyr. Where are the Johns today? Where are the men and women willing to spend their life in a work denuded of glamorous colors, a work which calls for little praise and plenty of opposition? John volunteered and became a mighty pioneer, a remover of thorns, a stone-carrier, a plowman, in brief, a field-maker.

Later on Jesus moved in the field John had prepared and sowed the precious Seed. Little harvesting did He accomplish in his days. In His darkest hour He was forsaken of all; denied by one of His best men; betrayed by another; and sentenced to death by the multitude. But Jesus and John left a mighty legacy that should not be overlooked, they left behind a field white for harvest. This doesn’t mean the whole earth was ready to be harvested, but simply that the pioneering work they had accomplished had paid off there where it had been carried out.

Wild land

There is plenty of wild land left today. Not only the harvest is not white in these virgin areas but the trees of paganism are still standing high, casting their dark shadows on the hearts and minds of people for whom the Lamb was sacrificed. Who will dare, in this postmodernistic period, to penetrate these pagan jungles and cut down the challenges? Who will accept to spend and be spent in view to pull out the stumps so deeply rooted before plowing (with twelve yoke of oxen if needed) until the depths are ripped open and the wild disemboweled? And most importantly: Who will stay at it till the soil is tilled and the furrows carved in. Will you? Will you stand up resolutely to prepare a land for the sower? To build a hope for the harvester? To bless the heart of the Master?

When Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost the result was not due to the anointing only. Without a doubt the three thousand would not have been converted without the anointing. But one must remember the words of Jesus: “I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor” (John 4:38). Peter gathered a great harvest because John and Jesus had pioneered in the self-same field for several years. Peter was faithfully—yet simply—reaping the benefits of other men’s labor.

The apostle Paul

Paul was another tree-cutter. Listen to what he says:

And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, but as it is written: “To whom he was not announced, they shall see; and those who have not heard shall understand’” (Rom. 15:20,21).

And again:

For we are not overextending ourselves (as though our authority did not extend to you), for it was to you that we came with the gospel of Christ; not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but having hope, that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s sphere of accomplishment” (1 Co. 10:14-16).

These are the words of an explorer, the testimony of a man who labored more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times he received forty stripes minus one. Three times he was beaten with rods; once he was stoned; three times he was shipwrecked; a night and a day he spent in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of his own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, besides the other things, what came upon him daily: his deep concern for all the churches (2 Co. 11:23-28). Pioneering work? That’s right! Yet “…the sufferings of this present time,” says Paul, “are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom.8:18).

Luther

And what about Luther? He shook Europe, challenged the Papacy, and launched out The Reformation. Who was he? A harvester? A man clothed in soft garments? A conformist? Listen to what he says:

I am rough, boisterous, stormy, and altogether warlike, fighting against innumerable monsters and devils. I am born for the removal of stumps and stones, cutting away thistles and thorns, and clearing the wild forest; …”

His Axe cleared a third of a continent; his Plough made unforgettable furrows upon history; and his determination stands as a rebuke to whosoever sits at ease on the lees of lands already conquered.

God is looking for volunteers

This is the kind of folks the devil hates. Men who can turn a forest into a field and rejoice in the process. Of course it follows that there will be little harvesting while the field is being prepared. This might be the reason why so few volunteer for the pioneering task. After all, who wants to forsake the popularity of the harvesters—so highly desired nowadays—in view to adopt the unattractive occupation of a field maker? Who will accept to lay down his life in the shadow of the unseen, amidst forgotten thorny lands?

In reference to pioneering work Amy Carmichael wrote:

Would one whose nature clung to a safe and comfortable walk on the beaten track, the approval of onlookers who disapprove of anything off such tracks, ever survive, much less be happy in our rocky life?”

These are the words of a land-clearer who knew some of the inconveniences involve in the making of a field. But there are some, few as they may be, who are moved by the challenge. These, putting their hand to the plough, are refusing to look back. By grace they set their face as a flint, determined to get the work done or die in the attempt. Will you be one of them? A pioneer! With callus on your hands and fire in your heart.

Oh, may the Pioneer’s Spirit fall on us, inspiring us to grasp the Axe and Plough and to follow Him with heart in hand into the thick dark wild, and this, untill the Final Day.