The Lord prompted me to write this piece in response to the
economic situation that our nation has been thrown into recently. Whether you
call it an economic downturn or a recession, it isn’t new to God and so God
isn’t anxious, neither is He confused about the situation. Needless for me to
say is that we are in a time of greatest opportunity for the body of Christ,
all that is happening is simply an orchestration of God for massive wealth
transfer, so we must be rightly positioned and ready to work to be
beneficiaries. In a few years from now, we will look back and thank God for
this unusual arrangement that has come to serve heavens purpose and better our
lives.
God created man with natural survival instincts, which makes
that a man will attempt to do anything just to survive. In times of economic
hardship, a man will look for alternatives and seek options by which he can
better his lot and chances of survival so that he is not sucked in. For the
believer, it isn’t all that different, except that while we may be seeking
alternatives, we are at the same time holding and confessing the word of God
which promises our exemption from the downturn. Bear in mind that as believers,
it is not as though we deny the fact of economic downturn, but our position is
that when the dust fully settles, we will be on top and not buried underneath.
However, as much as we confess the word of God, we must also have
some understanding and fulfill the conditions that will make the word produce
results in our lives. One of the famous scriptures that people hold on to at
such times is Genesis 26:12. It speaks of how Isaac sowed in the land in a time
of famine and reaped a hundredfold. The thought is that if Isaac under the old
covenant sowed in a time of famine and reaped a hundredfold, then we could also
prosper regardless of the economic downturn. This is true except that you must
also satisfy the conditions that makes it so.
If you backtrack in Genesis 26 to verses 1-6, you will
observe that God expressly instructed Isaac not to go down to Egypt, but to
remain in the land of Gerar. Now, during the time of Abraham, there was also a
famine and Abraham had gone down to Egypt, but God continued to prosper him
while he was there. It was the natural thing for Isaac to conceive the thought
of going down to Egypt when he experienced famine in Gerar because that was
exactly what his father did to escape the famine in his time. However, God told
him not to go down to Egypt despite the economic hardship. Isaac obeyed God and
stayed back, then he sowed on hard ground under difficult weather conditions
and he reaped a hundredfold. Remember that there certainly was a waiting time
between when he sowed and when he reaped even though the bible puts it together
in one verse. So then, we can look at two major conditions that Isaac fulfilled
that made him prosper in famine with the hope of applying these same principles
to prosper in our own lives.
Obedience to stay in his place
The first major key to Isaac’s prosperity is that he was in
his place. Your refusal to dwell in your place, the place where God has
instructed, will cost you a lot. Don’t move out of your place to another place
simply because you saw someone else do same and prospered. Prosperity isn’t
tied to any particular location, it is tied to being in your place. Bishop
Oyedepo once said that you are sharpest in your place and smartest in your
place of assignment. The moment you move out of your place, you risk loosing
everything including the little you have gathered before. If your place is here
in this country and you move to another nation it wouldn’t make any difference.
The point is don’t move because others are doing so and don’t dwell in the land
because you are looking to others, Abraham moved and Isaac stayed behind but
both prospered because they were guided by God’s instructions. Let your
decision to move or dwell in the land be guided by what God has laid in your
heart.
Sow in the land
The fact that God has told you to either dwell in the land or
move to another land does not preclude you from sowing, and sowing isn’t always
so easy particularly in a time of famine. Don’t mistakenly assume that because
you heard from God or received a prophecy that you wouldn’t have to sow,
nothing can be farther from the truth than this, you will still have to sow and
work hard to cultivate whatever it is that you have sown. You may even have to
work harder at it because of the unfavourable economic conditions. Whatever
that seed is, whether it is a job or a business, put it in the ground and
cultivate it. Stay with it and look up to God not to the unfavourable elements
and in the end like Isaac, you also will reap a hundredfold.
It is on satisfying these conditions that your confessions of
going up when there is a casting down becomes effective; otherwise they will be
mere empty confessions that are impotent and lack the necessary and sufficient
conditions to improve your life in any way.
If your place is here, stay back and sow till your harvest
comes, your harvest will not come the next day after you sowed but be rest
assured that it will come. Don’t be pressured to desert your place for another
because others are doing so.
Get ready for massive wealth transfer!
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