An Opportunity For God

I was thinking, this evening, about planting, or "sowing a seed," to those in the know of "prosperity teaching." I thought of that in relation to the house that I now own. Not the house that I am paying for, but the house I own.

Each of us is "into" something, and the something that I have been "into" for more than fifteen years is houses. Back when I lived with my parents, and couldn’t even conceive of being able to support myself, much less own a house, I dreamed of building my own home. (This has now graduated to a dream of building 40-bed homes for my favorite charitable organization.) When one of the ministries I supported at the time was in the process of building their headquarters (having outgrown the various office spaces they’d rented previously) I took a leap of faith, and … planted a seed.

Within a very short space of time the Lord had provided for me to be able to rent a home of my own.

Almost three years ago, my landlady raised my rent 15%. It scared me, and it also shrunk the price difference between renting and buying. I looked around, and my eye landed on a piece of property for which the owner was pipe-dreamingly asking $120,000. I planted my little $1200 seed, in faith, on purpose, giving to the ministry dearest to my heart.

Less than a year later I was moved into this house, assisted in my purchase by an interest-free loan of about $120,000.

About a year after that, when I had paid off my relatively-small bank mortgage, I looked at what I still owed, and I planted another seed.

Less than a year after that, I own my house, debt-free.

You may be thinking that "sowing seed" was something invented by a preacher who wanted big offerings, but I am here to tell you that "sowing seed" was something invented by God, before He created Eden, to provide abundantly for all of His people. We can’t earn God’s blessings by our generosity, but when He plans to give us increase, we give Him the best opportunity when we plant a seed. Jesus said that until a seed is planted, it abides alone. There is no increase until the seed is buried in the ground.

We know that Jesus was primarily speaking of himself, but nonetheless, a principle exists. We can hoard our grain, and before long it will rot. We can plant some of our grain, and wait patiently for a harvest.

So here I am, looking ahead. There are a couple of harvests I have in my eye at the moment: I want to build an addition—a nice one—onto my house, and, when the Lord at last brings Mr. Right to pop the big question, I want to celebrate the event in style.

I’m not sitting around twiddling my thumbs, though; I’m giving God the opportunity to bless my harvest, by planting a seed.

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