Christ Revealed in His Own Word #103

“God in the Prophets”

Sunday, May 18, 1997

Brian Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship

[Hebrews 1:1-2 & 2 Peter 3:2] Let’s pray.

We have been studying brother Branham’s message “Christ Revealed in His Own Word”, and this is number 103 in our series. Now, we see here in Hebrews 1, which brother Branham has referred to a number of times in this message, that Paul is telling us this, in times past God spoke to man in and through His prophets, and in that day He spoke to the people in His Son. In other words, when Jesus was speaking, it was not Jesus at all, but it was God speaking. Then we can see by this that Paul clearly understood that Jesus was not God, but it was God that Spoke through Jesus just as He had in times past through His prophets. Now let’s see if this is a correct statement with the rest of scripture.

[John 7:16-18] Jesus answered them, and said, “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak it of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: But he that seeketh His glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

[17-6 Satan’s Eden] Man mustn't establish theirself. We find it amongst... Let God do something for a person, send him out, you find every man trying to impersonate it. See, they're trying to establish themselves. Every man, "I did this, me, I, mine, my denomination, me this," establish themselves. What are we preaching about, ourselves, or the Kingdom of God? Establish the Word of God. Take out the unbelief and establish the Kingdom of God in a man's heart. And the Kingdom of God cannot be established in a man's heart, 'less God made that man thus. He cannot be established in a... And remember, the deceitful part, that men think that it's right. See? "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man." Every intellectual being seems right.

And that is the key. Only can the Word become established in your heart if God made you to be so. You can not of your own self do it. In Matthew 16, Jesus told Peter, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father which is in Heaven has done so,” So we see that it is not by education, but by revelation. And that is where so many are missing the boat. Because they can quote the Bible or quote the prophet of God, or because they can find the quotes in their computer, they think they have it all, and they don’t realize that to do so only places them in Laodicea where the people are rich and increased with goods and don’t even know that they are blind.

[Psalm 10:4] The wicked through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: for God is not in all of his thoughts.

[Isaiah 55:8] For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, Saith the Lord.

[Isaiah 65:2] I have spread out My hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts.

[Jeremiah 6:13-19] notice the condition of the people even after when they are told a way to escape.

[John 9:39-41] They become blind because they think they see. This is exactly Rev 3 Blind & don’t know.

[Eph 4:17-18] they are blind because of their own thoughts are contrary to God’s thoughts.

[2 Peter 3:5] This is a willful act, God says they are willfully ignorant. [1 Cor 14:38]

[Mark 7:7-16] by their traditions they make the Word of God of none effect

[Proverbs 25:14] Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without water

[Jer 23:32] Those that God doesn’t send but go forth anyway will not profit the people any. Lightness = extravagance.

[John 10:23-39] they just could not get it, though He explained who He was by vindication.

[Isa 29:9-13] their own thoughts blind them to the truth, [Isa 28:8-13] And so the Word of the Lord becomes unto them, do and do, rule upon rule that they might go backward, stumble and be broken.

Now, we know that even Jesus Himself had to let go of his own thoughts and receive the mind of the Father in order for the Father to work though and manifest Himself through Him. In [ St. John chapter 5] we find Jesus telling us that He was completely helpless and totally dependent upon the Father as we read in [John 5:1-9] Now, let’s just stop here for just a moment.

I want you to notice that Jesus came to this man. He was not seeking Jesus, but Jesus sought Him. Now, it is true that the man wanted to be healed, and in fact had been lying by the pool for who knows how long, but because he could not rise up and enter the pool when the angel of God passed by and stirred the waters, he thus lay there without receiving his healing. Now this man had his infirmity for 38 years and the scripture tells us here that Jesus knew that this man had been waiting for a long time.

So Jesus heals the man, and then tells him to take up his bed and walk. But it was the Sabbath, and the Jewish custom was very strict with the Sabbath. Men could get stoned for just picking up a few sticks, but this guy was told to pick up his whole bed and walk. Now he had been impotent which this word means that he was diseased, feeble and weak. But when Jesus gave him the command to walk, he received strength to carry off his bed roll. Now, this man was a Jew. And since he was a Jew he was very conscious of the law, therefore, when Jesus gave him this command, he must have thought, “If this man can speak and my health is restored, then it is the will of God also for me to take up my belongings that are laying here and return home with them even if this is the Sabbath. And so he did. But along the way he gets stopped by his fellow Jews. [10-17] Now, notice what Jesus tells them when he is approached by these Jews. He said, My Father worketh just no, this moment, and therefore I work. In other words, Jesus was admitting that It was His Father who was doing the work, not He himself.

[18-20 & 30-32] So what we see here is that Jesus was completely helpless without the Father showing Him what He wanted to be done. Just like brother Branham was completely helpless without God showing Him what to do. Remember the hat had to be on the chair before Brother Branham could even pray for the man to be healed. And so this is what we hear brother Branham telling us in the next few paragraphs as we read from “Christ Revealed from His Own Word.”

118 Now, we realize then that God sent His prophets. That was the way He had of bringing His Word to the people, through the lips of His prophets. And notice, you know, Moses said, if you want to read it... In Exodus the 4th chapter and the 10th and 12th verse, Moses said God spoke to him. God talked to a man lip to ear, and He said... "I'm slow of speech." Moses said; "I'm not sufficient; I can't go." 119 He said, "Who made man to talk, or Who made him dumb? Who made him to see, or Who made him to hear? Didn't I, the Lord?" Said, "I'll be with your mouth." See? So... 120 And Jeremiah said, if you want to read that in Jeremiah 1:6, Jeremiah said that, "God put words in my mouth." See? He talked lip to ear with one prophet and spoke through the other prophet, he had no control at all and spoke through his lips. He's got ways of getting His Word out, you know. Yes, sir. 121 So you see, the Bible is God's Word, not man's word. Moses said, "God spoke to me with a voice, and I heard Him. I wrote down what He said." 122 Jeremiah said, "I couldn't speak at all, and the first thing you know, my lips was talking, and I was writing." God spoke through his lips, and it come to pass. Daniel, Isaiah, and so forth, all those prophets were just about the same. And Who’s the same, & changes not? God of course! [Mal 3:6]

[123] You know, in the Old Testament alone, it's more than two thousand times those prophets said THUS SAITH THE LORD. Now, if a man says THUS SAITH THE LORD, it's not the man talking. If he would, he wouldn't be a prophet, he'd be a hypocrite (See?); 'cause it wouldn't never come to pass. One chance out of ten hundred thousand times (See?) they might guess it. But if it's THUS SAITH THE LORD, the Lord God has said it. If I'd say, "Thus saith Ormand Neville..." My brother say, "Thus saith Mr. Mann..." If I'd say, "Thus saith Brother Vayle," out here or some of these other brethren, any of you, I'm speaking what you said. If I'm truthful I'm saying just what you said. And these men being prophets said, "It's not me. I have nothing to do with it, but it's THUS SAITH THE LORD." So the Bible is THUS SAITH THE LORD by the prophets.

I like that Because brother Branham is telling us here that the prophet would be a hypocrite if he took any credit for what God told him to say. In fact we hear brother Branham tell us it wasn’t him so many times that he had to wait upon the Holy Spirit before he could pray for the person and know with confidence the person was healed.

[269 Anointed Ones at the End-Time] Now, I want you to know this is sure. And you that listen to this tape, you might have thought today that I was trying to say that about myself, being that I was packing this Message. I have no more to do with it than nothing, no more than just a voice. And my voice, even against my better judgment... I wanted to be a trapper. But it's the will of my Father that I declare to do, and determined to do. { Now, brother Branham is bearing his soul here and letting you know that it wasn’t even his will to be a prophet, he would rather have been a trapper, then he let’s us know that he really, for all intents and purposes has nothing to do with what God has done except being their as a witness to what God is doing.} I wasn't the One that appeared down on the river; I was only standing there when He appeared. I'm not the One that performs these things and foretells these things that happens as perfect as they are; I'm only one that's near when He does it. I was only a voice that He used to say it. It wasn't what I knew; it's what I just surrendered myself to, that He spoke through. It isn't me. It wasn't the seventh angel, oh, no; it was a manifestation of the Son of man. It wasn't the angel, his Message; it was the mystery that God unfolded. It's not a man; it's God. The angel was not the Son of man; he was a messenger from the Son of man. The Son of man is Christ. He's the One that you're feeding on. You're not feeding on a man. A man, his words will fail, but you're feeding on the unfailing Body-Word of the Son of man.

PP. 66 Looking to the Unseen 4-10-1959

I'm the Lord that raised up Christ from the grave. I'm the One that sent the Holy Ghost. I'm the One that give the promise. Brother Branham has nothing to do in this. I have--He's surrendered his life to Me. I'm using his Spirit; I'm talking through his lips. That's Me; I'm the Lord.

Now, to me, this is exactly the same as what Jesus was telling the Jews. He said, Why do you condemn me? It’s not me, I have nothing to do with it. My Father is the One who is doing the work, and I am just a witness, bearing witness to Him. He speaks and I speak, He works and I work. I can of mine own self do nothing. Now, let’s read on with this message and see if that isn’t exactly what Brother Branham is telling us.

[124] Notice. They took Christ's Spirit upon themselves and forecast the events that would come to pass. Talk about forecast, they said what would take place down through the ages as they set, stood, laid, walked with the Spirit of Christ upon them; in so much that they acted like Christ. And the readers would read it and think that the prophets was speaking of themselves. You remember the eunuch when he was reading [Isaiah 53:1], about how that "He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, with His stripes we were healed?" The Eunuch said to Philip, "Who is the prophet speaking of, himself or some other Man?" See? The prophet spoke as if it was himself.

Now, brother Branham made a pretty good statement here. He said, The prophet spoke as if it was himself talking. Now, I’d like to ask you this question, “Why did the prophets speak as though they were talking about themselves? Can any one answer that? Because it was the Spirit of God that was in them that was doing the talking, and not the man. when God spoke to the people of Moses, He said, [Numbers 12:1-8] “with Him I will speak mouth to mouth.” So we see that there are prophets and there are prophets! I believe one is a five fold type while the other is a word prophet of a stature that is far above the other, because the Word of the Lord comes to these prophets directly from God Himself in the form of “Thus Saith the Lord!”.

[125] Look at David crying in the Spirit, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? My bones they stare at me (at me, David.). They pierced my feet and my hands (David.). They pierced my feet and my hands, but Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither will Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption," as though David was speaking of himself being holy. It was the Son of David, that germitized, spiritual Seed coming down through there. Though David himself was a cocklebur, but on the inside of there was a wheat grain. You get it? So the whole Bible is not the word of man, neither was It wrote by man, brought by man, or neither can It be revealed by man. It's God's Word, revealed by God Himself, His own Interpreter. Christ revealing Himself in His own Word.

Now, this is very important for us to comprehend. He said, it is not man’s word, therefore man did not write it and therefore if he did not write it how can he interpret it. He can’t. [1 Cor 2: 1-16] Therefore we see that we are totally dependent upon God for what we know of Him through His Word.

[126] Look at Christ standing back here in David. David couldn't even think now. His mind had gone from him, as it were. And he was hanging on the cross, like you see the statue here, hanging on the cross crying, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? All my bones, they stare at Me. They pierced My hands and My feet. They thrust My side." See? "Why art Thou so far from Me? All the bulls of Bashan compass by; they wag their heads, saying, 'He trusted in God that he would deliver him; now, let's see if He will deliver him,'"--speaking the same words. So you see, when God was made manifest on earth here, He said the same words David did. You get it? So you see, It's not the word of man, it's the Word of God. That was God in David. That wasn't David; he didn't know what he was saying; he was just so in the Spirit. That's the way Moses was. He was so in the Spirit, passed out of the dimension that he was living in, and stood there face to face and that burning bush, talking to--to--to God Himself. Said, "Take off your shoes. The ground you're standing on is holy ground." I'd imagine when Moses left there, he thought, "What happened? What taken place? What was it?" Said, "Go down in Egypt; I'll go with you." He said, "It's so real to me, I must go." He got his wife and his children, and his child, rather, and his stick in his hand, and took off down to Egypt to deliver the people. See? God speaking Himself through the prophet. [127] See, they're absolutely... It isn't the prophets; it was God, 'cause the prophet of themselves, they couldn't say those things. "Who has believed our report?" Isaiah saying. You see? "Who has believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? He shall grow up before us as a calf in a stall..." And how that... "Yet He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, chastisement of our peace upon Him; with His stripes we were healed." We were healed way over here in this age here, in Isaiah, back yonder eight hundred years before Christ. See? "By His stripes we were (past tense) already healed." Oh, my, how the Word of God's so perfect. Trust in It, folks; It's the only thing that can save you. [128] All other words, I don't care how well they're placed, how--who they come from, what denomination they come from, or how smart the man is, is to be absolutely ignored, anything contrary to the Word. If you want to put that Scripture down, that's [Galatians 1:8]. See? Paul said, "Though we or a angel from heaven would preach any other thing than this that you've already heard, let him be cursed." In other words, if an angel would come to you from heaven, a bright shining angel, and would stand... Boy, that would be bait for this day, wouldn't it? A bright shining angel come up there, and stand, and say things was contrary to the Word, you'd say, "Satan, get away from me." That's right. If he's a bishop, if he's a whatever he is, don't you never believe him if he doesn't speak exactly with that Bible, word by word. Watch him, he will carry you with the Bible now. He will carry you to a certain place and then hook it right there. When you see the Bible saying one thing and he bypasses that, watch him right there. See, that's the way he done Eve. He come right down and said everything just exactly. "Well, God said this. That's right, Eve. Amen, we believe that together." "Well, God said this." "Amen, we believe that together." "God said this." "We believe that, sure." "Well, but God said we'll die." "Well now, you know, He's a good God." He didn't say He wouldn't you know. "But surely..." Oh, me. There he is. And if he was deceitful like that, and the Bible said in the last days he would deceive the elected if it was possible, where ought we to be today, friends. Now, these little Sunday school lessons should be carried pretty close, you know, to our hearts, to see... We ought to listen real close and see how deceiving that thing is. [130] Notice, we cannot; we must not, listen to any other man's word. We don't care how smart, how educated. The Bible in Proverbs says we must cast down reasonings. See? Now, here in this second realm... First realm is your senses of see, taste, feel, smell, and hear; that's in your outer body. On the inner body, which is the spirit, is reasonings, and thought, and so forth. We must cast all that down. Can't reason, say, "Now, wait, if God is a good God..." And we're told so much today that He is. "If He is a good God, then if I be sincere, though I can't see that in that Bible being right, though I be sincere, I'll be saved." You'll be lost. "If I go to church and just do the things that I believe it's right and try to hold up for what I think is right, well I..." You're still lost. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death. See? You won't be saved; you'll be lost. See, see? It must be that inside control man.