Confronting the Spirit of Lack – Part 5

The essence of today’s text helps to put in balance the whole idea of how progressive giving results in advancing incremental results. (Wow, what a mouthful!) The whole idea of the law of the harvest in giving is that God honors and multiplies the seed planted in His service and for Kingdom causes and will never cease as long as the process continues.

I. DON’T EAT YOUR SEED CORN. In the ministry of giving, God gives one the finances necessary to both live and to give. One should distinguish between the two. In the early years of our country, the farmers would always set back a certain percentage of their corn (or other seed) crops to use to plant crops for the next season. That was called their “seed corn.” If they were careless or otherwise improvident, they would use up their seed corn during the year and have nothing to left with which to plant when the new season came. This was called “eating up their seed corn.” In the sense of this scripture, it means that one lives up his giving money.

In the ministry of giving one must determine what will be “seed corn” and set that aside before he uses any of his resources. He, as directed by the Holy Spirit will determine when and to whom those resources will be given. Some may have specific projects they make a practice of giving to while others may give variously as they see needs that they feel led to contribute to. Regardless, unless they carefully superintend their spending, they can be left without seed to plant in time of planting.

II. YOU WILL NOT NECESSARILY REAP FROM THE FIELD IN WHICH YOU PLANTED. One should not expect to reap where he has sown. While one may plant to one field, he will reap from another. God chooses based solely on His sovereignty which field to bless and multiply. I learned this lesson well on one occasion. I was called to do a revival meeting in New Mexico at a time when resources were very tight. After leaving subsistence money for my family, I had just enough money ($75.00) to buy a one way flight to New Mexico. During the trip, I very carefully went over my needs for the next month with the Lord; telling Him precisely how much money we needed to make it through this particular season where I had no meetings scheduled. I needed $600 above the cost of the trip to make it through that season (obviously this was in the early 70s!). As the meeting progressed the pastor became very excited about the size of the offering. Finally, on the last Sunday morning of the meeting, prior to the service, he could contain himself no longer. He said they had taken up the largest love offering ever given in the history of that church – approximately $150.00! My heart sank. That was just enough to pay for the round trip ticket with nothing left over to live on. I cancelled my flight home and bought a bus ticket saving about $25.00. After a miserable 24 hour trip home on the bus, I was both chagrined and delighted to discover that a deacon in a church I had formerly pastored (unknowing of what our needs were or the prayer I had prayed) had sent me a check for – you guessed it – for $600.00! Instead my of riding home on a bus hoping to save at least $25.00 out of the love offering, the Father had provided abundantly from another source plus enough for me to fly both ways. I had planted in one field and reaped out of another!

III. AN AMAZING PROMISE. Now comes the clincher for the whole study. “Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness” (2 Corinthians 9:10). We will dissect it into three parts:

1. God supplies in two ways, seed for the sower (seed corn (lit. wheat) and bread for food. In other words, God will supply abundantly on both ends: seed and food. The problem is that we have not learned to look at unexpected (or even expected) bonuses as seed to be planted. To fail to see the extra material blessings of God as seed to be planted into Kingdom work is to deprive us of great blessings, and more prosperity with which to minister. Unfortunately, we tend to save up the extra income for rainy days or to use it up in neglected projects, either way, we pay a price of lack and miss blessings unknown to us.

2. God has promised to both supply the extra seed corn (lit. wheat) to plant with the added promise that he would multiply that which was sown. I have researched some amazing statistics. One kernel of wheat can produce a stalk with a minimum of 50 to 80 kernels of wheat. A bushel of wheat contains approximately one million kernels of wheat. If one planted a bushel of wheat, he could figuratively reap seventy to seventy-five times the amount he planted or seventy to seventy-five million kernels of wheat or approximately seventy to seventy-five bushels of wheat. What these stats don’t give is the fact that a root core of wheat often produces three to five stalks, each one containing a head of wheat. God did not loosely promise His abundance to His faithful children.

3. God will not only multiply the money planted into His kingdom through our consistent practices of giving but has additionally promised to increase the fruits of our righteousness. This is where it gets good. What is the most important fruit that can be reaped? Souls for Christ. When we practice the principles of the law of the harvest, we become partakers in the greater works of the Kingdom – reaching souls for Christ and the expansion of the Kingdom. There is a little known or understood principle given in Matthew: “"He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward” (Matthew 10:41). When we plant into the ministries of people God is using in the Kingdom work, we become partakers of the rewards of those people!

This expands the benefit of our giving far beyond material blessings. Somehow I think this is what Jesus was speaking of in Matthew 6:19-21 where He said: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Hopefully, through this series of messages we have been able to see bondages that we can enter into when we fail to apply the principles of the law of the harvest. While we might prosper for a season in this life, our hearts can wither in us when we focus on how much of the harvest we can glean for ourselves to be consumed on ourselves and ours. God has a better plan. Repeating what He said in Malachi, “ ‘Bring all the tithes (and offerings) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,’ says the Lord of hosts ‘And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land’ says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:10-12). Jeff