Christ Revealed in His Own Word #64

Christ Revealed in His Own Word #105

Focusing In

Sunday, May 25, 1997

Brian Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship

This morning I would like to again begin by looking at something Brother Branham was saying in paragraph [125-126] and tie it back into what we looked at in paragraph [111]. To begin, let’s read first from [125-126] and then let’s read from paragraph [111].

[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. and [126] Look at Christ standing back here in David. {Now, listen close to what he is saying here, because this is the KEY! He says, [126] “Look at Christ standing back here IN David. { Now catch the very next thing brother Branham says about 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 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.

Now, as we pointed out Wednesday night, we see here, the prophet of God looking down the road by vision or what ever manner it was that God used to get his attention. The main thing is that something happened to him that drew him into the right atmosphere of God and once he is drawn into that atmosphere, he begin to tell us what he sees. It is then no longer his own mind speaking, but the very mind of God that is speaking out from within him, because he is only a reflector, reflecting what he sees. In other words, He sees the Word in a manifested form and as he describes this to us, if we are elect, then we are ordained to enter into that channel, and when we do, we begin to see the same thing he is seeing. And as he focuses upon this Word that is manifested, and as he becomes more and more focused, the portion of the Word which He is focused upon, at first looks to be out somewhere in the future, but as he focuses on down upon that Word, it appears to become closer and closer until he is now looking in the present tense. We see the same thing in Isaiah 53 as we read Wednesday night. Let’s begin at verse 1 “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

Now, Isaiah uses these words elsewhere as we find in chapter [Isaiah 28:9], only instead of calling it a report, he says, “Who is He trying to teach, to whom is He explaining the Message? To children just weaned from milk, to those just taken from the breast? For it is his prophets repeating over and over precept upon precept, precept upon precept, and rule upon rule, rule upon rule, here a little and there a little. For with foreign lips and a strange tongue will God speak to this people, to whom He said, “This is the resting place, let the weary rest” and “this is the place of repose” but they would not listen. Therefore the Word of the Lord to them will become just monotonous repeatings of precept upon precept, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; that they may go and fall backward, and be broken and snared, and taken.

Christ Revealed in His Own Word #105

Sunday, May 25, 1997 “ Focusing in ”

In other words, as the prophet repeats over and over the Message, that which He is looking at, that which he is doing so because he is actually focusing more and more into the Revelation of Christ, but the people become impatient with this, and to them it becomes just a monotonous bunch of words and rules to follow, and thus they can not focus along with the prophet, and thus they have no patience with this focusing in process, and because they can’t understand what it is that he is doing, they thus get tired of it real quick and they go back to whatever they came out of. And their understanding of God, instead of focusing in with the Prophet, they shut off the prophet, and loose whatever they thought they had been seeing to begin with. We see Jesus tell us the same thing in [Matthew 13] where He said, It is given to you to know understand the mysteries, but unto them it is not given. For whosoever hath, (whosoever is made in such a way as to be able to echo back or reflect back the Word, to him shall be given more, but to those who are not made in such a way as to be able to echo back or reflect back, from them shall be taken away those things which they thought that they had.”

So you can see that the manner and way of the prophet was to fix his eyes upon the One who is here and as He did so, He would begin to describe just what he was looking at. As he then comes into the conduit or channel, in other words, as he focuses into Christ, He begins to tell in detail what He is seeing. It is just like with a microscope. When we first look at the object with our natural eye we only see so much. But as we begin to focus in with a greater power, the microscope, we begin to see details that we never saw before. Brother Branham tells us how this works in his message “Stature of a Perfect man”. In speaking about the reason why the people come to here the Word of the Lord, he said, they don’t come to be seen, “They don't come for such as that; but they come because inside of them is something that sees a beauty that the natural eye doesn't see. It's a spiritual eye that catches the beauty of Christ. That's why they come. So for days before we have the service, I constantly pray, go to the woods, take in my pocket, tell the wife, "I'm going out squirrel hunting this morning." And I put a pencil and a tablet of paper in my pocket. As soon as it gets light enough to see, I'm setting up against a tree somewhere, hands up in the air, and saying, "Lord, what can I do today? What will You give me for Your children? Then when I strike something that seems to burn down, comes something like this: When His Presence gets nearer I begin to hear something like way off in the distance, something on this order: Two----times----two----equal----four; (closer) Two---times---two---equal---four; Two--times--two--equal--four; Two times two equal four; [Brother Branham increases his speed each time he repeats this phrase for emphasis--Ed.] On, on, on like that. It's His Presence coming in. Yield yourself, and after while you break away from yourself. There comes the vision: "Go to such and such a place and such and such a thing." See, starts off from meditating, your mind on God, out of the world, away from the world out in the wilderness to yourself, and it starts coming: "One--One..." I say--any number or anything, just something starts gradually, faintly coming in. Then it comes faster, faster. And you set there and raise up your hands; don't say a word, just hold your hands in the air. First thing you know, your whole being is caught away. Then you see things that He wants you to know, showing you things that is to come. Sometimes it comes up to a spot, until a certain spot, and then stops. It doesn't go into a vision. Then Scripture just pour together. I grab my pencil so I won't forget it, and write it down. Write it down, and I come home and look it over, and study it. And sometimes, it don't even make sense to me when I'm looking it over. And then after while, here it is; it strikes, and away it goes again. Then I get a little book like this and just start sketching down just as hard as I can, what He tells me. I thought, "Lord, I'm going down to the Tabernacle and tell them I--'Come on down,' I got something for them." Well, that's how it comes. It's exactly. Until first He gives it to me, I cannot give it out.

Now, in getting back to [Isaiah 53], before we read further, I want you to notice in verse two, that we are reading of a future tense situation. Verse two speaks of something in the future which is understandable seeing that Isaiah was written 800 years before Christ walked the streets of Galilee . So what we see is the prophet of God begins to look out to the future, and as he begins to focus on what that thing is, it no longer is future tense but becomes present tense to him. 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him.

Christ Revealed in His Own Word #105

Sunday, May 25, 1997 “ Focusing in ”

Now, as we read the third verse, we begin to see the prophet of God is no longer looking in the future but he is speaking to us now in the present tense. [Isaiah 53:3] He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: {Now watch the Word at this point begin to go into the past tense}. and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither [was any] deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

What we see taking place here is this. As the prophet of God begins to focus in, he see the thing that God wants him to see still off in the distance as being yet down the road or in the future. But as he focuses in, that object or thing which God wants for him to see becomes closer and closer until he is standing their in full view, which is present tense. Then as he begins to describe the details of what he is seeing, it becomes past tense as though it is or has just happened. At this point he is so caught up into what he is seeing that he enters into what he is seeing, or what he is seeing enters into him, and takes over his mind and at that point he is so focused that he can not see anything else. That is when God begins to speak directly his thoughts and what the prophet speaks is not any longer his own words, but it is the Word of the Lord.

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? Now, this brings us back to paragraph [111] where brother Branham said, ] Prophets did not always understand what they were writing or what they were saying, or they would in no wise have said it, if they could've understood it. See? But the Bible said they were moved by the Holy Ghost: moved. When the Holy Ghost moves you, you move. God in sundry times and divers manners spake to the prophets that were moved by the Holy Ghost. That's why all ages, the people who were spiritual consulted the prophets about the times and what was to happen. The prophet-writer must be in constant fellowship with the Author. See? He must live constantly in the Presence of the Author to know what the Book's going to be. See? The prophet-writer, he had the pen and ready anytime, constant fellowship with the Author, which was God, to strike down whatever He said put down. See? Showed what kind of a life He must... A separated life from all of his brethren...

Now, there a principle here that is very important for us to understand. Brother Branham is telling us that, although David was a cocklebur on the outside, there was something else within him that was able to be moved by the Holy Spirit, and therefore he could only say what God put in him to say. He said, “It was the Son of David, that germitized, spiritual Seed coming down through there.” Through Where? Through the vessel David lived in. Then what was taking place? The vessel that David was housed in had two beings now living in it. David’s own spirit, and the Spirit of God. And that is why David could speak and 800 years later when the Son of God came, He spoke the very same things that David said, while under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Point. Now, in paragraph [111] Brother Branham said, . The prophet-writer must be in constant fellowship with the Author. See? He must live constantly in the Presence of the Author to know what the Book's going to be. And here is the other key factor. We know that brother Branham defined fellowship as two fellows in a ship, and the fellowship depends then upon the relationship between those two fellows that are in the ship. Remember, the suffix ship means the state of being, the condition, or the quality of that relationship.

Christ Revealed in His Own Word #105

Sunday, May 25, 1997 “ Focusing in ”

So therefore, the ship that we are in, represents the quality, represents the condition, represents the state of being that we are in. Whether it is, fellow-ship, friend-ship Wor-ship, Steward-ship, Son-ship, or even Head-ship. These are the conditions that we have together with our partner and that show forth our state of being, and condition of life that we find ourselves. [1 John 1:7]

Therefore, in this fellows ship, there are certain activities that abound. One of them is worship. We know that the word, worship according to Webster comes from two words, worth and ship. “Worth being the assessment or value we have for something, and the suffix ship which means the quality, or condition or the state of being.” And in this ship we have other activities and attributes that we also find absorbing the greater portion of our awakening hours. So if we are in this ship together, then we have fellow-ship. Webster defines the word fellow as a partner... And, the first thing we need to consider is our partner, our fellow. For if we are to be together for a long duration in this ship, then our state of being is dependent upon, our quality of life is dependent upon, and our conditions which we shall live in, are dependent upon who our fellow or partner is. Then in order to have the best conditions, the best state of being and the best quality of life, we are dependent upon having the best partner we could possibly have to help make it that way. For remember, brother Branham told us that we all are little messiettes. We have within us an ability to create and atmosphere around us which reflects who we are. And if this is so, and I believe it is so, then I would want to have a partner for this life’s journey who will create such a wonderful atmosphere that I would never want to leave this ship!

So, then Who would the best partner be? Who is there that creates such a wonderful atmosphere every time you are in their presence that you just hate to leave it. Is it your wife? Is it your husband? Is it your children? I say, No! But, there is One Who was born for such a purpose as to bring forth such an atmosphere that you’d never want to leave Him, and that is Christ Himself. The Son of God. [Hebrews 1:2-9] And so we see that there is One who was created and has been anointed with the oil of gladness even above his fellows, which is to say his partners. Now, who are these partners that Paul is speaking of here? It is those who are sharing the same ship. The same state of being, quality and conditions of life. He was created to be a partner. God, so wanted fellowship, that He brought forth a Son, Christ, and He found such wonderful enjoyment from the fellowship with this Son, that He wanted to share this fellowship with others. [1 Cor 1:9-10]

In [Hebrews 3:1,12-14 ] we find that we have been made (Partakers) partners with Christ. (read) In [Hebrews 6:4-6] we also find that we are partners or companions of Christ, and yet in both of these scriptures we are warned that our fellowship, our partnership, our companionship, can only last as long as we stay in the ship, or the presence of God. Even Christ wants to have fellowship with those who are in the same state of being, those who have the same purpose in life, and share in the same quality and conditions of life. That is why we find Him telling us in [2 Cor 6:14] “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath those who are rightly wise with those who are not rightly wise? And what communion has light with darkness?” Who in their right mind would want to be set adrift in the sea of humanity with someone who does not share or wish to live in the same atmosphere.

For if there is to be any fellowship, then it has to be in the same ship. In the same Quality, condition or state of being. [Philippians 2:1-5] And so we see that this ship is created through a condition of the mind. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. That is what brings us into the ship, and that is what keeps us in the same ship. That is why we talk about Him. because if He was created to bring forth Fellowship with the Father and then with us, then it is this atmosphere, this ship, this quality, condition and state of being that we desire not only to enter into, but to remain. And how do we enter into this ship? [1 John 1: 3-7] Now, in getting back to paragraphs, 125-126 we see how this fellowship that brother Branham spoke of in paragraph 111 is so important in this focusing in process that the prophet or any Elect Believer must enter into, because if the mind of Christ is not in us we be reprobates. [Phil 2:5 & 2 Cor 13:5]. This is why He comes to be Glorified IN His saints in this hour as we see in [2 Thess 1: 10-12] And it is therefore very important for this mind of Christ to enter into us if we are to have Him remain in our ship or our vessel.