Biblical Steps to Financial Freedom part 11-Where to sow Much of what has been shared may have clarified this. It may be worthwhile to summarize it. Wherever you sow as long as it’s in Christian related causes matters less than your motives for sowing. You will receive financial rewards for whatever financial sacrifice you make. God remembers them all and will reward you in due season. Your concern should be whether or not your financial sacrifices will have a heavenly reward. You may be desperate now to care less on what you’ll later receive but I advise you to minimize your desperation. The more in a hurry you are the more God may test your faith and try to align your motives to suit his. He can therefore delay your purposed reward or transfer it to your children altogether. He may instantly reward but you will be a rare exception. Many of us have had to walk by faith and learnt to give for the sake of the gospel for years and years and years. God has blessed us in many ways that toil and sweat cannot manage. However it has all been in his way and measure, not ours. Another counsel is on ministries claiming to be fertile ground. I believed this until the Lord revealed these matters. The only fertile ground is you the individual believer not an entire ministry. If it was a ministry then our heavenly rewards will be based on which ministries we gave to regardless of our motives. Even non-Christians will be rewarded for helping Billy Graham or Joyce Meyer in their evangelism work or supporting James Gondwe in his orphanage ministry. The scripture says the soil (good or bad) is the believer. The parable about the good and bad soil is in Mark 4:13-20. The parable is more about how we apply God’s word in our lives than about finances. Regarding finances we will reap wherever we sow even with wrong motives or in wrong areas. Our concern needs to be on our motives and areas that the bible supports - Christian causes. Where to sow is therefore in areas that can be considered as Christian causes or responsibilities of the body of Christ. They need to be part of God’s household mentioned in Malachi. God’s house is the body of Christ that is beyond a single ministry, denomination or structure. A traditional church easily fits the description because of our conservative views. However the early church structure is far from what we have today. It was wherever people met and wherever believers did God’s work. They even denounced temple buildings that the Israelites considered being sacred houses of God. Stephen got stoned to death for such remarks (Acts 7:48-50). Paul, the one who supervised his stoning went on after his conversion to establish Stephen’s divine inspired version of non-traditional temples. The early Protestants like John Wesley followed this up in their non-traditional ministries. There is no ten percent rule of paying tithe like in the old testament. Neither is there a rule on sowing to a single ministry or to multiple ones. However it is good not to walk away from your local church. They survive and grow based on your support and you probably have been blessed by their teachings. Attending a local church Sunday after Sunday and never helping out in their financial needs is spiritual robbery. Maybe you feel that they don’t deserve your help. Then you’re better off moving elsewhere you’d be willing to contribute at least on a level you feel grateful for their role in your life. The other problem is when manipulation and deceit is used to obtain financial support. For instance when some claim sowing to their ministry will bring a financial breakthrough or break yokes in certain areas. It is not wrong to say God will bless you. He will bless you because of your obedience to his word on giving, not obedience to someone’s word on where to give, when or how much. It is wrong when God’s blessing is linked to giving to a certain ministry, certain ministry programs and giving certain amounts. If the blessing comes quickly enough you may end up assuming it came because you obeyed someone’s word. He/she ends up getting the credit and not God’s unbreakable word on giving that was actually fulfilled as you gave. You’re better off staying away from manipulative ministries. They may hinder some of your blessings because they make people focus on the assumed power of their ministry and not the real power of God’s word when obeyed. Fellowship with a ministry that does not create such hindrances. There are enough hindrances to deal with already. So certain amounts can be set aside for local and other ministries that have been a blessing to you in one way or another. Bless them materially for the spiritual empowerment they have sown in your life. “If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?” 1 Corinthians 9:11. The material support is anticipated to come from those being assisted spiritually. “In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel,” 1 Corinthians 9:14. If our work has blessed you and youd like to support our ministry please visit our support pages at JesusWork.org (Jesus Work Ministry). Certain amounts can go to ministries you love to support in their work and care less of hearing or benefiting from them - spiritually, socially and so on. These can include Christian charities helping materially disadvantaged people. Certain amounts can go to your own personal ministry like helping your parents (or former guardians), needy members of your extended family, personal evangelism and so on. Helping your own immediate family (spouse and children) is like helping yourself so it will not count as a sacrificial seed. But your immediate family still counts as part of your personal ministry. Here is the best part on where to sow financial seeds. Sowing with the right motives and in Christian causes is what brings sweet fruits as opposed to bitter fruits. The gifts sown are also counted as a reward in heaven’s bank account. The sweet fruits and heavenly storing is what we all desire from our good deeds. We want to support the body of Christ in evangelism and charitable work for the worthy sake of the work even if no earthly reward came. However we also want heaven to honor our sacrifices on Judgment day rather than trash them in the fire. “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing,” 1 Corinthians 13:1. If we cared less how heaven will value our good deeds then we could give with wrong motives and/or to non-Christian causes. The eventual outcome would still be a financial harvest, but one with bitter fruits and with no heavenly account. No sincere Christian would want this to his/her name. Besides, bitter financial fruits are as distressing and many times worse than having no fruits at all. “Better a little (wealth) with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil,” Proverbs 15:16. “He who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor,” Proverbs 28:8.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 20:12:48 +0000