Neon sign about giving

Position to Prosper - Biblical Generosity That Changes Lives

Discover how biblical generosity unlocks God's prosperity. Learn why giving flows in God's economy and how your seed changes your season.

Dr. Jomo Cousins
Dr. Jomo Cousins
15 minutes

You know what? Prosperity doesn't equate to wealth. You could be wealthy and not healthy, that's not true prosperity. The Bible tells us in 3 John 2 that real prosperity means having nothing missing and nothing lacking in every area of your life. It's about wholeness, not just wallet size.

Let me ask you something: When God wants to bless you, can He find you ready to flow? Or are you so caught up holding onto what you think is "yours" that you've created a spiritual blockage?

Understanding God's Economy of Generosity

Here's what most people miss about biblical prosperity: God wants you to have something so you can do something. If you don't have something, you can't do nothing. There are times in our walk with God where we wish we had resources to act when we see a need. God wants to position you where when you see something, you can actually do something about it.

Genesis 12:2 reveals God's heart for His children: "I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others." Notice the pattern? God blesses you TO MAKE YOU a blessing. You're not the destination, you're the delivery system.

Think about Amazon, they make drops all the time, right? God wants you to be His generosity Amazon. When something needs to be done in the earth and God needs to use somebody, would He call you?

Packages ready to be delivered symbolizing the flow of biblical generosity

The Flow Principle: Why Generosity Keeps You Growing

Let me show you something. Hold your breath for 10 seconds right now.

Now breathe out. That 10 seconds kind of hurt, didn't it? You will not survive if you don't exhale. Waves go in and waves go out. If your heart valve doesn't circulate, you die. If blood doesn't flow to your brain, you die.

We are built to give and receive.

When you just receive and don't give, you'll have a blockage. Anything that does not flow dies. There's a body of water called the Dead Sea, you know why they call it that? Because it doesn't flow. Nothing lives there.

Here's the principle: You will grow to the level you flow. If you stop flowing, you stop growing. As long as you're flowing, whatever is stuck to you dies because it must circulate.

Proverbs 11:24 confirms this truth: "There is one who generously scatters abroad, yet increases all the more; and there's one who withholds what is justly due, but the result is only want and poverty."

That doesn't make sense to the natural man, does it? But in God's economy, He just needs a person who can flow. When you allow God to flow through you, you will consistently grow.

Water flowing representing spiritual and financial abundance through generosity

The Ownership Illusion: Nothing Actually Belongs to You

Some of you believe your money is yours, your children are yours, your stuff is yours. But Psalms 24:1 sets the record straight: "The Earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it."

We come in naked, we're going to leave naked. You're taking nothing with you. All we have is temporary control over some things for a certain amount of time. Somebody's going to be driving your car when you're gone. Somebody's going to be in your house, wearing your clothes. Some of your stuff is at Salvation Army right now with somebody saying, "Oh, this is a nice shirt!"

The key is understanding: I own nothing.

When you get to that place, generosity becomes easy. What makes generosity hard is thinking something belongs to you. You never have to teach a child to say "mine", everything is theirs naturally. You have to teach a child how to share. And some of y'all didn't hit that class yet.

Nothing belongs to us. We are just sojourners passing through for a vapor. While you're here, make a dent with your dash. On your gravestone, there's your birth date, your death date, and a line in the middle, that's your dash. Make a dent with your dash while you have time.

Seeds being planted in soil representing sowing into God's kingdom

The Seven Laws of Sowing and Reaping

Let me break down the biblical principles that govern generosity and harvest. These aren't suggestions, they're spiritual laws that work whether you believe them or not.

Law #1: You Reap Only What You Have Sown

Whatever you need to harvest is what you need to sow. 2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us: "Let each one give thoughtfully and with purpose, just as he has decided in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

If you want joy, give joy. If you want peace, be peaceful. If you want friends, show yourself friendly. If you want financial blessing, sow financial seeds. You reap what you sow. This isn't deep, but we often don't do it and then wonder why we have the harvest we have.

Many of us are living in the consequences of bad seeds. If you want to change your harvest, you have to change your seed.

Law #2: You Reap in the Same Kind You Sow

If you want an apple, you have to sow what kind of seed? An apple seed. Not a watermelon seed. Not an orange seed. Love begets love. Joy begets joy. Peace begets peace. Money begets money.

This principle works for good or bad. If you're raggedy, you're going to reap raggedy. If you want different results, you need different seeds.

Law #3: You Reap in a Different Season Than You Sow

Genesis 8:22 establishes this: "While the earth remains, there will be seedtime and harvest."

Here's where people get frustrated with God: You sow a seed on Sunday and Monday morning you're like, "Hurry up and grow! I sowed yesterday and my life hasn't changed yet!"

You forgot about the consequences of the last 20 years of poor decisions. Sometimes we have to get through the consequences of our poor decisions before we start seeing the manifestation of our good decisions.

If you got pregnant today, you're not having a baby tomorrow. There's going to be a harvest time. The problem is we often abort our dream because we don't see evidence now. But what is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

You have to faith it before you see it. Don't give up in the incubator season when your dream is developing.

Farmer harvesting abundant crop symbolizing reaping what you sow

Law #4: You Reap More Than You Sow

If you sow one seed, it doesn't come back as one, it multiplies. Genesis 26:12 records that Isaac "planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him."

You will always get more back than you gave. It's the principle.

I get frustrated when I try to help people understand this. Someone who's broke comes asking for money, and I say, "Listen, here's a simple plan, start this system." They tell me they will, but they don't do it. Two years later, they come back with another crisis.

They don't realize they're in a cycle. The Bible says "you are cursed with a curse." I'm not trying to curse you, that's Scripture. It means you've put yourself in a cycle of lack, and you'll continue to lack until you change the cycle.

If you've been broke for 20 years, there's something beyond just being broke, it's a mindset problem.

Law #5: You Reap in Proportion to What You Sow

Luke 6:38 puts this control in YOUR hands: "Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back."

Notice God didn't say you HAVE to give 10%. That was the Old Covenant law. The New Covenant says the amount you give determines your increase. It's based on your choice.

When you see me doing big things, I've already figured out that this works for me. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Once you trust God, you'll be amazed at how He moves in your life.

Law #6: You'll Reap a Full Harvest Only if You Persevere

Galatians 6:9 warns us: "Let us not grow weary or become discouraged in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap if we don't give in."

You start something but don't stick with it. How many dreams have you given up on because a little adversity hit your life? You had a bad relationship, a divorce, a baby too soon, money problems, whatever your story is, if God be for you, who can be against you?

This is just a roadblock. Don't allow the devil to put a period where God intended a comma. You got to keep writing, keep living, keep believing. Don't allow what you've been through to be the final statement on you. You still got time. God can still do it.

Law #7: God Uses the Same System He Created

When God wanted to change the world in Genesis 22, He asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham took Isaac to Mount Moriah, lifted his hand to strike, and God said, "No, I don't want your son, I want your heart. But since you're willing to sacrifice Isaac, now you've authorized me to put Jesus in the game."

God had to find a man who could trust his son with the Father. Then God said, "Since you trust me with your son, I can give you my son."

Even when God wanted to save our world, He sent a seed, the seed of David named Jesus. God doesn't go outside the system He created. The Bible says, "Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, there is no new life."

Seeds change cycles. When a woman is impregnated, that seed (Greek word: sperm) changes her menstrual cycle. Even in human biology, seeds alter cycles and change harvests.

From Fear to Faith: Changing Your Giving Mindset

Here's the difference between Old Covenant and New Covenant giving:

Old Testament: Law: give 10% (you HAVE to) New Testament: Grace, give from your heart (you WANT to)

You don't want a man or woman you have to tell, "Do you love me? Do you love me? Why don't you say it?" That's law. But when someone says "I love you" freely from their heart? That's grace. Forced versus choice.

Jesus came to say, "Listen, I don't want to force you to give. I want you to give because it's in your heart."

A lot of preachers try to threaten you: "If you don't give, we're locking the doors!" They create a $100 line, $50 line, $5 line. Where's that in the Bible? People have been manipulated to give out of fear.

You give out of love.

You know my offering message? Sixty seconds. That's it. Because I don't care, it's God who does the work. We trust God. We don't have to threaten you with hell if you don't give. That's not even in the Bible. God says He wants a cheerful giver. You can't give cheerfully if you're afraid.

The more educated person gives. Once you know better, you do better. I'm not dumbing it down, I'm elevating your mindset.

What's Your Faith Level?

I don't know where you are today. I don't know if you have golf ball faith, tennis ball faith, volleyball faith, or basketball faith. But guess what? God will meet you on the level of your faith.

God gives everyone something, but what you choose as your measure, He'll let you go with it. There are other levels God wants to take you to, but if that's your level, He'll let you stay there.

Ephesians 3:20 declares: "Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above more than you could ever ask or think, according to the power that works in us."

If you will let God be God, He will blow your mind. The problem is we have small faith and think that's all God has for us. God has so much more for you if you would just trust Him.

Change Your Seed, Change Your Season

When you want to change your season, change your seed. When you change your seeds, it changes your season. You can't run from this principle. In every area, if you want to change something, you've got to do something different.

Your seed takes care of your need. Stop looking at other people. Don't worry about anybody else. Do what God told you to do.

God has no limit to what He'll trust you with. The challenge is you don't trust Him. Everything you have, He gave you. So when He asks for it back, you're like, "No, I'm good." But God says there's more, so much more, if you'll just flow with Him.

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