Post by WatchmanRay on Dec 28, 2006 20:07:03 GMT -5
it is the FIRSTFRUITS OF THE HARVEST to which he refers, and not the FIRST MONTH. The FIRST is a PEOPLE! The first is a people who have received of the former and latter rain and have thereby been brought to the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ. I want you to see this principle -where God's mind is, where His heart is. It's to bring a FIRSTFRUITS to maturity, the precious FRUIT of the earth, a people filled with all the fullness of HIM who has come unto them as the rain and been formed in them. These are the FIRST OF A KIND, A KIND OF FIRSTFRUITS. And in THIS FIRST you are going to have the full embodiment and expression of both the former and latter rain - both together! All that the rain of God was meant to accomplish shall be fulfilled and manifested in and through this FIRST. Isn't that marvelous? Hallelujah!
The wonder of it is just this. This people will have a DUAL MESSAGE AND MINISTRY the message and ministry of the former rain together with the message and ministry of the latter rain. They will both sow and reap. They will birth men into the Kingdom of God and grow men up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. These will minister salvation, healing, deliverance, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and all the elementary things of the Christ to earth's vast billions; but they will also bring the multitudes of believers who have remained in the baby stage of growth into higher and higher dimensions of life and truth and development until they, too, become mature ones in Christ. Progressively they shall bring every man into the fullness of INCORRUPTIBLE LIFE in spirit, soul and body. Truly there has never been a people or a ministry on the earth like this! This is a FIRST! This is THE FIRST in which God manifests and from which He pours out all the power and life and glory and victory of both the former and latter rain!
There is going to be a ministration of the Holy Spirit in a way and measure that has never been before, when the Christ has been glorified in His body, His FIRST. We are to receive the Spirit in His fullness, be RAISED UP in the realm of the Spirit to be seated with the Lord in heavenly realms; above all the limitations of this fleshly realm; into a dimension in the Spirit that none as yet (except Jesus) has ever attained; to be poured out as former and latter rain into the earth. This will be the manifestation of the sons of God that the whole creation is waiting expectantly for. There will be an outpouring of the Holy Ghost such as never was. The glory of the former rain at Pentecost was marvelous beyond words to tell, and the glory of the latter rain has been glorious beyond human description, but the manifestation of God's glory when both former and latter rain, transformed into grain, oil and wine, are shed forth through God's firstfruit company will pale the light of the noonday sun and make to seem insignificant the greatest and most glorious things of the past. "The threshing floors will be full of grain (mature ministry), the vats (God's sons) will overflow with wine (life) and oil (anointing of power)" (Joel 2:24). Maturity, life and power! No wonder creation groans for this hour! What a ministry!
God's FIRSTFRUIT FORMER AND LATTER RAIN SONSHIP COMPANY is the great harvest for which the Husbandman has been waiting ever since the foundation of the Church. Gifts of the Spirit are really no evidence of spiritual attainment; God bestoweth His gifts freely by His grace upon whomsoever He will. But with FRUIT it is entirely different. Fruit must grow; and God has never intended that the body of Christ should ever bring forth fruit except by a continual and progressive DIVINE GROWTH in the Spirit of God. God will not come to us looking for gifts, but for fruit of the Spirit. He gave us His gifts freely by His grace, and all we had to do was to receive them and use them. That is the law of the Rain - He causes HIS RAIN to fall on the just and the unjust alike (Mat. 5:45). Does that not explain why we have had so many scoundrels running across the country operating in the gifts of the Spirit? What God demands now is FRUIT, because that is something which He can RECEIVE from you. Until now the Husbandman has come into His garden, pruning, cultivating, watering - without expecting anything in return. But now the harvest time is approaching, and soon He shall visit His garden for one purpose and for one purpose only: seeking for fruit, and trusting that His tender care over the vine has produced genuine FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT.
Think of the indescribable glory of a ministry of the FRUIT of the Spirit! "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Gal. 5:22-23).
The wonder of it is just this. This people will have a DUAL MESSAGE AND MINISTRY the message and ministry of the former rain together with the message and ministry of the latter rain. They will both sow and reap. They will birth men into the Kingdom of God and grow men up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. These will minister salvation, healing, deliverance, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and all the elementary things of the Christ to earth's vast billions; but they will also bring the multitudes of believers who have remained in the baby stage of growth into higher and higher dimensions of life and truth and development until they, too, become mature ones in Christ. Progressively they shall bring every man into the fullness of INCORRUPTIBLE LIFE in spirit, soul and body. Truly there has never been a people or a ministry on the earth like this! This is a FIRST! This is THE FIRST in which God manifests and from which He pours out all the power and life and glory and victory of both the former and latter rain!
There is going to be a ministration of the Holy Spirit in a way and measure that has never been before, when the Christ has been glorified in His body, His FIRST. We are to receive the Spirit in His fullness, be RAISED UP in the realm of the Spirit to be seated with the Lord in heavenly realms; above all the limitations of this fleshly realm; into a dimension in the Spirit that none as yet (except Jesus) has ever attained; to be poured out as former and latter rain into the earth. This will be the manifestation of the sons of God that the whole creation is waiting expectantly for. There will be an outpouring of the Holy Ghost such as never was. The glory of the former rain at Pentecost was marvelous beyond words to tell, and the glory of the latter rain has been glorious beyond human description, but the manifestation of God's glory when both former and latter rain, transformed into grain, oil and wine, are shed forth through God's firstfruit company will pale the light of the noonday sun and make to seem insignificant the greatest and most glorious things of the past. "The threshing floors will be full of grain (mature ministry), the vats (God's sons) will overflow with wine (life) and oil (anointing of power)" (Joel 2:24). Maturity, life and power! No wonder creation groans for this hour! What a ministry!
God's FIRSTFRUIT FORMER AND LATTER RAIN SONSHIP COMPANY is the great harvest for which the Husbandman has been waiting ever since the foundation of the Church. Gifts of the Spirit are really no evidence of spiritual attainment; God bestoweth His gifts freely by His grace upon whomsoever He will. But with FRUIT it is entirely different. Fruit must grow; and God has never intended that the body of Christ should ever bring forth fruit except by a continual and progressive DIVINE GROWTH in the Spirit of God. God will not come to us looking for gifts, but for fruit of the Spirit. He gave us His gifts freely by His grace, and all we had to do was to receive them and use them. That is the law of the Rain - He causes HIS RAIN to fall on the just and the unjust alike (Mat. 5:45). Does that not explain why we have had so many scoundrels running across the country operating in the gifts of the Spirit? What God demands now is FRUIT, because that is something which He can RECEIVE from you. Until now the Husbandman has come into His garden, pruning, cultivating, watering - without expecting anything in return. But now the harvest time is approaching, and soon He shall visit His garden for one purpose and for one purpose only: seeking for fruit, and trusting that His tender care over the vine has produced genuine FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT.
Think of the indescribable glory of a ministry of the FRUIT of the Spirit! "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Gal. 5:22-23).