The Day of New Beginnings

First Fruits to God and the Lamb

 

Gen. 3:
17 ¶  To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."
 
By the sweat of Adam’s brow he would eat his food. Mystically this is telling us man would produce by his own energies. This is the curse. Man would labor by his own energies, wearing himself out until he returned to the dust. Returning to the dust also indicates his works would die with him. All that man produces by his own energies is destined to die. It will not endure into eternity. This is contrasted with living works which are wrought by the Spirit of God. In Rev. 14:13 we read: “Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them." That which God creates through our hands never dies. It follows us into eternity. 
 
We tend to build up every promise in the Scriptures so only a monumental experience of gargantuan proportions can fulfill it. We read in Rev. 22:3 there will no longer be any curse. “Oh, great,” we think, and envision a day when Christ splits the sky open and turns the whole world around. “One day down the road something miraculous will take place.” But God rarely fulfills His word that way. His promises come to pass subtly, worked into our lives by the cross. As we are conformed to His image, we are scarcely aware of the deep changes in our lives. The promise of no more curse is manifested the same way.
 
There will never be deliverance for the earth until it’s first worked into God’s people. That’s just the way it is. It’s very convenient for our religious flesh natures to adopt the “one day there will be a great, miraculous moving of God” theory. It absolves us of any responsibility to make it happen. But when we understand God’s word will only come to pass as we appropriate it with faith, then it grips our hearts. There must be a first fruits company that experiences God’s deliverances. What does the Scripture say? “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming… (1st Cor. 15:22-23).” Christ the first fruits is not one man, Jesus, but the many membered Christ. Christ is a many membered body with Jesus as the Head (1st. Cor. 12:12). Let’s see this first fruits company in Rev. 14:
 
 
1 ¶  Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.
2  And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps.
3  And they *sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth.
4  These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.
5  And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.
 
Now, back to that curse. Already a way is made in God to be released from the curse. Jesus was certainly not subject to it. He did not labor by the sweat of His brow to bring forth the works that He did. They were wrought by the Spirit. Jesus knew how to reach into another realm and bring forth works whose essence were spirit. He said in John 3:6 that what is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Jesus brought forth living works because the Father’s life was in them (John 5:19). They were not produced by human energies. We can learn to walk the same way. 
 
“LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us (Isa. 26:12).” The KJV gets it right. God creates all our works in us, not for us, as others translations read. There is a way we begin to bring forth living works ourselves. We learn to reach into God and manifest works in this earthly realm that have their origin in Him. This is the pure ministry of Christ that must be walked in. So much of Christianity brings forth a mixture; partly of God, partly of man’s energies. Man labors to bring forth out of his earthly treasure works that are humanly energized. They glorify man. Listen to what Jesus said in Luke 6:45: "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” Who is the good man but Christ? It’s Christ’s nature in us. The evil man is the old, Adamic nature. The speaking of the mouth denotes creating. We can create and bring into this natural realm living works. Because they are produced by the Spirit and have spirit as their essence, they are works apart from the curse! Do you see how deliverance from the curse begins with God’s people, and how it happens subtly, without a lot of fanfare? Living works placed next to works created through the energies of man might look the same. No big, miraculous explosions indicate the works wrought in God. But spiritual eyes can see the difference. 
 
We need to think practical but with the mind of the Spirit. Jobs, businesses, you name it; a million different things produced by the energies of man can also be wrought in God, reflecting His nature. These are the living works devoid of the curse. It begins with us. Despise not the day of small beginnings, because they lead to greater and greater manifestations of His word (Zech 4:6-10).