First Fruits
Dearest Ones, May your day today be blessed with the outpouring of my Spirit and the love and care that I have for each of you. This is the beginning of another busy week. I enjoyed the Sabbath respite with my people around the earth. More and more I am seeing an awakening to the reality that the end of time is near. But so many do not have any idea of how to get prepared for my coming. I have waited long for this final generation when I could pour out the full light and understanding, of my righteousness and how to prepare to receive its fullness in the latter rain. But when the master tarries, his servants attend to their own business and forget the call to be about the master's business. I have not tarried beyond what was necessary for the fruits of the Spirit to bring about the harvest. It may seem that I am tarrying, but such a concept can be fatal for those who wander off to their own business and forget that the master will come at an hour that they think not. [Matt. 24:44.] I am looking for my Bride to love me and follow me through this cleansing and blotting out process that is at the close of my ministry in the heavenly Sanctuary, and which is now in progress. But the difference between the past and the present is that I now have a people who are aware that this process is going on in heaven, and are cooperating with me so I can finish the work in due time, close the door to the Most Holy Place, and come and receive my cleansed Bride to myself and present her, pure and holy, to my heavenly Father and to the waiting universe. The 144,000 are the first fruits of the earth - the first generation of my people to go to all the way through the Sanctuary services with me. Therefore they shall represent me forever as the wave sheaf of the harvest of the earth. They will have proved that the resurrection of all the righteous at my second coming is accurate, because if they had lived in the last generation, they, too, would have persevered to the end. Thus my work for the plan of salvation is completed with you as you walk with me in the days ahead that remain until I come. We are now in the final countdown to my coming, for my numbers will be made up by those who will respond to the loud cry which will sound throughout the earth, and then the end will come. Now I will introduce my subject for today. It is "first fruits." Why is the final generation of my people called the first fruits? It is because the whole plan of salvation is for the purpose of completely eradicating what Satan and sin have caused to the human race. It means that I can and must display that I am able to completely restore people who have hereditarily received and consciously or unconsciously chosen to cultivate those sins and weaknesses of character and then pass these traits on to the next generation. This has been happening in the centuries following the fall of Adam and Eve. But I, as the second Adam, must show my ability and my authority over the evil one, to rescue the human race from the depths which continuing sin has taken them, and restore them to the loving, willing obedience of Adam and Eve before they fell. If I would not be able to do this, Satan would claim that his power of rebellion and sin is greater than my power of love and freedom to choose one's eternal destiny. Thus you can see how imperative it is for love to win the battle for the allegiance of men's hearts to willing intelligent obedience to the covenant of my love [Deut. 7:9, 12], which is my law, the standard of eternal life. But I invite you to rejoice with me now, for I see that development of the ripening grain of the harvest that I am looking for in my beloved chosen ones. For those who are willing, I will continue the cleansing process until my work brings my Bride to perfection, and I will put upon her the rich white robe of my righteous character, woven for her in the loom of heaven, and worked out through my life while I was on earth. It is for you that I have done this, my beloved ones! It is for you that I suffered and died upon the cross, and it is for you that I am ministering in the Sanctuary in heaven in the presence of my Father. Do you realize how much I long to have you here at my side, forever safe from the tortures and suffering that sin has caused, and receive the joy of your presence with me? Every bridegroom longs for his bride to be with him, and I have prepared the way for you to be with me where I am. I have prepared a home for you, and the robe and the crown is ready for the angels to place upon you at the wedding celebration in heaven. Now all that remains to be done is for you to accept my proposal to join me in the full cleansing of your heart from sin. All that I ask is that you take my hand and walk with me every day until I come. In the process of walking with me, your sins will be cleansed away by the relationship of the love that is between us. I have chosen you and called you and prepared the way before you. Now all that I ask is that you be faithful to me in the days ahead until I come to take you home to live with me forever. In the meantime, you can call others to the banquet of my love for them, for "The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." Rev. 22:17.