Christ Revealed in
His Own Word #122
Stablished in The Faith #3
Wednesday,
July 30 1997
Brian Kocourek,
Pastor Grace Fellowship
[Phil 1:27] Let your manner of
life be more abounding and fruitful in Jesus Christ as it becometh the Gospel
of Christ: That whether I come and see you , or else be absent from you, I may
still hear of your affairs, that you are
standing fast and firm in one Spirit, with One Mind striving together for
the Revelation of the Good news brought to you in this hour.
Sunday morning, we spoke
from paragraphs 156 & 157 of “Christ is Revealed in His Own Word”,
, where he talked about how the revival fires are over and what is left is a
stabilization of Gods Elect.
In paragraph [156], he said, “the revival's over."....and he said, Just stay stable....and he also said, “Just stay in the Word; stay with God. No matter how you feel,
what anything else, stay right with the
Word. Let it stay stable. And then he said, ... “When you see all these
great big old clouds around us, and storms a-coming,.... our stabilizer is right straight in the Word. God said it would be
here; ... We're anchored in Jesus, The storms of life I'll brave; I've anchored in Jesus, I'll fear no wind or wave; And I think it is a wonderful thing that He
did for us, because it was so hot and we simply asked Him for relief and He
allowed us to rebuke the one who is the prince of the air, and then we simply
asked our Heavenly Father to send us a strong wind to push out the heat and
that is exactly what He did. To me, when I looked up in the sky and saw those
fearsome looking clouds rolling in, it was so wonderful. They looked like a Hugh
bull-dozer scraping across the sky, just a tremendous wall of thick dark clouds
moving across the sky and pushing out the heat that was causing so much
problems for his kids.
And when I looked again at this
paragraph of Brother Branham’s here, I saw where he also talked about the
storms as something that should not be feared, because we are anchored in His
Word, and whereas many people who looked upon those very same clouds Sunday afternoon may have feared a damaging storm,
yet, those of us who looked upon those same clouds saw an answer from God to
our prayers. Therefore when we can see
with our very own eyes that our God most certainly is still on the scene, It
ought to do something within our souls, and it should cause us to come to the
place of rest and peace that He promised for us, knowing that He most certainly
has every thing under control, even the weather. Therefore as we read on what
brother Branham said in paragraph, 157 we can see a living Word that has been
made real to us through what God has performed before our very eyes. To me,
this Word is becoming more of a reality every day we live. We have a living God
among us Who is actively watching over us with a desire to be a part of our
every day life. [Psalm 1:6] [2 Cor 6:14-18] [Rev. 21:1-4]
Brother Branham said, [157] “Whatever it might be, let it come, what
may, what it will, doesn't make any difference; we're anchored right there in
Jesus. If I live, I'll live to the glory
of God. If I die, I'll die to the glory of God. I just want... Just to the
glory of God is what I want to do. When that's all over, I don't want to stay
any longer. I want to go to where--to my
reward that He bought for me, not what I earned, but what He bought for me,
what He give to me by His grace.
And that is the way I want
to approach my life as well. Why should I worry about what I have no control
over. But there is one who is actively watching over my every move and my every
need, and He does have control over every situation. And that ought to put us at rest because we not only know He is
here, but we have seen His power in demonstration verifying Himself to be alive
and amongst us the same as He ever was. Yes, He has proved to us that He is the
same yesterday, today and forever. How many believe that God is the same today
that He was during the first Exodus with Moses and the Second Exodus beginning
with Jesus and moving on through Paul?
1st Exodus, [Exodus
10:13] [Exodus 14:21] [Psalm
78:1-all] [1 Kings 18:30 - 46]
2nd Exodus [Matt
8:23-27] [Luke 7:24] & [James 1:6] [Acts
2:2]
Then what about this 3rd
Exodus we are going through...I don’t know about you, but we have seen that
there have been very few times that these things have happened in the history
of mankind, and yet God has permitted this little group of his Kids to be
eyewitnesses of His majesty and power in a way that is millennial in it’s
manner of being. He gave us a little
taste of what the powers of the world to come are all about. Not only with what
we saw Sunday, but with what He has already shown to us through His prophet.
36 UNVEILING.OF.GOD JEFF.IN
V-9 N-1 64-0614M
There's several setting here, a number, that was with us the other
day when He came in a whirlwind, told us the day before, Brother Banks Wood,
them, when He said, "Take up this rock; throw it up in the air, and say,
'THUS SAITH THE LORD. You will see it right away.'" And I picked up the
rock up on top of the mountain, threw it up in the air, and the... 'Course,
coming down, it started a whirlwind (See?), the suction of it. You have to do something to cause something
to follow it. Jesus took a piece of bread and broke it, then multiplied from
that piece of bread. He took water, poured it into a pitcher. Elijah took salt,
put it in a cruse; cut down a stick, throwed it on the water. It's something to
symbolize. And picking up this rock and throwing it into the air, and coming
down started the whirlwind.
40
WORKS.IS.FAITH.EXPRESSED
SHREVEPORT.LA V-7 N-1 65-1126
So there was about twenty men
standing there. We was out javelina hog hunting. And I said... the day before
going up the mountain, I said to Brother Banks Wood... All of you know him, a
personal friend. I said, "Brother Wood,..." Picked up a rock and
threw it up in the air, and it came down. I said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD,
'Something's fixing to happen.'"
So he said, "What is it, Brother Branham?" I said, "I don't know, but within
twenty-four hours you'll see. Something's fixing to happen. It's a great
sign."
28 GO.AWAKE.JESUS SHREVEPORT.LA V-17 N-9 63-1130E
Now, turn in your Bibles, if
you care to, to the Book of St. Mark the 4th chapter. And--and my text tonight,
I'm going to call it, "Go Awake Jesus." And my subject tonight is,
"Calling Jesus On The Scene." Go wake Him, call Him on the scene.
Here's the Scripture reading out of St. Mark, 4th chapter, beginning with the
35th verse.
And the same day,
when the evening was come, he said unto them, Let us pass over unto the other
side. And when they had sent away the
multitude, they took hiim even as he was in the ship Wouldn't that make a
wonderful text, "Take Him as He is"? Take Him the way He's presented
to you (See?) take Him in the ship. And
there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and
the waves beat against the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship,
asleep on a pillow: and they wake him, and said unto him, Master, carest thou not
that we perish? And he arose, and
rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased,
and there was a great calm. And he said
unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to
another, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
him? And the Scripture says He is the
same. The winds and the waves obey Him.
121 SIGN.OF.THIS.TIME NY.NY
V-18 N-8 63-1113
Now, Jonah, when he took the wrong
ship, the first thing you know, he was going the wrong way and they got in
trouble. The winds begin to blow; the--the waves begin to roar, and everybody
thought the ship was going to sink. So Jonah was fast asleep, and they said,
"Rise, O sleeper, and call upon your God." And Jonah confessed that he was in the wrong. He said,
"Now, you bind my feet and my hands, and throw me overboard, and then the
storm will cease." And they did that. And God had a great fish prepared.
70 TESTIMONY SHREVEPORT.LA V-17 N-5 63-1128M
And standing there at that
time, I raised up, and I said, "Lord God, great Creator of nature, I
believe that that's You speaking. Not one time have You ever showed me anything
that was wrong, and not one time have You let me say anything but what come to
pass." I said, "Therefore, I
say to this storm that's a raging, 'Go to your places. Go back, leave this
alone. And I command that the sun will shine for the next four days, till these
men can get their trophies, and I can help them get them, and get out of these
mountains.'" And the Lord God, Who
is my solemn Judge this morning; that rain and things twisting, within a
moment's time there wasn't a bit of it. I looked, and there was a wind come
from the other way, across the top of the mountain, and lifted up those clouds
like that. Within just a matter of a few minutes, the sun was broke up, right
through the top, and shining right down, just as pretty as it could be.
E-113 AUDIO.LETTER.TO.LEE.VAYLE
TUCSON.AZ 64-0500
Lee, me standing there
looking, I couldn't see a thing but... And I knowed it ain't that wind making
a--a sound of a voice. The wind was blowing, woo, woo, woo [Brother Branham
illustrates--Ed.], like that. But it--it couldn't make them distinctions and
quote that Scripture, that wind couldn't. There had to be something there
saying that. I said, "Yes, my
Lord." And He said, "I'm the
same yesterday, today, and forever. Speak to the wind; it'll still obey My
voice. The storms will cease now as it did then." And I said, "Yes,
my Lord. I know that what You say."
You said, "I commissioned you to say. What you say, that's what'll
happen." Now that, Lee, you can imagine how I felt. Well, I--I raised my head up. And I said,
"Thank You, Lord God. I shall obey." I said, "Wind, storm, I
command you to cease. And let the sun shine, and let the sun shine continually
for four days till all these boys get their game and get out of the mountain. I
command that the sun rise normally, and shine normally for four days, and this
wind and storm cease at this time."
And Lee, it was like that somebody turned an umbrella over you. That
sleet, and hail, and--and rain, and snow falling like that, it just quit. It
ceased. And standing there, and I thought... And all at once, the wind was
coming from the west, which the--the radio (We had a radio down at camp, and in
our cars and things.), had said that which way it would come. And...
[Matt 14:22-33] When
Peter began to walk on the water, instead of fearing, he should have been
ecstatic and overjoyed. When Peter was focused on Christ, everything else just
seemed to not matter at all. We so often are limited by the things which we
fear. And fear we are told has a penalty. [1
John 4:18] And this word torment is a Greek word which means a penalty. And
what is the penalty of fear? It is the stopping of forward progress. We are
told also in the Scripture that when Joseph heard that Mary was expecting a
child, he feared that she had an illegitimate child in her, and so the Bible
tells us that ‘Joseph feared to take Mary to be his wife.” And so God sent
forth his angel in a dream to quell his fears. That is why it seems that every
time the Angel of the Lord came to man, He usually began by saying, “Fear
not, for I have come from the
presence of the Lord”. We also find in [2 Tim 1:7] That God doesn’t want us to be afraid.
In the book of Job we hear
him say these words, “The things I feared the most have come upon
me”, and this is not just a truism, but it’s a fact. Because after all,
our minds are but a garden of seeds that have we have sown. And whatever seed
we sow is what we shall reap according tot he law of reproduction as God set
forth in the Book of Genesis. If we sew positive seeds of Faith, we shall reap
what we have been sewing, and we shall reap the blessings that come by
believing. But if we sew negative seeds of doubt, then we shall also receive
what doubts we have been sewing.
Therefore if we are to doubt anything, we should doubt our doubts. For
Faith is the evidence of things which we do not see, touch, feel, smell or
hear. Faith is the evidence, therefore if Faith is the evidence, then it is the
conviction, and assurance of those things being there, although in our five
outer senses we can not detect it’s presence. And Faith is not only the
conviction, but it is the substance. Then if Faith is the Substance, then it is
real.
Look, let’s just examine [Hebrews 11:1] for a moment. Gods Word
tells us that Faith is not a substance, but THE Substance. And we know that
substance according to Webster, is “the real or essential part or element of
anything; the essence, reality or basic matter. The physical matter of which a thing exists.’ Therefore, if Faith is THE Substance, the
Faith must be made from the same essence that God is. Right? Now, this word for
Substance is a Greek word, Hupostasis and we find this word also uses by the
same author of the Book of Hebrews in the first chapter.
[Hebrews 1:3] Now, which word do you suppose in this verse is the
same word for substance used in chapter 11? It is the word Person. Which
describes the very essence of God. Therefore if Faith is THE substance or
essence of God, then Faith is no different that the Son of God because let’s
face it, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
was God and the Word became flesh.” And since we are also told by Scripture that “as a man thinketh in his heart,
so is he”. And Jesus added to that, “Out of the abundance or overflow
of the heart the mouth does speak, then a man and His Word are the
same. Therefore a man is the composite of what his thoughts are, and no more
and no less than what he thinks in his heart is what he is.
Therefore as we read in the
Book of James, if a man is double minded, if you are unstable in your thinking,
then you will be unstable in your doing. I believe this even goes to the point
that if we are stressed in our thinking, then we will be stressed in our
bodies. If we are uptight in our thinking, then we will be tight in our bodies.
And if we are bound in our thoughts, then we will be bound in our bodies. And
just like Joseph, when he feared to take Mary to be his wife, he stopped his
forward movement and God had to send an angel to quell that fear.
Therefore we should never
fear the trials that we are going through, because these trials are placed upon
us for a specific purpose, and that is for the purpose of testing us and
correcting us in our thinking, and for bringing forth in each of us the
Character traits that God has ordained for us. [1 Peter 1: 3-7]&
[1 Peter 4:12-13 ]
He tests us because he loves
us...[Hebrews 12:6-8] And these tests are to bring forth an
advancement in our character and our lives. Every test we take is for a
purpose. And the test is not to disprove the thing being tested, but tests are
designed to prove the thing. The Wuest
translation tells us in [1Peter 1:7]
That we are tested for the purpose of Approval. And when we pass the test,
there is always a reward. When we finish 1st grade we are tested, and when we
pass the test we are asked to come up higher. We don’t give a child in the
first grade a college entrance exam. We wait for them to pass through all the
stages of their education that prepares them for college before we give them
that test. Therefore, a test is designed with the purpose of showing what stage
you are in. And we have a promise that we will not be tested beyond that which
we have been prepared to pass. And when we have been tested we can expect to
receive the reward for passing. [James
1:12]
So therefore, if we are to
understand how it is that the Believer can be stablished in the Faith, and
stabilized even in times of difficulty, we must know one thing, he doesn’t gain
this characteristic on his own. God is the one who has to the power to stablish
us, and God never operates outside the realm of His Revealed Word. Therefore is we are to understand the purpose
of why Christ is Revealed in His Own Word, we should be able to see that it is
for a purpose, and that is to get us ready for the Millennium, where satan will
be bound for a thousand years, and what will be the force that binds him? [Rev
20:1-3] we are told that it is some sort of chain that binds him, right?
And what is that chain? Brother Branham told us it is a chain of circumstances,
because he can’t get to the believer any longer, because of our body change.
[Romans 5: 1-11]
[1Peter 5:10] Amplified And after you have suffered a little while,
the God of Grace - who imparts all blessings and favor - Who has called you to
His Own Eternal Glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what
you ought to be, and shall establish and ground you securely, and
strengthen and settle you.
[Romans 16:25] Dunamai power,
to make you stabilized or steadfast to make one firm in ones conviction,
[1 Thess 3:12-13, &
2 Thess 2:13-17, 3:3]
[1 Cor 1:4-10]
[1 Pet 1:13]
[James 5:8]
[James 1:8, 4:8] Double minded
purify your understanding you double minded.... A double minded man is
not stable...
[Col 2:5-7] Stabilized in the faith...
[2Cor 1:20-22]