I love my Dad. He has taught me a lot over the years. Everything from riding a bike, learning to drive, to how to succeed in business, life and love.

My Grandma was an awesome lady and my Dad loved her even more than me. I grew up watching a son respecting his mother. 

My Mom is the woman I admire the most in life. She is strong, loving, thoughtful, generous, smart, and gorgeous and she’s even more so that because of my Dad’s deep love for her.  I feel a jealous twinge in my heart when I watch them together.

He’s a great man, a great son, husband, businessman, and a great Dad! I am very blessed indeed.

One of the many things I admire in my dad, and trust me when I say there are many, is what he shared with me about overcoming a tough time in their lives. I remember going through all this stuff but from a teen’s perspective (which isn’t always so clear or correct)… In church we call this a testimony and I wanted to share it with you.

Thank you Dad for being such a great example, for setting the bar high when it came to looking for those same qualities in a husband and for helping me see that there’s a plan God has for each of us that is greater than we could ever ask or think.

~ Shannon

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The Path from Poverty to Wealth

We are all traveling on one path or another in our journey of Life. Many are dead ends and encountering one you have to back track some to get back on the right one.

Isaiah 35:8, “And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring me, though fools, shall not err therein.”
Proverbs 4:18, “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” My family was poor right from the beginning, although help came from neighbours and our church family. The church we attended was missionary minded but in general, Christians were proud to be poor and we were in that bunch.  To have Wealth was almost considered ungodly.

In our early years of marriage we struggled financially, up and down like a yo-yo.  I had not learned the value of money nor understood the principals in correctly handling it. Then we heard teaching that God did not want His children poor but Blessed so they could be a Blessing. We were still in a yo-yo condition but started to tithe and give [offerings], even when we owed others, struggled to get our priorities in order and see ourselves out of debt and living in the Abundance. Times when money was tight we continued giving in the form of housing, clothing, design time, materials but we continued to live in tight cash flow, much in the negative. During this time we continued to grow spiritually, building up our faith, and correcting our words. We came to realize that our words play a major part in our success, as praying one thing and saying the opposite hold us back from moving ahead. During the times of financial distress, our CA consultant told us we could not afford to tithe and give until we had a plus on our balance sheet. Others said we shouldn’t go around confessing blessings when we didn’t have them. We basically told them to watch our lives. All this time the devil continued to have a field day with our finances. We still hadn’t learned how to hold on to the blessings that came and to turn these into multiplied blessings.

We found ourselves in dire financial distress with the bank trying to foreclose on the farm God had told us was a gift. I was reading a Proverb-a-Day when Proverbs 8:12, “I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions” grabbed my attention. I started confessing this scripture making it personal.

One day while walking on the property, the Holy Spirit showed me our acreage, along with several of our neighbours properties, developed as housing surrounding a large Golf Course. I researched site plans on the adjacent properties, then drew up a proposal showing what I had seen in the spirit. I called on our neighbours to show what I had envisioned. One long-term couple told me to take my proposal and go! About six months later they called to come to see us. Their daughters had encouraged them to meet and listen to the plan, they were in and the rest of the neightbours followed.  I developed the concept plan on the total 160-acres and submitted this to a major developer. They agreed to the project, buying all of us out. The returns were more than enough to pay off all debts plus provide us with enough to purchase our Ocean View property and set us up in a new business.

We still did not understand fully God’s Plan of Seed Time and Harvest to be able to hold on to the blessing and see it grow. We continued to search His Word and finally came to know in our hearts that seed had to be planted in order to receive a harvest. We knew that Seed Time and Harvest was God’s way to bring wealth to those who believed and acted on it. We learned the importance of Planting Our Seed, not throwing it and naming the seed we were planting.   We give thanks to our Lord for knowledge setting us free to reap the Harvest!

Tithing and Giving:  Did we do this when in debt – YES! Did we always behave honourably with those we were in debt to – NO!   We were scrambling to do it right and made errors but kept on going and adjusting along the way. We renewed our minds, pressing into the Word of God regarding finances. We learned the Tithe was the object we planted, and Tithing was what we spoke over our seed to see it grow. There were times when we seeded a material object but named it as a financial seed. While directing a Leadership Conference in Romania, the Pastor of the Church (Vice President of the Pentecostal Union) asked me to teach on Seed Time and Harvest which gave reality to what we had learned to all of us. I requested a cob of corn to use as an illustration, sharing that each kernel was programmed by God to produce after its kind. 

God’s returns are not times one but multiplied many times as each cob has many kernels producing many stocks. If we planted a dollar bill – it in itself has no life. If it was planted in the ground it would eventually rot never producing after its kind. What gives the dollar (or any other lifeless material) life is our words. We have the authority to call those things which be not as though they were. We give the lifeless seed, life. We call it what we hope for, Eg. “I plant this tithe (whatever object it is) as our mortgage payment and Thank you Lord we receive it paid. This principle went to work in our lives, the roller coaster ride ended and continual wealth building began.

Dwayne and Sharon Jacobson