icon__search

Message from Paula for the Beginning of 2018

December 28, 2017

I pray that you had a wonderful holiday season, but we are getting ready to approach one of the most vital important things that will happen to us; that's a new beginning. You're coming on to January 1, leaving 2017 entering into 2018 and the question is what will your 2018 look like. What will you do right now in order to say okay, by the time I hit July, by the time I hit September of 2018, this is what it's going to look like. Well, I don't have the power to do that. Absolutely you do. Because God's word is very clear. Even C. S. Lewis said when first things are first, second things are not suppressed. And, what he was saying is really based out of Matthew Chapter 6, Verse 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these other things will be added unto you. You see, God lays claim to all things that are first. The first of your time, the first of your talent, the first of your finances, the first born, the first fruit. It's the principal of first things belong to God. And, so when you honor God with first: The first hours of your day, then he takes that which normally because of the fallen state of man, would have a curse on it, and he redeems that and he says okay, now everything that you have brought to me is a first because it belongs to me. Study Leviticus Chapter 23. See, first fruits means the chief, the foremost, it's an essential, it's a fundamental. Well, what does essential and fundamental mean? It means it's foundational. So, nothing can be built without a foundation. The Bible says in Psalm Chapter 11, Verse 6, it says what shall the righteous do if the foundation be destroyed. So, without first things being first, without first fruits, you see there are many different things when you talk about first fruits because there's first fruits offering; there's first fruit feast season, there's first fruit as in a first born, the first of your income. And people think like, Oh, first fruits tithe, very, very different. There mentioned the same time and I think it's about 32 times first fruit is mentioned, 32 times tithe is mentioned. Tithe is the first tenth of our gross income, but the first fruit offering is a first, which means the whole of everything. What do you mean? Well, the whole of your check, whether it's a week, whether it's a month, wherever your faith is, whether it's a day. And we honor God because we recognize that we have two calendars on the earth. We know that. There's a solar, there's the lunar, there's the Gregorian calendar. Without getting into the depth of the calendars in time, we know in the western world that our beginning, the first starts on January 1. Deuteronomy 16:16 says that during the feast season and it's not the first fruit season, but it says "We do not stand before the Lord empty handed, but we present to God and give to him all that belongs to him." So, while this is not the calendar of a first fruit season, it's the calendar of a new beginning, a new cycle, a new year for us. So, will you honor God with a first fruit offering? What is that? The whole of it. It belongs to the Lord, Jesus Christ. What happens? It also the first fruit literally means that sends a signal. So, in other words, part of being the chief, part of being the first, is it literally is sending a signal to the harvest to be released. It has a lot to do with harvest time and it's the spring and the fall harvest coming together and it releases that into your life. There is so much teaching I want to give. I've written many books on this. There's so much information that I want to get to you of understanding the principal of first. That all firsts belong to God. So, I want you to do something. I want you to click on that button right now and you to give. Do not wait, I'm telling you to give the first. What do you mean the first? Well, some of us believe God and we give an entire month's salary. Some of us give a week, some of us give a day. I'm saying where is your faith. What do you believe in God for? But is the entire, it's the whole of it. So, for many that will sew that first fruit offering of a week's salary or a day's or even a month's salary, they will give the entirety to God, honoring God with the first. I want you to also do a few things come January 1. I want you to say the first part of the day belongs to God. I want you to change your habits. I want you to recognize that whatever you do first governs what happens to the rest. So, as you honor God with the first fruit's offering, it's going to govern what happens to the rest. See, it's so much so, that it says Jesus became the first fruit of many brethren. In other words what even enables us to be part of the family of God is because Jesus sowed his life to become the first son of God to bring the family of God to him, to redeem us. There's so much teaching on first fruits, on the principal of first. But, I'm telling you, it is vitally important that you get the revelation of this right now. So, let every scale be removed from your eye and let faith arise right now and let you have ears to hear and an understanding, that you will not miss your moment. That God has set divine appointments, divine moments, divine times in the year that if we obey his principals that his word will not return void according to Isaiah Chapter 55, Verse 11, and as we walk by faith and not by sight and we honor God by putting him first, we are saying 2018 is going to be distinctly different than any other year in my life because God, I put you first. If that's you, please, again, just click on that button right there. I want to get you material. I want to get you information. It's your time that you can give. It's your time that you can sew. It's your time that you can give your first fruits offering, but along with that, I want you to put God first in everything. It's not like this, in conclusion, God first then family then career then dream or whatever. No, It's God first. God first in family, God first in career, God first in ministry, God first in finances, God first in time. So, when you put God first, when first things are first, secondary things are not suppressed. Be blessed and expect the greatest year of your life.