The Welfare System of the Church 2: Firstfruits

This post is another edited excerpt from my upcoming book. It explains the principle of the firstfruits offering and why it is important to understand and apply it especially at this time in God's calendar.

FirstFruits

Exodus 13:2 describes, Sanctify (consecrate, set apart) to Me all the firstborn [males]; whatever is first to open the womb among the Israelites, both of man and of beast, is Mine. AMP

Leviticus 23:9-10 also explains, ⁹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. 

This means that we are required to give to God everything that becomes the first in our lives because it opens our wombs in every area of our lives, be it our first born son, the first paycheck when we get a new job and even from a promotion we received, our first house, our ministry, our business, etc. Thus, when we are planning to acquire something new to us we must always ask the Lord how He has planned for us to consecrate it to His service and do exactly what He commands us to do. For example, for our child, He might say that the child will be raised to serve Him in ministry as a minister or worshiper. Of a house the Lord might say to make it a house of prayer for all nations or something more specific like pray for families or leaders. At other times He may ask us to give our house away to someone else with no mortgage payments for them to make. A new car may be used to drive people to church or prayer meetings, and every first in our finances as well as every increase are to be given to God because the root sanctifies the branches.

It also means that the part we give to God because we are obeying this principle will sanctify the rest with prosperity and protection from the enemy. Romans 11:16 explains, For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. This is not the same as the tithe. The tithe is a 10% of your income (from every paycheck) or an offering which is what we give above and beyond the tithe for the things we want to increase in our lives. An example of giving firstfruits, tithes, and offerings comes from Abel. Genesis 4:1-5 says,

¹ Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” ² Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. ³ And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. ⁴ Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, ⁵ but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. NKJV

Verse 4 says that Abel brought the firstborn of his flock (the firstborn of his flock represents the firstfruits offering) and he also gave the fat of the animal (which represents a 10% or tithe because he always consumed the fat of the animals he offered to the Lord whether they were the firstborn or not). Other firsts we are required to give to God are: the first of our day (our first thoughts should be towards God and seeking His presence in intimacy with Him through the reading of the Word, prayer, and seeking His guidance for the day), the first of every calendar year we are to consecrate which means that every January we seek the Lord with prayer and fasting to sanctify the rest of it.  We also give a firstfruits offering at that time.

In addition, we give to God the Sabbath which is the day of rest and the first day of the week (most people do this on Sunday) in which we dedicate to seeking Him by going to church and fellowship with other brothers and sisters to talk about God and His ways for our lives. Isaiah 58:13-14 defines this,

¹³“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a delight,
The holy day of the Lord honorable,
And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,
Nor finding your own pleasure,
Nor speaking your own words,
¹⁴ Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord;
And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,
And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.
The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

One last firstfruits principle I want to mention is the firstfruits of every Sabbath year. This is every seventh year according to God’s calendar, not the Gregorian calendar. The same principle of the first day of the week applies here, except that we do this the whole year and are also commanded to help the poor in the Church and around us so we can all obey God’s command to spend consecrated time with Him during this year and not be worried about where our sustenance will come from. The seventh Sabbath year is also called the Shemitah year of rest for our lands. This is an agricultural Jewish term, but it also applies to every means we use to generate income. The land must rest according to God’s prescription for each one of us, so it can replenish and produce bountiful crops the next six years. We also are to forgive any debt owed to us by other believers. This does not apply to unbelievers, they still must pay what they owe us. The current Sabbath year 5775 is from October 8, 2014 to September 28, 2015. Leviticus 25:1-7 says,

¹And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, ² “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord. ³ Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; ⁴ but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. ⁵ What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your unatended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land.⁶ And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, ⁷ for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food.

A demonstration of this principle of the Sabbath year firstfruits in the early Church is found in Acts 2:44-45, ⁴⁴ Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, ⁴⁵ and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. This signifies that the finances they obtained from the selling of their possessions and goods were given to the apostles as firstfruits offerings. In other words, they gave the lump sum of the proceeds to the apostles in order to sanctify and protect their possessions during the next six years. 

In addition, Acts 4:32-37 emphasizes, ³² Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. ³³ And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. ³⁴ Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, ³⁵ and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need. ³⁶ And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, ³⁷ having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. NKJV

It is crucial to understand that when we are giving our firstfruits offering, it must be the whole lump sum, not just a portion of the proceeds. The latter is dangerous to do for it could bring death to our lands in any area, not just financially. Three times a year we are to give firstfruits offerings: in January (beginning of the Gregorian calendar year), during the feast of Passover, and during the feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot. Therefore, if your income is weekly, then give a week’s pay at the beginning of the year as mentioned above, if it is biweekly, give accordingly, and so on. Chapter 5 of the book of acts, in verses 1-11 exemplifies what happens when we do not give the whole portion of the proceeds. It says that both Ananias and his wife Sapphira lied at separate times about the amount of the profit they received from the selling of their land and they both died for testing the Spirit of the Lord, one first, and the other one shortly after. 

1 But a certain man named Ananias, and Sapphira his wife sold a possession. 2 And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. NKJV

It says  in verses 1 and 2, and as mentioned in the previous post that Ananias and Sapphira were not believers, but they came to partake of this move of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the land without knowledge and understanding of the ways of the Lord and under the influence of mammon, and by choosing not to tell the truth about their giving which was customary to them. Hence, they lied to the Holy Spirit and died. Not giving the firstfruits offering or giving only a portion of the total amount gives entrance to the spirit of mammon, and the influence of this spirit in our finances brings death to the whole of it and that is why our land would have to eject and shake everything that can be shaken because it is contaminated with mammon in the area of finances, so that the things that cannot be shaken because they came from the Holy Spirit's influence that we obeyed, may remain pure. Hebrews 12:27 explains,

Now this, "yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. NKJV.  

In the Church, the office of the Prophet is the one assigned by God to remove the spirit of mammon and its contamination from the tithes and the offerings and to point out the way the contamination has come in so that the door that gave entrance to the famine in the camp and in the land may be closed to that spirit. An example of that is seen with the prophet Elisha and the sons of the prophets that had tasted the poison of contamination in their midst because they had sought to obtain provision for food for the house by any means possible. However, these means were outside of God’s will due to their contamination with the mammon spirit, but thankfully the people were able to discern it and cry out for help. Consequently, as it is seen in the passage, the prophet had to put the flour in the pot. This stands for the office of the Prophet providing the elimination of the contamination by the spirit of mammon through their firstfruits offering. 2 Kings 4:38-41 says in the New King James Version,

“³⁸ And Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. Now the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.” ³⁹ So one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were. ⁴⁰ Then they served it for the men to eat. Now it happened, as they were eating the stew, that they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
⁴¹So he said, “Then bring some flour.” And he put it on the pot, and said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot. To God alone be all the glory. ■© 2014

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