Christ Revealed in His Own Word #32
Nerousis
Conclusion, Having a right Focus in a Wrong thinking World
Sunday
Morning, July 28, 1996
Brian Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship
Last night we
continued our mini study of pp’s. 20 & 21 of "Christ Revealed In
His Own Word" where Brother Branham said, (20) Men now and people today are in such a neurotic condition, the
whole world... (21) The
whole human race is rotten. Well, if them physical beings of our body is tearing
down like that from eating hybrid foods,
tensions, that rotten it, does not that also rot the brain cell? It's come to a place where the whole
nation, the whole world, not only this nation, but everywhere, mentally gone.
In examining
Brother Branham’s statement that the world is now in a neurotic condition we
used for our text the AMPLIFIED
version of [2 Timothy 3: 1] which we
found to be the most fitting: “But
understand this, that in the last days there will set in perilous times of great stress and trouble - hard to deal with and hard to bear” We found Websters definition of Neurosis as:
“Any
of various Psychic, or mental, functional disorders characterized by one or
several of the following reactions: (1) ANXIETY, (2) COMPULSIONS and (3)
OBSESSIONS, (4) PHOBIAS, (5) DEPRESSION, and (6) DISASSOCIATION.”
In our mini
series we have covered :
ANXIETY, COMPULSIONS, OBSESSIONS, PHOBIAS, DEPRESSION, and last night
DISASSOCIATION. We found scriptural evidence for these six characteristics of neurosis
prophesied for their end-time hour. In our study thus far we have found anxiety
is the main condition that is to be manifested in the end-time, and all these
other characteristics stem forth from anxiety. we also found that anxiety is spoken of in the scriptures mostly in
reference to the cares of this life.
we also found that Satan has taken advantage of the curse that was placed upon
man by God back in the beginning after the fall in the garden. This fall
resulted in man having to sweat and toil for a living and the ground being
cursed and therefore man does not always know what will turn out because of his
labors.
We showed how
anxiety is a result of actually having a lack of faith and trust in God and therefore
we try to take our own life path into our own hands. We found in [Proverbs 16:
9] that “A mans heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth His footsteps” and
therefore our labor and toil and everything else is in the hands of God. That
is why we read in [Rom 8:31] “If God be for us who can be against us.” we also showed that Satan’s purpose is to
gain control of our minds, and he does this by bringing you under his
influence, he brings you into bondage to himself.
[ John 8: 34] Jesus said, “he
that committeth sin is the servant of sin.” Then we found in [ 2 Peter 2: 19] that when we are
overcome by a certain influence, we thus become in bondage to that influence.
Now thus far in our study we have found that this bondage is a result of an
influence that begins with anxiety. The Devil has laid out a snare or trap for
every one in the whole world. And that snare or trap is in the guise of the
economy. He knows that people have to make a living. He has known that since
the curse that was placed upon man for his disobedience in the garden. In fact
he was responsible for that curse being placed upon man. And so then we see
that he took advantage of that situation and he has manipulated man into a
wrong focus again.
[Gen 3: 17-19] And so we see that man
had to begin to labor in order to live. And this is where Satan made his
decision to use the curse which God himself placed upon man against man in
order to bring man under his influence. Hitler did the same thing. He promised
the people a better living, two cars in the garage and two chickens in every
pot, and when he had the people under his influence, he began his persecution
of the Jews and the people just turned their heads and didn’t become involved
because after all, look what he did for them. And so we see the influence that
Satan has upon the people. He has blinded them by material prosperity. In [Rev 3: 14:17] we see that the predominant spirit of this age is that man is so
consumed with his material possessions that he is blind to his spiritual
condition. (read)
And so we see
then according to [Luke 21: 31-35]
that the cares of this life will be the snare that will completely entrap the
entire world, and they will fail to stand in the presence of the Son of Man
when He comes. (read) And so we have
found thus far in our study that Satan used the economy and the life style as a
trap to not only catch you off guard, but he uses it to give you another focus,
a wrong focus just like he did with Eve back in the garden. And this then,
because it is of his design, brings you under his influence. And once under his
influence he then step by step brings you under his full control. He did it to Eve, he got her to step out
from the protection of the Word and once he did, he implanted himself into her
and brought for his own life in her. And so we have seen how this influence of
the cares of this life begins to turn us from a Christ Centered focus and
brings us to the place of coming under
a wrong influence all because of our
anxiety concerning the things which MIGHT happen concerning the cares of this
life.
As I have said
throughout this mini series, The whole
Christian world is out of focus tonight. They talk about the next
depression, the nation going broke, the new world order, and they are completely
missing the Lord Who has come down from heaven with a shout. And so we see the
condition of the church is looking at the “what
ifs”, and they are missing their deliverance from those things. They are
focused on the very trap and delusion instead of the way out of it. Sometimes,
Satan will make those cares of life more real to you than the promises of God
will appear to be. Yet Jesus commanded us to “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God
and ALL the things you have need of
will be added unto you.” Now
instead of looking at the trap, we should be looking for a way to avoid the
trap. And so we found that by having a wrong focus to begin with leads us only
further into a wrong direction. By having a wrong focus we find ourselves
becoming anxious over things which we should not be. And when we focus all of
our energies on these future worries, we find ourselves getting caught up into
finding our own way out of their dilemma. At this point we enter into
COMPULSION which is irrational behavior, we then become obsessed by them and
this becomes possession. Devil possession. Remember, [1 Peter 2: 19] tells us
that “whatsoever we are overcome by we also become in bondage to as well.” And
Webster called obsession, devil possession, for that is what it is.
Now once this obsession
takes over our being, we enter into the fourth characteristic of neurosis is PHOBIAS or fear. Here we found that Fear has a penalty according to
[ 1 John 4: 18] (read). In [Hebrews 2: 15] we see that through
fear we are made subject to bondage.
We found out that this fear and bondage has the effect of stopping any
progressive movement in the things of God.
Joseph stopped in his tracks concerning Mary. He feared to take Mary to
be his wife, and so God had to send His Messenger to rid Joseph of his fear.
Then we found that Phobia leads you into DEPRESSION
which manifests in the fact that you don’t want to eat any more. And so you
begin to shut off the Spiritual Food In Due Season. You quit eating from Gods
Word and from His Message, and when this happens you become weak and sickly.
This then leads us to the last attribute of
Neurosis which is DISASSOCIATION
and we found that this means that you begin to cut off fellowship with the
believers. First you cut off eating from the tree of Life and then you cut off
all association with it. And this means with those who are eating it
themselves.
[Eph 4:17-18] (read) Here we find that they cut themselves off
from the Life of God because their understanding has become darkened. The word
alienated here is a Greek word ( apallotrioo) and it means to shut off ones
self from fellowship and intimacy. Now why is this? [1 John 1: 7](read) And
Because we are told that our fellowship comes from walking in the Light.
So then if we no longer walk in the
Light, then we no longer have fellowship. It’s just that simple. And the word
walk here is a word (peripateo) which means “to make ones way, to progress
forward in, or to regulate one’s life by, or to pass ones Life in.” And so we see The Word of God is a Living
Word in which we live out this Word. It is not only something that we believe
but it is our very Life. And if it is our very Life then to leave it means
death to us. And the word fellowship
here is a word (Koinonia) which means
“communion, fellowship, communication, association or joint participation
in.” And so we see that it
takes this Word of God to become a reality in your lives and when it does then
it brings a common bond to you.
It is not just a
matter of knowing it is true. It is a matter of it being real to you. For to
just know it is true could still place it in a historical perspective as it does to the nominal
Christian. But to know it is real, it then begins to live out in your very
life. When you read this Word you can actually see it manifesting itself all
around you. Because after all- Gods Prophet said, “God interprets His Word by
bringing it to pass.” And so
when you read His Word, and then see it taking place, you are in actuality
living out that portion of Gods Word.
we then showed you various examples of the Word coming to pass and you
being a part of that Living Word. A
living dynamic Word which is continually moving ahead. In fact we quoted from
ANOINTED ONES AT THE END-TIME where brother Branham said, “ For it is impossible for those which
were once enlightened and didn’t move on with the Word as it came to pass”...
“they’re dead, gone.” And so,
we must continue to move on with the Word of God as it continues to come to
pass or we are dead, dead, dead.
Now we could go
on and on with this but what I am trying to get across to you is that to walk
in this light is what brings fellowship. It is a walking that does it, because
the walk is to experience and live out this Word. And as we experience it together, we share together this life experience.
Then it is not so much that we are speaking of a Word which alone is True, but
in an even greater sense of the word, we are speaking of a Word which is not
only True but is alive and has become a reality to you because you are actually
seeing it in manifestation. Then you are experiencing the Living Word and as
others experience this same Living Word, the fellowship is just as natural as
life itself, because after all our fellowship comes by sharing experiences with
one another. We can’t help but to talk to one another because we are actively
participating in the same Living Word.
But neurosis brings just the opposite effect. A wrong focus brings forth
wrong actions which bring forth wrong communications which brings forth bondage
and death instead of deliverance and Life. [1 Peter 1:3-(5) 7-(9)] Notice this end-time revelation is to bring
end time salvation and deliverance.
Now there is one
last thing that Webster brought out about neurosis which I have not yet
emphasized in this mini series, and the last thing he said about neurosis is
that it will eventually bring forth conversions. This is actually the seventh
characteristic which we know seven is the number of completion. The first six
are a progressive stage that moves one into a complete takeover by demonic
control. But there is something different about this last characteristic that I
would like to examine closer. CONVERSION. The last characteristic is
conversion. After you have started off by anxiety, you begin you begin to do
things compulsively and then those compulsive behaviors take over and become
obsessions which is devil possession, then fear sets in and depression soon
follows. And when this happens you quit eating the Word for the hour and you
begin to Spiritually starve yourself. Eventually because you no longer desire
this type of food you begin to avoid those who do and you disassociate with
those who do cutting yourself off from fellowship and associating with anyone
or anything that walks in the light. And then the final characteristic of
neurosis takes over and that is a complete conversion from a Christ centered
life to a materialistic centered life, and there we have CONVERSION the seventh
and last Characteristic of this neurotic condition that Brother Branham said
the whole world was caught up into.
[ 1 Tim 4: 1] This scripture speaks of
the falling away from THE faith at the end-time.
[Eph 4: 18-20] Shows that this cutting
off the Life of God which comes via His
Word starts with a wrong influence and a wrong understanding. One that is
darkened.
[ Luke 8:13] These have no rot in
themselves and so they fall away from The truth.
[ Luke 13:22-28] The word Depart here is
the same word for falling away.
[Heb 3: 7-4:2] The evil heart of unbelief
which is a wrong understanding, causes the falling away or departure from the
Living God.
[2 Thes 2: 3] There must be a falling
away in order for us to know we are at the end-time and the Appearing of
Christ.
[ Heb 6: 4-6] Those who have been once
for all enlightened and deviate from this enlightenment actually fall away and
it is impossible for them to ever change their thinking toward it again.
[ 2 Peter 3: 14-18]Beware lest ye fall.
[Heb 12:1-17] [1 Cor 10: 1-14] [ Rev 2: 4-5]
& [ Mat 7: 23] I used to know
you as my wife but I don’t know you as my wife more...Conversion
[Jude 1: 24] Unto Him who is able to
keep you from Falling....
Closing Prayer.....