Cloud Communication

UV 2075/10000 Cloud Communication
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
I Corinthians 3 v 6

In the kingdom of God, one ploughs, another sows, yet another waters, and another harvests. God, the Lord who provides the seed of the gospel is the Lord of the harvest for all human souls ultimately and immediately belong to Him and to Him alone, the Creator and the Redeemer. This is “cloud communication” where all the elements or components of the plougher, the sower, the waterer, the harvester come together in unity of purpose. The plougher, the sower and the waterer should work together that the maximum of people are benefitted, the greatest number of souls are touched in the deepest way possible. They should work hard, work smart and work with the operation of the gifts and grace of the Lord so that the harvest is both plentiful and bountiful.

Our earnest and fervent prayers seed the cloud of the Lord that it brings rain where it should rain and the rain cease where it should cease. The Word of the Lord is also the spiritual seed to cause the clouds to bring abundance of rain or needed blessings that His people are crying out for. The water softens the hardened hearts of people just as the early or first rain every year softens the hard and parched ground and makes it ready for ploughing. Once the ground is softened, the sower needs to come forth and cast the carefully chosen good seed. The seed needs to be daily watered to prevent the ground from hardening and imprisoning the new life. The sapling too needs to be watered over the growing period. Even after the plant matures, it needs watering. But however hard one works at each stage, it is the Lord who causes one plant to grow and flourish and another to perish. At each stage, the worker of the Lord needs to use the gifts, resources and opportunities he or she is given without claiming the credit or the glory for self but to give it all to the Lord of the harvest who alone determines which plant shall yield what crop.

Like the cloud that is here today and gone tomorrow after it causes its loaded moisture to precipitate onto the thirsty earth, our responsibility is to be the source of the communication and not to remain on the stage of life to take the bow. Nothing should transpire to affect the purity, the clarity, the purpose of our communication. St Paul refers in the book of Hebrews to being surrounded “by such a great cloud of witnesses”. He does not refer to it as a crowd of witnesses but a cloud of witnesses of Jesus, implying that we are not to be a group or groups of disparate individuals working as lone wolves but as sheep in a flock rubbing shoulders, mingling our cries and and prayers to a common great Shepherd. Today, the cloud is much larger than in St Paul’s time. Sin, ego and personal agenda are the burdens that can easily entangle us and disrupt the cloud communication. The clouds are to be electrically charged by the Spirit of the Lord. Cloud communication also means that our communication is boundary-less and sheds the message wherever it alights. The Spirit will move the cloud and position it where it should rain- in some places where ploughing is due, some places where sowing is due, some places where harvesting is due and in all places where growing happens. The plougher, the sower, the waterer, the thresher should each do in hope of a plentiful and good harvest, each making his contribution, each enjoying his wages, none taking that which belongs to another. As we excel in our tasks, the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth from all nations on the Earth.

Prateep V Philip