General Offerings – How To Start Working With God Financially Part 6

God wants you to have more than enough money and God wants you to integrate your spiritual and financial lives.  As we have seen, giving money to God brings you into God’s economic system, and there are several Biblical ways to give to God and His Kingdom.  We have talked about tithing and gifts for the poor, and now let’s talk about general offerings.

General offerings are different from gifts to the poor or the tithe.  Offerings are freewill gifts to God and His works that are over and above your tithe.  While it’s true that tithes and gifts to the poor can both be marked under the general term “offering”, we want to differentiate the term to further understand God’s economic system.

While tithing and gifts to the poor both invite God’s blessings and produce wonderful “harvests” in our lives.  We should primarily associate our “seedtime and harvest” economic endeavors with general offerings. 

2 Corinthians 9:6 should be at the forefront of your mind when thinking about general offerings.  “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

One time (around 13 years ago) I was up early and praying.  I knew God wanted me to have more money, but I didn’t know how to get it.  I prayed that God would show me what to do.  Three hours later my father called and invited me and my wife to a Biblical finance convention in NYC, all expenses paid.  I can quickly sum up the entire conference for you, “God’s economy works by seedtime and harvest, and if you want to reap bountifully you must sow bountifully.” 

Let’s look at a couple more verses from 2 Corinthians 9 (verses 10 and 11) while we discuss this.  “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

Notice that, while me may think the money came from our labors, really all of our seed came from God anyway, and what we are giving to God was already given to us by Him.  I like to keep that in mind when I think God is prompting me to give a gift or “sow a seed”. 

Sowing general offerings is the most important mechanism by which we can level up financially and move to the higher realms of God’s economic system.  Undoubtedly, tithing and gifts to the poor bring increase to our lives, and the increase will be steady and great.  But sowing and reaping (mechanically and habitually) moves you into more of an economic partnership with God and positions you for upward movement (I would submit). 

“The Lord of the Harvest” (Matthew 9:38) has given you seed (no matter how little you have, there is something you can sow).  God wants you to sow seed and He will then bring you a harvest.  From that harvest you can tithe, give to the poor, and sow additional seed (just like we see in the Biblical models).  Over time your fields will grow, your crop will increase, you will sow more seed and you will reap bigger harvests.  No matter where you are at now, you can start sowing and growing financially.

To operate this system at its highest levels, begin praying to God about seeds you should sow, and begin looking for opportunities.  All your “seedtime and harvest” should be done out of your relationship with “The Lord of the Harvest”.  When you know you have some offering seed in the ground, begin praying for your harvests and standing in faith to receive.  Remember that when harvests start coming in, you will need to sow more seed from those harvests.

Sowing and reaping should become your predominant mental mindset when it comes to your finances, rather than saving, investing and hoping for increase.  The world’s economic system can work for people (and of course we should save and invest as we can).  But nothing compares to God’s economic system, and how God can increase you financially when you integrate your spiritual and financial lives. 

As one man said, “you can’t have enough jobs to get the wealth God wants you to have.”  His point is that you must sow for it.  Why is that?  Because God wants you to rise, shine, receive His blessings, and show His love to the world all at major levels, beyond what any job could provide, and participating in God’s economy is a major way we do that.

(In case you missed any installments in this series or want more information otherwise, you can always see all of my messages, posts, podcasts, etc. at byronhowell.com.)