“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. )
Growing Dominion, Part 146
“Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house” (Prov. 24:27).
If you are establishing a farm, cultivate the field first. Afterwards, when the farm is up and running, you can build a nice farmhouse. The work of farming is a nice metaphor for the entire enterprise. You have to know the difference between plowing and harvesting, knowing which is which, and you have to know which comes first. Establishing a productive farm is the plowing; building a permanent place to dwell is part of the harvest, and comes second. The basic truth is that “the thing you are doing” is to be first, and the vehicle for doing it is second.
This principle is violated when someone opens a pizza joint, and then afterwards starts looking for someone who loves to make pizza. It is violated when “build it and they will come” is the basic operating principle. It should be “do it and they will come.” Do on a small scale what you want to do on a great scale. When that pitchfork won’t hold that much hay anymore, then get a bigger pitchfork. But if you start with a silver-plated pitchfork to hang over the mantle of the farmhouse, which farm has never had a successful crop, then you have things backwards.