Why Isaac Sowed in a Famine and Reaped a Hundredfold That Year

Sermon outline

In financial famine do not give according to your conditions: sow according to God's promise, as Isaac did, and let seed faith and your words pull your future towards you.

1. During financial famine, sow seeds according to God's promises

   God's will is continual daily provision even in your greatest financial need. A major hindrance to breakthrough is that Christians limit their giving to their current financial situation and begin to withhold from God. Isaac did not sow to the natural conditions he faced. He sowed according to the promise God gave him, not by logic and reasoning.

   Illustration: The natural conditions are like a storm: the weather is bad, the wind is blowing and the waves are choppy, but you still do not withhold what belongs to God.

   “When you begin to analyze conditions too much, you begin to paralyze your faith.”

   • Genesis 26:12-14
   • Proverbs 10:22

2. Isaac obeyed, and God commanded the blessing

   Because of the famine Isaac went to Gerar in the land of the Philistines, where God appeared to him, told him not to go down to Egypt, and promised to be with him and bless him. Isaac obeyed as his father Abraham had, stayed in the land, and God blessed him until he was the richest man in the country. When mind and spirit disagree, go with the spirit and be led by the Holy Spirit.

   Illustration: Your hands are blessed. When you watch the news of the crisis, point your hand and bless the caregivers, the medical staff, the hospitals and the scientists so that they find solutions.

   “God commanded his blessing upon Isaac until he was the richest man in the country.”

   • Genesis 26:1-6

3. Do not wait for conditions to change, and refuse fear

   If you wait for outward circumstances to improve before you sow, you will never sow. Start sowing while you are in famine and believe God for a hundredfold return. Fear is one of Satan's major weapons to keep you in financial bondage. It comes from the devil, while faith comes from God, and even in famine there is debt cancellation.

   Illustration: Do not look at the dry and parched ground.

   “Don't wait for the conditions to change.”

4. Wash your mind with the Word and discover seed faith

   The Bible is God's blueprint for man and defines his covenant to bless us, so meditate on it daily. One of the great discoveries in it is the principle of seed faith, which he learned from Oral Roberts, Kenneth Copeland and Mike Murdock. Natural people speak against it, but he believes it with all his heart and says it works.

   “Nothing will ever dominate your life that doesn't happen daily.”

   • Ephesians 5:26
   • Deuteronomy 29:9

5. Embrace true prosperity

   Prosperity is having enough of God's provision to complete his instructions for your life, and it increases your ability to bless others. It is not for consuming on yourself. He honours the men and women of God who took the Word around the world, says he is a product of their ministry, and warns that whatever you criticise will leave your life.

   Illustration: He wants to live a blessed life so that when there is a knock on his door or a phone call from someone in need, he can be a blessing to them. Someone once told him that if you look down on money, money will look down on you.

   “Prosperity is simply having enough of God's provision to complete his instructions in your life.”

   • Matthew 6:33

6. Elijah at the brook Cherith

   He reads how Elijah announced the drought, was sent to hide at the brook Cherith, was fed by ravens morning and evening, and was then sent on to Zarephath when the brook dried up. God saw to his prophet in the crisis and had already prepared something further on. In famine, depression and hopelessness will try to take hold and make you doubt God, and they must be resisted and bound in Jesus' name.

   Illustration: The ravens that brought Elijah bread and meat, and the brook that dried up before God moved him on.

   “In the same way God had delivered Elijah, I want to say to you, God will deliver you.”

   • 1 Kings 17:1-9

7. Respect the law of sowing and reaping, and unlock your future

   The law of sowing and reaping is universal: sow love and you reap love, sow hatred and you reap hatred. Seed faith is exchanging what you have been given for what God has promised, sowing in faith for a specific harvest. We are living today what we spoke yesterday, so our language has to change, and he urges listeners to learn to decree things.

   Illustration: On a long-haul flight the Lord told him to write down the words 'the language of the new man'. Back home he wrote the book of that name, and he also reads from his book of declarations of faith.

   “Seed faith pulls the future towards you.”

   • Galatians 6:7
   • Proverbs 18:21