Benefits no. 3
God
Dwelleth in him
Rev. Brian Kocourek
This morning we will continue in our series
concerning the benefits of the Son of God to Us, or the benefits of the
Revelation of the Doctrine of Christ to us. As you found last week, this series
concerns the Revelation of Christ which concerns the relationship between the
Father and the Son, because in 2 John 9
we are told that he
that hath the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.
Therefore in this series we will be studying the
benefits we receive as a result of our faith in this relationship.
To begin our study this
morning, we will look at the Second benefit to us concerning our belief
in the Son of God, and that is that we are brought into such a relationship with
God Himself that He comes into us and we come into Him and we are baptized with
the Spirit of God which is His Holy Spirit, which is His Word made alive in us.
Now, before I explain all of that, let’s look at our text from 1 John 4:15.
1 John 4: 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of
God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Now, many people do not understand just what
it means to confess that Jesus is the Son of God. The fundamentalist bases his
whole salvation on his own confession and that is why the fundamental churches
are full of people who have not been born again. They have made a confession,
but not according to the Scripture.
They think this simply
means they that declare Jesus to be the Son of God, and so just to say it to
them is in answer to this scripture and thus they believe they have fulfilled
this scripture. And I am afraid the message is also full of this sort of
thinking. People will quote Br. Branham and say the evidence of being filled
with the Spirit of God is to believe the message for your hour. And that is
true, but just what does it mean to believe the message for your hour? And so
we have some questions here that need answering, because many have not sought
after the new birth because they think they are ok since they believe that God
sent a prophet. But that is not what the Message of the hour is.
No message of any hour was ever God sent a
prophet. If a prophet even came forth on
the scene declaring self he could only be a false prophet and we should not
believe him. Jesus Himself said in John Chapter 5
Verse 31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. And
if a prophet, any prophet comes on the scene declaring himself, then he is a
false witness of God, because the job of a prophet, any prophet is to declare
the things of God. As a messenger, his first obedience is to the Message God
gives him to deliver to the people. And that message is never to point the
people to Himself, but to the One that sent him.
So that is the first
mistake people do when they say, “The evidence of being born again is to
believe the Message of the hour, because they more likely than not do not
understand what the message is. And so we see the same mistake made among the
fundamentalists, whether they be Baptist, Evangelical, Pentecostal or whatever
their brand of organization. They place
the full evidence of their new birth in their own confession.
They go to ROMANS 10: 9 That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation.
Now the fundamentalist
will take this scripture and combine it with 1 John
4: 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of
God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God,
and they place there salvation and belief that they are filled with the
Holy Ghost in their own understanding of these two scriptures, and because they misunderstand what these two
scriptures says, they stop moving forward with God and think they got it.
They think, “If I just
tell people that God raised up Jesus from the dead, and if I confess that Jesus
is the Son of God, then I am saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. And if you
question whether they are even born again or not, they say, you do not believe
the Bible. Well, just because I do not believe it your way, does not mean I do
not believe it.
Look, the Jews claimed to
believe every word of the Bible, and yet it is very evident that when the very
One the Bible speaks of came to them, they rejected Him. Why? Because He did
not come the way they had interpreted the Bible to say he would come, and yet
He came exactly as the Bible said He would come. So you see, they believed the
Bible, and yet they believed it in their own way of thinking and thus missed
the King of Glory when he came. And they
think because I confess Jesus to be the Son of God, I’ve got it, and yet they
make that son a third part of a trinity and coexistent and co-equal with the
Father and with another being they call the Holy Spirit.
To prove that you can
confess that Jesus is the Son of God and not be filled with the Holy Spirit
just take for example the man that is spoken of in the Scriptures that was
actually filled with many devils, and yet that man identified Jesus as the Son
of God, and was afraid that Jesus had come to torment him. We find this story told three times in the
Scriptures.
The 1st time
this story is told we find it in Matthew Chapter 8
Verse 29 and in this version it actually speaks of two men. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
The 2nd time we see it told in Mark Chapter 5 Verse 7 And cried with a loud
voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high
God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
And the 3rd time for a witness we
see the story in Luke Chapter 8
Verse 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with
a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most
high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
Now, in getting back to Romans chapter 10, the
error of the fundamentalist in believing that he only has to say some mystical
magical words and he will be saved, is in how they interpret Romans 10: verse 9
and 10. 9 That if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
But in order to fully understand verses 9 and 10, you must begin reading
at least in verse 8.
ROMANS 10:8
But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart:
that is, the word of faith, which we preach; Now, just any word will not do, but Paul says the Word
which we preach, and in the book of Galatians, he warned us that if we preach any
other Gospel than what He preached we are cursed with a curse.
GALATIANS 1:6 ¶ I
marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace
of Christ unto another gospel:
Notice here that Paul is
telling us that these people had become removed from the Gospel as he had
taught it unto another Gospel. Now this word another was translated from the
Greek word heteros, which means of a different nature. Now, to know the nature
of anything is very important because every seed will bring forth after its
nature. And what Paul is saying is that although you might be using my words to
say what you are saying, yet a very different nature is coming forth and it is
affecting the way you believe. Because,
notice in the very next verse he says, 7 Which is not
another; and the Greek word that this word another was translated
from is the Greek word allos, and not heteros. The word allos means a totally
different one altogether. And Paul says you have been removed to one of a
different nature, yet not a totally different one, and then he continues by
saying, but there
be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Now he also said the same
thing in 2 Corinthians 11: 1-4 where he speaks of the people receiving another
spirit. That word is also heteros, speaking of a spirit which has a different nature.
2 Corinthians Chapter 11
Verse 4 For if he that cometh preacheth another
Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye
have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well
bear with him.
Now, in this
case they are preaching an allos Jesus and thus receiving a heteros
spirit because their Gospel has become a heteros Gospel. In plain English they
are preaching a different Jesus, not
just one of a different nature, but a totally different one altogether, and
because they are preaching this different Jesus the spirit which they receive
is of a different nature, and thus the Gospel although they use the sane terms
becomes one of a different nature altogether.
So we see that Paul was
warning the people that it was not a different message altogether they were
being removed to, but it was the same message, only it had a different nature
because it had been perverted from the message he had first presented to
them. And if Alpha has become Omega as
Brother Branham warned us it would, then the same thing has taken place in this
hour. The message has become perverted,
and it no longer has the same pure nature as it was taught by William Branham,
but there is a perverted nature that has taken over the Message where most of
the people are Oneness in their thinking. Now, you can’t lay that on William
Branham because he flatly denied he was oneness as they are teaching it today.
He said Jesus was not his own Father, and he said he was a dual being because
God indwelt the Son of God.
Before Brother Branham
left the scene he told a brother I know that there are already 17 different
versions of the Message being preached. And that was
almost 40 years ago. So in getting back
to what the Apostle Paul said, 8 But though we, or
an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we
have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Then to make sure he was fully
understood, he says again in verse 9, As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Notice here that the
Apostle Paul is making it pretty clear that any other gospel is a perverted
gospel if it is not presenting the same nature as what he already preached. And
then he tells us why in verse 10 ¶ For do I now
persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I
should not be the servant of Christ. Now, that is a pretty important
statement he is making here, because it flies in the face of all those who
would use the pulpit to make gain for themselves and try to attract men to
themselves rather than to God. He says, If I please men, then I should not be
the servant of Christ.
Now, he is not saying I
should not be a servant of Christ if I please men, as though it is up to him whether he should be
or not. No, that is a bad translation. Rather what Paul is saying is that If I
please men rather than God, then I would not be the servant of Christ, because
you can not serve both God and man. Because it is not our message to begin
with. It’s either God’s message you are preaching and believing or its man’s.
Take your pick. Because in verse 11 he says, But I certify you,
brethren, (that means I have made you fully aware brethren ) that the gospel
which was preached of me (or out from me) is not after man. 12 For I neither received it
of man, (out from man) neither was I taught it, (by man) but by the
revelation (that word is apocalypses which is the appearing) of Jesus Christ.
So Paul tells us that the
Gospel he was preaching was made known to Him not by reading his Bible, and not
from some man somewhere, but by Jesus Christ appearing to Him. And so it is a
vindicated understanding that Paul was bringing to the people. Now, that brings
us to Romans 10 again. Remember, the fundamentalist believes all he has to do
is make an oral confession that Jesus is the son of God and he’s in, saved and
filled with the Holy Ghost. But notice that they will read Romans 10: verses 9
and 10 but do not go back to verse 8 which speaks of the word which Paul
preached that has a curse placed upon it that whosoever deviates one iota from
it and produces another nature in the way they present it, there is a curse
placed upon him or her.
And so we pick up at
verse 9 now with that understanding. So let’s read it again. ROMANS 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Ok,
now, if we really want to understand what Paul is saying here, we need to
continue reading.
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12
¶ For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that
call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved.
You see this is where the
fundamentalist stops reading. Because he believes that the calling upon the
Lord is the confession that is being made. But Paul clarifies to us that just
not any calling will do. For in the next verse he says, 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they
have not believed? (now, this is a good question, because he is
telling us that they could be calling and yet not really be believing.) and
how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
Now, what if they have
heard that other Gospel that Paul was speaking about in the book of Galatians?
If they believed in that other Gospel of that different nature, then what
nature do you suppose they would be receiving? The correct nature which is the
nature of God? I don’t think so. And so he asks the next question…
and how shall they hear without a
preacher?
Now, that is a very good
question. How can they hear if there be
not a preacher to speak the Word with the right nature. But Paul is not
finished here, for he asks yet another question,
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad
tidings of good things!
So we see Paul ask the
question, And how shall they preach, except they be sent? and
this is the most important question of all, because what if they were not sent
and they went anyway? Then whose message are they preaching? If it is not God
that sent them, then who sent them? Because the one who sends them it is their
message they will be preaching. And If they were not sent by God and went on
their own accord, then it will be their own message they will be preaching.)
So you see how important
it is that God sends out somebody? Because if he does not send out a man, then
the man the people are listening to is preaching a message which is not God’s
message, but a message which is his own understanding and if so, then it is of
another nature, and if so then, the people that will believe it, are believing
a perverted Gospel, and if so then they will be calling out to a false one, and
thus believing in a false hope, and thus when they call upon God to save them,
He will not hear them.
16 But they have not all obeyed the
gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 18 But I say, Have they not
heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto
the ends of the world.
But the question still
remains, did they actually hear what was being said, or just the sounds that
were made.
And so we see in this
verse of scripture that we have taken for our text this morning, that we must
first look at this word confession that is spoken of here, for in this
Scripture we are told Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of
God, and in this is made a promise that there is a
certain benefit that we shall receive. And in this case it happens to be
that God will
dwell in him, and he in God.
So we must examine what
it means to
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, for in knowing what this
confession is all about, we will also understand why God will come into them
that make this confession, and we will also avoid the trap that has beset so
many fundamentalists into believing that the confession is merely some magical
words that are said by the believer.
Now, the word confess was
translated from the Greek word Homo-Logeo or Homo-logos, and just about all Christians know the word Logos
speaks of The Word of God.
We know that in the beginning was
The Logos and The Logos was God. So we see that this
word for confession is made from two Greek words, of which one is the
word Logos which speaks of The Word.
Now, the first part of
this two part word, “Homo-Logeo” is the Greek word “Homo”, and it
does not mean homosexual. It simply means “the same”. We use it in
the English language as a prefix with many words. We say homo-centric
which means having the same center, or homo-gamous which is used
in botany and means having
one kind of flower on the same plant, or homo-genous which means having a similar nature and comes from
the two words homo meaning the same
and genous which speaks of the
genes. So it speaks of having the same genes.
So you see the word homo
Logeo or logos means “having the same
Word”. So if we are to read this verse of Scripture correctly we must
read it as follows: Whosoever shall have the
same words and say the same Words that Jesus is the Son of God, God will dwell in him, and he in God.
Now, it says, whosoever
will say the same words, and we must know who first said those same words, and
then we have a clue as to the author of those words, and thus whose Life is expressed
through those words. For Jesus told us “as a man thinketh in
his heart so is he, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”.
Then really what we are
essentially and intrinsically is what we think in our minds or our hearts. And
what we do must first come from what we think, and then when we do what we
think it brings our thoughts into some form of expression. So when we read the statement, Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, we
are thus saying, Whosoever
shall think and thus say the same Word, and what is that Word we
must think and thus say? “that Jesus is the Son of God”.
William Branham taught us that confession means to say the same thing. And the reason he
could tell us that is not because he was a prophet, nor is it because he just
arbitrarily decided to call it that and we must believe it because he was
vindicated. But the reason he could say that is because that is what the Greek
word homologeo means. It means the “Same-Homo, Word-Logeo”.
Now in the sermon Christ 55-0221 P:49 William Branham said, You're not using your own
thoughts; you're using His thoughts. "Let the mind
that was in Christ be in you." See? Think His way
of thinking; say what He says. "Confession"
means "to say the same thing."
Confess is to confess the same
thing, say the same thing. Then
don't confess your own mental conception. Be borned again and confess His Word,
confess what He said. That's confession.
Say, "By His stripes, I was healed." By His stripes, I have a right--by
His wounds, right now, I have a right for salvation. I have a right for the
Holy Spirit. He promised it to me. Said, 'It's in you and your children, and
them that is far off, and as many as the Lord our God shall call.’” I believe
it. It's for any generation. "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of
the world." He died that He might raise again and be with His church all
the way to the end of the world, to confirm the Word with signs following. How
far was that to be? "Go ye..." Did it end it with the apostles? Mark
16 said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every
creature." It's never met there yet, just about one third of it. God's
depending on us.
And again from the sermon Be not afraid it is I 62-0629 P:9 William Branham told us
how to just say the same Word. He said, “I just believe the Word and
just stay right with the Word. And any level thinker will know that that Word
is right. It's just got to be right. See? And I don't put any interpretation to it. I try to just read it the way it reads, then say the same thing.
That’s confessing. "Confess"
means the same thing, like, "He's the High Priest of our..."
Well, King James puts it "profession." But "profess" and
"confess" is the same thing. See? So then "to confess," that means "to say the same thing
He did." "By His stripes I
am healed." I'm confessing. See? I
am confessing the same thing that He said. See? I'm making a confession.
That's what it is in court. You have to say the same thing. Now, I am... To my
great High Priest, for He sits at the right hand of the Majesty to make
intercessions upon my confession.”
So we are looking at a
promise of God that is promised to us, that if we have the same confession that
God gave to us, then He promises to come into us and indwell us.
In the book of Luke 12: 8, and
Matthew 10: 32 we
read, Whosoever
shall confess me before men, him
shall the Son of man also confess before
the angels of God: Here we find Jesus telling us if we say the same
Word about Jesus before men, then He will say the same Word before His Father
about us.
And in 1 John 1: 9 If we confess our
sins, (if we say the same Word that God says about our
sins,) He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. But how many
people would rather deny what the Father says, and try to justify there own
actions instead of repudiating their own actions as God has repudiated them.
How many times over my 30 years in this Message
have I met people who have had two sets of rules for conduct.
They have one set for themselves and
another set of rules for everyone else. But Jesus said we must say the same
thing God says of us and of our sins. Thus as Brother Branham said, we do not try to interpret the Word for
ourselves, we just simply say what God said, and that means we are to repeat
His words, just like an echo. And if
you hear an echo it sounds just like the original, only it repeats it over and
over again. And when you echo you must have the same expression in the echo as
was in the original Word.
The Apostle Paul tells us
in the Book of Romans, chapter 10, that our confession is most important if we
are to place into action what we actually do believe.
Romans 10: 9 That if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
So we see our salvation is not just dependent upon the act
that the Son of God performed in dying on that cross, but it is co-dependent
upon your confession of that act, and to what God has done, in raising him from
among the dead.
During the Civil war a Union Soldier had ran away
from battle and when he was caught he was going to be executed. Now, he had a
friend that new Abraham Lincoln, and the man pleaded
his case to President Lincoln. The President wrote out a pardon for the man,
but when it was presented to him, he refused it thinking it a joke. The man was
executed and when the case went to court, the Supreme Court ruled, “A pardon
is not a pardon unless it be accepted as a pardon.”
And that is what the Apostle Paul is saying. You must confess what God has done
through raising up Jesus from the cross. It does not mean that you must confess
that He died, for the whole world believes that the man Jesus died on the
Cross. But the confession to be made is in the act which God did for the man
Jesus. Thus saying what God says about it.
Anyone who reads history knows that Jesus died on
the cross, but it is our confession that
turns that self-less act into a saving act for the believer. And Paul is
not saying, he that confesses Jesus Christ is one thing, and to believe in your
heart is another thing. For out for the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
So if you believe in your heart, then your mouth will say the same thing. And
the formula Paul is speaking of here is essential that we say the same thing that
God says about His Son.
That if thou shalt say the same word with thy mouth about the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
And to do so you can not
believe, nor can you confess that he raised himself from the dead. For if you
believe that Jesus raised himself from the dead, then
you do not believe that God raised Him from the dead as God said it in His
Word.
There are 18 different
verses of Scripture (God’s Words to us) that speak of God raising
up Jesus His Son from among the dead.
1) Acts Chapter 2 Verse 24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death:
because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
2) Acts Chapter 2
Verse 32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
3) Acts Chapter 3 Verse 26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him
to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
4) Acts Chapter 4
Verse 10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from
the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
5) Acts Chapter 5
Verse 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a
tree.
6) Acts Chapter 10
Verse 40 Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;
7)
Acts Chapter 13 Verse 33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he
hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art
my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
8)
Romans Chapter 4 Verse 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on
him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
9)
Romans Chapter 8 Verse 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your
mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
10) Romans Chapter 10
Verse 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved.
11) 1 Corinthians
Chapter 15 Verse 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have
testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that
the dead rise not.
12) 1 Corinthians
Chapter 6 Verse 14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up
us by his own power.
13)
2 Corinthians Chapter 4 Verse 14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up
us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
14) Galatians
Chapter 1 Verse 1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus
Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)
15)
Ephesians Chapter 2 Verse 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
16) 1 Peter
Chapter 1 Verse 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
17) 1 Peter
Chapter 1 Verse 21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the
dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
18) Hebrews Chapter 13
Verse 20
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the
everlasting covenant,
Now, we have just read 18 verses from God’s own
Word that speak of God raising up His Son Jesus from among the dead. And if you can not say it like God Himself
says it in His own Word, then you are denying God. And to deny Him you make Him
a liar.
In 1 John 5: 10 we read, He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself:
he that believeth not God hath made him
a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
So God has a record, and that record declares to us
that God raised up His Son. And if you do not believe there are two involved
here, One being the Son of God who needed to be raised from the dead, and the
other being God Himself who did the raising up of His Son, then you do not
believe “The Record” and I have
shown you “The Record” where there are 18 individual Scriptures that
speaks of God raising up His Son. And if
you do not believe God’s record, you are making Him a liar in your own eyes.
Paul said, “he that believeth not God hath made him a
liar.”
And we are warned by the
Apostle John in 2 John 1: 7 For many deceivers are
entered into the world, who confess not
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. So
we see the deceiver is the one that will
not confess, and remember to confess means to say the same thing God said.
So these are those who will not say the
same thing God said. So what are
they saying If they are not saying the same thing God said? They have to be
saying their own words, and not God’s Word.
So you can see how important it is to make a
right confession, and that right confession is to say the same thing about the
Son of God, that God Himself says about Him.
Romans Chapter 10
Verse 10 For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness (which is right-wise-ness. Now, that ‘s what you do
with the heart); and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. And that is because the mouth can only say what is in
the heart to begin with, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”.
Now, that we have established that the confession
is an all important act of faith towards God in believing His report concerning
His Son, let’s look now at the second half of our text where we are told that
if we have the right confession concerning the Son of God, we will receive a
promise from God that He will come into us and we into Him.
1 John Chapter
Now, notice the promise is, “that if we
make this right confession, if we say what God Himself says concerning His Son,
then God Himself will come into us, and indwell us”.
Now, this takes us to John chapter 17 where we
find Jesus praying in the garden before he is taken to finish the work that He
was sent to do on the cross.
JOHN 17:1 ¶ These words spake Jesus, and lifted up
his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that
thy Son also may glorify thee: (Now, if Jesus and God were one like your finger is one, then this prayer
is pretty ridiculous, because why would he ask for something he already had,
and why would he ask to begin with. Why ask if you already have what you ask
for? And why ask if you are talking to yourself?)
2
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 3. And this is life
eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent
Now, if Jesus is
declaring here that God has given him power, then he did not have it before God
gave it. And notice here that he shows us what eternal life is, to know God and
to know His Son.
4. I have glorified thee on the earth: I
have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Now, why would God give him a work to do if He and
the Father were one like your finger is one.
5. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with
thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. 6. ¶ I
have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:
thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now, notice here that He does not say they have kept
my word, but they have kept Thy Word. Showing that God is the Word, and it is
His Word that Jesus came and spoke to them, not his own word.
7. Now they have known that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8. For
I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received
them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed
that thou didst send me.
(Now, if you believe that
Jesus and God are one like your finger is one, or if you believe that the son
of God is actually His own Father, then you can not believe that God sent Him.
Then surely you have not received the Words which Jesus gave us which words
also were given to Jesus by His Father.)
9. I pray for them: I pray not for the
world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10. And all
mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 11. ¶ And now I am no more in the world, but these are
in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name
those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
Now, again we see here
that Jesus is asking the Father to make us one with the Father in the same
manner as he and the Father are one. So if you are not a hypocrite, then you
must believe that God has made us One with Himself in the same manner as He
made Himself and His Son Jesus one. And if you believe it in any other way, you
are not confessing the same thing Jesus confessed here.
12. While I was with them in the world, I
kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept,
and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be
fulfilled. 13. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world,
that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14. I have given them thy Word; and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world. 15. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world,
but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16. They are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. 17. ¶ Sanctify them
through thy truth: thy Word is truth.
Therefore he is saying
here that the Word is what sanctifies the believer.
18. As thou hast sent me into the world,
even so have I also sent them into the world. 19. And
for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through
the truth.
Remember Thy Word is
Truth, so the Word of God is what sanctifies us.
20. ¶ Neither pray I for these alone, but
for them also which shall believe on me through their
word;
That is you and me who
have believed the Word of God that was written for our admonition.
Now, here is the jest of
what confession is all about. It is entering into the same mind set that we
might become one through that same mind set. Now, listen to what Jesus is
petitioning the Father for. 21. That they all may be one; as (and
the word as means in the same manner or in like manner) as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Now, notice the context
of the prayer is that God may grant to us oneness as he did with His Son and in
the very same manner as He did with His Son. And the4 next verse tells us how
this is made possible.
22. And the glory which thou gavest me
I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Now, I want you to pay
close attention to the Words of Jesus here. He says, the glory which thou gavest me I have given them…Ok,
so there is something about this glory that we should know about because the
same Glory God gave to Him He has given to us, and what is there about this
glory? Notice he continues, that they may be one, even as we are one:
So we see that it is the
glory that was given to Jesus from God that made Him One with God, and in the
same Manner he has given us this glory that we might also be One with God and
one with Him. And
the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even
as we are one: Therefore in order to make the same confession or
to say the same thing, we must know what this glory is that we al share
together having received it from Jesus and He from His own Father, God. And once we know what this glory is, then we
should be able to see how it is that we become one with God even as the Son of
God was One with God.
Now, the Greek word that
this word glory was translated from is the Greek word Doxa which means the opinion, judgment or assessment of…
And the word assessment means the judgment of the value. Therefore, if we are to receive the same opinion Jesus has and
He received the same opinion God had, this is what makes us one. Thus we
receive not only the same opinion, but the same judgment, and the same
assessment or values that God possesses, and the same values, opinions, and
judgments that He gave to His Son and Jesus here in this prayer tells the
Father that He has passed these along to us that we might become one with the
Father even as He and the Father were One.
Thus the very mind of God coming into the believer makes us one with the
Father in the same way that Jesus was one with the Father.
From the sermon HARVEST TIME 641212 87 034 William Branham said,
Jesus said, "That they might be
one, Father, as You and I are one." Not
for some man to be over something, it never will work; one denomination wants
to take over the other, and one man over the other. But that you might be
one with God, like Christ and God was one; that's what the prayer is.
That... He was the Word, and Jesus prayed that we might be the Word,
reflecting Him. That's His prayer to be answered. See how Satan
scruples it up in the carnal mind? But that wasn't Jesus' prayer, at all, that
we might all congregate together and all have a certain creed and so forth.
Every time they do it, they go further and further from God. He wants us to be one with God, and God is the Word. Each individual in his heart must be that one with God.
So we se here in brother Branham’s own words that
the Oneness that Jesus had with the Father and that he prayed that we would
have is that we might be one with the Word even as Jesus was One with God’s
Word, for God is the Word. And that is
how God will come into us when we say the same thing. When our confession is
His confession. When our thoughts are His thoughts, “let this mind be in you that was in Christ
Jesus.”
What more can a man ask of his wife than to have the
same mind-set concerning the family and the raising of the children. What
grater oneness than to share the same values, opinions, and judgments. And what
more could a Father ask of his children than for them to share His values,
opinions, and judgments. And that is what Jesus prayed for.
GIFTS 56-1207 E-30 Now, notice
closely. Now, God dwelling in Christ used His voice to speak by. Jesus
said in His miracle, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in Himself, but what He sees the
Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise."
Is that right?
And why do you think we have had to wait almost 40
years since God took home His prophet. He’s waiting for us to get ourselves out
of the way, that God might have the pre-eminence, and that we might think God’s
thoughts, and do His actions, and speak only His words. That’s what He’s
waiting for. And adoption can not come until the son has the mind of the
father.
From the sermon, SHOW US
THE FATHER AND IT WILL SATISFY 60-0731 E-15 Brother Branham said, "The works that
I do, shall you also." And seeing the
same results by human beings so submitted to God, until the Holy Spirit can
work through those human beings just like the Holy Spirit worked through Jesus,
Who just has confessed that, "I and My Father are One. My Father
dwelleth in Me. He doeth the works.
It's not My words; it's His words."...
See? He was so submitted to God.
And from the sermon,
UNVEILING OF GOD 64-0614M 257 Brother Branham said, Jesus once said, "When you see Me, you see the Father." See? God and His Word is One. Now you understand?
When the Word is manifested, what is It? Right. See? 260
Jesus said, "Search the Scriptures, you think you
have... You believe in God, believe also in Me. If I do not the works of My
Father, then don't believe Me. But if I do do the works, I and My Father are
One. When you see Me, you have seen the Father." And when you see the Word made manifest, you see the
Father God, because the Word is the Father; the Word is God. And the Word
made manifest is God Himself taking His Own Word and manifesting It among
believers. Nothing can make It live
but believers, just believers.
Now, in getting back to
And so He has given us
the same mind that he might give us the same Love.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Let’s just bow our heads in a word of prayer.
And now, heavenly Father
now, that we understand what our confession is, that it is the same confession
your son had, and that His confession was the same as your confession, your
words in Him and now in us, therefore, we come with that same confession that
you placed on the lips of your Beloved Son Jesus, that the confession he
confessed might be our confession, and that the Glory which you gave to Him
that he might manifest to the World your Opinion, Your Judgment and Your
Values, so too Father we thank Thee for having come in this hour in answer to
the prayer of Your Son Jesus, and have given us Your Glory in that you have
given us Your Opinion, Your Judgment, and Your Values that we might become One
with thee as Thou hast manifested Your son Jesus to be One with Thee. Grant
this to us as we ask it in the name of your Beloved son Jesus, Amen!