Desperation no 17
Murphy Idaho
Conformed to the Image of The Eldest Son.
Brian Kocourek
April 24th, 2016 morning
KJV Romans 8:28-30 And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to his purpose. 29For whom he did foreknow, (That’s Ephesians 1:3-4 we were in Him before the
foundations of the world) 29For whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now, if Jesus Christ
is the firstborn amongst many brethren, then He is the Eldest Son in a very
large family of brothers.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate
beforehand, them he also called beforehand: and those whom he called beforehand,
them he also justified beforehand: and whom He has already justified beforehand, them he also has glorified
already in His thoughts before the foundations of the world.
That is why the same Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According
as he hath chosen us in him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and
set apart for Him) and without blame before him (or in His
Presence). Then 5:
in love He Has predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will, So not only did He choose us or selected us out while we were
yet in Him before the foundations of the world, but He that selected us out
also for-ordained our end to be adoptable sons, conformed to the Image of His
Uniquely born, first born son Jesus. So he pre-destined our path to that very
conforming to the Image of the first born son.
Now, in the Message Spoken Word is the Original Seed,
in paragraph 83 we hear brother Branham say… All of God's
sons must be the same. Yes, sir. To be born
of the Word and Spirit brings us back to the spoken Word again like in John 3. See? To be born of the Water and the Spirit, what does it
do? Then it brings you right back again
unto the place of where you should've been at the beginning…
And I would like to add, where were we at the
beginning? The way God saw us in Himself before the foundations of the world.
Then brother Branham says, …See? That's the reason of Christ's death:
brings us right back again to where? Sons
of God.
Now, then let’s jump forward to paragraph 85 where he
says,
85 Now, now, this
brings you right back to the spoken Word. Then we are God's Word made manifest. See? Jesus said the same
thing. "He that believeth on Me, the things that--Who
I am, what I come for and the purpose I do, to bring a man back to believe the Word of God and take nothing else
with it, the works that I do, He will do also."
There you are.
So you see, God wants all His children to be like the
first born son. That is His purpose in having many Sons. And we are ordained to
be conformed to that Image. And since that Image was the expressed Image of the
Father according to Hebrews 1:3 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
past unto the fathers through the prophets, 2 Hath
in these last days spoken unto us in His Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the
express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of
the Majesty on high; 4 Being made so much better than the angels, as
he hath by inheritance obtained a more
excellent name than they. 5 For unto which of the angels said he at
any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And
again, I will be to him a Father, and he
shall be to me a Son?
Now, in getting back to
what brother Branham was saying, …86 Why is it not being done today? It's
hybrid, bastard children, mixed up. It don't, it's a mule; it don't know what it believes. A mule don't know who his daddy is,
who his mama is. He don't... He's no pedigree; there's nothing to him. He's a
illegitimate creature. That's the way
any person that claims to believe God and don't believe His Word will take a
denominational creed and breed it with the Word. See, you're not of God; you're dead. You can't be dead and alive at the
same time. So even the Word of God don't
even grow. You're just playing the part of a hypocrite. Let that go for
bishop, priest, cardinal or whoever it might be. That's right. It's got to be the Word or you're dead,
just a illegitimate child. And God's
Word... God part won't grow. You
might grow in the same field as we're getting to directly, but you're sure not
in the fold. It won't grow.
So you see, if we were in God before the foundations
of the world, and as Paul said in Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet it is not I that is living, but Christ is living in me:
and the life which I am now living in the flesh, I am living by the faith of
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. So it is not
I that am living, but Christ, the anointed Life of the Father that was in His
firstborn Son, that is also living itself out in me.
That is what Paul also
said in Colossians
3:1 If
ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your
life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also
appear with him in glory.
That means we must come to the place where we are
willing to die out to self. We must come like Jesus to the place where we are
not trying to dodge the new birth, but we are willing to surrender ourselves to
it. So it is not what you do, but what you just surrender yourself to. Brother Branham said in , Hebrews 7 part 2 57-0922 P:43 God takes men and makes them different, not man taking God
and becoming different. God takes men and makes him different. It's not what
you do, what you will, what you think; it's what God does.
To whom
is arm of Lord revealed? 50-0824 P:42 Now, the first thing you must
do, is surrender yourself entirely to Christ, and surrender your mind to His
Word. "Lord, I won't act upon my own feelings, upon my own thoughts. I
will only act upon Your Word. I'll have no control of my own thoughts
concerning it. I will act upon Your Word." Now, get that straight.
How can
I overcome 63-0825M P:48 See, if the little baby keeps trying,
"Oh, I can do it; I can do it." And he's just everywhere; He can't do
it. Neither can you; neither can I. But if we just hold still and let Him do
it, just yield to Him, "Here, Lord, here I am. Just let me be nothing. And
I yield; You put my hand in the right place." That's the victory; that's
overcoming. The thing you have to overcome is yourself, your ideas, your
things, and surrender yourself to Him. He overcome for you. He knows the way;
we don't.
Uncertain
sound 60-1218 P:61 …it's God's love and mercy measured out to
you to take It. Don't cost you one thing. Only thing It costs you, is just to
surrender your life to Him, and receive It. How simple. Just forget all you ever
knew and just surrender yourself to Him. And that's how It comes, is just
receive, receiving It that way.
It
wasn't so from the beginning 60-0306 P:47 Every man's got to be born
again, and this sinful nature killed in him, and a new Man born in him, which
is Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Then you surrender yourself completely to
Christ, and Christ comes in, and writes a book of acts through you. How I know
that's the truth, my friend, how I know it's the truth.
Christianity
verses idolatry 61-1217 P:90 We, in His image, a living image of a
living God. When you surrender yourself to God, and God comes into you, what
does it make you? A living image of God.
So that is what we want to be by God’s Grace this morning, just living
image of the living God, just Like his First born son was. But we must die to
self, and we must surrender our hearts and our minds to God and accept every
word that he says, as our guide, and as our instructions for how to Live and
how to Love.
Jesus said, the things I speak are what my Father commanded me what to say.
There you are, that’s how to be the Son in the Image of the first born.
Listen to what Jesus said of His relationship with the father. In John 12: 49-50
For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should
say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life
everlasting: whatsoever I speak
therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
And He also said in John 5:19 the Father works and
I work hitherto. Not, my own ideas of what I think my Father might
want me to do, or say. No, that’s not it at all. That would be our own mental
reasoning. But He said, the Son can do nothing but what He sees the father do, that
doeth the son likewise.
From his sermon From that time 60-0302 P:21 Brother Branham
said, And she got down on her
knees, and I asked her to pray. And she prayed for a few moments; she looked
over at me, and she said, "Brother Branham, I now am going to make a new
start." I said, "Sis, it won't do one bit of good. You're going just
exactly the same road you've been over. It won't work. "And she said,
"I mean it in my heart." I said, "I know you do, but that
devil's stronger than any mental powers that you could put to him. That's the
reason I don't believe in an intellectual religion. I believe a man's got to be
born again of the Holy Spirit. It's got
to be deeper than your thinking, it’s got to be an experience." And
she said, "What must I do?" I said, "Just stay right
there." And we prayed and prayed. I went ahead and prayed with some people
and come back. She was praying. I come back to her again, and after while I
come back, and she was deeply in sincerity. In a few moments, she raised up,
with tears running down her cheek; she looked me in the face. She said,
"Brother Branham, something's happened." I said, "You don't have
to turn no new pages now." The woman's married and got a family, and a
lovely, sweet, born again Holy Spirit filled saint. 'Cause God could take her
back to a place where she started to do wrong. That's His goodness, and from
that time, she was a changed woman. From the time of a young girl, to at one
time she was evil. God taken her back, and from that time she was different.
You see, God is not coming for a people who think his Message is just a
new creed or something. And the Doctrine of Christ is not theology to be argued
over, no, not at all. The Doctrine of Christ is a reality of your position in
the family of God. The Doctrine of
Christ, to know it and understand it from your heart will bring with it the
same Life that was in the first born son, and you will see your own life become
a reflection of His Life. Because God wants to live out your life for you, in
your own set of circumstances.
Paul said in Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some,
prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;12 For
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying (that’s the building up) of the body of Christ: 13 Till
we all come in the unity of The Faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man,(that’s a mature man) unto the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ: (You see without the knowledge of the Son of God,
without the Revelation of Jesus Christ and our understanding of the
relationship between the Father and His First Born son, we would never know how
to act as children of God. We will never grow up.) Paul said, 14 That we henceforth be no
more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But
speaking the truth in love, may grow up
into him in all things, which is the head, even
Christ: 16 From
whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working (that is the
energy of God) in
the measure of every part,(so it matters not what measure you have
been given, that same energy of God will work in you in the same way, in the
same nature and with the same results that it worked in the whole, and it will) maketh increase of
the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
The trials and tests God gives to each of you are very unique to your own
life circumstances, and God wants your vessel to reflect Himself through your
circumstances. And it matters not who
you are. My circumstances are different with my wife’s circumstances and hers
are different from our daughters. And each of my daughters have a set of
circumstances that are unique to them, And God wants to live out their lives
and show Himself the same yesterday, today and forever in each of our lives.
No matter who you are, if you are a son or daughter of God, he wants to
borrow your body, so just loan it to him, or give it to Him, Just surrender
your self to Him that he might use your vessel to manifest His life through it.
That is what Life is all about. It’s not seeing what you can do with this
vessel, but allowing god to use it to see what He will do with it. When I was
in Africa traveling from
Well, after unloading all ten ministers, we got it fixed and proceeded
towards Choma
When I go overseas and speak to brothers who live in such a different
world than we live in, yet I see that God wants to live out through them no less
than he lived out His life through His son Jesus. And that is because God has
already ordained it, and so He has set the circumstances that surround your
life. He did it, not you. It was not good luck that placed you where you are?
It was God who set you where you are today. Psalms
37:23 “The
footsteps of the righteous are ordered of the Lord, and he delights in his
way.” Proverbs 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD
directeth his steps. Proverbs
3:
In all thy ways acknowledge
him, and he shall direct thy paths.
But where I see the problem with the church today is that the people want
to dodge what God has for them. We do not accept that our set of circumstances
means anything to God. But it does. And your unique sort of trial is there to
build His own character in you. From his sermon, Balm
of Gilead 61-0218 P:55 Brother Branham said, You
know, the new birth's what people want to dodge; they want to dodge the issue.
So the devil patches it up, says, "When you believe, that's
when you're born again." That's not right. Listen, any
birth, as I said before, any birth is a mess. I don't care where it's at. If
it's in the pig pen, it's a mess. A mess of pigs being born out there, it's a
horrible thing. If it was out in the field when a calf's born, it's a horrible
thing, nasty mess. If it's out in the pink decorated hospital room, it's still
a mess. And the new birth is a mess. But you have to have that messy thing to
bring forth new life. Amen. That's
what's the matter with the people today. They're afraid it'll wash some of
the paint off their face and make them straighten up. They got the toxine, but
they don't want to take it. And God's going to ask you why someday, didn't you
do it? Why didn't you? There's toxine; there's balm in
Turning northward 61-0129 P:20 These
twin revivals, one brings forth a man that's supposed to be intellectual; most
have been schooled. They're trying to
dodge that issue of new birth. The church is trying to dodge it. Today we
take people in by water baptisms, put them in the church by water baptism. You
might put them in the church by water baptism, but you'll never put them into
Christ by water baptism. You got to be born in there by the Spirit. That's right.
As I've often said, I say again. I don't care what kind of a birth it is, any
birth is a mess. If it's in a pig pen, or if it's in a corn shock, or if it's
is a pink decorated hospital room, it's a mess. And so is the new birth a mess.
It'll make you do things that you never
thought you'd do. It'll make you weep, bawl, cry, and raise up your hands,
and turn all kinds of shines, and everything else. And you'll act disgraceful
before a starchy, self-styled group. But you don't care, as long as you get birth
out of it.
Why 61-0128 P:46 Now
the thing of it is, that they're trying
to dodge that new birth. They got
too much prestige. They got too much head knowledge. Whenever you get to a
place that you feel you're just a little better than somebody else, when you
get to a place that you think that your stand in life is just a little higher
than the other one, you ain't going to get it anyhow. That's right. But there's
one thing about the new birth: it'll make a tuxedo suit and a pair of overalls
put their arms around one another, call each other "Brother." It'll
make a gingham dress and a silk dress put their arms around one another, and
call each other "Sister," whenever you really get down to business
with God. That's right.
Notice that brother Branham said the people have too much prestige. We
must learn to surrender our prestige to God.
Meanest man in Santa Maria 62-0630E P:83 And
the new birth is the same thing. It's a mess. But it comes life out of that
mess. Only way you can receive life, is through a birth. It's messy, but it
makes life. People try to dodge it. They don't want to wash the mascara off
their face. You'd look a whole lot prettier if you wouldn't wear it, Yes. If
you'll try a little Acts 2 and 4, it'll beat all that Max Factor ever could
make. I'll tell you that. If you'll just try a little of that, it'll be an
eternal beauty, a sweet, meek, quiet spirit. That's what this woman had. That's
what Esther had when she come before the king. That's the reason she overrun
the other girls, because she come adorning herself with a sweet spirit before
him.
Now, listen, All men try to dodge what God has for them. Even Jesus
Christ Himself tried to dodge what God had for him, did you know that? Jesus
Christ, our eldest Brother. The first born of God tried to dodge the Cross, but
after praying all night he just surrendered Himself to God’s will for His Life.
Now, that is not my opinion, that was what a vindicated Prophet of God said.
From his sermon, Souls in prison now 63-1110M P:94Brother
Branham said, I've told you the Truth. I've
hated to do it, not hating because I don't want to do what God tells me to, but
I love you. I don't want to hurt you, so what am I going to do? But pure Divine
love will drive you to do it. Jesus even
prayed to dodge the cross. "Is it possible that the cup should pass,"
said, "nevertheless, not My will, Thine."
And from his sermon, God hiding Himself
in simplicity 63-0412E P:132 When you surrender fully, He'll come in fully. But until you
surrender, He can't come in fully. Surrender. Surrender your thoughts; surrender
your thinking; surrender your life;
surrender your all; surrender your prestige. Surrender everything to Him now, and
He'll come in and fill you with the Holy Ghost. That's what He's here to do.
As we continue with paragraph 87 of the spoken Word is the original Seed brother
Branham said, All
right. All right, we notice then. See, the spoken Word... Then we are God's Word made manifest. That's how God wants His church: is to manifest Himself. How can He manifest Himself unless His Own
Seed is in that person? How can you
use your own thoughts and God manifest Himself through you? How can you
take your own belief and say, "Well, my pastor teaches... My creed says
that this... days of miracles..." How
you going to do that and then be a manifested son of God? How you going to
do it? The death of Jesus wasn't nothing to you. "Oh, I accept Him as my
Saviour." You don't. You say you do, but you don't. Your works proves what you are. Jesus said the same thing. "If
you think I am illegitimately born..."They said, "We're Abraham's son
and need nobody to teach us." Said, "If you was Abraham's children, you'd know Me." See? Said,
"Which one of you condemns Me of sin (unbelief)? Show Me one thing that God promised of Me that ain't fulfilled. Show Me one thing that the Father promised
that I haven't fulfilled. (Sin is unbelief.) Let's see you produce it
then." That de-horned them. See? Certainly. Said, "Who's accusing Me?
Who can condemn Me with sin (unbelief)?" See? "If I don't believe,
then why is the Father doing through Me
like He's doing, every Word that He promised? Now, let Me see where you got
it in yours."
What brother Branham is telling us here is that we are
ordained to reflect the image of the original seed. And that could not be
possible unless we have the life that was in the first born seed. For if we
have the life, then we have the nature, for the two are one in the sense the
nature of the life is the reflected attributes and manifested characteristics
of the life in the seed. Look, if we are so absorbed by our own daily life we
can not let Christ live it for us.
Paul
said in Romans
13:8-10 Don't
run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you
love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law says don't
sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what
isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, and any other
"don't" you can think of finally adds up to this: Love other people
as well as you do yourself. You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add
up everything in the law, the sum total is love. 11 But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking
care of all your day-to-day obligations that you lose track of the time and
doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to
break. Be up and awake to what God is
doing! God is putting the finishing
touches on the work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to
waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity
and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing
everything in sight. Get out of bed and get
dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up
and about!
So in putting on Christ we must put off self. And let the mind that was
in Christ be in you. Hat is what He wants.
Jesus Christ the same 55-0806 P:19 Now,
here's what happens. When a man starts out, he will go to reason. He will go to
the schools of theology. And he will go from church to church and wonder if
this one's got the truth, or if that one's got the truth. Or he will take his
membership from one church to another. You should never do that. You should put
your membership in heaven on the Book of Life. And there it'll be forever. Now,
all churches, Christian churches, has good meanings, every one of them, and I
believe every one of them has truth. And now, I don't mean to try to say now
they don't have all the truth. Sure, I believe... If they believe Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, that's the truth. Amen. Now, but what a man will do, he will
hear a little something and keep moving his papers. Well now, you'll never find
Christ moving your papers. You have to move your thoughts. You have to move
your thinking, and get away from reason and move your thoughts from your own
way of thinking to what God thinks. "Let the mind that was in Christ Jesus
be in you." And then when you begin to think His thoughts, you'll begin to
live His life and do the things that He did. See what I mean? Now, because it's
not you; it's Christ.
Look, what we are saying is not positive thinking. The devil has positive
thinking, but we do not want that. We want the Mind of Christ to be in us. That
is what we want. That is what God wants. He wants us to be conformed to the
image of His first born Son who came forth in His Own image.
Why it had to be shepherds 64-1221 P:40 They
would have called It some kind of a working of an evil spirit against their
positive thinking. You hear so much today about positive thinking: you just put
your mind on anything, and think positive on it. The Devil can do that. There's
only one thing that rules over all, and that's God's Word. If you're thinking
contrary to the Word; forget your
thinking. Think on the Word."
Messiah," they thought, "would not be found in such a place, a mess
as that." Could you imagine a fine, great high priest, or clergyman, all
polished in theology, would come down to a stable full of manure, and accept
the message of a poor, humble shepherd that had no education, and would come,
say "See, I can prove it to you; this is the Baby; this is the
Messenger"? And you know what them people would've said? "The man is
honest; he's very sincere in what He's saying, but he's absolutely wrong."
Future
home 64-0802 P:76 Now, many of you wonder how that
discernment comes? I'm going to tell you. See, it's a word that I say, and it
isn't my thinking, 'cause I don't know. I don't know of the thinking of it. How
can I tell you who you are and where you come from, when I don't know you? How
can I tell you what you done ten years ago, when I never seen you in my life?
How can I tell you where you do and what you'll do ten years from now? How do I
know the future? But it is Somebody
Else's thought." Let the mind that was in Christ be in you. Let the mind that was in Christ be in you."
See, then it isn't your thinking; it's
His thinking through you, and you're
not expressing your own words; you're expressing His Words.
God's
gifts always find place 63-1222 P:44 God
works through human beings to redeem human beings. He can take you, work
through you to redeem humanity, if you'll completely dedicate everything you
are .If you're a young woman, dedicate your morals. You're a young man,
dedicate your morals, dedicate your mind, dedicate
your thinking, dedicate your heart, dedicate your soul, dedicate all you
are and let Christ work through that. What a glorious thing.
Let us pray...