Christ is the Mystery no. 46

Revelation or Delusion
December 5, 2012
Brian Kocourek

120   Look, Christ in you makes Him the center of Life of the revelation. See? Christ's Life in you makes Him the center of the revelation. Christ in the Bible, makes the Bible a complete revelation of Christ. Christ in you makes you the complete revelation of the whole thing. See, what God's trying to do? What is the new birth then? You say, "Well, Brother Branham, what is the new birth?" It is the revelation of Jesus Christ personally to you. Amen. See? Not you joined a church, you shook a hand; you done something different; you said a creed; you promised to live by a code of rules; but Christ, the Bible... He is the Word that was revealed to you. And no matter what anybody says, what takes place, it's Christ. Pastor, priest, whatever it might be... It's Christ in you. That is a--the revelation that the Church was built upon.

  121   You say, "Well, I'm a Lutheran"; "I'm a Baptist"; "I'm Presbyterian." That don't don't mean [Brother Branham snaps his fingers--Ed.] that to God, not a thing, not a snap of your finger. What is it? It's Christ being revealed, and He is the Word. And when the Word is revealed, It expresses Itself. See? That's God's purpose for Jesus Christ, was to express Himself, to take His own laws and live by His laws, and fulfill His law by death. Christ, God died in flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh that He might bring to Himself a glorious Bride, redeemed back, that will believe only in the Word of God and not swap It, like Eve did, for intellectual conceptions of men. You see it?

  122   That's Christ's idea. That's God's idea. The new birth reveals this. And if a man says he's born again and try to place these promises of Christ in this last day to some other age, making Him Christ yesterday, but not today, then that man or that person has been in a delusion by Satan. And if that man says that he believes that, and it doesn't manifest itself through him... Jesus said in Mark 16, "These signs shall follow them that believe... into all the world and to every age." Casting out devils, and speaking with tongues, and all of these great manifestations of gifts that would follow, that they shall--not that they maybe, they ought to; they will. And heavens and earth will pass away, but His Word won't.

There are two things that brother Branham speaks of here in this paragraph, and that is revelation and delusion. These are two opposing.

Now, Revelation is a manifestation of divine will or truth. Notice it is not words, it is not just knowledge as though someone tells you something, or your mind understands something. The definition of Revelation is that it is a MANIFESTATION of Divine will or truth. Notice, Manifestation as in expression. So the invisible becoming visible.

Notice the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 3:3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; So revelation is a making known by using something to manifest it.

Word become flesh India trip 54-1003M P:80 Now, you can express it by mental conception, but if it becomes a real revelation of God, that you see it before it happened, and express it in word form, that word takes a hold and becomes material: a thought expressed. Oh, my, how God could... See? If your heart and your mind is so, and infilled with God's Spirit, until your thoughts become His thoughts... Amen. There you are. When your mind, and your leading, and your guiding, becomes a direct place, or a direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit that's moving your mortal being... Oh, my. What kind of people should we be? If the very Holy Spirit has you so embodied or empowered, that you don't use your own thoughts, you don't use your own mind, you don't use your own opinion; but the Holy Spirit has you so built, until your thoughts and your being is God's Spirit expressing Itself through you, what kind of a church would we be? What kind of a people would it be, this morning, if this Branham Tabernacle, this morning, was so filled with the Presence of God, why, when you didn't even use your own mind, didn't even use your own thoughts, didn't even have no alternative of your own, but just to be led by the Spirit...?

Hallelujah!! So filled with God’s Words His thoughts that our bodies begin to express the God-Life within us. That is when God Word becomes manifested Word.

Now, the opposite of this Revelation is delusion. A Delusion is when you think you know but you are only deluded. Deluded meaning: To deceive the mind or judgment of: And delusion then is The act or process of deluding or being deceived. b. The state of being deluded or deceived. 2. A delusion is A false belief or opinion:

We find then two conditions at the end time. First we have a great promise of an end-time Revelation and then there is also a promise that this will be the time of the great delusion, and which condition you will find yourself will depend on your own heart, your election, and your love for the truth.

The promise of the great end-time revelation we find in 1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

And again in Ephesians 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

And we also have the promise of a great deception or delusion at the end time as well.

2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

2 Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of un-righteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 13  But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14  Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are two words that are very important here for us to review. with all deceivableness of un-righteousness in them that perish

1) He says with all deceivableness: now, there is not an English word deceivableness, in the dictionary, but there is a word deceivable which means To cause to believe what is not true; to mislead and there is the suffix -ness which denotes the quality or state of being.

2) Of un-righteousness: un right wise-ness or not wise which means incorrectness

Notice that the attributes of these people is that they deceive using un-right-wise-ness or incorrectness in their doctrine. That is there means of deception. That’s how they deceive.

The First Seal 63-0318 P:44 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness... (deceiving people by un-righteousness)... in them that perish;... (not this Bride, in them that's looking for such a thing)... because they received not the love of the truth... (And Christ is the Truth, and Christ is the Word, but they'd rather have a creed.),... that they might be saved. And for this cause God has sent them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:... (It should be translated there, as I looked in the Lexicon, "the lie," not "a lie"; "the lie," same one he told Eve.)That they... might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

From his sermon, God of this evil age 65-0801M P:33 brother Branham said, Making a strong delusion, as the Bible said it would (II Thessalonians), how this man of sin would come into existence and set in the temple of God, showing himself he was God and caused the people to go into strong delusion to believe a lie; and believe it will be damned by it. That's the same thing he did to Eve, give her... Never told her the Word wasn't right, but give her a strong delusion that she believed a lie. The spirit of delusion is of the devil, devils now working in the children of disobedient. Disobedient to what? What's the children of this day disobedient to? Like Eve was at the beginning: the true Word of God.

Now, we know by our studies that this Glory that we are called to is the Greek word Doxa which means the opinion, assessment and judgment. In other words, it speaks of the very mindset that was in Christ. Paul said, Philippians 2:5“Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” But her also said, in Philippians 3: 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

So what gives us the ability to be Thus Minded is Revelation that comes from God.

Any child who follows the ministry of William Branham should be able to quote from Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock (of revelation) I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Now, as I said, just about anyone who follows William Branham’s Message has heard him say this enough that they should be able to quote it and even talk intelligently about revelation, what it is, and how necessary revelation is to the believer. But why do the majority of the ministers who claim to believe His Message refuse to believe what Peter said that brought such praise from Jesus.

In verse 13 Jesus had asked the disciples the question, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Then Jesus called Peter blessed and said those notable words, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. and upon this rock (the rock of revelation), I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

But Peter had just called Jesus the Son of God, and the majority of the ministers (so called) who claim to be following the ministry of William Branham do not have that same revelation as Peter had, that was given to Peter by God the Father as Jesus pointed out.

So, this evening we are going to examine the difference between Revelation and Delusion, because both are very powerful influences in the world today, and not only in the World but amongst those who claim to believe the End-time Message of Malachi Four. And let’s face it, I am not interested in the world. It is a lost cause. But what I am interested in is the Sons and daughters of God who are sitting under false shepherds who have not more revelation from God, than the Oneness Pentecostals do.

Now to understand the difference between Revelation and delusion, we must know what the two words mean. Because as brother Branham said about the difference between the Appearing and Coming, he said they are two different words and they mean two different things. And so does Revelation and Delusion.

Now the word Revelation means: The act of revealing or disclosing. b. Something revealed, something not previously known or realized but is made know or realized. In Scripture it is a manifestation of divine will or truth. So we see that Revelation is something that God had alone but had not yet revealed it, then He uncovers or discloses that truth so as to reveal or make that truth known to men. And as we mentioned earlier that revelation has to do with manifestation. As we read the definition of Revelation earlier tonight as being “a MANIFESTATION of Divine will or truth.” And we noticed, that the word Manifestation which is an expression was used to define what revelation consists of. In other words, “that which is invisible becoming visible.”

Then if revelation has to do with a manifesting, then a delusion would have to be an absence of manifestation or expression. James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. So James suggests here that if we are not expressing our belief in an outward expression or manifestation we are deceiving ourselves into thinking we believe when we in fact do not believe. So the absence of expression shows delusion.

Now, notice the word delusion comes from deception, the act of deceiving, and to deceive you must take a truth and do something to it to hide it from men. So revelation takes that which is hidden and reveals or expresses, while Deception takes that which is true and covers it over or hide it from men. And the result is delusion.

So we can say revelation reveals or revelation manifests while deception hinders or delusion hides or covers up truth. In other words, then a delusion is anti or the opposite of Revelation, because one expresses and the other suppresses expression.

And in fact Jesus said in John 6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.

You see, he that expresses comes to God while he that expresses not, comes not to God.

In paragraph 121 that we read tonight notice brother Branham said, And when the Word is revealed, It expresses Itself. See? That's God's purpose for Jesus Christ, was to express Himself, to take His own laws and live by His laws, and fulfill His law by death. Christ, God died in flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh that He might bring to Himself a glorious Bride, redeemed back, that will believe only in the Word of God and not swap It, like Eve did, for intellectual conceptions of men. You see it?

Notice how he mentions in paragraph 121 when the Word is revealed, It expresses Itself, but then notice in the next paragraph 122, brother Branham let’s us know that if a man says he believes but doesn’t express it or manifest it in his life, he is just living in a delusion.

122  …The new birth reveals this. And if a man says he's born again and try to place these promises of Christ in this last day to some other age, making Him Christ yesterday, but not today, then that man or that person has been in a delusion by Satan. And if that man says that he believes that, and it doesn't manifest itself through him.

Then he goes on to talk of certain Scriptures being manifested such as Mark 16. “Jesus said in Mark 16, "These signs shall follow them that believe... into all the world and to every age." Casting out devils, and speaking with tongues, and all of these great manifestations of gifts that would follow, that they shall, not that they maybe, they ought to; they will! And heavens and earth will pass away, but His Word won't.

So you see the importance of the expression, for without it you are only deluding yourself. Without manifestation in your life that it is actually God Life living in you, you are living in a deception brothers, sisters.

Notice brother Branham is telling us here that when a person is genuinely born again there will be a manifestation of that ne Life living itself out in you. And if there is no expression or manifestation in your life then you are still dead in your sins, and you only think you are a believer when you are not.

So we see the important of revelation to the believer. Revelation is what seals us in and gives us the assurance that we really do believe, because you see the evidence of belief in our life. You can say all day long that you believe this Message correctly but saying it and expressing it are two different things.

The problem we have right here in this message, is that men have received their learning from men and got it but don’t got it, because the Life of the Word is missing though they can quote it all day long. They might have it from man but not from God.

But you will know when you have it from God when it takes a hold of your life and brings with it expression and manifestation of that truth in your life. Until then you are only professing it. Brother Branham said in his sermon VOICE OF THE SIGN 64-0321E E-33 The elected listens to the voice. But the unelected ignores and says, "Nonsense. Go on. We'll take the same old school."

And Paul said, 6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: 7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8  Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

So you see because they could not see or understand the glory it they crucified the Lord of Glory. Your actions or lack of actions will give you away every time.

9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God knoweth. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (You see there is an action right there. You will compare, you will search, you will keep looking and God will let you know you’ve got it when you begin to see His life living your life for you, when you hunger and thirst and he begins to fill.)14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

And if you hear but do not learn it is because you might have heard but you did not believe. Or else what you heard you really did not hear, and what you saw, you did not see nor did you perceive or understand lest God would have to heal them as Jesus quoted in Matthew 13. So by hearing and not hearing and seeing and not seeing it shows they had preconceived ideas already of what it was they were hearing and seeing, but their preconceived notions were wrong. That is why they heard and did not hear, and saw but did not see, nor did they understand.

Now, I have seen this first hand in my minister meetings overseas. As I’ve told you before I have taught nearly 3,500 ministers overseas, and having met them, and talked to many of them, and received questions from a whole lot of them, I think I can say that there is not a person I’ve met who claims to believe William Branham’s Message that can not quote you Malachi 4, Luke 17:30 and Revelations chapter 10. And all these individuals also know by heart the emphasis brother Branham spoke of how Peter by Revelation spoke those most notable word. And yet if you ask them to speak those most notable words, I have my doubts that they could all quote them, or at least they might quote them, but they do not believe them. Why, because they do not believe what Peter said that won praise from Jesus. “Thou art the Christ, the Son of God.”

So if the Word of God is shown to them, like it is shown to the real believer who believes it, but nothing happens to the other, then what happens to them? They open themselves up for the great delusion.

Paul told us in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie: 12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. In other words they took pleasure in a wrong understanding.

Now, a delusion is A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence. And no matter how many hundreds of Scriptures you give them, and no matter how many hundreds of quotes from Brother Branham you give them, they still refuse to believe what the Prophet of God and the Word of God said. And that is one strong delusion, brother. I’ve talked to these men and they tell me they believe every word brother Branham said, but will deny and disagree with what he said. So instead of Revelation that feeds upon Word upon Word upon Word, they receive a strong delusion that feeds upon what other men have said, and thus they would rather believe the Lie than The Truth vindicated by Scripture and Prophetic utterance of Thus Saith the Lord.

Well, if revelation anoints us to bring forth expression, and creates in us a supernatural understanding that readies us for adoption, then deception will do the opposite. It will cause to fall away from The Faith which is The Revelation, and as we read Sunday there is only one Faith and that Faith is the revelation of that One Lord.

As brother Branham said from Anointed ones at end time 65-0725M P:186 the faith, not a faith, the Faith. One faith, one Lord, one... You can't have one faith without believing in one Lord.

Therefore, you can’t tell me that these men who deny the Truth of the Word and have no expression of God-Life in themselves, are not intentionally holding to error rather than the Truth. Jesus said, John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Notice as Jesus said in Matthew 23: 13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither will you allow them that are entering to go in. You see, they themselves will not enter, they will not express and they will hold others back from that expression or manifestation as well.

And again we hear Paul say the same thing in, Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Now, that word hold was translated from the Greek word Katecho and it means to hold down, to withhold or hold back, in other words they suppress the Truth.

Notice that they hold down the Truth in un-right-wise-ness, which means they hold the Truth with an incorrect understanding, that’s how they hold down the truth So you see by teaching error instead of the Truth they hold it back from the people. By telling the people there is no expression, the manifestation is forth millennium, they are in fact keeping sons and daughters of God from becoming the manifested Word they were ordained to become.

So in order to withhold the Truth from the people, they cause the people to stay away from the Truth. Now to do this they must lie about the truth, and so they say we teach God’s children lies and say, you have no need for that fiery experience of new birth, all you have to do is say you believe and you got it. And thus they suppress the expression of God-Life from the people, because the people become afraid to check it with the Word.

Now, in order to teach a lie they do not come right out and deny the Scriptures. No, instead they will just not quote it, or when you quote from the Scriptures and William Branham they will say you are not teaching it like our church teaches it and therefre you are false.

I am false in teaching from the prophet and Scriptures, and you are right in teaching from your traditions and church dogma?

But they say they believe God’s prophet, and yet they deny what he taught.

So what they do, is they tell the people the Scripture does not mean what is says. The y teach the people that evidence is your experience, when they are two different words and they mean two completely different Words altogether.

Brother Branham’s message The Indictment 63-0707M P:116 is just as alive today as when he preached it. And in that sermon he said, “You poor intellectual, spiritual deprived, rejected upon your own grounds, you read the same Bible that any other man can read; but you've turned down the Spirit of God, till the Bible said you'd be given over to a strong delusion to believe a lie and be damned by it. You actually believe that you're right, and the Bible says that you'd believe it and be damned by the same lie that you believe to be the truth. Therefore, I indict you by the Word of God. You are teaching the people a error and crucifying the principles of Christ, of holiness, and Life above as a person might walk out on the street and be a different person.

So what is the best way to hide a real diamond? Put it in a room with a thousand counterfeits. And what is the best way to hide the Truth? Put it in a Message with a thousand counterfeits. Look, the counterfeit religion isn’t out there somewhere, it’s right in our midst trying to keep you from the Truth of the Message as Brother Branham said,

And how can you worship God outside of Truth. You can’t. So they try to change the truth. So the error of the wicked is to take the word of God and twist it in such a way as to distort it, so it does not say what it actually says. It means they will lie about the Truth in order to cause the people to stay away from it. That’s how they suppress the truth.

John 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. 3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

So notice their expression is not in expressing the Word but in trying to kill the influence of the Word, thinking in doing so they are doing God a favor.

And again Jesus said in, John 15: 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.

Now, brother Branham warned us in his sermon Christ revealed in his own Word that people would lose their minds in the end time. He said, “In the Laodicean age the people were what? Naked (Are they?), blind. What good does light do to a blind man? If the blind leads the blind, don't they all fall in the ditch? Naked, blind, and don't know it. Even their mental faculties are gone, their spiritual faculties of mental--spiritual understanding. See? Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof, The power of revelation, they don't even believe in it. See?”) They don't believe in such things as prophets, and so... They don't believe in it.

Way of a true prophet 62-0513M P:118 The Bible said if they wouldn't believe the Word, He'd give them strong delusions to believe a lie and would be damned by it. That's exactly what these organizations and people of this nation's doing today: believing a lie to be damned by it.

God's wrapped gift 60-1225 P:53 God said He'd give them over to strong delusions to believe a lie and be damned by it. God said He would do it. You refuse right, you have to take wrong. There's no other way. You refuse to go right, you have to go left, go some other way beside right; so you can't go right and wrong at the same time. When they refused the Holy Ghost, they refused Christ, they refused God's program, they refused the messenger, they refused everything; so therefore, they're left in their sin. There's nothing left then but judgment.

The Indictment 63-0707M P:72 If a man accepts "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," a creed in the stead of the Word, titles instead of the Name, what does he do to the people? He crucifies the effects of the Word to the people. When he says that Mark 16 was just for that generation, and God said Himself right there, Jesus talking to them, said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them..." How far? Every nation, every creed, every tongue, every race, every people, the same Gospel. "And these signs shall follow them that believe." And when a man tries to cut that out of the Bible, he crucifies the effects of the Gospel to that congregation. So I indict you in the Name of Jesus Christ: You're guilty of murdering the Lord.

Let us pray…