YOUR MONEY. Getting Value For Your Seed
The matter of money is a crucial part of life,
and in fact God judges your spirituality partly
from the assessment of your ability to handle
money. In the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ, “… if you are untrustworthy about
worldly wealth, who will trust you with the
true riches of heaven” Luke 16:11NLT. It is
vital therefore that we are careful to learn the
correct handling of the matters of money so
that we will be found pleasing God.
If you read my book Grace to Prosper, in it I
explained that wrong doctrines produce
wrong practices. If your believing is wrong,
your doing will be wrong. The funny
practices that we see often today are
produced from wrong doctrines concerning
the word of God.
In this short sermon I will quote some of the
wrong doctrines I have heard preached about
the matter of money, and which have
produced abnormal practices in Christianity,
practices that actually displease the Lord. I
will try to bring the correction of the word of
God to them so as to bring deliverance to
those who may have been confused by
them.


1. It is often said, “The key to receiving from
God is giving.”
As much as this statement has some truths
in it, it is largely not accurate. Also the way
people try to apply it makes it even more out
of order. According to the words of Jesus,
the key to receiving is asking in faith.
Therefore I say to you, all things for which
you pray and ask, believe that you have
received them, and they shall be granted
you. Mark 11:24 NASB

James also stated this very clearly.
…you do not have because you do not ask.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask
with wrong motives… James 4:2-3 NASB
The key to receiving is asking, asking in faith
(James 1:6).

We are forbidden from bargaining with God
with of our good works. Good works are not
to be done for the sake of what we hope to
get. It is against the principle of godliness
with contentment. Godliness with
contentment is the act of doing what is right
simply because they are right. It is the desire
to practice righteousness for the love of
righteousness and not because of the gain
thereof. When people rely on what they give
to receive, and so give so as to receive, they
are practicing what Paul called “godliness as
a means of gain.”
…men of depraved mind and deprived of the
truth, who suppose that godliness is a
means of gain. 1 Tim 6:5-6 NASB


Giving is a form of godliness and must
therefore not be done for what we will gain.
It must be done with contentment. Please let
us not forget that the act of giving, just like
any other good work, has reward from
heaven attached, it is just that we do not
know what it will produce, and when it will
produce it.

So what do we do?
Sow your seed in the morning, and do not
be idle in the evening, for you do not know
whether morning or evening sowing will
succeed, or whether both of them alike will
be good. Eccl 11:6 NASB
Truth: The key to receiving from God is
asking in faith.





2. You have heard it said, “If you need
money, you must give money.”
Again, this statement appears true at first,
especially because it is supposedly based
upon the principle of seedtime and harvest,
which is an established law of life (Gen
8:22).

However one reason why it is wrong is
because it does not bear in mind that there
are different types of fields in life and that
each field has the kinds of seed that can be
planted in it. By this I mean that you cannot
plant your money directly into the soil in
your farm, nor can you directly invest your
corn in the financial market. The direct seed
of the farm is the corn while the stock
market or bank accepts your cash.
So we see that though we can sow corn (into
the soil) and reap corn, we cannot give corn
to someone and expect to reap corn from
God. The principle of giving and receiving is
a spiritual law; it is the application of the
seedtime and harvest principle in the field of
the spirit. Physical things are not sown into
that realm. Money in itself is not a spiritual
seed.

Spiritual seeds, which can directly be sown
into the realm of the spirit, are things like
love, mercy, honour etc. (Pls see Matt
5:3-9). They are the things that are found
only in the heart, but which are manifested
by the works they produce.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
receive mercy. Matt 5:7 NASB

When you give money, God does not see the
money as a seed; it is the thing in the heart
of the giver that is the spiritual seed. All acts
of giving have a motive, and that motive is
the thing that God judges as the seed into
the realm of the spirit.




Only the Lord knows! He searches all hearts
and examines deepest motives so he can
give to each person his right reward,
according to his deeds Jer 17:10 TLB
If you are giving just so you can get, what
you are really sowing is selfishness. That is
what registers in heaven. The right thing to
do is to give because you love people,
because you love the work of propagating the
gospel, because you desire good for the
person you are giving to. That way you will
be sowing love and mercy, and you will
receive love and mercy. You cannot provoke
God to bless you by your selfishness.
If you want to give to a man of God, give to
him because he has been a blessing to you,
and not because you want to tap his
anointing. That way you are sowing honor
and God will honor you.
…for those who honor Me I will honor 1 Sam
2:30 NASB


The only person in the Bible that tried to give
so as to ‘tap’ an anointing was Simon the
former sorcerer, and he was sharply
corrected by Peter (Acts 8:18-24).
The rewards for the good seeds we sow into
the realm of the spirit will come in greater
ways then we can imagine. I pray we will
trust God to apportion His reward as He sees
best. Meanwhile if we need anything, we ask.
Truth: When giving money, make sure your
motive is good and godly, because that is
the true seed that registers in heaven. Money
in itself in not a spiritual seed!





3. You have heard is said, give your offering
a name; tie it to something you want from
God. Also you have heard it said, “remind
God of all your offerings and tithes when you
want to pray.”


From what we have seen in the earlier 2
points, there is no need to say much further
in answer to these. These statements break
the law of godliness-with-contentment. You
do not know what the offering will bring,
even though it is a matter of fact that every
offering brings a reward from God.


We
cannot seek the reward; we don’t even know
what they are specifically at each time. You
may have shown mercy in your giving to the
hungry and God repays you with mercy is
delivering your from death from a sickness.
You may have honoured God in giving to His
prophet, and he in turn honours you by
giving you a child you were not even asking
for. Ask the rich woman of Shunem. (rf)
Once you mention your good deeds in prayer
to claim a thing from the Lord, you kill the
power of that seed.


In conclusion, we must learn to give
continually, and become cheerful givers.
Generosity is one of the signs of spirituality.
It is one of the out-workings of a heart that
trusts God. If you are not a generous giver,
you are certainly not walking in faith, no
matter how much you think so or confess
so.
A real cheerful giver is not only generous but
is relaxed and is not giving so he can get.
He or she is just a person of faith who
knows that God is good. Giving to God is a
sign of faith, a sign of our love for God and
obedience to His word; it is not a means of
demanding.





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