"Spring Cleaning" (Feast of Firstfruits)

 As Pentecost approaches (this year at 6:00 P.M. on May 19 to 6:00 P.M. on May 20), God has chosen this time to do some "Spring Cleaning." This starts to happen during the time of Firstfruits which starts on Nissan 16(at 6:00 P.M. on Mar. 31, this year) and ends 50 days later on Pentecost( at 6:00 P.M. May 19 or Sivan 6). After Jesus rose from the dead, He ascended to His Father to present His blood on the Mercy Seat of heaven to cleanse it. He did this during the Feast of Firstfruits, to show the He is the "Firstfruit" from the dead. On this feast previously, the High Priest would present the first grain from the harvest to God, as an offering. As I mentioned, Jesus fulfilled this feast, after He rose from the dead. During this time, God is trying to prepare us for His mighty move that will start to take place on Pentecost. Allow Him to point out those areas of your life that need to change. He is trying to get His people ready for all that he is starting on Pentecost, which I will discuss further in the next message.

During this time, your number one prayer should be- "Father, please conform me to the image of Jesus." As you pray this from the heart, He will point out those areas of your life that need to change. Just because we are saved, it doesn’t mean that we have arrived! God put us on the road to sanctification, when we became born again, but holiness is a process, that must be walked out. Even though we receive a righteous standing when born again, the road to sanctification is a process that conforms us to the image of Jesus. During our walk on this road, God wants complete access to change us into this image. As God points things out in our life, we can’t argue with Him and deny, but need to accept the correction and allow Him to change us. The word says in Romans 8 v. 13, that only the Spirit of God can mortify the deeds of the flesh! We are helpless to change our selves and stop sinning. However we need to make a quality decision not to sin and ask for His strength. How many blessings God can bestow on us with this attitude? This is why we have missed blessings. God was trying to prepare us for blessings during His cleaning process, but we got back in our old ways and missed Him!

To further explain this "Spring Cleaning," please look in Romans Chapter Six: Paul says in v, 6, that we should not serve sin, that we are dead to sin (v.11). He also says in v. 12 not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, that we should obey it in the lust thereof. He also says in v. 13 not to yield our members (body) as instruments of unrighteous unto sin, but yield our members as instruments to righteous unto God. Sin has no power over us unless we yield to it. Satan can’t make us sin, he just tempts our flesh to give in to his thoughts. This is why we need to know that the battle is over our thought life. In 2 Corinthians Chapter 10, v. 5, Paul instructs us to cast down all evil imaginations and bring every thought captive to Jesus. This process is like a tennis game- when the devil gives you a thought, "hit" it back to Jesus. Please don’t dwell and meditate on the thought! Murderers don’t become killers over night. They mediate on the thought that the enemy gives over a period of time, act it out in their minds and then perform the terrible act. The word even tells us what to think on in Philippians 4 v. 7, i.e. things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, good report, virtue and praise. We have to realize that there is a battle over our minds to try to control our future destiny away from the purpose God intends.

So you see we have a responsibility in our walk to make a quality decision not sin, to repent quickly if we commit a sin and to walk circumspectly, avoid pitfalls and plans of the enemy. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9 v. 26 to bring our bodies under subjection, less we become castaways. Temptation is strong but Paul also says in Chapter 10 v 13 that God always prepares a way of escape. Praise Him!

During this "Spring Cleaning," Go wants us to clean ourselves with His word. For example, He wants us to read the Epistles-Romans to Revelation and mark off those scriptures that He wants us to apply to ourselves. He also wants us to then speak these scriptures into our lives. Before you confess scriptures over you, say out loud that "the scriptures that I am claiming are for me and my family and I am using the terms "we" or "us" to apply these scriptures to my family and I." So, in reality, you are cleaning your whole family with the word. For, Example in Romans 6 v. 14, you can say that sin does not have dominion over "us." The devil knows exactly whom you are taking about because you said in the very beginning whom the scriptures apply to. This is a powerful weapon that can clean you up, on a daily basis.

The feast of Pentecost is so important to us in our recognizing God’s seasons. As I mentioned earlier, Pentecost is a period of time where tremendous blessings and promotion can occur. Jesus had spent 40 days with them after He rose from the dead. This was during the time of Firstfruits. He was revealing the problem areas in their lives. This is the examination of the Holy Ghost that I was talking about earlier: letting the Holy Spirit point out areas of our lives that need to change. They responded to Jesus and showed up in Jerusalem, waiting for the power they were to receive. “You shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (Acts 1 v. 8). Can you imagine the apostles the day before Pentecost, 10 days after Jesus ascended? They were alone in the temple and probably scared. They had run away when Jesus was arrested about 53 days earlier. However when they were filled with the Holy Ghost they were instantly promoted to a higher level. On the first day, 3,000 souls got saved. On the next day another 5,000 souls got saved. In Acts 4, the Bible records that the apostles were arrested and in the same exact place that Peter denied Jesus, there is now a difference. Peter with boldness, said in v. 5 after they were threatened to not speak or teach in the Name of Jesus, “whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than God judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” Do you see the change in them after this empowerment or promotion came on them? This is what God wants to do during the season of Pentecost: promote you, open new doors of opportunity, bring about immense blessings, use you in ways that you haven’t dreamed of, etc. It all starts with the days of Unleavened Bread and the 50 days of Firstfruits. Pour your heart out to Him, allow Him to point out areas that need to be changed in your life and get ready for this Pentecost experience. During the time of Firstfruits, He is removing all the excess baggage so you can crossover during the season of Pentecost. This is why it is so important to know God’s seasons: how He is moving and what He expects us to do. The season of Firstfruits is not a season of asking for things but a period of time where He can prepare you for things that you may start receiving on Pentecost. Again, Firstfruits is a season of finding out what is not right in our lives by the searchlight of the Holy Spirit. As we yield these areas of our lives to Him, He sovereignly removes them once and for all, as we cooperate. Then we are ready for that wonderful time of Pentecost where He has prepared us to receive abundantly. Praise Him! This is why so many Christians don’t receive from God. They don’t adapt to His seasons of how He is moving and what He wants to emphasize in their lives.                            

Yes! Our God is the truly the God of your breakthrough. In Micah Chapter 2 v. 13 the word says that "the breaker is come up before them: they have broken up and have passed through the gate and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them and the LORD on the head of them." You see God goes ahead of you in every situation. He is your breaker! We should not try to go out ahead of Him but wait for Him to clear the way! Let Him run interference for you! In a football game you don’t see the guy who is running with the football go ahead of his blockers. No! He waits for them to go first to clear an opening for him. If the one carrying the ball allows his blockers to create an opening he may gain a lot of yards. God takes great pleasure in breaking through and creating an opening for you. An example is in 2 Samuel Chapter 5: in v. 17, the word says that when the Philistines heard that David was made king they aligned themselves against him in the valley of Rephaim. You see when God promotes the devil may try to take you on! Higher levels may mean higher devils! You have to remember that if God gives you a promotion, He didn’t make a mistake. He knows that you have the ability through Him to handle the "new territory." Those who He calls He also justifies! David inquired of Yahweh whether he should attack the Philistines and whether he would win. The Yahweh said yes to both questions and David did win. David said in v. 20 that the Yahweh had broken upon his enemies and he called the name of that place Baalperazim, or the place of the Breakthrough! He started to realize that his God was the God of the Breakthrough! The Philistines attacked again and this time God told David to wait for the sound of the wind going through the mulberry trees. When he heard this wind he would know that the Breaker had gone ahead of him (v. 23-25) He allowed God to go first and Yahweh wrought another great victory for His people. Elohim takes great pleasure in winning victories for His people!

Another great example of God going before His people to give breakthrough is in Joshua Chapter 5. In v. 14 the Father appears to Joshua and tells him that He is the Captain of the Host. He was saying that as Captain, He was going to go ahead of him. God told Joshua in v. 2 that He had already given him Jericho which seemed so formidable and in surmountable. He wanted Joshua to see Jericho the way He saw it. He was actually telling Joshua that if he did it His way that He as the Breaker would go ahead of him and give him the victory. He gave Joshua the instructions to go around Jericho once a day for 6 days and seven times on the seventh day for a total of 13 times. So many think that the number thirteen is an "unlucky number." "Luck" has nothing to do with God’s people. The word "luck" comes from Lucifer. The number 13 is actually a number for breakthrough, a number to signify that your Jericho is about to come down and be obliterated. They didn’t even have to step over the walls as Yahweh had angels push the walls right into the ground so much so that the ground was flat! Joshua, under instructions from God told the people to let the Ark of the Covenant go ahead of them as they circled the walls. This was allowing the Breaker to go ahead of them! You see David had sense to allow Elohim to run interference for him. Do you? On the seventh day right before the seventh time that they would go around the city, they began to shout. This shout was music in God’s ears as He knew that they believed that He would go before them. This is what you need to do with whatever you are facing: start lifting up your voice and hands and give Elohim the biggest shout that you ever gave Him! When you do this Elohim, the Breaker will go ahead of you and give you the victory, with very little effort on your part.

In Exodus Chapter 14, Yahweh gave His people a great victory when they stood still at the Red Sea and allowed the Breaker to go ahead and blow on the Red Sea to create a way where there seemed to be no way! All Moses had to do was not retreat and surrender to the Egyptians who were coming after them but stretch forth his rod and follow the Breaker across (v. 16). It took faith to follow the Breaker across the Red Sea as the water was walled high up on either side. It takes faith on your behalf to go forward after you were hit so hard by the enemy and follow your Breaker, but this is what you must do! You have come so far, there is no turning back. Moses stretched forth his rod again when the people made it to the other side and the Sea closed up on the enemies. The Breaker went ahead of them to open the Red Sea and the same breaker closed the Red Sea on the enemies. They never saw these enemies again, as the Breaker destroyed them (v. 30). The Breaker can do that for you today if you let Him: He can remove those people who Satan is using to hinder you, out of your life once and for all!

In 2 Chronicles Chapter 20, Jehoshaphat was surrounded by the enemy and he got his eyes on the Breaker and he believed the Father when He said that the battle was His! Do you believe that the battle that you are in is your Father’s responsibility to win and not yours? It will make the battle that much easier for you if you allow the Breaker to go ahead of you and destroy the power of the enemy! All Jehoshaphat had to do was send his praise and worship singers ahead of him and this sound initiated the coming of the Breaker on the scene (v.22). As they began to praise Elohim, He set an ambush against the enemy and they killed each other (v. 22, 23). The greatest effort that Jehoshaphat had to put forth was to pick up all the spoils off the dead bodies. It took him three days, that’s how much spoil there was!

In this teaching I believe God is trying to tell you that if you are serving Him your enemies become His enemies and as we celebrate this Feast of firstfruits. Your Father is reminding you that He wants to go ahead of you as your Breaker and give you complete victory, no matter how many or how powerful your enemies are. You are the apple of God’s eye! An attack on you represents an attack on Him! As Elohim leads people to you to be ministered to, remember from this study of the feast of Firstfruits that He wants to go ahead of them and give them a Breakthrough that could culminate on the Feast of Pentecost!

Please take note of this "Spring Cleaning" process and allow God to change you into the image of His Son. He wants to do this "cleaning" not only at this time of year, but anytime that He prompts you! When He has access to change you, there is no telling what He can do to bless you, especially during a season such as Pentecost. When you study my message on Pentecost, as you see all the blessings, contained in this feast, you will be glad that you went through the "Spring Cleaning."