INTRODUCTION – God’s Intention for Us
The bible tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 says for I know what I have planned for you. I have plans to prosper you and not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope. These are Gods plans towards us. God did not design us to be failures but to be successes to live a glorious life. And this life is packaged in his word. Sometimes it may not be pleasant to us but what we have to understand is that our Gods thoughts towards us are of good and not of evil.
So never resist the word of God, never be slow to act on his word because the bible says he that has received my word more will be given to him and he that does not receive even the one he has would be taken from him. What does this mean: it means once you begin to resist the word of God you would begin to back slide and even the things you believed before gradually would fade away. That is why we see people that were once strong men of God backslide and you cannot believe it is the same person. It all started with one little resistance or failure to act on the word of God which set in motion a string of events that brought them to where they are today.
What we would discuss today”the first fruit and its importance” might be a bit of a bitter pill to swallow but if we have at the back of our minds and believe in the word of God which tells us that Gods plans towards us is for us to prosper and not to harm us then we would have no hesitation in doing the will of God for our lives because it is exactly also what we want in our lives.
WHAT IS FIRST FRUIT
First fruit offering has a special place in our walking in the blessing the bible says in the book of Ezekiel 20:30 you shall bring your first fruit and the priest shall cause the blessing to rest upon thy house.
So what exactly is the first fruit offering: The bible tells us that the first fruit offering is the first part of your income in a year. This can be seen in Leviticus 23:10 which says “
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, when ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest”:
In the above the word land can be substituted with year and the word harvest can be substituted with increase or profits or wages such that it would read:
Speak unto the children of The Super Church, and say unto them, when ye be come into the year which I give unto you, and shall reap the profit/increase/wages thereof, then ye shall bring of the first fruits of your profit/increase/wages unto the priest”:
Our man of God clearly explains to us that with regards to the first fruit it refers to our basic salary i.e. salary without allowances for the salaried workers and the business men the first profit they earn in the year. This distinction is important because you still have to tithe the same time you give your first fruit so you have to understand which is tithe and which is first fruit and the differences.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIRST FRUIT OFFERING AND TITHE
Prior to the revelation of the first fruit teaching many pastors and men of God made the mistake of using tithe and first fruit interchangeably but that is not the case as the word of God clearly makes a distinction between this two entities. The following are some differences between first fruit and tithes. It is important to note that the list is not all encompassing but just highlights a few of the reasons why they are different.
1.
First the bible tells us in Nehemiah 10:37 “that we should bring the first fruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage”.
This clearly tells us that there is a difference between first fruit and tithe if not they would not have been mentioned separately for if they were the same it would have been joint.
2. The second clear difference between First Fruit and Tithe is the duration of time or the interval between these offerings. Still in the book of Nehemiah 10:34 “....... to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year,......´we are told first fruit are given yearly as opposed to tithes which are given each time there is an increase in our finances no matter the duration. If you get your salary of profits daily you are meant to give tithes daily, if you get it monthly you are meant to give it monthly e.t.c.
3. Thirdly an important distinction in the importance the bible lays on equivocally ensuring you first fruit are paid as at and when due. Ezekiel 20:40b says “....and there will I require your offerings, and the first fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things.” Meaning it is required which is also similar to what is told to us in Malachi 3 where the bible tells us that not giving our tithes and offering are tantamount to robbing God. The important distinction to be set our here is that the bible offers a possibility for use of the tithe, and payment at a later date with an interest of 20% on the original 10% which shows that though it is permitted it is not without a cost (Leviticus 27:31) this is in sharp contrast to the first fruit in which we are told in Ezekiel 48:14 “And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the first fruits of the land: for it is holy unto the LORD”. This means no matter what you do never ever spend your first fruit because the bible does not allow it in any way.
ORIGIN OF FIRST FRUIT OFFERING
The first offering ever demanded of us was the first fruit offering. In the beginning when God created Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden and said of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil though shall not eat of it. Many people and preachers in the past had said this represented the tithe but our man of God through revelation has told us that this represented the first fruit. So the fall of mankind was because he ate the first fruit and disobeyed the word of God this shows us the magnitude the lord places on First Fruit offering.
The first offering that was giving to God is was also the first fruit offering. The bible says Abel took of his firstling of his flock and offered it to God while Cane took of the ground and offered it to God. The bible never said cane took first fruit. The bible said God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected canes offering. The bible tells us can was extremely angry lost control of himself and killed Abel. So the first murder and second crime in this world was as a result of the envy brought about by the way the lord accepted Abel’s first fruit offering.
IMPORTANCE OF THE FIRST FRUIT OFFERING
As with everything else in the bible and other instructions we are given in the bible the importance is twofold: First are the reasons why it is Important to God and Second are the reasons why they are important to us.
Why it is important to God
1.
It is an instruction from God in which we are expressly charged on commanded to give our first fruit. This is seen in Leviticus 23:10 , Ezekiel 20:40b
2. The second reason is because it is pleasing to God. We can tell this from the story of Cane and Abel in which we are clearly told that When Abel brought the firstlings of his flock to God it was pleasing and accepted by God when on the other hand Cane didn’t bring his firstlings but just an offering of the ground it was rejected by God. The bible is not exactly clear on what sort of offering cane brought the only thing that was specified was that Abel brought his firstlings. This can only mean Cane did not do the same. This can also tell us how important it is because there might be a chance that whatever offering we bring if we do not bring our first fruit there is a chance it might be rejected by God. Am sure none of us here want to take that chance.
3. Offering as worship - There is no true worship to God, no proper expression devotion to God without offering. The bible says when the wise men came to god they worshiped and opened their treasury and gave him offering.
In the Pauline revelations Paul tells us Hebrews 13: 15-16 – let us offer thanksgiving unto God which is our lips which is acceptable unto God BUT (negating previous statements) to do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices the lord is well pleased. Which is the sacrifice the lips – NO. We need to worship God the way he wants us to not the way we feel it should be. By communication God was referring to our offerings because it is clearly different from worship with our lips. The word communication used here was same as the one used in Philippians 4 when he said the Philippians when I left Macedonia no church communicated with me in giving and thanks giving he was talking about nothing else but giving God offering. So Offering is worship.
Why it is important to us as Born Again Christians?
The first fruit offering is extremely important to us as born again Christians because if care is not taken many of our diligent work would amount to nothing. We have been given various laws in the bible for various things pertaining to our prosperity. Some are the law of tithing and another is the law of seed time and harvest. Of all the laws given to us with regards to prosperity from the word of God I can clearly say is the law of first fruit.
What is the law of First Fruit – This can be seen in Romans 11:18 and says “For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches” There is no law more important than this to us with regards to our prosperity because as I said earlier on if care is not taken we might toil in vain throughout the year. As our man of God tells us God treats us according to our level of knowledge so some might say but my prayers were being answered when I pray for prosperity and I was not given first fruit or some people in the church are prosperous without giving first fruit. The word of God tells us that God winks in times of ignorance i.e. when you don’t know at times you are forgiven for not knowing the right thing to do and given what you want never the less. But as we grow in the knowledge of him it is pertinent we adhere to all these laws because we no longer have the excuse of ignorance.
So as the word says if the first fruit is holy the lump is holy and if the root is holy so are the branches. Therefore whatever increase we get at the beginning of the year we must give our first fruit if we want our increase for the rest of the year to be sustained for if the first is holy the rest are holy.
Other reasons can be seen in:
Proverb 3:9-10 - Honor the LORD with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
What this tells us is still in keeping with what we just talked about with regards to the holiness of the first fruit covering the lump. This tells us that as we give our first fruit uncontainable increase is ours. As with other laws, whether we believe it or not it applies. We have been told clearly what to do. Let our case not be like the case of Cane who just gave offering without giving a first fruit.
Another can be seen in Ezekiel 44:30 which says “And the first of all the first fruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house”
From the fact that nowhere we look in the bible when first fruit offering is mentions the consequences are the same. Here we are told by giving our First Fruit offering the priest would cause the blessing to rest in our houses. Another word for rest is abide and we have been told what that means by our man of God. Abide means to remain forever with nothing we can do to drive it away.
