Christ is the
Mystery no 174
Every
vision will be fulfilled
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a
son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Let us pray, ...
The book of Isaiah is perhaps the most complete
Book in the entire Bible, for it begins with the Book of Genesis and ends with
the New Heavens and New Earth. And as the Bible has 66 books, the Book of
Isaiah has 66 chapters.
It is considered by most scholars to be "The
Book of Salvation" because it encompasses the entire Bible and
contains hundreds of prophesies, of which some yet to come.
Isaiah himself, ministered as God's prophet from somewhere around 745 BC and died by being wedged between a tree
and sawn in two around 680 BC. He was God's Prophet to Israel throughout the
reigns of five Kings, where he witnessed King Uzziah’s death around 740 B.C. (Isaiah 6:1) Through the reign of Jotham (750-731 B.C.) then through the reign of Ahaz (735-715) then through the reign of Hezekiah (701 B.C.) and through some of the reign of Manasseh
who it is thought had him put to death around 680 B.C.
His name, "Isaiah"
means "the salvation of the Lord"
or "the Lord is salvation."
"The Book of Isaiah"
is considered the first of "the books of the prophets"
of the Bible, and the first of the major prophets.
Isaiah, was born
into an influential and upper class family who knew royalty well. Tradition
says he was a cousin to Uzziah, and a nephew of Amaziah the High priest. So he walked in the circle where
the common people could not walk, and he was the scribe who chronicled the life
of Uzziah, as we see in 2
Chronicles 26:22 which says, 22 Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write.
His mastery of language, and vast vocabulary,
showed He was educated, distinguished, and privileged, yet he remained deeply
spiritual and I imagine because he saw the rise and fall of Uzziah
and took it as a lesson from God to never get puffed up or to think of himself
more highly than he ought.
2
Chronicles 26:1 Then all the people of
We read in the book of Isaiah how the death
of King Uzziah affected this young prophet of God, and how it caused him to walk
carefully before the Lord all the days of his life.
Isaiah 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah
died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his
train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered
his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3 And
one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is
the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his
glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of
him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then
said I, Woe is me! for I
am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen
the King, the LORD of hosts.
6 Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he
had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7 And
he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath
touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away,
and thy sin purged. 8 Also I
heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
Then said I, Here am I; send me. 9 And he
said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye
indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this
people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and
convert, and be healed.11 Then said I, Lord, how
long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the
houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12 And the
LORD have removed men far away, and there be a
great forsaking in the midst of the land.
I would like to read what brother Branham said about isaiah in his Message...
Influence 63-0803E P:70 70 We find them like Uzziah, lose their hold on the Word, because they've
exchanged It for creeds, trying to make themself
like Uzziah of old, try to take the place of the
anointed office behind the platform, and reject the true Word of God.
They have no more business back there than Uzziah did
in that, by that altar with the incense. A man that claims to be a Christian
and will deny the facts of the Word, has no more
business in the pulpit than what Uzziah had with that
censer. A man that claimed to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and blessed
of God, and will stand up and deny that Bible and the Truth of It, has swapped
It for a creed or something, he's just as full of leprosy of sin and
unbelief as Uzziah was.
71 He was put
off from the office, but they try to fulfill that office by intellectual.
"I'm Doctor Ph.D., LL.D. So-and-so." See, they try to take that and assert
education for the anointing of the Holy Ghost. You see? Therefore, a man
can take that Bible, and some big institution can explain It and take It apart,
and lay It out here, and fix It up to make it look pretty good to you. That's
intellectual. That is because he studied and studied of these angles and
things, how to put It together. But let me tell you something. When God
comes down into His Word, He don't only put It together, He manifests It out
there and makes It alive, and vindicates It and proves It, that it is the Truth.
That's the truth of the Word. That's when God Himself says.
72 The vision
affected the prophet. Oh, the effects the vision had on him, it caused this
prophet...Now, you remember, he had been looking at a man. But when he saw
something real... He'd watched a man's holy life; he watched him fail; he
seen him take leprosy and die. You're looking at
the same thing in your denominations. You see where every one of them are gone?
Now, this great ecumenical move, if a church isn't in this ecumenical move in a
time of an emergency, that church cannot be used as a church. "And no
minister can minister to anybody; he'll be put to death by doing so. If he
ministers any blessing to the people outside, he's with the ecumenical
move." That's exactly in the writings today by the Lutheran; I forget his
name. See? That's right. "Your church cannot be worshipped in; it'll be
made a storeroom." See, the mark of the beast already coming in effect,
and we're looking at it. The time... Oh, it ought to put the church in
action. Certainly, it ought to. Watch the effects of the vision now,
what it did to the prophet. It caused him, after watching that man, and see it fail... He saw God angry with the man, and withdrawed from him, and smote him with leprosy.
73 Then he
went down to the temple to say, "Lord God, I know You're God. And
I've been looking at the wrong thing." And then God showed him a vision, and not only a vision, but
the vision was vindicated; because in their midst was the Seraphims
flying back and forth, and even their voice rocked the building when it come
together, the posts of it. And then (See?) he saw something real. And,
yet, he was a prophet. He was a, The prophet's who the
Word comes to. But he had never went out into a sphere no more than what he'd
been looking at, his hero, Uzziah, looking at the
pastor, the big fellow. And when he seen the failure there of the Word, and
seen the Word rebuke the man because he was usurping an office that he had no
business to be, then what happened? He looked up, and he saw the Lord.
74 Can you read
between the line? Can you see what I'm saying now? The
Lord Jesus that promised, "As it was in the days of
Then what happened? When the prophet got ready to confess, then come the
real cleansing. Until the people gets ready to confess,
there's no need of having these healing services. If you will confess your
sins, confess your unbelief, confess the things that you're doing wrong, then God can do something. But until there is a confession,
there can be no cleansing.
75 And as soon
as Isaiah said, "Woe
is me! I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell with people of unclean lips." Then come
the confession that, then come the Cherubim with the fire. Did you notice? God
never used a seminary to cleanse him with. He never used a book of laws to
clean him with. He cleansed him by fire. God always
cleanses His servants, when He's ready to put them in duty by the Holy Ghost
and fire. God cleanses by fire; not by books, not by education, not by
intellectual conception, not by denomination, but by the fire of the Holy
Spirit, God cleanses His servant.
And if I may, let
me add, God does not give you the Holy Ghost by listening to some ministers
tapes. Listening to tapes is not an experience of God. Listening to tapes might
help your understanding, but it is not an experience of God. God gives you the
Holy Ghost by the same genuine fire filled, soul aflame
experience that took place at Pentecost.
76 Then
notice, then, after the confession, after the cleansing, then
come the commission. Then was the commission.
After confessed and cleansed, it was then that the clean Isaiah answered God,
and said, "Here am
I, send me." After
he was cleansed, confessed, cleansed by the fire, then that clean Isaiah was
ready for work. He was ready to be an example. He was ready to have to put
his life out, that others could be influenced by him. But until he had
confessed it, until he was cleansed, then he was a very poor influence,
just as a puppet for the king.
77 Now, he's
cleansed, now he's confessed and cleansed, and called and commissioned to be a
prophet. And God let him write the entire Bible in sixty-six Books of the
Bible, there's sixty-six chapters of Isaiah. He
starts out in Genesis; the middle of the Book comes John the Baptist; and goes
plumb over into the millennium reign in Isaiah 65 and 66 (That's right.), the
Revelations. He wrote the entire outline of the Bible. Why? Because he
humbled himself when he saw the Presence of God. What did he do? And his,
after he did that, and humbled himself and was cleansed and set aside, and
cleansed and commissioned, he's influenced millions of people. Here is his
Book; here's Isaiah's Writing that's influenced men from that time down to
this. His influence goes on. The Bible said, "Their works do follow them." As the Holy Spirit told John, on
the Revelation, or on the Isle of
78 And now, today,
we find the same thing: influences. We've got to influence. Before we can
influence, we've got to recognize God, we've got to be clean, we got to be humble. We got to get ourself down,
and know, just keep imagining and knowing how little you are. You're
nothing. I'm nothing. And none of us is nothing, but
He's all. He's worthy of all praise, O Lamb of God. What we need is to
go back to the temple; we need to go back to the altar of God and to make a
altar in our own heart, where that we can surrender ourselves, and then
see the Lord God of hosts come down in this last days and do what He did when
He was here first. Then you'll understand it and cry, "Woe is me!"
79 When the coal of
Fire had touched the prophet, Making him as pure as
pure could be, When the voice of God said, "Who will go for us?" Then he answered, "Master, here, send me." Is that right? Let's sing it. Speak,
my Lord, speak, my Lord, Speak, and I'll be quick to answer me; Speak, my Lord,
speak, my Lord, Speak, and I will answer, "Lord, send me." Listen,
friends. Millions now in sin and shame are dying; Listen to their sad and
bitter cry; Hasten, brother, hasten to their rescue; Quickly
answer, "Master,
here am I." Now, speak,
my Lord, speak, my Lord, Speak, and I'll be quick to answer Thee; Speak, my
Lord, speak, my Lord, Speak, and I will answer, "Lord, send me."
Thus Isaiah was obedient to God over his 75 years of
ministry as God's prophet to Judah, and although many of his prophecies came to
pass during his lifetime, yet many more of them came to pass hundred hundreds
of years after his passing, and many are still to come as we see in Isaiah
Chapter 2 and Isaiah Chapters 24 which speaks of this end time where nations
and kings are building themselves places to hide deep in the earth thinking
they will be safe, but those holes in the earth will seal them in like a grave.
And we are seeing these prophecies and knowing we are in the midst of their fulfillment
makes me so excited, as I have explained in my end time scenarios study.
Now, this brings us to our text for today because like
Isaiah, William Branham had many, if not thousands of visions, and many
prophecies, and like Isaiah not all of them came to pass during his life. But
if we believe that the prophecies of Isaiah which have not yet come to pass
will, because we look at the track record, and see those which have already
come to pass, then why do people treat the yet unfulfilled visions of William
Branham with so much disrespect?
I think our answer is what we see in history, that man
doesn't change, and so even though many of the prophecies of Isaiah came to
pass throughout the years he lived, many did not and so the leaders thought to
themselves, this man is a fake, because not all he said has come to pass, and
so they killed him just like they do with the character assassination of
Brother Branham today calling him a liar and a fake. But they will answer to God
for their blasphemous speech.
You know, people that are immature in their Christian
walk have such a wrong idea of what it is like to be a prophet or even a
pastor. They don't realize that any time God calls a man to a ministry, Satan
also calls many more men to oppose that man of God. God raises
up one to reflect him, and Satan raises up an army to reflect him.
Did not Jesus say in Matthew23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like
unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all
uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly
appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29 Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of
the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the
righteous, 30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not
have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses
unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 32 Fill ye up then the
measure of your fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, (generation means lineage, so he is saying fill ye up the
measure of your fathers you lineage of serpents. because every seed must bring forth after it's kind.) how can ye escape the damnation of
hell?
Now, look. If a man is after the lineage of the serpent,
then the works the serpent did he shall also do. And if a
man is after the linage of God, then the works that
He did they will do also, because that's John 14:12.
Then how can a
serpent seed escape the damnations of hell? And did you know that you are not
judged by your doctrine or creeds, you are judged by your works. An if you are judged by your works, then what if you say, "I don't need works, we had one who did them for me, and
I'm riding on that."
Now, I know the scoffers who come to my website to find something to
pick at will run with what I've just said, and I should just move on here and
let them have a field day with it, but for you who trust this ministry, let me
read what a vindicated prophet fo God said about
that, so you know where I am coming from when I say you will not be judged by
your doctrine but by your works.
Brother Branham, God's vindicated prophet said in his Message, "To whom would we go 60-0606 P:17"
"Now, many people say that, "I will go to heaven because my faith tells me so. I belong
to church, and my faith tells me that I'm all right." Now, I believe in the grace of God too. But look, no
matter what your faith is, you're not going to be judged by your faith;
you're going to be judged by your works. And when you die, death
does not change your spirit; it only changes your dwelling place. It only
changes houses for you. And if you die in your sins, you go to a worse
habitation than what you're living in now. But if you die in Christ, you shall
be with Christ for He is the Way.
Jesus Himself said in Matthew
And we are told in the book of James
Now, look how Jesus
prophecies here. He says, 34 Wherefore, behold, I will send
unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall
kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in
your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
Well, we know what they did to the prophet of this
hour. They talked behind his back, and preached against him in their pulpits,
and they are doing the same thing today. Jesus Christ has been put out of the
churches and they have taken a doctrine or creed or something instead of the
Word of Life.
And what about the wise men? Who are the wise men? They were men who could see
what others could not. Like the wise virgins, who were wise to keep their lamps
trimmed all the time, and keep the oil, the Holy Ghost in her vessel. And of the wise men brother Branham said, ...
God's
gifts always find place 63-1222 P:49 No wonder they were called wise men. They were wise. They really had
wisdom. If men today would just be that wise, just as wise.
It takes a wise man to come to Christ. A man that turns away from Him is a unwise man. But it takes a wise man to come to Christ.
And never forget, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom, as
the Bible says in
Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools
despise wisdom and instruction.
In fact brother
Branham said in his Message God hiding Himself in simplicity 63-0412E P:66 "Fools
will walk with hobnailed shoes where angels fear to trod." A man will
see the works of God going on, and know that it's the works of God, and stand
and call it the works of the devil. Jesus said that's blasphemy.
Proverbs
Psalms 111:10
The fear of the LORD is the
beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his
commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
Man that
can turn on light 63-1229M P:46 Now, we find that the wise men, the wise men of old followed the
God-given substance; they followed the Word of God to the Light, because it was
the Word that brought Life. Now, you say, "How did they follow?" ... And when these wise men saw that the Word of God
said a star would rise out of Jacob, they followed that little God-given token
to the source of eternal Light. So will wise men today who
is not blinded by creeds, will follow the God-given spoken Word till they see
the fullness of the power of God blooming forth in this hour. See? They see
it, and they know that's it's here in the Scripture.
God promised it for this day.
Everlasting
Life 54-1231 P:8 Sometime
ago, as a young minister, when my first revival come, I had it over here on the
corner, where this housing project in a tent. I was baptizing a group down at
the river that Sunday afternoon, when the Angel of the Lord made His first
appearance in public in a vindication of the Message that I was to speak. And It was a Light came down from heaven and stood there. People
are perhaps in the tabernacle tonight, who stood and seen that Light. And I
started forth, telling it, and so forth. And all you know how the story goes,
and on and on. And people sometime would walk away, and say, "That's just
imagination." They'd leave a meeting where people would see It, and walk away, say, "I saw It." Others say,
"Well, I didn't see It." Now, of course, God
lets see who He wants to see. When the wise men followed the stars, there's
not one speck of history, or any observatory, or anything... And they even
kept time by the stars. But no one seen that star
but the wise men. See? That's right. 'Cause they were
looking for it. And they were expecting to see it, and it guided
them to the Christ. And yet, it passed over every observatory, and as the
people looked at the skies to tell the times, and so forth. But nobody seen
it going but the wise men, for it was intended for them to see it. If
God intends for you to see something, you'll see it. Elijah standing at
Dothan that time, and he looked around. And the
servant looked out, and said, "Oh, look at..." The Assyrians were
encamped about his...Elijah said, "Why, there's more with us than there is
with them." He looked around; he couldn't see nothing
but Elijah standing there. He said... He... "God," said, "open
this young man's eyes, Lord." And when, with the same eyes, only visual
eyes, that, when he opened his eyes, around that prophet stood chariots of fire
and horses of fire. And, see, It was... It's
somewhere. And we know that His Presence is with His believing children.
I was speaking; I said... In the room set my wife, and
we was talking about that same Light, where It come and had Its picture taken.
And just referring back tonight to that phenomenal, I believe at least one or
two people, three people, I guess, there was, in the building now, which is
David back there, Brother Wood, and Sister Wood was at Houston, Texas, when the
picture, when God permitted it to be taken. Now, if you stood tonight, and
looked at that Angel, circling... There's many of you in here, perhaps, has
never seen It. But see that Light, a Pillar of Fire
that led the children of
God's way
made for us 52-0900 P:65 And the same God that led the wise men to Christ, by the Star, is
here tonight in the form of the Holy Ghost to lead you to the Christ, the new
birth, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is God's provided way.
"Except a man be born of water and Spirit, he won't even see the
Shalom
64-0119 P:16 Well,
now, we realize that God always shows things in the heaven before He shows them
on the earth. Like the wise men followed the star, and so
forth. A heavenly sign takes place, first, then
the earthly vindicates the heavenly sign. God deals, works in signs, signs
and wonders. They are to follow believers everywhere.
Hebrews
Chapter 1 57-0821 P:17 Now, is it possible that someone could see Christ in this building
and no one else see Him? Sure. It happened there. It happened
also one night when Peter was in prison. And that Light came into the prison,
and touched Peter, and walked right by the inner guards, the outer guards,
walked by the gate, the main gate, and the city gate. Peter said, "I
must've been dreaming." But he looked around, but the
Light was gone; Christ, that eternal, everlasting Light. There He is.
See? Now, on the road down... And look, another thing that we would speak of
this, just come in my mind. But the wise men that followed the star, all the
way from
And he's just not
getting it because it is not meant for him to get, that's all. if you are ordained to see this light, then all of Satan's
minions can't keep you from it. And if
you are not ordained to see it, then it don't even take one of Satan's minions
to blind your eyes, it just takes your own unbelief. That's all there is too
it.
Believers are called
believers because believers believe, Make believers make
believe, and unbelievers do not believe at all. And a make believer is
an unbeliever who is just play acting that he is a believer when he is not.
Great
coming revival 54-0718A P:30 Did you read what Isaiah said, "But in that day," he said, "them that escape out of
Now, here is where I want to get to this morning.
Brother Branham said in his message Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed, paragraph 299 "Then here He
is in here this morning with us as we worship Him in the Spirit. Oh, since a
hard Message like this, I think we just ought to worship Him a little bit
in the Spirit. See? Just close your eyes and let's sing that to Him again,
"I love Him, I love Him." Just as... You raise your hands like to
Him. I love Him, I love Him Because He first loved me,
And purchased my salvation On
300 Amen. Glory to
God. How we love Him. Just worship Him in your heart now. Just adore
Him. Just think how beautiful He's done. Look what He's done for us. All
these years of the visions, not one has ever failed. Everything that
He said would come to pass, come just exactly the way He
said it. I love you. Don't forget the commandments of God to you:
little children, love one another. Love everybody right or wrong, sinner or
saint; love them anyhow. If you don't, then pray God to help you, 'cause
God loved the sinner. And the nature of God is in...
Notice, not one of the vision had failed, and neither will those visions that have
not come to pass yet like the bear and the tent and the inner room and
As I have said many times before, Brother Branham will
get his Brown bear even if it has to be in the resurrection. And what is so odd
about that? Jesus caught fish and placed bread and fish upon the fire after His
resurrection. After the Millennium, He's coming to earth on a white horse. And
what of
God said to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared
to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty
God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. 2 And I will make my covenant
between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. 3 And Abram
fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, 4 As
for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and
thou shalt be a father of many nations. 5 Neither
shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a
father of many nations have I made thee. 6 And I will make thee
exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 7 And
I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in
their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee.
Genesis 18:9 And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. 10 And
he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the
time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was
behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were
old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 Therefore
Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have
pleasure, my lord being old also? 13 And the LORD said unto
Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child,
which am old? 14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD?
At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time
of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Notice at the time appointed i
will bring upon you a change of the body to return you to the time of life. How
much more plain can that get? And is anything too hard for the Lord? Ye have not because ye ask not, ask
abundantly that your joy might be filled. James 4:2