Refocus

Walking in Spiritual Reality by Relating with God through the Lord’s Feast of First-Fruits

TRUTH AND PURPOSE

The Feast of First-fruits served as a shadow, pointing to the resurrection of the LORD as the first soul arisen in the newness of eternal life. In identifying with His death and resurrection, the child of God is elevated to a new spiritual state; “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” 
(Romans 8:21 NKJV)

RELEVANCE

This new position acknowledges an intimate and genuine relationship with our Creator and Father God.  It is by this real “Spirit of adoption” whereby the child of God receives the love of the Father, responding by crying out from the heart, “Abba, Father.”  As His children, we become joint heirs in union with the LORD. (Romans 8:17)

In addition, the gift of the Holy Spirit is bestowed into our hearts as the “guarantee of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:14) This infilling is in essence, the deposit—or initial installment of our eternal inheritance!

This new posture or standing opens up a truly new realm of vested spiritual rights to the child of God, as stated in John 1:12-13. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

To gain insight into what this truly means, two words need to be fully understood: receive and right.  The word used for receive here, lambano, is an active verb, in contrast to the more passive kind of verb used in the sentence just prior to this one.  It means: actively attained.   The word used for right is exousia.  Like many Greek and Hebrew words, it is an expansive word.  It means: right, privilege, capacity, competency, strength, freedom, authority, power, and jurisdiction.  It means a lot!    

So, those who more than believe, but actively embrace and trust the LORD and welcome the Holy Spirit from the heart, attain the full right, privilege, capacity, competency, strength, freedom, authority, power, and jurisdiction of covenant children of God!

How many of those who believe actively receive all God has to bestow? Truly, God’s children in the LORD have opportunity to apprehend a fresh, wide-range perspective of life!

This standing offers the child of God a special kind of spiritual vision. 1 Samuel 3:1 calls this type of vision, open vision (chazone parats). With such type of open vision and the faith to see it materialize, you can truly come into the fullness of God’s unique purposes for your life.

REFLECTION, REALITY AND RESPONSE

To what degree have you received the love of the Father?

How has God revealed His Son in you?

To what extent have you received your “vesting” as a joint heir
with the LORD?

How have you been exercising your rights as heirs of grace,
children of the King of Glory?

REFERENCES

John 1; Romans 8; Galatians 1:16; Galatians 4; Hebrews 12

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Unless otherwise specified, all Scripture references are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982, by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scriptures marked JNT taken from the Jewish New Testament. Copyright © 1979 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. Scriptures marked NLT are taken from New Living Translation Holy Bible, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust.