Wednesday Evening, August 28, 1996

Brian Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship

We have been looking at paragraph [27] where brother Branham made the statement that, “you were in your great, great, great grandfather all the way back, physically speaking. Then that's what you are in physical being, nature. Sometimes a child will be born in a family red-headed. It astonishes the father, 'cause there's nobody he knows of his people red-headed, or the mother's. But if you'll go way back to several generations, you'll find out somebody was red-headed. That seed keeps coming on down, and you come the nature of one from way back. Like the--Hebrews the 7th chapter said, that Melchisedec... Abraham paid tithes to Him when he was returning from the slaughter of the kings. And Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was in the loins of Melchisedec at--or the loins of Abraham, rather, when he met Melchisedec.

We examined this thought here and brought out the attributes of God life and Satanic life showing the difference was only in the way you receive the Word for the Hour. This evening I would like to continue with this thought as we read paragraph [28]. “Now, the same thing is this: If you are a son of God, and if I am a son of God, or a daughter of God, we were in God at the beginning. And when Jesus became the Fullness of the Word, then we were in Him, germ form. When He was crucified, we was crucified in His body. When He rose from the dead, we rose with Him. And now, since we have recognized it, now we set together with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. See? For if we are sons and daughters of God, we are God's children; then we're attributes of God. Then we got Eternal Life. And God is the only Eternal Life there is. Then we were in Him from the beginning. And when Jesus became all that Word, then we were part of Him then. Amen. There you are. When that's in there, there's no devil, no powers, no nothing can ever move it. That's the tie post of the soul. You can be anointed out here in this spirit, and desire, and do all these other things, but when it comes to this tie post to that Word, you'll never move from there. It'll hold right steady and true to that Word as it can be. Outside of that, regardless of what you do, you're still lost.”

Now in order to fully appreciate what brother Branham is telling us here we must let our own thinking go. we must begin to think like God thinks in order to understand the things of God. And there is no way that we can think like God thinks unless God has placed His thoughts ( His Word) in us. [1 Cor 2: 11-12]

Tonight I would like to address a couple thoughts here that brother Branham said. If you are a son of God, and if I am a son of God, or a daughter of God, we were in God at the beginning. Now I don’t know how any body could dispute that. Because after all the Life is in the male and if we have the Life of God, God’s own Life,” then it had to come from God Himself. The Law of Reproduction in [Gen 1:11] tells us that “every seed shall bring forth after it’s kind, or after it’s own nature.” Therefore God can not have children who are in the image of the devil. His children will come forth in His Own Image and Remember, He is the Word. So then if God is the Word, then His children must have the same nature in them as well. It is so simple. Now if I have children by my wife and myself it is only natural that the life came from me. And any child comes forth in the image and nature of their parents because they are the seed of a union of life. [1 Cor 15:49]

We know that the life comes from the father and the mother contributes the materials to make up the body. Both parents contribute a set of 23 chromosomes and in each set of chromosomes are 1,250 genes which are attributes that combine to give you your nature and image. Our individuality is defined by the combination of these genes and chromosomes. And although the chances of two children of being the very same likeness and personality, are 1, followed by 9,031 zeroes. Yet we often see many similar traits in brothers and sisters. The hair, nose, eyes, mouth and body build may usually have some similarities. After all, I don’t expect that my children will have the features of a black man if the life came from me, right? Neither will they have the features of an oriental. What attributes the children manifest has come from either myself or my wife because what the kids have in them was first in us. So we see that the genes and chromosomes are what brings forth the features and nature of the child. Therefore if we are God’s children then we must have been in God to begin with. and that is what Brother Branham said.

And God is the only Eternal Life there is. Then we were in Him from the beginning. And when Jesus became all that Word, then we were part of Him then.

The second point I wish to emphasize is that he said, “And when Jesus became the Fullness of the Word, then we were in Him, germ form. Now this goes against what is being taught by the Bride Boys who want to tell us that the Fullness of the Godhead is in the Bride. That is completely backwards from what Brother Branham said here. Let me explain.

First of all let’s read [Collosians 2: 9- 12] First of all we read “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily”. Now what we read here is that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in but one and that is Christ Jesus. It does not say that It dwells in any other being, but one and that is Christ. IN HIM! Then we read on as Paul says, And you are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power. Here we find Paul telling us something very essential and important to understand. He said, We are in complete in Him. Now this word complete is a word plero’o ( play ro’ o) which means to fill to the full.

We also found this word used of the Pharisees when Jesus said to them, “ Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.” [Matt 23:32] And we found out the attributes that were in their fathers was the same attributes that were in the children of the Devil. The word fill up here or plero’o means then to actually carry into effect or to bring into realization.” In other words, to bring into manifestation just exactly what life is in the seed.[[John 8:38 - 47] I do what My Father shows me and you do what your father shows you.

Now in going back to what Paul spoke of us in Christ, he said we were complete in Him. we filled up the measure in Christ. In other words, if the entire fullness of Godhood was carried into effect and brought into realization while in Christ, then if we have any part of Godlife it had to have been in Christ and manifested while in Him.

Paul then tells us in [Col 2:12] that since we were in Him when the fullness of the Godhead was in Him then we also were buried with Him and raised with Him as well. Why? Because the Life Seed was entirely in Him, and if so then we were part of that Life stream, that Life seed in it’s entirety. Now what Paul is saying here is not what these men are saying. They place the fullness of the Godhead in the Bride. Instead of the fullness of the Bride in Christ. Now that is a big difference. Because we are in Him. The Bride universal is only a part of what makes up the Fullness of the Godhood Life that was in Christ. But to place The fullness of the Godhood Life in the Bride limits # 1 that fullness to a mere attribute, and #2 makes the bride bigger and more complete than the Godhead itself.

Paul said we are complete IN HIM. Not He is Complete in us. But that is where their unbelief has taken this doctrine. They believe that God completes Himself by entering fully into His Bride. The fact is God is already complete. But we are complete IN Him. Then our completion lies in the fact that we are in Him, not visa versa. And remember He is the Word. “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily.” And having come forth from Him we therefore bring with us and in us the very nature and attributes of Him. Now I would never under any circumstances want to have a God who came out from me and possessed my attributes. That is so ridiculous it isn’t even funny. God did not come forth from our Image, We came forth from His.

Actually to say that God came forth from the image of man is to believe no differently than Madlin Murray Ohare, who is an infidel. The Atheist believes that God is a figment of man’s imagination which then would make God inferior to man, because if God is a figment of man’s imagination, then man created God and not visa versa. Then if man can create God he can also destroy God and then what do you have but humanism, pure and simple.

Now remember the last few sermons what we read in [Exodus] and [Numbers] and [Deuteronomy] about the sins, ( The unbelief) of the parents will be visited to their children even to the third and fourth generations. Then what hope have the children being raised up under such unbelief have. Very little I’m sure. I have heard of some of these young men who claim this doctrine when asked who they were they said they were God.

So then who do they pray to? And then if they are God who are there children to pray to? And then if they teach it to their children then who are their children but God also. And so they will begin to rewrite their own laws and place their own word above the word of God and you see where it all leads to? Back to the Garden where the serpent caused Eve to leave the Word of God. Then who becomes the absolute, but every man becomes his own absolute and his own interpreter of the Word of God. And then for that matter, why interpret God’s word when you are the word yourself. Such hogwash.

The third point I wish to emphasize this evening is this, “And now, since we have recognized it, now we set together with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Now notice this is only for those who have recognized it. Only those who have recognized it are setting together in Heavenly places right now in Christ Jesus. All others may see it with their eyes and hear it with their ears but they neither understand nor do they perceive what it is all about.

[Matt 13:10-17] Read

[Eph 1: 3-5] Now notice, we can not fully understand this if we do not read further, because it looks like we were in heavenly places before the world began, but as we read on we shall see in verse [9] that he makes us fully to know. And this word known here is a Greek word which means to fully recognize as we see brother Branham saying here. That is why Brother Branham said, “when it comes to this tie post to that Word, you'll never move from there. It'll hold right steady and true to that Word as it can be. Outside of that, regardless of what you do, you're still lost.”

30 CHRIST REVEALED IN HIS OWN WORD 65-0822M

That Laodicean church age, naked, blind, miserable, don't even know it... See, it's not anointed with the real Spirit. See that Holy Spirit can fall upon a man in his spirit, but his soul is his germ. That germ is the Word. See? And I don't care how much you preach, how well you do this, and how much you love... That's one of the inlets the spirit. You can't love with your body; you love with your spirit. That's one of the inlets. And you can love and even love God, and still not be right. You can cast out devils, and preach, and do these things, still not be right. Jesus said so; said many would come in that day. That Word settles it. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us,...

It is very important for us to recognize and understand this. It all comes down to the Word of God. “As a man thinketh in His heart, so is he.” “And out from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” And if we are a part of God as his Children, then we have got to be part of that Word. Not because we think so, but because god said so. And if our Soul is the germ and the germ is the Word then our soul is the Word as well. Now what is the Soul. It is a Hebrew Word Nephesh meaning Life, being, living person, the self, and we see the first use of it in [Gen 2:7]. God breathed it into Adam, the breathe of Lives..... Then Adam became a living Soul. God by His breath made the Soul in Adam to come alive. And we see in [ 2 Tim 3: 16-17] that the Word of God is also God Breathed. The very breath of God coming forth. And if the breath of God that went into Adam gave life to His Soul, then the very Word of God which is the breath of God gives life to our soul as well.

That’s why Paul said in [ Eph 2: 1] “and you hath he quickened.” Because we know this word quicken is word which means to come alive. To become animated.