God has never yet been taken by surprise. Even as He had a solution when as Adam and Eve sinned, so He has solutions for the problems of today. Jesus Christ said simply, I will build My church, and thegates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18 ). Never has the need been greater for God’s people to regroup and bring revival; and the only way to see it happen is to strengthen and multiply churches.

The key to changing society is the presence of the kingdom of God . Its presence comes as people turn to Christ, churches are formed, and believers live and do the works of Christ. This includes prayer, righteous living, evangelism, serving others, feeding the poor, healing the sick, teaching the Word, working and speaking out against evil, church planting, and much more. Through these and other methods believers engage in a series of power encounters with the enemy. The greater the number of successful encounters the further darkness is pushed back.

For example, two Harvest students, a married couple in Compton , California , received Christ several years ago. Their street was lined with drug dealers, prostitutes, junkies, and gang members. People dumped loads of trash in the street regularly and shootings were common. This couple organized a prayer group for their neighborhood and then walked their street weekly, praying over it. Today the junkies, prostitutes, drug dealers, and gangs are gone. The shootings have ceased; trash is no longer dumped in the streets; and children are once again playing in the streets safely.

Some years ago a church that several Harvest students attend moved into a new neighborhood in central L.A. It was a dangerous and filthy neighborhood with someone shot every week. Today, the neighborhood is quiet, peaceful, and safe due to the presence of God’s people who bring hope and sanity, love and caring, prayer, and the Spirit of God.

When the riots were in full swing at UC Berkeley, 600 Christians staged a “spiritual blitz,” saturating every part of the university with the gospel for a week. Many radicals, student leaders, instructors, and other people were converted. The presence of the Holy Spirit was felt throughout the campus. For the next three years there were no riots or demonstrations whatsoever. The radicals constantly blamed the Christians for “ruining their movement.” We can crash the devil’s party where we live, too. Community organization and development, loans to entrepreneurs in the “two-thirds world,” prophetic witness, prayer, evangelism—these and many other methods are being used by Christians to attack the evil that grips cities around the world. The Wesleyan revival of the 1700s demonstrated that complete societal change is possible when just 2 1 / 2 % of a nation becomes sold-out Christians.

Easter Week outreaches on the beaches at Newport and Balboa, California , showed how 400 determined believers could stop the wild parties of 100,000 people in just four years. Successful local church campaigns against “adult” theaters in Long Beach and Norwalk , California , as well as churches preventing a gambling casino in Pico Rivera , prove that darkness can be pushed out of the city by light.

The evil systems controlling the city and the region can be overthrown. When Christians bring churches and the Kingdom of God to thousands of blocks in the city, massive change will occur.

Harvest leaves people’s “ethnicity” and socioeconomic identity intact. It is a multi-ethnic school that helps each group develops its own approach to reaching its people for Christ. Harvest is designed for regular people who will never be able to afford a major Christian university education; for people who come from oral tradition cultures and therefore do not fit in well with the white academic establishment; and for people who have been “marginalized” by the system for any number of other reasons.

Harvest is designed to develop character, Bible knowledge, relationship with God, and ministry competency. It uses only teachers who are spiritually mature and have ministries themselves; who teach from experience as well as academic preparation. Every teacher is gifted with the ability to make the classroom come alive, to cause learning and life-change right in the room with little outside homework needed. Harvest is designed for working people with families who are active in their own churches and, therefore, do not have great amounts of time for schooling.

For the location nearest you, call 213-384-8747 or email info@harvestbibleuniversity.edu.