The Laban System

​As said earlier work is not a curse, it is a responsibility and a blessing that should be enjoyed. The first thing we need to notice is that Adam was not working for anyone, he was working for himself. In other words you need to reach a level where you are independent enough to work your own garden in life, a place where you know that all your efforts are for the sake of you and your family. This is what we usually term a business. According to God’s plan we were all supposed to be tending our own gardens here on earth. 

Each of us should have a project or business we call our own.

  Am I saying it is wrong to be employed? Not at all. It is good to be employed. So what am I saying? Am I contradicting myself? Let us look at another biblical example that will give us more clarity.

THE LABAN SYSTEM

   Jacob was an ordinary person like us, nothing special about him. Like most people he needed to earn an honest living in order to survive and meet his needs. Like most people he looked for a job and fortunately, or unfortunately, he got a job with his uncle Laban. And Jacob being the honest, hardworking Christian he was, did his job diligently; sacrificing his time and effort like most people. Fortunately for Jacob he understood what God meant by work. He understood that he needed his own garden.

Genesis 30:25-26 (K.J.V)

And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go to mine own place, and to my country. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go, for you know my service which I have done for thee.

  

 Jacob understood that formal employment was just meant for a season. Formal employment is just for a season, it should be a stepping stone to your own garden. A time should come when you should be able to say to your employers, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place.”
Unfortunately many people can never reach this stage because of what I call the Laban System.

Genesis 31:41

Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.

   Jacob served in Laban’s garden twenty years for two important things: his wives and his own garden, that is, the livestock he went away with. Formal employment is good but it must not take your lifetime. You need to be able to serve in someone else’s garden for a season that will allow you the opportunity and ability to start your own garden (business or income generating project). 

   Unfortunately for many, they are serving Laban and thus working under the Laban System. It was not Laban’s will for Jacob to go. To prevent him from going, he kept on changing Jacob’s wages. Laban knew that Jacob’s labor was profiting him immensely, just as your employer knows that your labor is very valuable. Because of this he wanted to trap him in his garden. It is the same system the world is running on today. Many are trapped in formal employment till the day they retire. The Laban System does not allow them to work their own gardens. Jacob had to forcefully remove himself from this system in order to go to his own place. We too need to use force to reject the Laban System and establish our own gardens.

In our days the Laban System is very shrewd in the way it traps people, it offers them pensions and other “staying incentives”. In extreme cases it binds them with certain clauses in contracts. I am not against the pension system as a whole; I think it is a good idea for those who are willing to be formally employed for the rest of their lives. The problem I have with the pension system is that it was designed to keep people serving Laban. It creates a false sense of security about one’s future. A closer look at this system will reveal that it does not work. Most retirees who retire on a pension live way below the poverty level. The pension does not meet all their needs and they die early because of stress and frustration. But Laban does not care because he has already used your strength to prosper himself. 

The other reason I do not like the pension system is that it stifles the dreamer within us. It is because of the dreams of a pension that many stop dreaming of tending their own garden. “Why bother?” they ask. “After all I will be getting a pension.” This attitude kills creativity and a beautiful garden needs creativity.

   The Laban System is the system the world is using because the few wealthy people who are running the world want to keep others from getting to the top. The truth is that if all the money in the world were to be divided equally among everyone in the world each of us would be worth US$3 million. Incredible but true. Yet this is a reality to those who are willing to break out of the system. For other people that money is small change so why limit ourselves to where we are?
In short all I have been trying to say is summed up in the words of Mark Anastasi: “A JOB IS ONLY A SHORT TERM SOLUTION TO A LONG TERM PROBLEM”. Get a job but keep dreaming and creating your own garden, your own business. Even Jesus made mention of this in His teachings.

Luke 16:12

And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?

  This statement implies that after you have faithfully served in someone else’s garden, a time should come when you are to be given your own. That is the blueprint of heaven.

BACK TO WORK!

   Have you ever noticed that the people who labor extremely hard labor for those sitting in chairs? Do you know that toilers toil for those who tend? This is because those who tend know their place in the garden and employ their gifts. Because they employ their gifts God blesses them and when God blesses them they employ the toilers, those who do not know their place and gifts and therefore end up working anywhere. The result is that the tenders end up tending larger places; God enlarges their territory and thus the blessings increase. God prospers the tenders and that is a fact. That is why the rich get richer and the poor poorer. The toilers lose their portion of the garden and its blessings to the tenders. In the parable of the talents the servant that was cast out into the outer darkness was cast out because he was unprofitable (Matthew 25:30) and his lot was given to the one who was profitable. God is concerned about our profitability; it is one of the major things that is on His heart. 

  Toilers are enemies of the cross because they do not work under the laws of God. They do not utilize the covenant that Jesus Christ died to bring into effect. They work under the system of the fall and not under grace.

Ecclesiastes 10:15

The labor of the foolish wearies everyone of them, because he knows not how to go to the city.

   May this not be your portion as you work. May you enjoy the fruit of your labor and find the city of prosperity. Toiling is foolishness, for all you will be doing will be in vain. Toiling will get you nowhere.

Which of the two are you? Are you a tender or a toiler? 

Praise be to Jesus for redeeming us from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13).We can now move back from toiling to tending. We can start enjoying our work and our work being extremely fruitful. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and savior not only do we move from being toilers to tenders but God also heals the land that we are on, turning our toil into sweet tending.

The power to work is the power to get wealth, for without work one cannot get wealth.

This is an excerpt from the book “Kingdom Finance Dynamics“, you can check it out at:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Katopeka

THE HAND OF FAITH

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Now that we know what faith is and that it comes by hearing the word of God, what next? When it comes, how do I make it work?
In order to put our faith to work, we need to also understand that faith is like a hand. Faith is a hand that grabs blessings and victories in the spirit realm and pulls them into the natural realm. This understanding of faith being like a hand was understood by David, which is why I believe he said:

Psalm 18:34

He teaches my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by my arms.

It is this hand of faith that produces resounding victories in life. It is only the hand of faith and not of flesh that can break a bow of steel. 

Ephesians 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

2 Peter 1:3

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

God has provided us with everything that we need but they are reserved for us in the spiritual realm where they are protected. This is where faith comes in.

 Faith is a spiritual hand that reaches into the spiritual to bring what you need into the physical. What then is this hand like? We have already established that faith comes by hearing, which is the arm of faith with five fingers that can be described thus:
Faith comes by HEARING,

What you hear, SEE,

What you see, SPEAK,

What you speak, SOW for

What you SOW for, STAND for

What you stand for, SEIZE.
Let me give a biblical demonstration of these five fingers of faith.

1 Kings 18:41-46

And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.

So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,

And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times.

And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.

And it came to pass in the meanwhile, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.

And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Elijah heard the sound of abundance of rain before there was any sign of rain; faith comes by hearing.

What he heard, he had the faith to see in the spirit.

What he saw in the spirit, he spoke out, “I hear the sound of abundance of rain.”

What he spoke he also sowed for. How and when?

1 Kings 18:33-35

And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.

And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.

And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.

The most valuable commodity in Israel at that time was water, and Elijah poured four barrels of it on the altar. He was sowing a seed for the much needed rain.
After seeing, speaking and sowing, Elijah did not sit down and relax. He went up Mount Carmel and got on his knees to pray into being that which he heard, saw, spoke and sowed for. Six times Elijah got a negative response when he asked if there was a cloud, but he stood on that which he believed in. 

Elijah did not lose hope but rather chose to stand on God’s word. This is why he managed to seize his breakthrough.

When he seized that which he believed God for he supplied the whole of Israel with an answer to their three and a half year problem of drought, hunger and suffering.
God had trained Elijah’s hand to war. Elijah exercised that hand of faith, resulting in the miraculous. In short we can say:

Elijah heard  saw  spoke sowed stood  seized.

This is the same way faith works in our lives, but sadly for many, they do not see any victories because they only end at hearing. Applied Faith is practical, and anything practical is a process. 

This is what the rest of the book is about, the process of faith. This book aims to teach us how to put the five fingers to work.
We also need to understand that every process can be completed as well as aborted along the way, even our faith. Let’s look at an example of each of these outcomes from scripture.

Matthew 14:28-30

And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

For Peter the process of faith began well. He was achieving the desired results; he was walking on water, and that takes a lot of faith. Peter’s success was short lived because he chose to change who he was in agreement with. He chose to be in agreement with the storm and not with God, thus aborting his victory. 

Sadly Peter is not the only one guilty of aborting his breakthrough. Many saints are still choosing to abort their breakthroughs because of focusing on the challenges of life. What you need to understand is that faith will always be challenged, don’t abort the process.
On the other hand, as long as you remain in agreement with God, the process will be completed and your breakthrough will surely manifest.

Mark 8:23-25

And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.

Even the Master’s faith was challenged! Jesus prayed for this man, believing for the blind eyes to be opened. When He asked for confirmation of the healing, the man responded by saying he could see partially. Jesus knew that the process of faith was incomplete, He laid hands on the man again and prayed, completing the process of faith and healing of the man.

Your faith will always be challenged by the circumstances around you. 

Do not abort the process. Many, when they see the storms rising to challenge their breakthrough, react like Peter. They shift their faith from God to the storm. May that not be your story. Follow Jesus’ example; do not abort the process of faith just because things are not going the way you want them to. 

May the Holy Spirit open the eyes of your understanding to see, understand and apply this kind of living faith in your life.
amazon.com/author/katonkhoma 

The Hand Of Faith

The Mystery Of Faith 

Ephesians 3:3

How that by revelation He made known to me the mystery ………

The kingdom of God is a kingdom of mysteries. Mysteries that can only be known by revelation and not education. One of those mysteries is the mystery of faith. In the beginning, when God created man, man knew everything and so lived a victorious life. 

A life of power, authority and dominion. Authority and dominion are a function of faith, and faith is a function of revelation knowledge; hence the cliché “knowledge is power”. 

After the fall, man was separated from God, and with that separation he was disconnected from the source of revelation knowledge. This resulted in him losing authority and dominion on the earth. The reason there is so much fear on earth today is lack of this revelation knowledge for we fear what we do not know or understand.

No other Bible account explains this better than the story of Elisha and his servant in the book of Second Kings chapter 6.

The king of Syria had been planning ambushes on Israel. Each and every time they failed because of one man; Elisha. Elisha, because of living in constant revelation knowledge, always saw where the ambushes were and thus foiled the plans of the Syrians. It was upon discovering the source of their failures that the king of Syria sent an army to go and capture Elisha. Not an ordinary army mind you, but a great host.

When Elisha’s servant woke up in the morning, he was met by a terrible sight. Death stared him in the face. In fear and trepidation he ran to announce their demise to his master, but the man of God was not moved because he walked not by sight but by faith. He had revelation knowledge that neither his servant nor the Syrians had. Had this great Syrian host known what Elisha knew, they would have stayed home.

2 Kings 6:16

“Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”

Elisha was not perturbed because he had already seen that his God was with him. Oh that all believers would be like Elisha. Unfortunately many, when under attack, whether by sickness, poverty, unemployment, etcetera; tend to react the same way the servant reacted. They react in fear. Whatever your attacker, know that they that be with you are more than whatever it is that is attacking you.

2 Kings 6:17

“And Elisha prayed, and said, ‘LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”

It is not that the young man was blind. Naturally he had perfect eyesight, but spiritually he was as blind as a bat. He needed revelation knowledge. May God open your eyes that you may see the great deliverance He has for you. May you see that whenever He comes, He always answers by fire. May the eyes of your understanding, your spiritual eyes, be opened. May God give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Back to what happened at the fall.

With the fall came a change in the governance of the earth. Satan became the god of this world, the new source of revelation knowledge. All Satan reveals to people is weakness, sickness, poverty, unworthiness and every evil you can think of. The whole point being to spread fear and discouragement in the world. Satan has blinded people from receiving revelation knowledge, thereby keeping people from moving in power and authority. What the first Adam lost; the revelation of the mysteries of God, the second Adam, Jesus, came to restore.

John 1:4-5

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Jesus is the light, the revelation of God. He is our connection to the source of revelation. When we operate in the mysteries of God, especially the mystery of faith, the kingdom of darkness cannot understand us. They cannot understand how we manage to turn the tables and overcome them, the same way the king of Syria couldn’t understand how Israel knew their every move. When you operate in this mystery of faith, people will not understand how you prosper and succeed; how you achieve the impossible. 

Now that we have seen that the mysteries of God are known by revelation, we can ask ourselves a good question, “What is the mystery of faith?”

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

The mystery of faith is that faith turns spirit into flesh; immaterial substance into physical. Faith turns bad circumstances into opportunities, curses into blessings.

 That is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. 

This is the mystery we will be exploring in this book. We will be unlocking the eternal secrets that created the world and applying them in our lives in order to create, change or redirect our destinies.

Galatians 3:5

He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Miracles and breakthroughs are not a result of living under the law or fulfilling the law, miracles are a result of applying faith. 

This is what we will be learning here, how to apply your faith and yield results.