And Isaac sowed in the land and reaped a hundred fold . . .
That is what it means simple and plain. He invested in the land simple. The land was his business.
Any other interpretation Dr. Apoki Charles gave to it before now was transferred to him by exploitative Pentecostalism, and I repent of my ignorance. I regret and repent if I, in the course of ministry, used it to raise money for churches and ministry with wrong intentions or ignorance.
In fact, one of the conditions I give to people nowadays, is that I must not do fundraising if I am to preach in your church or ministry. If I must raise funds, I just tell the people the need and asked them to donate out of their freewill. Nothing is wrong with that and they usually give out of a sense of responsibility, not because they want to be blessed. They give because God has blessed them.
There was a woman who stopped going to church for some years now that cultivated about 2 acres in my land. Her cassava and fluted pumpkin did very well, even though she had stopped going to church. Ironically, my land was responding to her right input and hard work, but me, the owner and a clergyman, I was not benefiting anything from my own land.
The fertility of the land is neutral; it will respond positively to the right inputs and efforts, no matter who cultivated it.
Until I sowed in the land, it did not release it’s potential to me.
How many “fallow grounds” in your life are growing weeds instead of yielding fruits?
How many little bottles of oil are in your house and you have left them congealed in their raw undeveloped form? 2 Kings 4:1-7.
How many of your “lands” are others benefiting from, while you are doing church and big boy or girl?
I feel very sad for children whose fathers have businesses that have benefited others, but they want to prove themselves by attempting to succeed outside their family grace.
Don’t go to hawk bread for others when your father owns a bakery.
If God wanted you to succeed on your own, you would have grown up in an orphanage.
Another lesson is that you can’t hurry God. He will take His time after you have done your own. My own was to plant, the tubers grew without groaning. God and nature were working even when I was asleep.
I’m not in a hurry to become or own anything.
Remember, one of the benefits of Easter was that the curse on the earth was broken and paid for, when the blood of the Son of man, in the fullness of the nature of God, hit the earth. The first Adam also had the fullness of God in the bodily form.
The nation of Israel where Jesus was born is a nation of investors, and those who brought the Gospel to Africa came with exploitation of our human and natural resources in their minds. They came with their bibles and businesses.
Let’s balance the narrative.
We will give in our churches out of the blessings from our investments because we are responsible kingdom-citizens.
We will love and treasure our land, and we will invest in our land too.
Our land is blessed.
Invest in it.
God Bless You.
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