In Your Bible Read This Out Loud: Psalm 1  

Memorise This Verse: Proverbs 3:1 'Do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity'  

Afterwards Talk About This: Name the ways to sow both financial and spiritual seeds.  

Something To Do Before Next Time: Sow a financial and a spiritual seed.  

Written Diploma Work: Write one side on the reasons given in the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-20) that people loose their harvests.  

Meditate Word By Word On This Verse: Isaiah 55:10 

As believers, we will seek a lifestyle based on what the bible teaches and in particular, what the bible teaches about our financial dealings. The previous section showed that the bible speaks much more about financial blessings than it does about giving just as a farmer receives back more than he sows, and so it follows for every scripture on giving financially there should be many more about receiving financially. 

The bible speaks about two types of seed that we can sow as believers the first is the word of God and the second is finances and this section will examine how to sow the two types of seed and in which order.  

One of the unique things about the bible is that it makes some extraordinary claims about itself and promises that those who live by what it says will know a much better quality of life. In particular the scriptures below speak of a cause and effect that will happen to any Christian namely, that if they cherish, desire and live by the word of God, they will be blessed of God. 

Notice the same sequence in the scriptures below as you firstly apply the word of God to your life, you will then know the blessing of God just look how often words such as prosperity, success and blessing are used).  

Psalm 1 'But this delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers'  

Proverbs 3:1 ' My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring prosperity'  

Joshua 1:8 'Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful'  

James 1:22 'Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourself. Do what it says....... But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does'  

Consequently in light of the above scriptures, if we want prosperity, success and blessings in our finances then we must base our financial dealings on what the bible says we should do. Sadly, many Christians want the blessings that the bible speaks of but they don't want to go about it God's way and they refuse to systematically give into the work of God. 

There are simply no short cuts to the blessings that the bible speaks of - if we are to know the blessings of God we must follow the ways of God as set out in the scriptures. Amongst many other things, the bible is our financial handbook which contains the methods that God has ordained we should handle all of our financial dealings.  

There is a large obligation on each individual Christian then to be well versed and acquainted with the bible and if we are seeking financial blessings in particular, we need to know what the bible says about finances. People say that ignorance is bliss - in the Kingdom of God ignorance will kill you (Hosea 4:6 says 'My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge') so we must be resolved to seek out and understand God's finically systems and laws. 

A good question to ask yourself if your faith is weak for finances is to think of how many scriptures on finances you have memorised. The bible in several places refers to the words within it as seeds and as we become knowledgeable of the bible through reading, meditating, listening and memorizing, - the bible refers to this process as sowing seeds. 

For example one of the major parables of Jesus was the parable of the sower he himself declares in Mark 4:13 that if you do not grasp the meaning of this parable you will not understand how the Kingdom of God works, 'Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?'.

Consequently, the parable of the sower is of special importance and one of the central themes of the parable is that the word of God is like a seed that is sown into the hearts of men. A further reference to the word of God being like a seed that men can sow into their hearts is Isaiah 55:10 'As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth'  

So the first type of seed that we sow is the word of God - through a knowledge of what the scriptures say about finances we will put ourselves into a good launching pad to sow the second type of seed, which is financial seeds. Through the word of God sown into our hearts we will gain knowledge about sowing and reaping, seedtime and harvest and giving and receiving. 

This will position us when we start to give financially so we can overcome any fear or doubts, and we can confidently expect God's many forms of blessings as he honours us for honouring him. 

Not only do we need to sow in the right order (spiritual seeds and then financial seeds), but we need to also sow both types of seeds - you can't sow one type without the other in order to know the full blessing of God. For example, you may know all that the bible says about giving and receiving and sowing and reaping but if you don't actually step out in faith and start to give then the promises of the bible won't start to work for you. 

On the other hand, if you sow financial seeds and regularly give but are unaware of God's desire to reap back to you what you have sown to him, you will not have the faith or expectation to see a financial breakthrough because without faith (which will come through sowing spiritual seeds) you will not receive from God (Hebrews 11:6).  

Summarised below is the two types of seed we have looked at: 

SEED METHOD OF SOWING 

Financial (money) 
Giving Spiritual (bible promises) 
Memorising and reading  

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