SOWING IN THE TIME OF RECESSION

In Genesis 26:1 it says, “There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham…” And in Genesis. 26:12, “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him.13 The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;14 for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.” These are very important scriptures! We see some correlations in today’s society. The man sowed, the man reaped, the Lord blessed him, and he started a process of prospering and continued to prosper.

Then we see through all of this that the Philistines envied him. Did you know that as the Lord blesses you continually people will become upset and even angry because of your blessings? We know according to Deuteronomy 8:18, “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for IT IS HE who gives you power to get wealth that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” This is getting good! If we read a little farther you will see that those who live according to these scriptures and then go away from them end up in a mess.

In our 27 years of pastoring, we saw this happen about 50 times. People would come to the church and hear the teaching on prosperity and then begin to apply the principles and the blessings would come. After a while, it was so easy to believe God. They would then begin to think it was what they did (applying a formula and not faith) without believing Father God. Their thought process was, “Why waste time in going to church, we know how to do this.” Yes, they knew the principle, but they forgot “IT IS HE who gives you power to get wealth.” They also forgot the last part, “that He may establish His covenant!” Sad to say, practically every one of them ended in divorce and bankruptcy. It is very interesting that the Word of God covers these situations also. Proverbs 10:22, says, “The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” Rich simply means having an abundance to meet every need. However, those who continued to live in church and do the things Father God asked are being blessed today.

HE WANTS HIS COVENANT ESTABLISHED

What many failed to understand is “that He may establish His covenant!” Yes, He   wants us blessed, but He also wants “HIS COVENANT TO BE ESTABLISHED!”

A number of years ago I was driving across Georgia after going to a funeral. I had to catch a 7:00 a.m. plane out of Birmingham. I was having a hard time picking up anything decent on the radio, so I began to pray in tongues. After about 30 minutes, I heard the Holy Ghost say, “Tithing is not about money, it is about covenant.” I immediately spoke up as if someone was sitting in the seat next to me. I said, “Lord, I have never heard that. You are going to have to show me.” He immediately said, (just as if He was sitting in the seat next to me, it was that clear) “I thought you would never ask.” Then He said, “A COVENANT is a formal binding agreement! I did my part when I sent Jesus to the cross. You now have to do your part and I will show you all the convincing evidence that you need to do your part.”

Then He sent me to Genesis 12:1-4, “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 4 So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him’.” These are some interesting scriptures!

WE MUST DO OUR PART AND HE WILL DO HIS PART

For every major decision Beverly and I have ever made, the Lord has always instructed us using the same verses He used to instruct Abraham. When we moved to Missouri in 1980, He gave us “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you’.” “Move away from those you know and learn to trust me.” Then He said, “I will bless you and you shall be a blessing!” He continued by saying, “I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you!” Have we ever seen those things come to pass! The word BLESS is very significant here. It has a connotation meaning to EMPOWER or He gives you the ability, which takes us back to Deuteronomy 8:18, “IT IS HE who gives you power to get wealth!” It doesn’t just happen, it takes each of us doing our part and Father God will surely do His part. He’s not just going to make us rich, but when we become rich, we need to give Him the praise for it!

To tie this in with the New Testament, we have to go to the Book of Hebrews. There are three scriptures we can see that ties this all together. Hebrews 5:5-6, “So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: You are My Son, today I have begotten you." 6 As He also says in another place: "You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek!" Then in chapter 6: Hebrews 6:20, “where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Also in chapter Hebrews 7:17, “For He testifies: You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek."

This phrase, According to the order of Melchizedek, which simply means “doing it the same way” opens up a whole new world in regard to the Blessings that Father God wants to give out to His people. Melchizedek was a type of Christ – who had no record of his beginning or his end.

STRIFE WILL ALWAYS STOP THE BLESSINGS!

If we go to Genesis chapter 14, we can begin to see some things developing. If you remember correctly, there was strife between Lot (Abram’s nephew) and Abram. In paraphrasing, Abram said to Lot, “You choose which land you want and I will take what is left.” Lot took the best land and Abram took what was left. However, Father God kept blessing Abram. Then there were enemies that came and captured Lot so Abram took some men and went and set Lot free. We pick it up in Chapter 14:18-20, “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.19 and he blessed him and said: ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand?’ And he (Abram) gave him a tithe of all.” If that is not enough, look at Hebrews 7:8-10, “Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. 9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak,10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.”

In Genesis 17:7 Father God is telling Abram, “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.” Who are “your descendants after you?” I’m glad you asked that question. Go with me to Galatians 3:29, “And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

FATHER GOD IS ALWAYS WORKING ON OUR BEHALF

We must always remember that Father God is working on our behalf to see to it that finances continually come our way. We know that Father God is in covenant with us and therefore we have to fulfill our part of the covenant by sowing on regular basis. In 2 Corinthians 9:5 it says, “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” Look at this verse from the Amplified Bible, “And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation].” I’m convinced that this verse can also be rendered to mean not only the amount that you give, but the regularity of one’s giving. I’m also convinced in line with a farmer; you can only reap in regard to the acres you sow. Pastor Hagin taught us a long time ago not to let an offering basket go by without putting something in each one. Beverly and I have done this for a long time and Father God has been showing up ever since we started this practice.

In closing, look at Acts 10:4, an Angel has appeared to Cornelius who is not a Hebrew, “So he said to him, ‘Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God’.” We who live in America know what a memorial is. It is a remembrance. We just recently celebrated Memorial Day, a time when we remember those who have given their lives for our country. So if our prayers and gifts are a memorial before Father God, then they must be important to Him.

And finally, in Matthew 23:23, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”

Pastor Larry