Sowing Seeds
The year is 1998. I had just graduated high school the year before and was in that nebulous space between Jamb and University.
I was the President of the Airforce Secondary School Christian Fellowship before graduation, and had just been appointed Choir director and one of the Teens Church pastors (along with Freke Umoh, Ada and Victor Ndukauba and the Egbeahie boys), for the New Realm Baptist Church, the same Church where I gave my life to Jesus as an 8 year old boy. I was keen to grow in Gods word, and so when I heard that there was a conference holding at the National Stadium hosted by Matthew Ashimolowo, I bundled as many friends as I could into my mothers old Mercedes V boot, and we drove everyday from Festac to Surulere for the five day conference.
It was at this conference that I first came across seed sowing as a doctrinal principle in pentecostal christianity. Various preachers spoke fervently about a God who loves to give blessings to his children, but told of how many of us miss out daily on countless blessings, simply because we negleted to sow the seeds necessary to unlock these blessings. We were told of storehouses of wealth and riches and blessing and prosperity that many believers would “get to heaven” and see, and realise that they lived an impoverished life on earth despite having the opportunity to be blessed beyond measure.
Mike Murdock told us of a special $58 seed which if sown that night, would guarantee a blessing from God in 58 days. I was skeptical at first, but just before he called to receive the seed he prayed this prayer:
“God if I am speaking of myself and not of you, if any of this money is for Mike Murdock’s personal gain, may a curse be upon me and my ministry and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth”
You could hear the audible gasps that rippled through the congregation. Did he just place a curse on himself? We all took that as proof. This was indeed a man of God!
He told us testimonies of last minute miracles, of literal mountains moving, of healings, deliverance and breakthrough, all tied the obedience of ordinary people who placed their faith in an extraordinary God, and their seed in the hands of an anointed man of God.
I didn’t go forward that day. I was 17 years old. I had no money. But I determined in my heart that one day, I too would be able to sow a seed and unlock my own blessings.
Sowing seeds has now become mainstream. Almost every Pentecostal believer in America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, believe it as an inerrant part of the Christian faith, and a large number have personal testimonies of how they feel it has worked for them or their families. But what does the Bible really have to say about ‘seed’ and how accurate is our 21st century interpretation of it?
There are four major types of seeds preached in Pentecostal circles today, namely;
1. Prophets Seed offering : Believers are encouraged to identify a ‘man of God’ whose life and ministry they consider to be fertile ground, and then they are to desire the blessings which are upon that persons life or ministry and sow a seed into the fertile ground in anticipation of a harvest of similar blessing.
2. Receiving Seed of faith: During a service, if a preacher speaks a word which a believer identifies as a possible word for his present situation, he is encouraged to get up during the service and go to the altar to sow a seed which will receive and secure the word in faith
3. Prophetic Seed of faith: This is where usually at the end of a sermon, the preacher lists certain sums and how many in the congregation are required to come out to fulfil it. For example, one popular preacher is known to have said “there are 20 people here who God says will give a seed of 1 million for stupendous wealth”
3. Personal Seed of faith: If a believer identifies a need in their life which they feel is according to God’s will, they are encouraged to give a seed in faith to secure the blessing
Let’s take a quick journey through scripture and biblical history to lay of the foundational truths of this doctrine so that we can measure our current practice against biblical standards.
OFFERING MONEY IN EXCHANGE FOR BLESSING IS ‘SIMONY’
Simony is a term used to describe the thinking of a man called Simon Magus. Simon was present where Peter was preaching. He saw something God was doing through Peter and John. He too wanted to have the gift they had, and so he offered to give some money (he attempted to sow a receiving seed into the ministry of Peter and John) to secure the blessing. Paul made it clear that the blessings of God could not be secured by money, but by the spirit. It did not matter how sincerely Simon desired it or how much money he was willing to sow to receive it.
Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” 11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
Acts of the Apostles 8: 9-23
14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”
GIVING TO MEET A NEED IS SCRIPTURAL, BUT THE NEED IS ALWAYS THAT OF OTHERS NOT YOURS
Giving is a fundamental part of both the Jewish and the Christian faith. Believers through out scripture are encouraged to give generously. However, one thing you will find in scripture next to EVERY single call to give is that it is to meet a NEED of someone other than yourself. The Isrealites met the needs of the Levites, orphans and widows by giving their tithes, the widow of Zarephat gave her last flour and oil to meet the need of Elijah, the new testament believers gave to meet the need of the Jerusalem believers who were being persecuted. I set myself a challenge to find a passage in the new testament where a person was instructed to give money as a way to secure answers to prayer and I couldn’t find any. Can you?
34 There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them 35 and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.
Acts 4:34-35
WHEN SEED IS MENTIONED IN SCRIPTURE IT REFERS TO THE WORD
In the parable of the sower in Mark, Jesus makes a parallel between what was a common practice in the time of the audience to whom he was speaking. He used an everyday agricultural practice to simplify the mysteries of Gods kingdom. In this parable Jesus explains to his disciples that the seed was the Word of God. The land was the hearts of men and the harvest was salvation. There is no mention of seed being money, land being a prophets life or ministry or harvest being breakthrough. There are over 250 references in scripture which mention seed and non of them were used to refer to money
2And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path …10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them…14 The sower sows the word.
Mark 4: 2-14
WHEN SOWING IS MENTIONED IN SCRIPTURE IT REFERS TO DEEDS AND CHARACTER
Whatsoever you sow that shall you reap. If you sow to the spirit you will reap life and if you sow to the flesh you will reap corruption.
In this passage Paul was telling his audience that the way they live their lives will show forth as fruits of their action. Paul’s audience were mostly familiar with the agricultural practices of the day and so he used terms that almost every one of his listeners would have been able to relate to. The Greeks in 400BC were known for war and not agriculture and so for them the equivalent saying was “if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword” In Lagos today, one could say the equivalent of this could be “he who do anyhow go see anyhow!”
The phrase “you reap what you sow” was not talking about money, the same way “you live by the sword you die by the sword” was not talking about money either
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Galatians 6:7-8
So from a short study of the scripture we realise that if we take the Bible in context and do justice to the original text, there is no justification for the practice of sowing seed for blessing. Where did we get it from? How did it become so widespread? How come no body was able to spot it as heresy when it first started? This brings us to the doctrines of Biblical infallibility and spiritual authority both of which were necessary to create the environment where seed faith could thrive. In a later post we will explore these in detail too.
Suffice to say that the basis for this teaching is rooted in transactional Christianity, which presupposes that for God to do something for you you have to do something for him first. It is not hard to see how we could think this, because we as humans are mainly transactional. We expect that God is too. We find it hard to compute that God could give us blessings in abundance without us giving him anything. We are not used to free. But even when God was cutting a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15:8-17 he alone walked through the burning torches, because God never wanted man to do something to get something in return.
God’s blessings might be free but they are not cheap! They were bought for us by the blood of his precious son Jesus and all he asks from us it that we believe that he is the Word of God, that he came in a physical body, took upon himself our sin, died and then rose again having defeated death, hell and the grave! This act of believing is FAITH. Not faith in a seed of money sown in the ‘fertile ground’ of a ministry in the expectation of a return. Not the faith in a sum of money given as a means to buy the gifts and blessings of God. The faith God responds to is faith in JESUS alone.
I want to set you a challenge too. Study the scripture. Look at it in context. Can you find any biblical support for the four types of seed practised by many believers today? Since we will be looking at scripture individually, can we agree to use the same standards so as to maintain uniformity
Let us agree that:
1. All of scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit. We will seek his divine wisdom to help us understand what we read
2. The Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. We will approach it as a narrative description of God’s dealings with man which express his will, character and desire to have mankind as co-rulers of the earth alongside him for eternity. In other words, we will refrain from using it as a text book a law book or a reference book.
3. For clarity we will always read scripture in context. This means no verses will be taken in isolation, we will read a few verses above and a few verses below. We will take each narrative in the context of its original audience and use the knowledge of that particular subject group to define the authors point of view
4. We will test all personal convictions and revelations against the integrity of the person of Jesus, as both the entirety of God’s spoken word as well as the incarnate perfection of divinity in human form. In other words, if it doesn’t sound like Jesus, it probably isn’t
Feel free to comment and discuss, and it is my prayer that God will share with us his true heart concerning this matter as we humbly seek his face.
God bless you!
