One of the great Jewish Patriarchs in the Book of Genesis named Isaac acted out his faith and God blessed him regardless of having done it when a famine was stalking the land in which he lived in “Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him.” [Gen. 26:12 (NIV)
The Bible teaches us from Isaac’s life that we continually harvest—even during the toughest times. Check this following Scripture out and see how it lines up with what the Lord is revealing to you. “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and
they never stop producing fruit.” [Jeremiah 17:7-8 NLT]
As a pastor I teach on tithing. I firmly believe that tithing is a Scriptural demand on every believer, and must be done in love and obedience to God’s complete ownership [Sovereignty] of all that we have. Tithing is honoring God with His 10 percent from the gross income that we receive every month in a year. “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord.” Leviticus 27:30 [NKJV] Often I have noticed that people don’t reap because they don’t tithe.
Mr. Perry Hayden was a Christian miller by profession who wanted to prove that the law of tithing was in fact the divine law of prosperity.
To prove his theory he set up an experiment where he planted one cubic inch of wheat seed in 1940. His intention was to tithe the tenth each year from the crop. Henry Ford became interested in this effort and lent his support by loaning Mr. Hayden farmland to plant on and equipment to harvest his crop with. Here is the rest of the story in Mr. Hayden’s words.
“On Sunday morning, September 22, 1940, I heard a message preached on John 12:24. 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but IF IT DIE, IT BRINGETH FORTH MUCH FRUIT.' Being a miller, and being interested in actually proving God in a rather unique way, I was led to do something the following Thursday that has since been heard of all the way around the world. I planted 360 kernels of wheat (one cubic inch). It takes 2,150 cubic inches to make a bushel, so you can see what a small beginning this project had.
“When we planted the wheat, September 26, 1940, on a plot 4 by 8 feet, I told those present that in 1941 we were going to ‘tithe’ the crop, and replant it. I was taking Malachi 3:10 seriously and I recommend right now that my reader study this verse as well as the eleventh verse. In Leviticus 25:3 and 4 we find to 'sow the field' for six years and let it rest the seventh; that is what we set out to do.
“In 1941 we cut the ‘world’s smallest wheat field.’ Immediately, we turned over a tenth of the yield to the local Quaker Church, and replanted the remaining 45 cubic inches in September, 1941.
“In the summer of 1942, we cut the second crop with old-fashioned cradles, and found the yield was 55 fold, or 70 pounds. Again we ‘tithed’ the wheat and replanted the remaining 63 pounds on land that, for the third year in succession, had been furnished by Henry Ford, who owned a large farm near Tecumseh.
In 1943, this acre of land yielded 16 bushels from the one bushel of seed. Henry Ford himself came out to see the wheat cut, and furnished a reaper to cut it and an old-fashioned thresher from his famous Edison Institute Museum at Greenfield Village, to thresh it. Not only that, but Henry again furnished land for the fourth crop.
In 1944, this crop of 14 acres yielded 380 bushels. Again the tenth of the crop was ‘tithed’ and the remaining cleaned and replanted. Henry Ford furnished the land for the fifth crop. It was 230 acres.
In the summer of 1945 a fleet of 40 combines was sent to the field by Ford. The yield from the Dynamic Kernels was 5,555 bushels. The value of this little crop at the market price of $1.55 per bushel, was $8,610.25. The tithe of $861.03 went to the Friends Church who, in turn, gave it to the Tecumseh Hospital.
“And now comes the interesting outcome after Henry Ford had turned over the fifth crop to me. The 5,000 bushels of wheat were sold to approximately 250 farmers in Michigan and nearby states. They had to agree to plant the wheat, and in 1946, to pay a tithe of their crop to their own church.
In the summer of 1946 we expected to harvest $100,000 worth of wheat – all from 360 kernels planted six years before, which for five years had been faithfully ‘tithed’.
Okay, so I am a curious person, I admit it. I wanted to know how many kernels of wheat that amounted to. Since the last accurate figure I have to work with is the $100,000 number they used, and assuming that they used the same $1.55 per bushel to predict that sum of money, the original 360 kernels, even after the tithe was paid for the first six years, amounts to nearly 45 billion wheat kernels, or approximately 125 million cubic inches or 58,064 bushels of wheat.
Just think, one cubic inch, 360 kernels of wheat, in just six years, with the tithe taken out of it for six years, returned nearly 125 million cubic inches of wheat. The tithe alone, for this sixth and final year of the experiment, amounted to 6,452 bushels, or $10,000, and is not included in the numbers above.” Three hundred sixty kernels had turned into 55 billion. And the largest yield was only fiftyfold. In short, Perry Hayden made a whopping $288,000 in six years, compared to the other farmers who only made an average of $21,000.
Tithing is the open door to THE BLESSING, and it’s THE BLESSING that God set forth that’s going to meet your needs, give you what you need, bless you, keep you well, keep you prosperous. Your tithing opens that door for God to move supernaturally. Tithing keeps the door open when you do it in faith. Now you can tithe in unbelief and it’s not the same. But, when you tithe in faith, you worship God with your tithe.
Malachi 3:10, 11 tells us that tithing protects your harvest. Just hear what God promises you as you read and meditate aloud these words from God’s prophet and you will be able to relate fully to farmer Perry Hayden’s testimony to God’s goodness and faithfulness. “He opens the windows of heaven and sends the rain on the seed that you have sown. And I will rebuke the devourer (seed eaters, crop-destroying pests) for your sakes, and he shall not destroy (corrupt, spoil or ruin) the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field.” Please take note that God is the only Rightful Protector of your harvest while Satan is the Destroyer of your harvest.
Don’t forget that Mark 4: 26 begins with Jesus talking about a man sowing or casting seed into the ground. The Bible gives us a good description of what constitutes to be “good ground” in the sight of God in Matt.13: 23. So also, the Bible goes on to give us a clear description of the qualities that make up a good sower. It is found in 2 Corinthians 9:6-8. For the benefit of those of you who don’t have an Amplified Bible I’m going to quote the verse here for you.
“[Remember] this: he who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly, and he who sows generously [that blessings may come to someone] will also reap generously and with blessings. Let each one [give] as he has made up his own mind and purposed in his heart, not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion, for God loves (He takes pleasure in, prizes above other things, and is unwilling to abandon or to do without) a cheerful (joyous, “prompt to do it”) giver [whose heart is in his giving]. And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation].”
In other words, a good sower is one who is—Generous (Proverbs 11:24-25—Liberal giver) Vs. 6/ Spirit-led (JB Philips—Let everyone give as his heart tells him) /—Obedient (Isaiah 1:19—willing and obedient) /—Cheerful (AMP—Joyous, prompt to do it giver) Vs. 7/—Result (AMP—Furnished in abundance for every good work) Vs. 8.
Don’t forget where you sowed. Check the field all the time. Because when you sow into good ground and you will have a much bigger harvest. Jesus was very clear when he taught that the seed sown into good ground only will be the one that brings forth profit to the believer and it would come back to him – some thirty, some sixty and some a hundredfold. As a believer, If you really believe in sowing and reaping, get busy finding something to sow. Ask, “What increases am I going to make in my sowing in 2016?”
Galatians 6:7 [AMP] tells us that a successful harvester is one who first sows seed. “Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap.”
NOTE: IT IS NOT MENTIONED IN THE WORD OF GOD AS “REAPING AND SOWING” BUT INSTEAD IT IS MENTIONED AS “SOWING AND REAPING.” THEREFORE, IF YOU HAVE DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO SOW, JUST ASK GOD FOR SEED AND HE WILL GET YOU STARTED.
