Years ago when I was a student in the BOSS program, Building On Spiritual Substance, with Coach Al Hollingsworth; I learned in that class to distinguish between the seed I sow and the seed I am.
Most often when faith folks give money, they think that the money they are giving is their seed. Seed is more than money. Limiting your understanding of seed to money is a misnomer. Money is a representation of time. It represents the person and their time contribution in the earth. So to look at your money as if it is the seed is to confuse yourself.
You are the seed.
In reality, the seed is you. So if you look at the scripture, it says when we sow a seed, we can anticipate a 30, 60, or hundredfold rate of return on our seed. And that confuses people. Why? When they don’t see a rate of return comparable to what they hear, they believe that the word of God is not true.
Mark 4:8 (KJV)
And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.
However, If you realize that you are the seed, then you can also realize that any seed must multiply before it can produce a harvest. Multiplication occurs inside of us as we increase our value to the marketplace. Today as I was meditating on this idea, I remembered this quote from the 10 principles that coach required us to memorize. These cards are more than 20 years old. But I still remember law number eight. “No longer will I be a slave to fear, pride, and doubt. But I will multiply my value 100 fold and be a leader of men. I will stay mindful to acknowledge God and he will direct my path.”
I believe God directs our path in the areas where we need to grow. He allows us to take on new business opportunities because they cultivate us. They train us. And if we submit to the lessons, we increase our value, and thereby potentially increase our income. That value runs parallel to our income. Or perhaps I should say our income runs parallel to our increasing value because we are the seed.