Christ is the Mystery no. 1

“Being led of the Spirit”

May 23rd, 2012

Brian Kocourek

 

Luke 4:1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

 

Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

 

This evening we will be beginning a new series, this one from brother Branham’s sermon, “Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed” which brother Branham preached July 28, 1963. I have been praying for some time to get the will of the Lord for our next sermon to study from, and our Lord has kept opening up things to me that brother Branham said from this sermon. So, so many quotes have come my way from this sermon, that it seems to me that we should stop what we are doing and look at this sermon brother Branham preached after the opening of the Seals.

 

So to begin tonight, let’s begin reading from br. Branham’s opening statement from his sermon, Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed 63-0728 P:1 Thank you, brother. God bless you. Just remain standing a moment while we bow our heads for prayer.

  2   Gracious heavenly Father, we are approaching Thee again this morning for mercy and for guidance of the Holy Spirit today, as it's dawned upon us that we should meet together this morning, and to teach Thy Word, and that we might know how to live in this present day, and what is the time of day that we're living. We'd ask Thy holy guidance to our thoughts, our hearts today, that You would direct us to every word that is necessary for us to know; that You'd open our mouths freely and our hearts also to receive that which You would speak to us, and would close our mouths to the things that are not right, knowing that only You can reveal the Word of God. And now, as I have to leave the little church right away now for the other parts of the world, I'm committing them to Thee, Lord, which they are part, the apple of my heart, as to say. They are the ones that's been begotten to You by the Spirit and by the Word of truth. I pray that You'll bless them, Lord, and keep them closely knitted together by the bonds of the love of Christ.
 

Now, as we view what brother Branham is beginning to say in his prayer to God we see that he is calling upon God for mercy and guidance. Now, I think in these last days, this ought to be the first thing we pray for on a daily basis as we get up each morning and as we fold our hands in prayer before we retire for the evening.

 

We can never have enough mercy and guidance from God. The entire 73 sermon series on “The Doctrine of Christ” and most of the series on “The Spoken Word is the original Seed” deal with this theme of dying to self that we might be led by God without our own

will interjecting it’s desire above God’s desires for our Life. 

 

I am thoroughly convinced that the bride of Christ is too head-strong in these days and if ever there were a time for us to humble ourselves and go to our knees and bow our heads before God it is now. I think the bride is too distracted by their daily routines, their busy work schedules and the cares of this world has become their focus instead of Christ. Instead of moving closer to Christ the church in this hour is moving further and further away because their focus is not solely on Him, but she is being distracted by the cares of this Life. And the Word which she has is being choked off by the cares of this life.

 

Proverbs 16: 9 tells us "A mans heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth His footsteps" and therefore our labor and toil and everything else is in the hands of God. That is why brother Branham is praying here in his opening prayer for God to guide us.

 

Now, we are told in Romans  8:30 That all things shall work together for good if we love God and are the called according to His purpose. But this does not take away the curse that man has been placed under since the Garden of Eden where man must work by the sweat of his brow in order to make a living for himself. Adam didn’t have to do that. Adam was given a Garden that furnished for him everything he had need of. But the result of the curse is a life of toil and heart-ache. Now, when we lose our focus what light we have goes dark.

 

And in John 8: 34 Jesus said, "he that committeth sin is the servant of sin." We find also in 2 Peter 2: 19 that tells us,  “for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage”. Therefore no matter what that influence may be, (money, women, popularity) whenever we are overcome by that influence we are brought into bondage to that influence. So who is leading you tonight,  God or Man?

 

The Devil lays a snare or trap for everyone in this world, and if you are not careful you can fall into his trap. That snare or trap can easily be in the guise of the economy. He knows that people have to make a living. He’s known this since the curse was placed upon man for his disobedience in the garden. In fact he was responsible for that curse being placed upon man. And so we see that he took advantage of that situation and has manipulated man into a wrong focus ever since.


In Genesis 3: 17-19  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18  Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;  19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

 

Here we are told a man must labor in order to live. This is where Satan made his decision to use the curse which God himself placed upon man against man in order to bring him under his influence. Hitler did the same thing. He promised the people a better living, two cars in the garage and two chickens in every pot, and when he had the people under his influence, he began his persecution of the Jews and the people just turned their heads and didn't become involved because after all, look what he did for them.

 

And so we see the influence that Satan has upon people. He’s blinded them by material prosperity. In Revelations 3: 14-17 we see that the predominant spirit of this age is that man is so consumed with his material possessions that he is blind to his spiritual condition.

 

Revelations 3: 14-17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.


In Luke 21: 34-35 we hear Jesus tell us, 34  And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. 35  For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

 

Now, this speaks of the effect that the cares of this life can have on us and become like a snare in which it will completely entrap the entire world, and thus people are so focused on the cares of this life that they will fail to stand in the presence of the Son of Man when He comes. Therefore we can see that Satan uses the economy and life style as a trap to not only catch you off guard, but to get you focused on the wrong thing. That is how he got Eve to leave the word, by getting her to focus on the wrong thing. And this then, because it is of his design, brings you under his influence. And once under his influence he can then step by step lead you under his control. He did it to Eve, he got her to step out from the protection of the Word and once he did, he implanted his own life in her and brought for his own son through her. And so we have seen how this influence of the cares of this life begins to turn us from a Christ Centered focus and brings us to the place of coming under a wrong influence all because of our anxiety concerning the things which MIGHT happen concerning the cares of this life.

 

Let’s go to Romans 8 to see how the two pulls work within us, the pull of the flesh which I will call the pull of self. And the pull of The Spirit is God’s Spirit working in us to will and to do..

 

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

 

Now the key here is those who are IN Christ.

 

Resurrection of Lazarus 53-1122 P:18 There's no condemnation to them which are... has joined church? No condemnation to them which has shook hands? No condemnation to them which has been baptized? Huh-uh. "No condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." How do you get into it? By one Spirit we're all baptized into one body. Is that right?

 

So we are looking at only those who are the true born again ones. They are the only ones who do not come into condemnation.

 

2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Now, look. He is talking about the law of Life here, and that life you manifest depends all upon the law of life and what seed you are after. That’s Genesis 1:11 every seed AFTER it’s kind. So it all depends on what seed gives you life. And Paul says here that the Law of Life in Christ Jesus makes you free from the other law of life where you were born in sin come forth to the world speaking lies. So we see two seeds here, the Seed by flesh and the Spoken Word which is the original seed which is the Very life that was in Christ coming into you. 

 

Now, as long as we look at this word flesh here it will be easy for us to lay that on someone else. So we are going to make a change here in how we read this. We are going to change the word flesh to self, so that when you read this concerning the flesh you will read it concerning self.

 

3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, my flesh, my self, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:  4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, (self) but after the Spirit.

 

Now, I would like to read this from a new transliteration called THE MESSAGE Romans 8:5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored.   9-11But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!   12-14So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!  15-17This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children.

 

Now, back to the KJV 8:5  For they that are after self  do mind the things of self; but they that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit. 6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7  Because the carnal mind (Your own mind in your own Self) is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  8  So then they that are in self cannot please God. 9  But ye are not in self, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.  12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to self, to live after self. 13  For if ye live after self, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify (kill off) the deeds of self, ye shall live. 14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16  The Spirit (God’s Spirit) itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

 

Position in Christ 60-0522M P:83 83   For ye haven't received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of "adoption". Now, after you're adopted, all right, after you're adopted, you're placed; then you understand, after the ceremony's said and you've been put into the Body correctly. You're a son, sure, a daughter; when you're born again you're... That's your birth. But now you're positionally placed. We've not received the spirit of fear...; but we have received the Spirit--we have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (Which means, "my God." All right.)The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we're children of God: How does it do it? You say, "Glory to God. Hallelujah. It don't bother me; I'm a child of God," and go out and do the things you do? The Spirit of God will do the works of God. Jesus said, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also." See, see?

 

Now, in getting back to our thoughts from Brother Branham’s sermon Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed, he said in pp. 2   Gracious heavenly Father, we are approaching Thee again this morning for mercy and for guidance of the Holy Spirit today, as it's dawned upon us that we should meet together this morning, and to teach Thy Word, and that we might know how to live in this present day, and what is the time of day that we're living. We'd ask Thy holy guidance to our thoughts, our hearts today, that You would direct us to every word that is necessary for us to know;

 

Oh, to have such guidance by God to guide our hearts and our very thoughts until all our thoughts are of God.

 

Now, I believe that is the desire of all of our hearts tonight, and that is what Paul is speaking of here in Romans 8 that “If the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, it will quicken which means to make alive your mortal body to Christ and His Word. 

 

The whole Christian world tonight has lost its focus on Christ in you the hope of Glory, because just as it was in the garden, the devil has gotten you to focus on the circumstances around you instead of on the day and hour of God’s  visitation to us.

 

So what is your focus tonight? Most people are talking about the next depression, The focus of the nation and the world in on the economy. This nations broke, the world is broke, every one has spent, spent, spent, as he said of Laodicea, they are rich and increased with gods but spiritually they are broke, completely missing the Lord Who has come down from heaven with a shout. And so we see the condition of the church is looking at the "what if’s", and they are missing their deliverance from those things. They are focused on the very trap and delusion instead of the way out of it. Sometimes, Satan will make those cares of life more real to you than the promises of God will appear to be.

 

Yet Jesus commanded us to "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and ALL the things you have need of will be added unto you." Now instead of looking at the trap, we should be looking for a way to avoid the trap. And so we found that by having a wrong focus to begin will lead us only further into a wrong direction. By having a wrong focus we find ourselves becoming anxious over things which we should not be. And when we focus all of our energies on these future worries, we find ourselves getting caught up into finding our own way out of their dilemma. At this point we enter into COMPULSION which is irrational behavior, we then become obsessed by them and this becomes possession. Devil possession. Remember, 1 Peter 2: 19 we read already that "whatsoever we are overcome by we also become in bondage to as well."


89-1 EPHESIAN CHURCH AGE - CHURCH AGE BOOK CPT 3 That cycle of revival and death has never failed. All you have to do is recall this last move of God in the Spirit when men and women dressed like Christians, went to church, prayed all night, took to street corners and weren't ashamed of the manifestations of the Spirit. They left their old dead churches and worshipped in homes or old store buildings. They had reality. But it wasn't too long a time until they began to get enough money to build fine new churches. They put in a choir instead of singing unto God for themselves. They put gowns on the choir. They organized a movement and ran it by man. They soon began to read books that weren't fit to read. They let down the bars and goats came in and took over. The cry of joy was gone. The freedom of the Spirit was gone. Oh, they kept on with a form; but the fire had died down and the blackness of ashes is about all that is left. 89-2 A few moments ago I mentioned that John understood what it was to love God. That great apostle of love would certainly see it when the church began to lose that first love of God. In I John 5:3, he says, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments (His Word)." One little deviation from that Word was a step away from Christ. People say they love God, they go to church, they even shout and rejoice and sing and have a great emotional time. But when it is all over, watch and see if they are in that WORD, walking in it, living in it. If they go through all the other and then don't walk in that Word, they can say they love God but their lives tell another story. I wonder if John didn't see a lot of that before he died; people saying they loved God but not obeying His Word. Oh, Ephesian Church, something is happening to you. Someone is trying to either add to that Word or take from it. But they are doing it so subtly that you can't see it. They haven't made a move so big you can see it out there in the open. It is under cover, and they are bringing it by way of reason and human understanding and it will take over unless you refuse it. Go back to Pentecost before it is too late. 89-3 But as usual people don't heed God's warning. That revival fire built upon the sacred Word is so wonderful, and the manifestation of the Spirit so blessed, that a little fear creeps in and a whisper in the heart says, "How can we protect this truth we have? What can we do to see this revival goes on?” That is when the "antichrist spirit" comes in and whispers, "Look, you have the truth now, see that it doesn't get lost. Organize and set up your creed of what you believe. Put it all in a church manual.” And they do it. They organize. They add to the Word. And they die just like Eve did for taking One wrong word. It's God's Word that brings life. And it's not what we say about the Word that counts, but it's what God said. Now, back to our parable…14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. 15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight (or Presence) of God. Don't ever forget those words church. for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight (or Presence) of God.

 

UNFAILING REALITIES OF GOD 60-0626173 And if people want to act like they do on the earth, and then go on and say they're going to heaven, but what a disappointment that's going to be. Jesus said, "There'll be many come to Me in that day. They'll stand by the tens of millions and say, 'I've belonged to this, and I've did this.'" He said, "Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. You served creeds." If you was led of the Spirit... All sons and daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God. They move by the Spirit, odd, strange. They stay right, and every action is with the Bible. They stay, all their doctrine stays right with the Bible. They won't vary on one thing. Where the Bible says it, they'll move right on into it. If they stop for a minute, they're trying to study and see which way to make; and then the Holy Spirit reveals it, and he moves right on. And he does the same thing, follows the same rules, lays the same foundation, the same God comes upon him, and the same wonders, the same miracles, the same sign follows him, that followed Him. 175 He said, "If you can't believe Me, being a Man, believe the works that I do. Believe Me. If I do not the works of My Father, then don't believe Me." See, there's works goes with this faith. "Show me your works by your--without your faith, and I'll show you my works by my faith," said Paul. See?

 

Led by the spirit 50-0715 P:4 And now, one of the most wonderful things of God and the Christian, the connection of the fellowship between God and Christians, is that they that are sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. But the greatest thing I've found in Christian life is letting the Holy Spirit lead you and guide you. And His work is marvelous. How many in here's ever been led by the Spirit, let's see your hands. Oh, my, that's wonderful. Led by the Spirit of God...There's no one would lead you to the altar but the Spirit of God. There's no one would bring you here tonight 'less it was the Spirit of God. Is that right? He moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.