03/25 Reading - Thoughts & Comments

25-Mar Deut 21-22 Galatians 3-4 Psalms 116-120 Proverbs 25

Deut 22:6-7 (NIV) 6 If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. 7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.

Hidden in the Old Testament is a powerful seedtime and harvest law/command/principle.  God takes time to give  us a clear picture using a bird, her young, and a nest.  Look deeper if you don't see the meaning at first.  The principle of tending your garden, seedtime and harvest, and the power of multiplication are built into this command.  This is a principle that we must learn and teach to our children early in life.

There are different costs associated with farming, multiplication, and business ownership.  These costs appear at the front end and the back end of every harvest.  First, we must buy seed to plant into the field.  After watering and tending the field, we get a harvest of more than we planted.  But if we don't pay the final cost, we will soon be out of the farming and multiplication business.  The final cost?  Keep enough seed back to plant again during the next sowing season.  This takes vision, forethought, and self discipline.

Most people who live in poverty will eat their seed when God gives them a harvest rather than holding some back for the next season of sowing and reaping.  And because they eat their seed, they are continually out of business, they are broke, and the spirit of poverty grips around their necks tightly.  They will never be free or prosperous because they always violate the laws of God by eating the seed allocated for next year's planting season.  They are near sighted and have no plans or vision for one season ahead.  They shall not inherit their land or be prosperous because they dishonor the plan of God, their future, and they eat their future.  Have you ever heard of a wild animal eating his babies?  There's a true picture of dishonoring your future and not preparing an inheritance for your children's children.  And it's done all the time in the human world.  Godless humans love to eat their children to satisfy their own "now" cravings, leaving nothing for their future and dishonoring the plan of God.

The story of a bird and her nest commands that the person does not destroy the ability of that nest to make more babies.  If you take the young birds, that's OK.  But if you take the mother and the babies, there will never be any more babies, and you have just been found guilty of destroying a system of multiplication.  You have just traded years of multiplied young birds for one meal of bird soup.  This is just as dishonorable as Essau trading his birth right for a single bowl of soup.

One of the things we love to do while traveling in the third world is to empower the poor to prosper and to work within God's economic structure.  On a recent trip to Panama, we helped 2 indian tribes.  The first tribe has been feeding the poorest of their children 4 times per week.  The total costs of the program are $400 per month, and that has been supplied by our pastor friend who took us to the tribe.  We quickly sat down and helped them to formulate a program that would allow them to raise chickens.  They have a man there who is an expert at building cages and raising chickens.  Our business model showed that raising 150 chickens per growing season would totally pay the $400 per month needed to feed the children.  They could sell the chickens to the tribal families, keeping a few chickens for the poor children to eat.  The profits would buy rice and beans, plus new chicks and chicken feed for the next growing season.  The total cost to build the cages and chicks to start this program? $1,500.  We donated that seed gift as a perpetual children's feeding program which will never stop as long as the tribe adheres to God's plan.  We taught them the principles that are in this forum discussion and they started building chicken coups! (www.childrensfeedingnetwork.org)

Our second investment was into an indian tribe that lives 150 years back, on a Panama river.  We canoed up to the tribe where their chief is also the pastor of the tribe. How cool is that?  They bring in 25 - 50 people per day and take them on a tour of their village, doing an indian dance for them, and selling their trinkets to the people who might want to buy something.  The ticket for the 4 hour tour is $25 and this is entirely how the community makes their money.  

We asked the pastor/chief what his greatest need was at this time.  He said that they're having a hard time caring for their widows and orphans.  They just don't have enough money to help them sufficiently.  I immediately saw an opportunity.  During the 4 hours that the tourists are at this village, there is not one thing for them to drink.  The tribe has never thought of this as a business endeavor.  So we taught them the principle of seedtime and harvest, and the two costs for every harvest, and then we donated $300 worth of bottled water and sodas for the tribe to sell to tourists.  If every tourist buys just one bottle of water during their hot 4 hour stay, the tribe will make as much as $1,300 per month!  This will totally empower them to take care of their widows and orphans!!!  Thank you Lord for your biblical systems of prosperity!

Now it will be important that this tribe doesn't take all of their profits and spend them after selling those bottles of water and coke.  If they do, then they're out of business and the widows and orphans will not be taken care of.  But if the system is not violated and they pay the cost at the end of the harvest by buying more sodas and water to sell, then the system will continue to expand and multiply.  We will continue to teach and monitor this endeavor and encourage them to NOT eat their seed, in hopes that they will hold on to God's economic laws and continue the perpetual seed time and harvest principle in their tribe.

Take these two stories to heart, and consider your own life.  Are you putting seed away from each harvest or paycheck, so that you always have something to sow?  Or are you living on the edge, eating your seed every paycheck, and eating both the mother and the young?  Too many people stay stuck in the cycle of poverty and never get out because they eat the mother and the young as a lifestyle.  As the scripture says, they will not live long in the land, and it will not go well with them.

God's Economy 101:  Here's the beginner's guide to massive success and wealth. 10/10/80.  

The first 10% goes to God to prove that He's your king.  This is the king's portion and it brings direct honor to the kingdom and the King who will bring you to the land of promise.

The second 10% goes to your long term investment strategy.  This is the same as honoring the mother bird.  This means that you will not touch this seed in an emergency. It's literally investment seed for your children's children to inherit and enjoy.  This 10% means that every harvest you ever hold in your hand will always project and benefit into the future.  With this 10%, you prove that you have a vision for the future, and you will NEVER be poor, NEVER!!   Robert Kiyosaki said, "Broke is temporary, but poor is a lifestyle."  If you always keep 10% of everything that comes into your hands as a future seed for investment, then you will never again be POOR! You might lose it all and be broke, but you will have a system in place that always gives you seed for your future.  Therefore, you will never again be POOR.  Poor is a condition, a curse, and a lifestyle that is decided by the one who is in poverty.

The last 80% is what you use to live your life.  This includes paying all bills, food, vacations, insurance, clothing, etc.  You live in this 80% and never deviate out of it.  Cut back if needed, but you learn to stay in the 80%.  Once this becomes a lifestyle habit, you will then be ready to launch into deeper levels of wealth and wealth creation.  

Remember the guy who tells God, "Lord, if you get me $1 Million Dollars, I will give to you."  This man is lying to himself and to God because if he won't discipline himself to give to God when he has little, he will NEVER give to God when he has much.  Faithful with little, master over many cities.

I challenge you to look at the FINANCIAL TERRITORY of your life today, and bring it into line with the beginner's success principles 10/10/80. This will put God's kingdom economic laws to work for your long term goals and plans, and will bring you mightily into the 10% club of the wealthy and mighty of the land!      

Tomorrow's Reading:
26-Mar Deut 23-24 Galatians 5-6 Psalms 121-125 Proverbs 26