Now there are many meanings to getting our needs met by sowing and investing in something or some one. Here are three definitions that we need to discuss about investing.

This idea of investing into God’s kingdom as many believe is to be giving to ministries or church organizations to pay the salaries of people who are employed in some manner or position or to pay for air time of presenting the gospel to a sick and dying world. It is a crying shame how the church is mocked and ridiculed in comedy sketches, of our secular culture, showing people being manipulated to give money so God can take care of us or bless us.

As I have heard in many circles “we need to have a way to pay the bills.” However, in Psalms 127: it tells us, “Except the Lord builds His house, people will labor in vain in trying to build it in their own understanding and except the Lord guards and protects the city, the watchmen also stays awake in vain of him having any effect as far as God’s purposes are concerned.”  

It is no wonder that, the world has no respect and awesome reverence for the body of Christ as being the children of God because, the body of Christ is not maturing in righteousness and is failing to be a light and anointed force with power to a sick and dying world. Jesus said, “The gospel of the kingdom will be preached through out the whole world and when this is done, He would return to this earth.

This gospel that He was talking about is so much more than only “Jesus Saves.” Yes, people are getting saved and accepting Jesus as Savior in their lives. However, what did we get saved for; to just make sure we don’t go to hell? What is even more troubling, in the majority of the born again assemblies, mingled seed teachings are being sown into the hearts of the believers that stress, we are saved by grace, but we need to maintain our salvation by works and measure up to keep our salvation. This is a perfect example of a body of believers that do not know who they and do not have a fellow feeling with the heart of the Lord they are attempting to serve.

In essence, Jesus act of dying on the cross was not enough. This has a debasing effect on the body of Christ and instills a spirit of false humility and pride. If you look at the book of acts, in those days the people who were not part of the born again believing church kept tabs of Peter and Paul’s habits and as they would go to the synagogue. The unsaved people would put the sick and infirmed on the curb of the streets and as the Apostles passed by; their mere shadow would heal these people. ! Now that’s a respect for the gospel ! It is only the truth that is inspired by the Holy Spirit and built on the solid foundation that is described in Matthew 16:16-18 that will empower the body of Christ to fulfill their destiny.

Jesus was talking to His disciples and asked them, “Who do people say, that I am.” Their answer was, “Some of them say that you are John the Baptist who was resurrected and others that, you are Jeremias or Elias who were two Prophets of the Old Testament.” He then asked Peter who he thought He was and his answer gives us the key to how God builds His house. He states, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus then answered. “You are indeed a blessed man Simon Barjona because; you did not come up with that answer with your own human reasoning. But it was divinely inspired to you by My Father which is in heaven. And now I say to you that, your new name will be Peter and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell will not be able to dominant over it.”

In the Greek the definition of Peter’s original name, Simon Barjona represents the characteristic of a man who had the capability of having spiritual revelation from God. When Peter exercised that capability by responding to Jesus questions with his spoken words, his stability and security was taking a step forward to becoming rock solid in the spirit of the inner man as stated in Ephesians 1:17-23, which is where the Kingdom resides and is being built. That was why Jesus could say to him “upon this rock foundation, He would build His church.”

All of us who are born again and God’s children have this same ability as Peter. Our spirit was created to increase and mature and as we confess what the Holy Spirit speaks to us in our every day travels; we become deep rooted in Jesus the same as Peter.

God’s church is not built on any denomination or personal views according to mans endeavors, that is religion. Being religious is to become a believer or join a religious organization and start to lead a life that follows its teachings. These are by rules in our own efforts of being good and not trusting in Jesus finished sacrifice at the cross. The church was never meant to be built on Peter the (man) as having some personal revelation in His own ideas as being an infallible human being. It is to be built on the revelation that Peter received from God the Father and that being, Jesus was the Son of God and all He represents going beyond our initial experience of salvation. I am not trying to be unkind here but, a whole denomination was built and is still functioning on the assumption that Peter was the first Pope to the Catholic Church and people can only know the truth if they are following the Catholic religion.

This is indeed a travesty because; this type of deception is increasing in other denominations today and is a trick of the enemy to blind the eyes of the believer to follow towers of Babel doctrines and man’s endeavors to be God-like. This has been a life long problem and deception of the enemy to rewrite and reinvent God’s word and it is the devils way to bring false doctrine into the body of Christ. Paul to the Corinthian church in 1Cor. 1:1-2 states, “When I came to talk to you, I didn’t come with elegant speech and my own ideas of Christianity but, I came determined not to teach anything else but the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the meaning of why He died on the cross for us.” Just because we have people talking about Jesus, using scripture and defining bible truth, let’s not become naive and assume that the truth can not be distorted and we may be being led to believe false doctrine.

In1Cor.3:10-11 the Apostle Paul states, “ According to the grace ( or special endowment for my task which ( God gave to me, ) I have like a master builder laid only God’s foundation as he instructed me and if any one wants to continue to build, it must be on this foundation, so be careful how you are building. Therefore, no other foundation can be laid by anyone other than, the foundation of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One.” This word Messiah means, Jesus has the title of being a King and High Priest with a Godly empowerment or anointing to handle every possible disruption by the enemy to hinder the will of God from being completed in our lives.

We need to have a true vision with in our minds and totally understand that, all of what Jesus the God man represents was placed with in us the day we became a new creature in Jesus Christ. This is when He became our Savior and gave us the power to overcome our shame based nature where we were too weak willed to overcome sin. This vision of understanding is the basic foundation and origin that the gospel must be built on. It is the true meaning of where our Righteousness flows from, which is in the characteristics and personality of Christ Himself, who became Jesus the God man as one.

As we realize how, Christ the anointed God who came to live in Jesus the human man accomplished His purpose to do His heavenly Fathers will. So we who are God the Fathers sons and daughters as Jesus was His first begotten Son, will come to know how to operate and live as Jesus did in the anointed Spirit of God; and as this becomes clearer to us, we will be able to discern where to invest our affections, time, energies and finances which can only take place as we obey the leadings of Holy Spirit.

We also need to realize that, unless we have allowed God to invest His righteous seed in us at salvation and allowing the Holy Spirit to water and germinate it in us by His spoken word, we have no origin of power to do anything and act as God‘s ambassadors on the earth.

When a born again believer does not realize their ambassadorship relationship and authority from their King they live as pan handlers you see on the streets of today, God’s children living like paupers in all areas. This idea of investing into God’s kingdom is the main foundational doctrine that must be understood and taught with clarity to the body of Christ if, we who are His body are going receive what the Apostle John stated in 111John 2 when he said, “I pray that you will prosper and be in good health as your soul prospers.”

The only kind of seed that can grow in God‘s Kingdom is righteous seed. seed. When we talk about righteous, we mean only God inspired words of obedience whose origin only comes from the Holy Spirit. Not man acting like a philanthropist in his own ideas of self righteous endeavors. The church is only built on a living Jesus, who is the rock not on man’s endeavors of starting or joining a denomination.

The first act of obedience after salvation is stated in Matthew 6:33 where Jesus said “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and then everything can be added to your life.” In Matthew 5:6 He states, “The born again believer can enjoy my favor and their salvation only if, they have a hunger and thirst for understanding their righteous position in my sight for this will make them completely satisfied.” God’s Righteousness has nothing to do with man’s endeavors to try to live a Godly life through his own efforts in mustering up some determined will power of his own. The majority of believers think that Righteousness means, having right and wrong thinking patterns. All life in the Spirit world comes only by a habitual and reverent relationship with the Holy Spirit in thought and actions as we expose our senses to His leadings. Only He can make us understand our righteous position as God the Father sees us. This is what constantly cleanses us from the shame based nature we were born with and delivers us from condemning thoughts.

The definition of righteousness from the Greek means, God’s sees and considers us as blameless, free from evil and set apart from the world view concepts and we are to be empowered by His Righteous Spirit of operating in a good news gospel not a man made gospel of fear and obligation.

God’s way of thinking and doing must be incorporated into the born again believer. The word of God proclaims that, God calls those things that are not physically seen with the naked eye as already seen by Him. This is God’s mode of operation. Man looks at an apple seed and just sees a seed where God sees an orchard of apple trees. The world and the church looks and judges themselves based on their behavior. If we are in Christ, God sees our hearts and the seed of righteousness in us, who is Jesus. Because of His faithfulness, we are empowered by His Righteous Spirit to preach this good news gospel. Therefore, we are Saints in God’s sight not sinners and we need to mature and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us how highly prized we are to be God’ children.

In 11 Corinthians 9:6-12 the apostle Paul gives a clear dialogue of how we need to understand how our sowing or investing into the kingdom needs to take place so we can reap a huge crop. He states, “Remember this: he who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly, and he who sows generously so that someone can be blessed, will also reap generously and with blessings. Let each person after he investigates and reasons in his own mind and becomes determined in his own heart, where and when to invest. However, not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion, for God loves and takes pleasure and will never abandon a cheerful giver whose heart is in the giving. As we have this willing attitude operating in our lives, God will be able to supply all of His grace which is His (unmerited favor) which will come to you in abundance, so that you will always and under all circumstances be self-sufficient and need no other aid or support for every good work or charitable actions.

The way a born again believer investigates and reasons in his natural mind and becomes determined in his heart, he has to be meditating on the word of God day and night and His relationship with God is vibrant, alive and passionate. A meditater is one who is mixing the word of God with his thoughts and giving the Holy Spirit permission to reason with him so that the word of God can do the job it was meant to do. A meditater who is being motivated by the Spirit of God scatters the seed that God is giving to him always with every chance he gets as a way of life in his giving and lives by the principle of sowing as a Holy Spirit attitude of giving.

This attitude can only become sustained and living with in us as we renew our minds to his word and his ways of doing things. This is how we are transformed into the righteous ambassadors we were created to be in power. That power is described in Heb. 4:12 “ For the Word of God which is alive and is speaking to us, is full of power, making it active, operative and effective; it is sharper than any two edged sword and can penetrate in discerning between our thoughts and reasoning verses God’s thoughts and reasoning. It is capable of sifting and analyzing the very thoughts and purposes of our heart.”

When Jesus is the first love of our lives and we are being inspired by the Holy Spirit it tells us in Ephesians 2:6 that, “we are sitting in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.” Being seated in heavenly places represents having a seat of authority with things in their proper order. When we are experiencing a lack of evidence in our lives to the truth of this reality, it is because we are following man made acceptable norms or living by our carnal senses. When this happens, we forsake our rightful inheritance and live far below our rightful position in Christ.

When the born again believer does not have a hunger and passion in being a God seeker, the word of God never becomes alive and he can not recognize the Holy Spirits voice talking to him in his every day travels.

A simple example that I can give is a God inspired dream I had many years ago. In this vision, I saw an oaken bucket suspended in air and open at the top and at the bottom. Coming down from the sky it was raining gold flakes which were flowing through the bucket and falling through the bottom of the barrel to the ground. My immediate reaction was to try to block up the bottom of the barrel so the gold would not be lost. I then heard a voice say, “Stop you don’t need to do that. Look inside the barrel and tell me what you see.” When I looked inside the barrel I saw that in the cracks with in the barrel it was coated with a film of solid gold that had not escaped. This voice then said, “ if you will allow me to let all my wealth in all areas flow through you, just the remnant like the film of gold left over in the barrel in you will always be more then enough for your needs and wants to be met.

The word of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit must be planted deep within the heart of man, where the issues of life are formed. I am learning and am continuing to mature by being reminded by the Holy Spirit that, I must have a sure and deep seated relationship with the Lord to be true and trusting to that dream and prophetic word by God. The pressures, needs and wants and the constant bombardment of fear from the enemy puts at times extreme pressures on us in getting our needs and wants met.

This causes us to stop being child like and trusting in that still small voice of God with in us that is always there to remind us if we stay focused on Him, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” All our seeds that God has given to us, for sowing and investing, must be motivated and empowered by the Righteous Spirit of Christ which we received the day we became born again. It must be through the Holy Spirits leading that is motivating us to give and plant in those areas that only God knows has the capacity to raise any type of Godly crop. Any works motivated by works of the law are none productive and when we do this, we are not investing into God‘s kingdom but into, secular humanism; which is a belief in a human-based morality and a system of thought that consists in the basic values, characteristics, and behavior that are believed to be the best in human beings, rather than on God’s supernatural power and authority.

God made man to have the ability at birth to invest into something and all of mankind is investing or sowing some quality of self into one thing or another and reaping the appropriate crop that he has sown. Some of us are aware of this principle, but most are not. Every day we get up and go into the main stream of life, we are investing in something, even the non-saved.

When we are a part of God’s body of believers and functioning as His ambassadors, scripture tells us that we have the ability to give a word of wisdom and comfort to those that are weary. This primarily is to be done in our arenas of daily life not in our attending church services as if, that is the only way to receive from God.

This idea of people thinking that they have to attend church services to be a good Christian is a subtle form of manipulation that fosters obligation. The people hope to get a word of teaching and encouragement; but conditional love themes are taught and once again a sense of false guilt for past and present failures rob them of their confidence in a God of grace and loving kindness, who they do not know very well A stumbling block called legalism herds God’s kids like cattle rather then sheparding them like sheep and prevents God’s kids from independent thinking and a freedom to explore their own experiences with their every day walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now I can use many examples of non spiritual doctrine that comes from man’s ideas of building God’s kingdom verses God doing the building in us with his influences on our hearts. Let me use one of the most controversial doctrines which is the principle of tithing. As it is commonly preached, it produces fear, guilt and obligation in far too many arenas of Christian assembling and is driving the work of the gospel in far too many arenas of Christian assembling that were never birthed by the Holy Spirit of God. This type of tactics allow hirelings to remain in pulpits God never ordained as they preach Sunday after Sunday a doctrine that the New Testament calls in 2Cor.3:6-7 the ministration of death. It is crippling the body of Jesus Christ and turning corporate churches into moneychangers.

It is a no brainer that money makes the world go round and that the gospel has to be financed with money. We have already stated from scripture that God says that, He will supply the seed for this need and it is He who also provides the results of that seed being planted. My concern is are we really being motivated by God’s Righteous Spirit so we can participate in building God’s kingdom or are we being motivated in our giving by a spirit of obligation and fear that if we don’t give, we won’t be accepted by our fellow believers and that God is going to punish us.

When our motives in our giving is not God influenced, we fall into the category that is stated in 1Timothy 6:10-11, “ For the love of money is the root of all evil; and when one does this they have erred in the faith and pierced them selves with deep sadness. But if you are a born again believer, you need to run from this attitude and follow your Righteous Spirit with in you which will produce, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness.” It does not say here that money is evil. The body of Christ is in a terrible need to prosper financially so they can fulfill the God ordained call on their lives. Money is the world’s commodity that runs this country. We as Christians need this commodity and God is more than willing to supply our financial needs but it must be His way.

I have learned through my own ignorance and by God’s mercy and patience in my life to know that the only way to prosper is to trust God and obey His leadings. This idea of having a love for money represents a person having a covetous attitude.

You may say that Mr. Covetous becomes a personal friend of yours and you have fellowship with this spirit. Covetousness is not a concept of truth but it is spiritual entity and bondage that a person has to be delivered from. It is a spirit that says, “Hold on to what ever you have and keep it for your self because some where down the road your going to need it. If you give it away you’re going to starve and the bills are not going to be paid and you deserve to have nice things for yourself.”

What we have here is a self centered insecurity that drives us to live with a survival mode mentality. This word money represents a tool we need to prosper in the economy arena we all live in. Isn’t it our fears and mistrusting of our Heavenly Fathers ability to take care of His children that makes us lean to our own understanding? Most people live by a norm of trying to earn God’s favor and are fearful and live with a lack of peace in their lives. What is it going to take for us to believe God when He tells us that, we need to come to Him as a little child and learn that, He is a Rewarder because, we are diligently seeking Him on our own and not just be church goers following our own systems of beliefs and leaders that are building their own towers of Babel.

This scripture goes on to say that this covetous attitude is the root of all evil. This is a profound and debilitating statement. This represents more then a certain behavior but it represents a deeply planted core that must be removed so that the new crop being raised is not contaminated with the same disease. What Christian in their right mind would want to be planting a crop and be getting an ungodly harvest? In the Greek this word evil represents a characteristic of worthlessness and being intrinsic. This meaning, of itself or in itself, rather than because of its associations or consequences. Simple put it is a self centered act and attitude of giving and has no association with God’s eternal purposes.

Let’s remind ourselves again of the role model of giving which is in the most quoted verse in the bible. John 3:16 states, “ for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that, who so ever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” God gave His most prized love gift in His Son Jesus the Christ for us to inherit eternal life and give to us all He possess now and for eternity. This statement can not be fathomed in our human minds through legalistic religious jargon in thought, words and actions.

To be continued in part two.