Let us carefully read what Jacob used for his financial plan. It is very detailed and very specific. He planned it carefully and followed his plan and became prosperous.

”…Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen. Jacob…took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban…Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys (Genesis 30:29-43).

So where did Jacob come up with this detailed financial plan? The scriptures don’t specifically tell us, but it would seem like he got it from spending time with God. I love the fact that Jacob’s financial plan was part natural and part supernatural. Norm Schlemmer is a church leader and a businessman from Indiana. Here he describes how he gets ideas from God.

Ask God to give you ideas for continuous streams of income. One example I had was when I asked God how I would pay for college educations for my four children.  After I bought my first apartments, the Holy Spirit told me to buy ten sets of coin-operated washers and dryers and put them in the apartments. I paid for them the first year and have now had them for over twenty years. It was very little work, other than hauling the quarters to the bank. They paid for college and then some. They are still producing today with almost no involvement. Being obedient to the Holy Spirit can have great rewards. 

If a farmer plants corn in the spring, he harvests the crop in the fall. If he plants apple seeds in the spring, it may be many years before he can reap. The difference between the corn and the apple tree is that the corn is harvested only once and has to be replanted the next year. The apple tree will yield many years of harvest from one planting. Buying stock in a company can yield many years of dividends. Ask God to show you long-term investments².

This sounds easy but it is not. However it can be done.