How to Prosper in Hard Times God’s Way: The Law of Return

Hi, this is evangelist Mike Smalley. Welcome to this edition of Strengthen Your Walk™. I’m going to teach today out of my book, How to Prosper in Hard Times God’s Way. All through the scripture. God gives us the keys to financial prosperity, which is not just a fancy way of saying getting by, but prospering. Prosperity is having enough of God’s provision to complete His instructions for your life, having enough left over to be a blessing to every legitimate need that excites you. Prosperity is not knowing what to do with all your extra. Prosperity is not knowing, “Lord, where do I give all the surplus that I’ve got?” That’s prosperity.

Prosperity is not just diamond rings and BMWs. There’s nothing wrong with those things, but prosperity is having every need met and having all your instructions God has given you funded with so much left over, you’re looking for who to be good to. You’re looking who to bless. You’re being good to your kids and your family. You’re known as the prosperity figure in your bloodline. That’s prosperity.

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One of the great keys you must understand is in Genesis. Early in the Bible, God talked about the law of the seed. Genesis 8:22 says, “as long as the earth remains,” and we’re still here. “As long as the earth remains, there’ll be summer and winter, cold and heat, seed, time and harvest.” There’s no such thing as sowing and reaping. It’s sowing, waiting, and reaping. It’s seed, time, and harvest. If I’ve got a hundred acres of land, I don’t plant corn today and eat corn on the cob tonight. I plant, I wait, I get a harvest. And waiting is the proof of trust.

If my brother says, “I’ll meet you at the corner at noon” and he’s not there, I don’t leave in two minutes, I wait. Something must be wrong. My brother’s coming. My waiting is the proof I trust him to do what he said. So many times people sow seed in the kingdom of God, they don’t get a harvest in ten minutes and they panic. “Oh, God hasn’t given me a harvest.” You just sowed a seed. It’s seed, time and harvest. And you call in that time with your faith and you can shorten it, I really believe that. But there are many different kinds of seeds and you’ve got to understand this.

So, why did God give you the law of the seed? To show you, you can inventory your life at any time, and anything you’re presently short of or need more of, you would know the way to get it is not to steal it, not to hoard it, but to sow it. You learn this as a child in school. The only way to have a friend is what? Be one. You sow the seed of friendship, you reap the harvest of friends.

Everything is a seed. Love is a seed. Time is a seed. Patience is a seed. Forgiveness is a seed. Mercy is a seed. Even Jesus said, “You can’t even give a cup of cold water in my name,” He said, “and not receive” what? A reward. The whole Bible is set up as a reward system. So, inventory your life right now. What are you feeling short of? “Well, Mike, I need some wisdom.” You already have some wisdom. So, are you sowing your wisdom into somebody who needs what you have? “Mike, I’m lonely. I wish somebody would call me for coffee.” I understand that. I’ve been lonely like that too. Are you calling anybody? “Well, that’s not my personality, Mike.”

Okay, just stop; stop the nonsense on that. If you’re watching TV in your house and you hear a noise, you look out across the street and your neighbor’s house is on fire and the whole family, including their kids, is trapped on the second floor and they can’t get out. Do you say to yourself, “I’d do something to help them, but fire rescue is not my specialty.” No. You wouldn’t say, “That’s not my personality.” You would get up and even if you were physically handicapped yourself, you’d limp your way over there to do something. Why? It’s love in action. There’s no gift of fire rescue. It’s called love in action. You just do it.

So what are you needing today? Take something you already have. Wrap your faith around it and give it away. Create the need for a harvest. God told you the law of the seed so you’d always know how to bring increase into your life. If you go over to Galatians, what does the Bible say? “Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that’s what he’s going to reap.” It wasn’t a judgment scripture. You smoked cigarettes, you’re going to reap lung cancer. There’s principles that cover that in other parts of the Bible and there are the laws of decision-making that bring you to harvest, but he was trying to tell you, if you’ll understand you’re always going to reap what you’ve sown, you’ll always know what to sow so you’ll know what you need to reap.

Are you understanding this today? I had a watch years ago and God told me one day to take it off and give it to a stranger right behind me. I did. Years went by and it dawned on me, I’ve never had anybody give me a watch and I hadn’t told anybody what I just told you, but I laid my head on Luke 6:38, “Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.” Then I read in Galatians that I reap what I sow. I said, “Lord, I sowed a watch.” Less than seven days later without telling another human what I just told you, I’m praying a dismissal prayer in a church service at a hotel meeting and I heard metal clicking like this while I was praying my closing prayer.

When I dismissed the people, a young kid 26 years of age, came walking, he was on the front row, he said, “Weird, I just bought this watch yesterday. While you were praying the dismissal prayer, God told me to take it off and give it to you.” God began to give me a harvest of watches because I had sown watches. You don’t always reap where you sow, but you reap what you sow. If you understand that, you won’t keep things and hoard. If you need money, sow money. If you need friendship, sow the seed of friendship. If you want more love and mercy, sow it and call in your harvest. I’m Mike Smalley. Thank you for joining me today for this edition of Strengthen Your Walk™.

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