Christ is the Mystery no. 22

When the heart shall turn to the Lord

August 25, 2012

Brian Kocourek

 

2 Corinthians  3:15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. 16  Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 4:1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

 

Now, I would like to take two thoughts this evening to speak from this Scripture.

 

Number 1 Paul said, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So we need to know just what this liberty is that Paul is speaking of here.

 

Now, the word Liberty means: The condition of being free from restriction or control. b. The right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one's own choosing. c. The condition of being physically and legally free from confinement, servitude, or forced labor.

 

Now, when Paul tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty, he’s jacking his jaws here. He is saying what he means and he means what he said. So we are looking at an attribute of the Invisible God that is very contrary to organized religion. Organized religion, and more specifically denominational attitude wants to dominate. It is a restrictive spirit that wishes to control. But not so with God. He gives men a free moral agency to do whatsoever they wish to do. But as brother Branham said “I can do whatever I want to do, but all I want to do is to please Him”.

 

And that is the key right there. What is our motive and objective? Is it to please Him or is it to do to get by.

 

Martin Luther said in His Preface to the Book of Romans, "If the law were for the body, it could be satisfied with works; but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it, unless all that you do is done from the bottom of your heart. But such a heart is given only by God's Spirit, who makes a man equal to the law, so that he acquires a desire for the law in his heart, and henceforth does nothing out of fear and compulsion, but everything out of a willing heart."


In 1 JOHN 4: 18 "There is no fear in Love. But perfect love drives out fear. Because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect and complete in Love."

So God places something within us to bring us to the place of perfection and lacking fear.

In Ezekiel we see why God says, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. It is in order for us to be able to from our heart fulfill His Word and His Law.

Martin Luther also said in His Preface to the Book of Romans, “God judges according to what is at the bottom of the heart, and for this reason, His law makes its demands on the inmost heart and cannot be satisfied with works, but rather punishes works that are done otherwise than from the bottom of the heart, as hypocrisy and lies. No one in his works is a doer of the law, for even though you might keep the law outwardly, with works, from fear of punishment or love or reward, nevertheless, you do all this without willingness and pleasure, and without love for the law, but rather with unwillingness, under compulsion: and you would rather do otherwise, if the law were not there. The conclusion is that at the bottom of your heart you hate the law. What matter, then, that you teach others not to steal, if you are a thief at heart, and would gladly be one outwardly, if you dared? For this reason he Paul says in Romans 7 that the law is spiritual, For if the law were for the body, it could be satisfied with works; but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it, unless all that you do is done from the bottom of your heart. But such a heart is given only by God's Spirit, so that he acquires a desire for the law in his heart, and henceforth does nothing out of fear and compulsion, but everything out of a willing heart. Where that spirit is not in the heart, there sin remains, and displeasure with the law, and enmity toward it; though the law is good and just and holy.”


That is why we can have a vindicated prophet of God, William Marriam Branham who said in his message GODHEAD EXPLAINED 61-0425B 15-1 He said, “I would rather be wrong in my doctrine and right in my heart, than to be right in my doctrine and wrong in my heart." … “After all, it's your heart's condition."

 

And from his sermon, Getting in the spirit 61-0428 P:47 And you Pentecostal people, you're doing the same thing, trying to pick Him up by organization. You'll never do it, separating yourself from other brothers. You've got to come back, and we got to be one. I don't care if the man's wrong. If he's wrong and sincere in his heart and you're right in your belief and you're wrong in acting the way you're acting. I'd rather be in his place than be in yours. That's right. I'd rather be wrong in my doctrine and right in my heart. God will respect it more. So if a man is wrong, what of it? Help him. He needs help. Love him. If you can't love your enemy the same as you love those who love you, you're no better off than the publicans. That's right. That's what the Church has failed to get. I hope you get it tonight. I hope you see what I'm talking about.

 

So you see brother Branham is telling us that the condition of the heart is what God is looking at, not how well you know your ABC’s of this Message, but what is the condition of your heart.


Br. Branham also said in his sermon, United under one head 58-0326 P:19 And we'll find out every time that God is right. He thinks with his head, but he believes in his heart. Now, the Devil thinks through his mind to show him something with his eye. But his heart will make him believe something that would be impossible to look at, because it's the faith that he has in his heart. He believes with his heart for things that he can't see. And the Devil turns around and takes his head and makes him scientifically prove something. And his heart turns around and denies it. Oh, if we could get away from our head knowledge and head religion, to heart religion where God could go to work in the Church... Out of our head into our heart... A man believes in his heart. He thinks with his head, believes in his heart. Now, the mind reasons things. The heart doesn't reason at all. It just believes what God says. But you see, today we're so scientific, oh, we Americans anyhow. We are so scientific; it has to be all proved out to us.

 

So here brother Branham is making a very important distinction between real faith :s just a head knowledge so-called belief.

 

I received an article the other day from Br. Hoffman where the article was from a health journal, and it had to deal with the heart, and new discoveries that science has made concerning the role of the heart in our abilities to think.

 

Many believe that conscious awareness originates in the brain alone. Recent scientific research suggests that consciousness actually emerges from the brain and body acting together. A growing body of evidence suggests that the heart plays a particularly significant role in this process.

 

Far more than a simple pump, as was once believed, the heart is now recognized by scientists as a highly complex system with its own functional brain.”

 

Research in the new discipline of  neurocardiology” shows that the heart is a sensory organ and a sophisticated center for receiving and processing information. The nervous system within the heart (or “heart brain”) enables it to learn, remember, and make functional decisions independent of the brain’s cerebral cortex. Moreover, numerous experiments have demonstrated that the signals the heart continuously sends to the brain influence the function of higher brain centers involved in perception, cognition, and emotional processing.

 

In addition to the extensive neural communication network linking the heart with the brain and body, the heart also communicates information to the brain and throughout the body via electromagnetic field interactions. The heart generates the body’s most powerful and most extensive rhythmic electromagnetic field.Compared to the electromagnetic field produced by the brain, the electrical component of the heart’s field is about 60 times greater in amplitude, and permeates every cell in the body. The magnetic component is approximately 5,000 times stronger than the brain’s magnetic field and can be detected several feet away from the body with sensitive magnetometers.

 

The heart generates a continuous series of electromagnetic pulses in which the time interval between each beat varies in a dynamic and complex manner. The heart’s ever-present rhythmic field has a powerful influence on processes throughout the body. We have demonstrated, for example, that brain rhythms naturally synchronize to the heart’s rhythmic activity, and also that during sustained feelings of love or appreciation, the blood pressure and respiratory rhythms, among other oscillatory systems, entrain to the heart’s rhythm. (In other words, the entire body is dependent on the heart for guidance and direction.)

 

We propose that the heart’s field acts as a carrier wave for information that provides a global synchronizing signal for the entire body. Specifically, we suggest that as pulsing waves of energy radiate out from the heart, they interact with organs and other structures. The waves encode or record the features and dynamic activity of these structures in patterns of energy waveforms that are distributed throughout the body. In this way, the encoded information acts to in-form (literally, give shape to) the activity of all bodily functions—to coordinate and synchronize processes in the body as a whole. This perspective requires an energetic concept of information, in which patterns of organization are enfolded into waves of energy of system activity distributed throughout the system as a whole.

 

Basic research at the Institute of HeartMath shows that information pertaining to a person’s emotional state is also communicated throughout the body via the heart’s electromagnetic field. The rhythmic beating patterns of the heart change significantly as we experience different emotions. Negative emotions, such as anger or frustration, are associated with an erratic, disordered, incoherent pattern in the heart’s rhythms. In contrast, positive emotions, such as love or appreciation, are associated with a smooth, ordered, coherent pattern in the heart’s rhythmic activity. In turn, these changes in the heart’s beating patterns create corresponding changes in the structure of the electromagnetic field radiated by the heart, measurable by a technique called spectral analysis.

 

More specifically, we have demonstrated that sustained positive emotions appear to give rise to a distinct mode of functioning, which we call psychophysiological coherence. During this mode, heart rhythms exhibit a sine wave-like pattern and the heart’s electromagnetic field becomes correspondingly more organized.

·               At the physiological level, this mode is characterized by increased efficiency and harmony in the activity and interactions of the body’s systems. [1]

·               Psychologically, this mode is linked with a notable reduction in internal mental dialogue, reduced perceptions of stress, increased emotional balance, and enhanced mental clarity, intuitive discernment, and cognitive performance.

 

In sum, our research suggests that psychophysiological coherence is important in enhancing consciousness—both for the body’s sensory awareness of the information required to execute and coordinate physiological function, and also to optimize emotional stability, mental function, and intentional action. Furthermore, as we see next, there is experimental evidence that psychophysiological coherence may increase our awareness of and sensitivity to others around us. The Institute of HeartMath has created practical technologies and tools that all people can use to increase coherence.

Heart Field Interactions Between Individuals

Most people think of social communication solely in terms of overt signals expressed through language, voice qualities, gestures, facial expressions, and body movements. However, there is now evidence that a subtle yet influential electromagnetic or “energetic” communication system operates just below our conscious awareness. Energetic interactions likely contribute to the “magneticattractions or repulsions that occur between individuals, and also affect social exchanges and relationships. Moreover, it appears that the heart’s field plays an important role in communicating physiological, psychological, and social information between individuals.

 

Experiments conducted at the Institute of HeartMath have found remarkable evidence that the heart’s electromagnetic field can transmit information between people. We have been able to measure an exchange of heart energy between individuals up to 5 feet apart. We have also found that one person’s brain waves can actually synchronize to another person’s heart. Furthermore, when an individual is generating a coherent heart rhythm, synchronization between that person’s brain waves and another person’s heartbeat is more likely to occur. These findings have intriguing implications, suggesting that individuals in a psychophysiologically coherent state become more aware of the information encoded in the heart fields of those around them.

 

The results of these experiments have led us to infer that the nervous system acts as an “antenna,” which is tuned to and responds to the electromagnetic fields produced by the hearts of other individuals. We believe this capacity for exchange of energetic information is an innate ability that heightens awareness and mediates important aspects of true empathy and sensitivity to others Furthermore, we have observed that this energetic communication ability can be intentionally enhanced, producing a much deeper level of nonverbal communication, understanding, and connection between people. There is also intriguing evidence that heart field interactions can occur between people and animals. In short, energetic communication via the heart field facilitates development of an expanded consciousness in relation to our social world.

The Heart’s Field and Intuition

There are also new data suggesting that the heart’s field is directly involved in intuitive perception, through its coupling to an energetic information field outside the bounds of space and time. Using a rigorous experimental design, we found compelling evidence that both the heart and brain receive and respond to information about a future event before the event actually happens. Even more surprising was our finding that the heart appears to receive this “intuitive” information before the brain. This suggests that the heart’s field may be linked to a more subtle energetic field that contains information on objects and events remote in space or ahead in time. Called by Karl Pribram and others the “spectral domain,” this is a fundamental order of potential energy that enfolds space and time, and is thought to be the basis for our consciousness of “the whole.” (See heartmath.org for further detail.)

Social Fields

In the same way that the heart generates energy in the body, we propose that the social collective is the activator and regulator of the energy in social systems.

 

A body of groundbreaking work shows how the field of socioemotional interaction between a mother and her infant is essential to brain development, the emergence of consciousness, and the formation of a healthy self-concept. These interactions are organized along two relational dimensions—stimulation of the baby’s emotions, and regulation of shared emotional energy.

 

Together they form a socioemotional field through which enormous quantities of psychobiological and psychosocial information are exchanged. Coherent organization of the mother-child relations that make up this field is critical. This occurs when interactions are charged, most importantly, with positive emotions (love, joy, happiness, excitement, appreciation, etc.), and are patterned as highly synchronized, reciprocal exchanges between these two individuals. These patterns are imprinted in the child’s brain and thus influence psychosocial function throughout life. (See Allan Schore, Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self.)

 

Moreover in a longitudinal study of 46 social groups, one of us (RTB) documented how information about the global organization of a group—the group’s collective consciousness—appears to be transmitted to all members by an energetic field of socio-emotional connection. Data on the relationships between each pair of members was found to provide an accurate image of the social structure of the group as a whole. Coherent organization of the group’s social structure is associated with a network of positively charged emotions (love, excitement, and optimism) connecting all members. This network of positive emotions appears to constitute a field of energetic connection into which information about the group’s social structure is encoded and distributed throughout the group. Remarkably, an accurate picture of the group’s overall social structure was obtained from information only about relationships between pairs of individuals. We believe the only way this is possible is if information about the organization of the whole group is distributed to all members of the group via an energetic field. Such correspondence in information between parts and the whole is consistent with the principle of holographic organization. [2]

Synthesis and Implications

Some organizing features of the heart field, identified in numerous studies at HeartMath, may also be shared by those of our hypothesized social field. Each is a field of energy in which the waveforms of energy encode the features of objects and events as energy moves throughout the system. This creates a nonlocal order of energetic information in which each location in the field contains an enfolded image of the organization of the whole system at that moment. The organization and processing of information in these energy fields can best be understood in terms of quantum holographic principles. [3]

 

Another commonality is the role of positive emotions, such as love and appreciation, in generating coherence both in the heart field and in social fields. When the movement of energy is intentionally regulated to form a coherent, harmonious order, information integrity and flow are optimized. This, in turn, produces stable, effective system function, which enhances health, psychosocial well-being, and intentional action in the individual or social group.

 

Heart coherence and social coherence may also act to mutually reinforce each other. As individuals within a group increase psychophysiological coherence, psychosocial attunement may be increased, thereby increasing the coherence of social relations. Similarly, the creation of a coherent social field by a group may help support the generation and maintenance of psychophysiological coherence in its individual members. An expanded, deepened awareness and consciousness results—of the body’s internal physiological, emotional, and mental processes, and also of the deeper, latent orders enfolded into the energy fields that surround us. This is the basis of self-awareness, social sensitivity, creativity, intuition, spiritual insight, and understanding of ourselves and all that we are connected to. It is through the intentional generation of coherence in both heart and social fields that a critical shift to the next level of planetary consciousness can occur—one that brings us into harmony with the movement of the whole.

 

Now, brother Branham went even beyond this when he quoted the Scripture as saying, “as a man thinketh in his heart so is he”. So the bible tells us that the heart does our true thinking for us. And since this study we just read tells us the what discernment and intuitiveness we have is produced first in the heart then signaled via electronic impulses to the brain.

And in 1957 brother Branham said in his sermon, The Great commission 57-0804A P:46 “Long ago the old scientist used to say, "There is no reasoning in the Word of God, so-called. Because God said in His Word, 'As a man thinketh in his heart... '" And He said, "There is no mental faculties in the heart to think with. So He meant in the mind." But if God would have said that, He'd said, "As a man thinketh in his mind." But God doesn't mince any words. He said, "Heart." And He meant, "heart." And then two years ago in Chicago, Mr. Mattsson-Boze, which was a personal, bosom friend of mine. His little girl brought a newspaper and said, "Brother Branham, as you was speaking the last time here about the heart. Their medical science had found in the human heart, science had found a little compartment. Animal doesn't have it, just a human. And they said it was the occupant of the soul." So then God's Word is right. Man has the thinking in his heart. And as he thinks with his mind, he reasons. And the Bible said, "We must cast down reasoning." So if you're believing Christ in the reason realm, how can you ever take His Word when you got to cast that aside, and let that Word that you have caught with your mind, come down into your heart to a living faith. There's the faith."

 

Now, we were promised in Malachi 4: 5-6 that at the end-time God will send Elijah the Prophet to restore the hearts of His Children to the hearts of the Fathers. In other words, Omega will look to the Alpha, as Brother Branham put it Himself, as he said, "I am only teaching what Paul taught". Now Mal 4: 5-6 literally reads, "See, I will send you the Prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. He will turn the hearts of the Fathers to their children”, Now, we know this part happened in John the Baptist's ministry as He also came in the Spirit and Power of Elijah as we read in Luke 1: 17 that the scripture tells us that the angel of God told Zechariah that John was to come in the Spirit and power of Elijah to turn the Hearts of the fathers to the children but he never said anything about John turning the hearts of the children back to the fathers. And so we find in Malachi 4:6 that this end-time Elijah will " he will turn the hearts of the children to their Fathers; or else the Lord Himself will come and smite the earth with a curse.” Now the question is, "what is this heart of the children that will be turned to the fathers?" And, "who are these children?"


Now, remember, in his message Inter veil 56-0121 Brother Branham taught us that
37 "There is an intellectual faith. And there's a faith that comes from the heart.” And so we are looking at this Faith or Revelation that comes from the heart. We've read in Ezekiel 36, that God gives us a new heart which is a new understanding first, then He gives us a new spirit which is a new desire and finally after we have received this new desire or welcoming Spirit, to welcome the Word of God, then He gives us His Spirit which is His Word. Now let's just read this for ourselves... Now, that is what Br. Branham taught. That’s not my just saying those words, he said it.



 

Ezekiel 36:26-28 “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them]. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”


And so you will notice that this new heart and new spirit and finally His Spirit entering into us is to bring about one thing, and that is that we will walk in His statutes, which is His Word, and we shall do the things that His Word speaks of for us to do, which then brings about our actually becoming the Word of God manifested in flesh.

From the Message, IMPERSONATION OF CHRISTIANITY-Brother Branham said,  God had to give you a new heart, not a patched up one, a new heart. That's your intellects that you think with, a new way of thinking. Then He give you a new way of thinking, "Yes, that's right”. Then He said after that, "Then I'll give you a new spirit." “What's that? A new desire, ... After you get a new heart and a new spirit, He said, "Then I'll put My Spirit..." His Spirit, part of the Logos in you controlling your emotions"

Now, furthermore, we find Paul speaking of this condition of the heart in 2 Corinthians 3: 15 – 18 which we read for our text this evening,  and we see that a veil still covers the heart or understanding of those who do not look to the Word of God, but who look rather to their church or the traditions and creeds they are familiar with instead of God's Word only. But we are also told that one day there will be a people who will look to the Word of God and these are the people in whose hearts (or literally their understanding) will change. And when it does change, then God will Unveil Himself to them. And I believe this Message of Christ Revealed in His Own Word is part of that Great Unveiling of God to us in this Hour.

 

Therefore, if the heart is right it will not turn down the right doctrine. How can your heart be right and fight the doctrine of Christ? And the Apostle John said in 2 John 1:9 if you do not have the right doctrine of Christ you don't even have God. So how can you have a right spirit which is God's Spirit, and have the wrong doctrine. Jesus said in Matthew 7 a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit and a Vindicated Prophet of God said that the fruit is the teaching of the season. So how can you have the right spirit and have the wrong doctrine? You can't. But brother Branham was not speaking of the spirit, he was speaking of the heart. He was talking about a hardened heart, versus a soft and supple heart. If you have a right heart with God you will receive the doctrine of God. That is what Malachi 4 is all about, returning the heart back to the Doctrine of the Apostles.


SIR WE WOULD SEE JESUS 63-1112 220 Now, we know that He is the same. Now, if we come tonight, we find out if... Jesus cannot fail, because He was God. He is the Word. The Word and Christ is the same. Then if the Word promises (the Word) that this is to happen in the last days, the Spirit of Elijah is even to return in the last day (That's right.) upon the peoples, and He's to turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers, the doctrine, the principles of the Bible.


It's always been the doctrine. But it is not the doctrine in the mind, but it is the doctrine in the heart that counts. That's what the message is, it is the doctrine, the teaching. The word doctrine means teaching, and that is what they reject, and that is the reason they crucify the Word.

 

Now, I have shown you tonight how you can have the doctrine in your mind, but if it is not in your heart it will not do you any good. That is why brother Vayle told the people many times that you could die under his ministry. Not that you should die, but you could die, because if you took what he taught to the mind only it wouldn’t end up producing anything and thus you would simply pine away in your intellectual understanding. 



You see, God did not give us the doctrine so we could know more than the next guy, but he gave us the doctrine so that we might live it. The doctrine of Christ, knowing that God had a son and sons, ought to get you focused on the life of the first born son that was so pleasing to God, that God indwelt Him, and adopted him, and that is what this Doctrine of Christ ought to do for us. It gives us the mental understanding to lay in the presence of the Word so that we will become that Word.

 

But too many are satisfied just knowing, and in reality they know but they don’t know. That is what br. Vayle told me many times, at least six that I can recall, he said they got it but they don’t got it. They know but they don’t know. In other words they have head knowledge but nothing in the heart. And Malachi 4 didn’t come to give us a head knowledge, he came to return our hearts in sync with the hearts of the fathers.

 

James   5  : 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

 

James   4  : 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

 

Hebrews   13  : 9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

 

Hebrews   10  : 22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

 

Hebrews   10  : 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

 

Hebrews   8  : 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

 

Hebrews   4  : 12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 

1 Timothy   1  : 5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

 

1 Thessalonians   3  : 13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

 

Colossians   3  : 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

 

Colossians   2  : 2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

 

Philippians   4  : 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

 

Ephesians   6  : 6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;

 

Ephesians   3  : 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

 

Galatians   4  : 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

 

2 Corinthians   4  : 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 

2 Corinthians   3  : 2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

 

Romans   10  : 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

 

Romans   6  : 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

 

John   12  : 40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.