You were not born to be poor, any more than the earth was created to bring forth weeds, thorns and thistles. Like the earth itself, you were created to produce a good harvest of fine fruit - for yourself and for many others. If you are not enjoying "the fruits of your labor," then check your seed. Replace your old, bad seed with new, good seed.
What You Sow Today Is What You Reap Tomorrow
I am a close friend of Charles Capps, one of the most dynamic teachers of our time. We have been friends for a number of years now. He and I used to preach together a lot, particularly all over Arkansas where Charles lives. I have stayed in his home on several occasions.
Charles lives on a large farm out in the country, not far from Little Rock, Arkansas. He has been a farmer most of his life. Every time I would go to his home, I noticed that he had cotton growing everywhere.
In fact, the narrow piece of ground where we landed our airplane lay right down the middle of a cotton patch. Whenever we landed or took off, there was cotton growing on both sides of the airstrip.
But then one time I went home with Charles and the first thing I noticed was that there was no cotton. Instead, the entire place was covered with soybeans. So I asked Charles, "What happened to the cotton?" "I didn't plant any," was his simple answer. End of conversation. Charles is a man of few words.
One year there was cotton, the next year there wasn't. When I asked why there was no cotton, he told me all the truth I needed to know: there was no cotton because he hadn't planted cotton that year! And obviously, if you don't plant cotton seed, you don't raise cotton. Even I could figure that out.
I could have asked him where all the soybeans had come from, but I already knew what he would say: "I planted them." Sure. You want soybeans, you plant soybeans. Simple.
The same is true in your life and mine. What we plant is what we get. What we sow, that shall we also reap. That's a basic spiritual principle.
A farmer's success depends entirely upon his sowing good seed and reaping good crops. In the very same way, the harvest in our lives depends totally upon what we sow. That's why Satan fights so hard against the preaching of this message. He knows it links you to God's system of prosperity.
God has declared, in the book of Genesis, that as long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest will not cease (Genesis 8:22). The earth itself operates on this principle. Everything we do on this planet depends upon that one central rule.
That's how the earth is populated, by seedtime and harvest. Whatever the field of endeavor - finances, agriculture, industry, medicine, education, ministry - it all works on the same fundamental principle that what is sown (invested) is what is reaped (produced).
That's how we grow spiritually: by planting seeds. We give and it is given to us. We give love, and love comes back to us. We show ourselves to be friendly, and we reap friends. We give understanding to others, and we receive understanding. We listen to others, and in turn they listen to us. We give out the knowledge we have gained, and God increases that knowledge.
That's why I say that it is foolish and wrong for a person to say that he will start giving to God as soon as the Lord has made him rich. That is like a person expecting a fireplace to give off heat before he throws in any wood for it to burn. That's going at life backwards.
We all know that to get water from a pump, we must first prime the pump. We must pour into life, if we expect to get anything out of it. At this time in your life, you may be going out sowing in tears, but God has promised that you will return joyfully bearing your sheaves with you.
If you want to prosper in mind, body and spirit, then learn to sow generously into the lives of others. Whoever you are, whatever your desired harvest, you will reap just what you sow.
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