The Feast of the Harvest: Enjoy the Firsfruits of the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ

God sent Moses to deliver His people from Pharaoh’s tyranny and usurpation so that they may come to Him in the wilderness and hold a feast unto Him; this means that God delivers us from Satan’s usurpation and tyranny in the world so that we may go to Him and hold a feast unto Him.

Our whole Christian life is a life of feasting – we feast with God and before God, and we feast on Christ as the reality of all that God is, has, and has accomplished. Day by day we believers need to keep the feast by enjoying Christ; the feast we’re talking about is not the immoral, corrupt, fleshly, or natural feast people in the world have but the real feast, the real enjoyment.

God even commands His people that three times a year they would keep specific feasts: first the feast of unleavened bread, then the feast of the harvest, and finally the feast of the tabernacles. To keep the feast of unleavened bread is to deal with any sin that is exposed by eating Christ as our sinless life supply so that we may live a pure church life for the Father’s satisfaction.

We need to STOP our doing, our struggling, our daily affairs, and our inward striving, and just come to the Lord, rest in Him, enjoy Him, and feast on Him as the crucified, resurrected, and sinless life supply that will cause us to become pure from within to without.

Today we want to go on and see what is the meaning and implication of the feast of the harvest, which is also called the feast of weeks, or the feast of Pentecost. Hallelujah, Christ is now the life-giving Spirit as the firstfruits of the Spirit, and we need to enjoy Him day by day through the exercise of our spirit so that we may keep the feast!

The Feast of the Harvest: the Enjoyment of the Firstfruits of the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ

God ordained that His people keep the feast of the Harvest, which is also called the Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of Pentecost. In Lev. 23:10-11 we see that, after the people of Israel entered into the good land, labor on it, and reap its harvest, they had to bring a sheaf of the firstfruits to the priest as a wave offering on the day after the Sabbath; these firstfruits were offered to God. This is a picture of the resurrected Christ being offered to God on the day of His resurrection.

The Lord Jesus was crucified on the Passover, and three days later, on the day after the Sabbath, He was resurrected and ascended to the Father as the firstfruits in His resurrection. On the day of His resurrection the Lord Jesus fulfilled the type of the firstfruits; He made sure that Mary did not touch Him at the tomb so that He would ascend to His Father (and our Father) and His God (and our God) untouched, fresh, as firstfruits in resurrection.

Rom. 8:23 and 1 Cor. 15:23 indicate that the firstfruits of the Spirit are Christ; the firstfruits typify Christ in resurrection, and this resurrected Christ is the Spirit. Hallelujah, Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45); the resurrected Christ is the Spirit in resurrection, and the firstfruits of Christ is the firstfruits of the Spirit.

In the feast of the Harvest, fifty days after the firstfruits were offered there was a feast, a full enjoyment of the harvest; this feast typifies the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ on the day of Pentecost.

Today virtually all believers, even those who have no heart for the Lord, know that Pentecost is related to the Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, the New Testament fulfillment of the Feast of the Harvest, the Holy Spirit came. However, with the Old Testament Feast of the Harvest, which was related to the firstfruits of the harvest, there does not seem to be anything which signifies the Spirit….According to the type, Pentecost involved the offering of the firstfruits to God. But according to the fulfillment, Pentecost is related to the coming of the Spirit. Apparently, the firstfruits have nothing to do with the Spirit. However, if we compare the Old Testament type with its fulfillment in the New Testament, we shall see a strong indication that Christ, the resurrected One, the firstfruits, is the Spirit. What are the firstfruits in typology become the Spirit in fulfillment. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, pp. 850-851)

Fifty days after Christ offered Himself to the Father as firstfruits in His resurrection, the Spirit of Jesus Christ was poured out upon the disciples (representing all of us as the church, the Body of Christ). The Spirit who came down on the day of Pentecost was the very Christ as the firstfruits offered to God – but now in His fulness.

Without the firstfruits in the Old Testament, that is, if the people of Israel didn’t labor on the land to get its rich produce, there would have been no Feast of the Harvest; without the Spirit in the New Testament, there would have been no Pentecost.

The Spirit who came on the day of Pentecost is the fulfillment of the firstfruits offered to God in the Old Testament, and this Spirit is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit. We need to keep the Feast of the Harvest, the Feast of Pentecost, by enjoying Christ as the life-giving Spirit as our daily supply.

Lord Jesus, thank You for becoming the firstfruits offered to God in resurrection for His satisfaction. Thank You for becoming the life-giving Spirit who was poured out upon us all on the day of Pentecost as the fulfillment of the firstfruits offered to God in the Old Testament. Lord, keep us enjoying You as the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in our spirit so that we may keep the Feast of the Harvest. Hallelujah, now Christ is the life-giving Spirit for us to enjoy and partake of and feast on!

The Resurrected Christ became the Spirit poured out on Us for our Full Enjoyment!

On the day of Pentecost – exactly fifty days from Christ’s resurrection when He ascended to His Father as firstfruits in resurrection – the Spirit as the full issue of the resurrected Christ was poured out on the church (see Acts 2:1-4). This indicates that the resurrected Christ became the Spirit poured out on His believers for their full enjoyment (see 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17).

In the morning of His resurrection, the Lord appeared to Mary who still tarried at His tomb, but He didn’t allow her to touch Him because He had to present Himself to the Father as firstfruits, fresh and untouched, in His resurrection; later that day, He appeared to His disciples and breathed into them the Holy Spirit for their enjoyment, as a foretaste.

Then, forty days later, Christ ascended openly and publicly, and after ten more days in which the disciples prayed in the upper room, the Spirit was poured forth on Pentecost. This was the same Spirit, the same firstfruits which Christ became in His resurrection, but it was in fullness, as the full issue of the resurrected Christ.

Hallelujah, the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost to be our full enjoyment! Today we need to experience yet another Pentecost but not in the sense of miracles, a movement, or a sudden event, but, as we seek the Lord for a new and final revival, we need to pray that the Lord would pour out His Spirit in a full and rich way.

We need the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to be poured out again and again on us as His people for our full enjoyment of the feast of the Harvest. The Feast of the Harvest typifies the enjoyment of the rich produce brought in by the resurrected Christ (Eph. 3:8) which is the all-inclusive, life-giving, bountiful Spirit.

This rich produce is the all-inclusive Spirit of the processed Triune God which was given by Him to us, His chosen people, as the blessing of the gospel so that we may enjoy the all-inclusive Christ (the embodiment of the riches of the Triune God) as our good land (see Gal. 3:14).

The Spirit Himself is the blessing of Abraham and the harvest in its fullness, being given to us by God in Christ as the blessing of all blessings. We as believers in Christ have not only entered into Christ as the good land but also are participating in the bountiful riches of the all-inclusive Christ in His resurrection and ascension as God’s full allotment in His New Testament economy.

Praise the Lord, we can now claim and enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ! Lord, as we look to You and expect to enter into a new and final revival, we ask You to pour out Your Spirit in a full and rich way upon us all in the local churches. Freshly outpour Your Spirit on us for our full enjoyment. Lord, we want to keep the Feast of the Harvest by enjoying the bountiful supply of the Spirit which is now with our spirit! Hallelujah, the bountiful riches of the all-inclusive Christ as the Spirit are our full allotment for our enjoyment today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msg. 71 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (2), week 9 / msg 9, Keeping Feasts unto God Three Times a Year Typifying the Full Enjoyment of the Triune God in Christ.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # Arise! Arise! And open up your heart, / Christ will come in and life to you impart. / As the Spirit He is now our bountiful supply / And all our need His life will satisfy. (Song on Enjoying the Spirit)
  # Pour down Thy Spirit once again, dear Lord; / Our cry goes up to Thee for “latter rain“; / Unite Thy people as the “heart of one,” / And pentecostal days shall come again! (Hymns #258)
  # Send us Thy power with its full sway, / As Thou didst send on Pentecost day; / Answer our prayer and make no delay, / Clothe us with pow’r we pray! (Hymns #274)