Christ Revealed in His Own Word #42
His Soul is His Germ
Sunday Morning, September 1, 1996
Brian Kocourek,
Pastor Grace Fellowship
[John 1: 1 - 4, 14] and [John 6:63] Prayer
This morning I
would like to read from brother Branham’s Message Christ Revealed in His Own
Word, and from the next three paragraphs I would like to speak to you this
morning.
30 Christ Revealed
in His Own Word 65-0822
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,...”
31 Christ Revealed
in His Own Word 65-0822
Notice. I'm
going to speak on this subject of the Bible, Christ Revealed in His Own Word.
Where I drawed this conclusion was in my room. Some dear person (may be setting
here this morning)... I got a picture hanging in my study up there, that's a
picture of Hofmann's head of Christ wrote in the Beatitudes. And right where
you would come to a place like you needed a part of the hair, they'd pressed a
little harder on the pen as you pass that part. There--there He is, setting in
His Word, looking right out: Christ in the Beatitudes. Someone, ever who it
was, I thank you for it. And somebody brought that picture and put it in my
study there, of Elijah going up in a chariot of fire. We appreciate these
things. Many times, big crowds, I just don't get a chance to speak and say
these things, but I see it, brother, sister. I--I know it. God knows it. Now,
I'm going to speak on this subject of "Christ Revealed in His Own
Word." How in the Beatitudes there stands a picture of Christ, standing
right out. Like... That's where I thought of this subject.
33 Christ Revealed in His Own Word 65-0822
Now, Christ and the Word is the same. See?
They say, "How was the Bible..." People says... I was riding with a
man not long ago. He said, "Think of it. We here on this earth, the way we
are, and we only know or can only say that we're saved by some Jewish fable
called the Bible." I said,
"Sir, I don't know how you say that, but I don't believe it's a Jewish
fable." I said... He said, "Well, you pray... What do you pray to? I
asked for so-and-so and certain things; I didn't get it." I said, "You pray wrong. We should never pray to change God's
mind; we should pray to change our mind. God's mind don't need any changing.
(See, see?) It's right." I said, "Not what you pray for..."
There are a few
things here that Brother Branham said in these three short paragraphs, that I would
like to look at for a moment. And maybe I could some up what it is that He is
saying here by listing those three thoughts first, and then placing them
together as one thought so that we can study them as such.
#1) The Holy Spirit
can fall upon a man in his spirit, but
his soul is his germ. That germ is
the Word.
#2) I'm going to speak
on this subject of the Bible, Christ Revealed in His Own Word because Christ and
the Word is the same
#3) We should never
pray to change God's mind; we should pray to change our mind. God's mind don't
need any changing.
Now I have just
read for you three very strong statements that Brother Branham made that I
would like to attempt this morning by God’s Grace to phrase into one simplified
statement so that we might understand this Message from God better.
Now let me read
this new single statement as follows: “This
morning I'm going to speak on this subject of the Bible, which is Christ
Revealed in His Own Word, because
after all, Christ and the Word is the
same. And Since we also Know that Jesus Himself said, “My
Words that I speak they are Spirit and they are Life.” Therefore, We
should never pray to change God's mind; but we should pray to God to change our
mind because God's mind doesn't need any changing. And since The Holy Spirit can fall upon a man in his spirit, but his soul is his germ. That germ is the Word. The we without the
Word in our soul have not a chance in the world of ever receiving Christ, for
He is Revealed by the Word. And Word will only receive Word.
Now this may be a
little lengthy but let me explain what
I am trying to tell you this morning. We all know that Christ is the Word
right? we read it from the Bible in [St.
John 1:1] “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
was God.” Now does that take
any special gift to be able to understand that? Or is it so plain that all we
must have to do is be able to read.
Therefore we can
say that God and His Word are the same, Right? OK, now let’s see what else we
can find out about this Word.
[Mal 3: 6] “For I am the Lord and I change
not” Also we read from
[Hebrews 13:8] “Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, and today, and forever.”
Now from these
two Scriptures we can see one principle and that is that God does not change.
What He was in times past, He is still that way today and will be forever. Does
any one have a problem with that. You see man changes, and the nations change
and the times and seasons change, but we have one great assurance and that is
that God still remains the same as He ever was, and He changes not. And
remember He is the Word.
Now let me first
explain what this means that God is the Word.
In [Proverbs 23:7] we are
told, “as a man thinketh in His Heart, so is he.” And so we find the
Bible telling us that a man is what his thoughts are. Your arm is not you, if I
cut off my arm I still exist, right. How many of you ever meet a man with one
arm? That man is still a man although he may be impaired, right? What about
your leg then. If you lose a leg in an accident, does that mean you no longer
exist? Of course not. So what is the real you any way? If it is not your body
parts then what is the real you? It is you Soul, which is your life, your
rational being. And we are told by God’s Word, that , “as a man thinketh in His Heart,
so is he.” So what you are is what your thoughts are. Your thoughts
tell you that you enjoy working with your hands, and so you then find a job
where you can best express those thoughts. Your mind tells you that you enjoy
doing analytical work with your mind and therefore you find a job where you can
exercise your mind this way.
To be a chemist
you must think as a chemist. To be a Concert pianist you must think like a
concert pianist. As a manager for over
15 years in Business, I often told employees that wanted to move up the ladder,
and be promoted. I would tell them that “if
you wanted to be a vice president, they
had to think like a vice president thinks, and then they will dress like a vice
president and they will act like a vice president and when every one around
them sees the way they think and the way they act, they will say, “This
person should be promoted higher up.”
And so you are what your thoughts make you.
And so we find in
[Matt 12:34 & Luke 6:25] that
Jesus tells us, “For out of the abundance, or overflow of the heart, the mouth will
speak.” So then there is no getting away from the fact that you are not
only what you think, but what you are will be expressed through your lips in
the form of words. You will speak what you are.
Therefore when we
read [John 1: 1] that tells us “In
the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
Then we can also know that if we
are to get to know this God, it must come through His Word, and since He can
not change, then we can establish the
point and that Christ is Revealed in His Own Word, because after all, Christ and the Word is the same.
Now if You are
revealed by your own words, then Christ is Revealed in the same manner. Therefore,
to get to know Christ we must get to know His Word. And that is why God has
given us His Word. Could you imagine God wanting for us to know Him and not
telling us anything about Himself? Then our knowledge of Him would be left up
to our own imagination.
Let me put it to
you this way. When a young man sees a young girl and he likes what he sees,
what doe she do? He tries to get to know her. But what if he never talks to
her? Can he get to know her? Not really. He may say that he has fallen in love with
her without ever talking to her, but how does he know that it is her that he is
in love with? It might just be his own imagination that he is in love with. He
imagines what she is like and so he thinks on these thoughts and then he falls
in love with his ideals of what she should be like. But what happens if he
dates her and they never talk? He will go on thinking she is what his mind
imagines her to be. And what if they get married and they have never really
talked and communicated to each other. Then he will be in for the shock of his
life when he marries her and then finds out later that she is not what he
thought she was.
So you see, we
express ourselves by what we say and what we do. That is the real person in us
doing those things and saying those things. This shell of a body is only a
housing in which the real person in us lives. You do not no me by what I look
like but by what I say and do. My expression reveals to you the real me. And
how often people marry thinking that they will be able to change the one they
are married to. It does not work that way.
And so we see
that not only is God revealed by His own Word, but w are also revealed by our
own words.
But what if those
words are not true? Or what if we only hear
what we want to hear? How many young men have received a broken heart because
they talked themselves into thinking that they were in love with this girl, and
thought they could change her only to find out later that this girl was not
going to change and he was stuck with what he got. The same with the girls, How
many women go through life with a man that they never really did know and
although they have tried to know that man they never will ever know them
because they think on two different plains. He thinks in a certain way and she
thinks in a completely different way and these two ways never meet.
You could never
build a lasting relationship on something like that. What would you have in
common? Nothing. And so too is it with our Lord. A person would have to be a little bit mentally touched if they
went their whole life living with a person and only imagining there husband to
be one thing when he is completely another. We would say that person is living
in a delusion, and we would be right.
Well, then if
this is true about we as human beings, and our relationships are no stronger
than our ability to communicate with each other, then what about with God. What
if a married woman told lies to a get another man to marry her and then after marrying this woman he finds out that
those things she told him to get him to marry her were not true? What if she
told him she has lived virtuously and she has never had relations with another
man and then he finds out that she was a prostitute and full of every disease
known? Do you think that man will want to stay with her after knowingly he was
deceived into marriage in the first place? I don’t think so. You can’t build a
lasting relationship on false hoods.
Now let’s go one step further. What if I you
are lonely and would like to meet a girl
and get married. And what if you came to a match maker who told you
about a girl who was very beautiful in her looks, and she was smart and had a
lovely disposition and met every desire that you had for a spouse. Then they
showed you a picture of her and the picture met every detail of what they said?
Then you agree to let this match maker set up a time for you to meet this woman of your dreams. Now what
if instead of this woman showing up a
real slob shows up? Wouldn’t you be disappointed?
How can you get
to know someone from a picture if the picture is not of the person you want to
know. What if I use the old bait and switch and show you one thing and when
your ready to buy hand you another? Won’t you feel deceived? The if we would not permit ourselves to
allow a person to deceive us in this manner, why should our souls be any
different.
How can you trust
someone with your soul who you do not even know. Well, you say, they have a
great reputation. Listen, some of the
men in this world with the greatest reputations have been politicians, and the
nature of politics is to tell people what they want to hear so they will like
you even though they know you are lying. There are 43 % of the American people
who will vote for Bill Clinton even knowing that what he tells them is not true
but because they like what they hear, because it sounds good to their ears,
they will vote for him anyway, knowing that he most likely will not live up to
what he says.
Now, could you
imagine a God like that? And yet most people have not a clue as to who or what
God is? What they have is based solely upon their own imagination, or the
imagination of another whether it be a church position or a priest or rabbi and
minister.
[Mark 4: 24] Read Notice he said, take
heed, be careful how you hear. How you hear? Don’t we hear with our ears? I’d
like to ask this question myself. How do you hear? with your ears?
[Matt 13: 10 - 17] Notice he said we do
not hear with our ears nor do we see with our eyes. These are only outer senses
that send stimulus to our mind. But what we hear with and what we see only
brings a stimulus that enter into our mind or spirit where we have five other
senses.
Body |
Spirit |
Soul |
|
[ Five Outer Senses ] |
[ Five Inner Senses ] |
[ Choice ] |
|
1) See |
1) Memory |
Believe or
disbelieve |
|
2) Taste |
2) Imagination |
|
|
3) Feel |
3) Reasoning |
|
|
4) Smell |
4) Conscience |
|
|
5) Hear |
5) Affection |
|
|
1) Memory
= the ability to retain or revive in
the mind past thoughts, images, ideas, etc. |
|
2) Imagination
= the power to
form( conceive or picture ) mental
images of what is not actually present. |
|
3) Reasoning = The ability to
draw conclusions or inference from assumed facts. |
|
4) Conscience
= The moral
sense. Knowledge from within. Inner thoughts and feelings. |
|
5) Affection
= The emotional state of being, disposition. The prevailing
aspects of our true nature. |
Now that we have
the description of these five Outer and Five Inner senses, I want you to be
able to see how it is that the Outer actually Govern and control the Five Inner
senses. And so with this in mind, let’s look at each of these, but let’s start
with the Outer sense of Sight because after all, brother Branham said, from the
message [Blind Bartimaeus March 30,
1960] “Your eye is the gate to your soul. You can look at it; it almost governs the other senses. You look at it before you
taste it. You look at it before you smell it, and feel it, and so forth. It's usually the eye is the gate to the
soul.” And in [Matt 6:22] we
read, ‘the eye is the lamp to the body” it is what brings light and
understanding to you”
And so with this
in mind let’s begin to learn for ourselves how the sense of sight not only in
can govern the other outer senses, but how it also controls the inner senses as
well. What we want to do is to see for ourselves the correlation between these
senses and how the outer governs even the inner. We really do not have enough time to study how each of the Five
outer senses controls the five inner senses, but if I can establish for you the
control of sight over the inner senses then you can use the same laws and
principals for sight and apply them to the other outer senses as well.
Now, Sight,...
What is it? Simply put, sight is what
wee see. There are three types of
sight. Outer, inner and a sixth sense which has to do with the
soul.
1). We have Physical sight which is visual and one of the five
outer senses.
2). We also possess Intuitive sight which we call Insight
because it has to do with the inner senses which come from the spirit and which
is a mental sight. This Insight is a mental awareness of the inner nature of
things. [1 Cor 2: 11a]
3). We have Spiritual Sight which is Revelatory and is
possessed only within the soul of the Believer who alone has this Spiritual
sight which is also called Faith. This Comes only from God . [Matt 16:17] & [1
Cor 2: 10-13]
Now let’s go to
the Scriptures this evening and see how that Physical Sight ( which is an outer
sense) can have an effect on the inner
senses.
[Genesis 3: 6-7] here we see that
something happened to them and they now knew that they were naked. something
physical happened to them that caused them to see things in a different
perspective than they had seen those things before.
[Deut 6: 6-9] {7}NIV Impress them on your
children. Talk of them when you sit in your home and when you walk along the
road, when you lie down and when you get up.
{7} Amplified And these words which I am commanding you
this day shall be first in your mind heart; then you shall whet and sharpen
them, so to make them penetrate, and teach and impress them diligently upon the
minds and hearts of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your
house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise
up.” And so we see that to do so they were to place pictures and
Scriptures and all sorts of things that the children will actually see with
their eyes and when they see with their eyes it will have an influence in their
minds and in their hearts.
So here we see a positive
picture of using and controlling the five senses in a way which will control
and guide the minds of the children and actually bring about an inner desire in
them for the things of God. We see how then that sight can control the inner
senses of...
|
1) Memory
= the ability to retain or revive in
the mind past thoughts, images, ideas, etc. |
|
2) Imagination
= the power to
form( conceive or picture ) mental
images of what is not actually present. |
|
3) Reasoning
= The ability to draw conclusions or
inference from assumed facts. |
|
4) Conscience
= The moral
sense. Knowledge from within. Inner thoughts and feelings. |
|
5) Affection
= The emotional state of being, disposition. The prevailing
aspects of our true nature. |
Now let’s look to
the scripture for some other illustrations of how sight will control these five
inner senses.
[Numbers 15: 38-40] Here we see that the
sight is used to control our memory so that we do not prostitute ourselves to
other things. NIV “You will have the tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands
of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going
after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to
your God. “
Here we see God
employing the use of sight to control the heart and minds by charging our
memories with stimulus that in turn causes us to reflect within ourselves what
our journey is all about.
[ Proverbs 17: 24] NIV A discerning man keeps
wisdom in view, but a fools eyes wander to the ends of the earth
Now what I am
trying to establish here is that you see and hear with your mind, and we read
in [Mark 4: 24] that we must be careful, we must take heed how we hear
because the measure we use to hear is the only thing we will hear.
As a tree leaneth
so shall it fall. If our minds are already made up then what we hear will be
filtered by what we want to hear. If our minds are not open then we will never come to the knowledge of
the truth.
[Proverbs 22:6] And so a child will
always revert back tot he way he or she was trained. The filter we have, the
measuring stick we have is based upon what information we filter it through.
[John 8: 37 - 47]
[Matt 23:32] Fill ye up the measure of
your fathers.