The 5% road

I visited my friend's church the other day and the preacher said something that resonated with me. He said:

"When a farmer plants a seed, at harvest time, he doesn't expect to get the same seed back"
As soon as I heard that, I had a revelation on harvest which I want to share. It's true that when you plant say a seed of corn, you don't expect back that one seed of corn, you don't expect two, or even three. You expect a great deal to come out of that one seed (at least a hundred-fold).
What would happen if we took that farmer's attitude and applied it to our finances; looked at every investment as a "seed", and every return as a "harvest". I believe we have become too mathematical and methodical when dealing with finance and investments, only applying Bible principles on the surface quoting "My God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory" and "...see if I will not open up the gates of heaven and pour out a blessing...". That's fine as a start, but we really need to begin to look at our finances in terms of farming.

We are IN this world but not of it, this means we are not governed by logical and mathematical rules. Here are a couple of bible passages that got me really excited on the topic of harvest:
Leviticus 26 v 10: You will still be eating last year's harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.

Deuteronomy 16 v 15: For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.

Galatians 6 v 7 says "Whatsoever a man sows, so shall he reap". It's important to understand that this means we shall reap in KIND, NOT in QUANTITY. This simple principle of harvest is based on 3 basic principles:-faith-works (working the faith)-and patienceand is further divided into 7 steps towards receiving your harvest. (outlined below)

1. SOW THE SEED: It sounds obvious, but it needs to be stressed that you cannot as a Christian reap where you did not sow. The Word calls it sin, the world calls it fraud. We need to be willing to invest something, whether it be money, time, an idea or whatever. We need to be willing to step out in faith .

2. TILL THE GROUND: If you are investing/sowing in a business or an idea, then you need to do what you can to make success possible; if you are investing in stocks then research the company to ensure it is a wise investment. Proverbs says in many places that there is no reward or harvest for the lazy man. So we need to work towards our harvest.

3. BE EXPECTANT: When the farmer sows the seed, he expects to get a harvest. He expects that in 3 months time or however long the cycle is, he will be "reaping where he sowed". And like I said before, he is not expecting to reap just a seed or a few seeds of corn; he is expecting a field. This is the part that struck me as most powerful. Applying this principle means that when we invest our finances in anything, we should (a) EXPECT a return, and (b) expect that return to be an EXPONENTIAL of our initial investment or "seed" money. That's powerful stuff if you speak it in faith over your life.

4. BE PATIENT: The preacher who spoke at the first sermon I heard in 2008 said this: "imitate those [people in the bible] who through FAITH AND PATIENCE inherit the promises of God". Patience is an intrinsic part to receiving your harvest. When the farmer sows the seed, it goes through a certain cycle and takes a certain amount of time based on weather and soil conditions before it is finally ready for harvest. The same way, when we invest, whether it's in business or whether it's our tithes and offerings, we need to be patient and wait for God's cycle to be complete. That might mean we aren't ready at the time and He needs to ready our hearts to receive the harvest he has in store for us.

5. READY YOURSELF: Just like the farmer needs to be ready to go out and collect the harvest when it's ready, we also need to be spiritually and physically ready to collect our blessings, harvests and returns so that we don't miss it.

6. HARVEST: This needs to be done at the right time so as to ensure the crop doesn't wither and die. We need to recognize when the harvest is ready. For example, when a stock is at its peak, before it drops off.

7. SOW: Again. Of our harvest, there is a certain measure that needs to be re-invested to yield another harvest. We are all familiar with the verse in Malachi that says "Bring ye all the tithe into the storehouse..." (a tenth off ALL your increase). That should be a model for how we handle ALL our investments, constantly re-investing a share of our profits or increase in Gods house first and subsequently into highly lucrative financial endeavors.

To conclude, I believe that if we were to adopt a farmer mentality and apply that to our finances, constantly trusting and believing God and staying faithful and devoted to Him, then we will truly inherit His numerous promises and experience abundant harvest. Amen.

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