THE FIRST OF THE FIRST-FRUITS
This is a message from a good brother in Oregon USA, Jack Hodgden.
Jack has been a great support to me on my journey.
Very early this morning the Lord spoke just a short word to me about the “first fruit” (the Sons of God). It is a mighty word that is so true when you just think about it. He said “you can’t eat fruit until it is ripe”. There are exactly three stages to bring about a harvest. First is the seed-time, second is the growing season, and thirdly is the summer or the season which brings the crop into maturity.
Genesis 45:7 - The man Joseph was chosen by God to lead his people into a great deliverance. The first fruits of today will not emerge until world conditions are ripe for them to appear. Joseph was a type and shadow of this. Joseph first had the revelation; next he had the experience of becoming the revelation. Lastly he stood before the king of Egypt when he was age 30, a mature, ripened fruit. Then Joseph had to wait for his brethren to come to him through world conditions. This is a condition of what is now taking place with The Sons of God to become ripened fruit for creation to eat. Every thing is now ready for a great time of trouble on the earth which is called “the great and terrible day of the Lord”.
In about the year 1958 just before I met and married Bev a young prophet came to our church by the name of Glen Foster, who had an unusual gift of prophecy. In one of the meetings he prophesied that it was going to get darker and darker until it would seem impossible. This word said that when it seemed impossible, the Lord would roar out of Zion. I myself with many others have become impatient with the Lord. We are seeing the souls of his servants dying of all manner of disease, and we say, “Lord why do you wait so long?”
The book of James answers this question so well, so hear my dear brethren what he says in James 5:7 - “Be patient therefore brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the later rain”.
Verse eight is the one we all need to hear and apply:
“Be ye also patient; establish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”. But you say, “Brother Jack, this that James wrote was two thousand years ago. The harvest of the field (world) is perishing. How long O Lord will you wait? All I can say to this question is by referring you again to the story of Joseph.
The Lord knows and sees the pain and suffering of his creation and will not hold back the good pleasure of His will any longer than is necessary. The farmer has great patience waiting for that precious fruit. James 1:18 - “of His own will He begat us with the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures”.
This all reminds me of a scripture that is coming to me as I write these words. It says this: “the time was long” after looking and searching out where this was written, I found that it was the time when the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines and they kept it for twenty years. Those times of refreshing are about to come, so be ready. It may be this very year when that time of promised “latter rain and a huge harvest” will be brought to pass.
In closing, I would like to remind all who read this word that many prophets of The Lord have had visions and dreams and revelations that have tarried far beyond the length of time that we thought things would happen in. I have had many prophetic words that have not happened but I think of the words - “look up, for your redemption draweth nigh”. Remember the last days have been two thousand years long even as the Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 3:8 - “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
I love the scripture in Hosea 6:1-3 -
“Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning: and He shall come unto to us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth”.
Jack Hodgdon
