Doctrine no 9
Crystallized by the Doctrine
Brian
Kocourek
Before
we Begin our message this morning we want to take a moment to dedicate Little
William Sterling Bates to the
Lord.
He is the son of Justin and Christina Bates, and He is the first little boy in
the family after having three daughters and one grand daughter, so I'm sure I'm
going to have to learn some things new that I've never been challenged with
before. But I'm sure grandma will know how to handle those things.
And concerning dedication, I usually take a
little sermon on how the parents actually are here to dedicate their lives to
raising the little ones to God, as Hannah gave her little Samuel to Eli the
priest to raise him up to serve God, and I know that you both already have
dedicated your lives to living for God, and now you have a little more
responsibility because you have two now that you must raise up as stewards of
God. He gave you this little bundle of life to raise
up and dedicate back to Him, and we trust that you will do so, as the Bible
says, "train up your children in the way they
shall go (that's the ways of God) and
when they get old they will not depart."
Now, we do not baptize babies, we dedicate ourselves
to raising up that little life unto God,
From his sermon brother Branham said, Now, Let your light so shine before men 61-0903 P:18 Now, in all deepest of sincerity, my children, I've got two
yet, that has never been baptized, as yet, because they've just been
dedicated. I got a baby in glory that was just dedicated, not baptized,
because baptism is for remission of sins (See?), to show that you
have repented. That baby has done nothing to repent for. It's a
baby, just born here in the world. It hasn't got no
power with coming here. See, and it has no sin.
When Christ died at the Cross, He died to take away the sin of the world. Until
this baby has done something to repent for, the Blood of Jesus Christ makes an atonement. But now, the mother and father, parents,
has the right to bring the baby and offer back to God the baby that was give to
them by God.
Therefore, We
will just lift this little child up before God in prayer and dedicate him to
Christ. Let us bow our heads. Heavenly Father, as Your
servant, we lift little William Sterling Bates up before Thee, in the Name of
the Lord Jesus. We dedicate him and claim his life for the
You may be
seated.
Now, if we
would open our Bibles this morning to Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things
not seen,
Let's bow our heads in prayer....
We read from
the Apostle Paul concerning Faith where he said, Faith is
the Substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of
things not seen,
So we see
that Faith is both a substance and an evidence. And since we know that Faith is a Revelation, because a vindicated
prophet told us this in several of his sermons.
Works is faith expressed 65-1126
P:46 Now, "faith" is a "revelation from God."
Now, "faith" is a "revelation."
There's where I want to stay there just a moment. It's a revelation. He has
revealed it to you by His grace. It's nothing you did. You didn't work yourself up into
faith. You never had faith; it's give to you by the grace of God.
And God reveals it to you; therefore, faith is a revelation. And the
whole
Rapture the 65-1204 P:40 But to the church, the Bride, the rapture is a revelation to her.
It's revealed to her, that the revelation, the true Bride of Christ will be
waiting for that revelation of the rapture. Now, it is a revelation, for
the revelation is faith. You cannot have a revelation without it being faith. Faith is a
revelation, because it's something that's revealed to you. Faith
is a revelation. Faith is something that has been revealed to you like
it was to Abraham, that could call anything contrary
to what had been revealed to him as though it wasn't so. Now, faith... That's what faith is, is the
revelation of God. The church is built upon a revelation, the whole
entire body.
So let me stop here for another minute,
because I think I maybe touching on one of those sacred isms many of us may
have had for many years which I think by what brother Branham is telling us here, our sacred isms are wrong.
For those of you too young to know what I'm
talking about, we used to say things like, "we don't have enough faith
to heal a hangnail much less have faith to change the body,"
as though faith is something we can conjure up. As though faith is some mental
prowess or mental or spiritual condition we can work ourselves up into.
And so we conjured up in our minds that God
will have to do something mighty powerful to give us "rapturing faith". And so already in our minds we drift from God's will by trying to figure out how God
will give us this Faith, when faith is simply a
revelation, it is something God
reveals to you, and if God reveals it, then it is not by might nor by power but by My spirit saith the
Lord.
From his sermon, Anointed
ones at end time 65-0725M P:38 brother
Branham said, What is faith? Faith is something
that's revealed to you, that
is not yet, but you believe it will be. Faith is a revelation of the
will of God. So by revelation...And the churches today don't even
believe in spiritual revelation. They believe in a dogmatic teaching of some system."
So in
reading the words of the apostle Paul, he said Faith (let's insert the
word revelation.) Revelation is the Substance of things hoped
for, and the
evidence of things
not seen,
or
as brother Branham said, "not seen yet". And if Faith, or Revelation is the substance of
things hoped for, we must understand that the word hope means an earnest expectation. Something that we are looking earnestly to
take place or happen sometime in the future but has
not yet taken place.
And the
Apostle Paul also said in Romans 8:24-25
for we are saved by hope: but hope
that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we
see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Notice the
wisdom here. he says if we hope for it, then that
means we earnestly expect that
thing to happen. And if we earnestly expect it to happen, then we will have
patience to wait for it to happen. So it is not a matter of our pressing
ourselves into this super duper faith to make our bodies obey our command and
thus we bring on the change of the body. But simply speaking, If we truly
believe that the Rapture is a revelation, and we know the definition of
revelation is "the manifestation of Divine
truth," then we must be willing to wait until the time that God
begins to bring on the resurrection and change of the body, and we will by
seeing this Divine truth manifested, we will see or witness the revelation of
it, and know we are a part of it because it is revealed to us.
And Paul
said, if it has appeared to us then we are no longer waiting
for it, right? for we are saved by hope: but hope
that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we
see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
So when it
is seen it is no longer hope. When it is seen it is no longer an earnestly
expecting. It's here!
So, I hope
and trust that by now, we have come to the position of having passing beyond
Faith, when it comes to the Revelation of Christs Appearing. Because we know he
is here, we know the Lord has descended with a Shout, which is a Message. We
are in it, so what are we looking down the road for it to still happen
somewhere down the road, when it has already begun.
One Third of
the events have already began, and have taken place.
And the Order of His Coming, the Rapture of the saints, the gathering together
unto Him and all those events which pertain to The end-time Revealing of
Himself, and the going home of the Elect, are in place right now, and we are
partakers of His Great Revealing.
So what
faith does it takes to believe in the rapture when we are already in it and one
third of it has already passed by.
Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of
God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark
to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became
heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
Noah being warned by God what was coming, by Faith began to apply the token
for his family, and he built the ark and entered into it, and then waited for
the rain. All this was by faith up to and including God shutting the doors, and
then once God shut the doors, he had to just sit back and wait for the rain to
come. But he was already in the ark (As we are already in Christ because it was
Christ that came down with a shout, which was the warning) before the rains
came, and the ark (a type of Christ) took him up, which is a type of being
caught up to avoid the storms of judgment that hit the earth.
Then once he
was in the ark, faith was no longer needed, because as brother Branham said,
Faith is no longer when we can see that these things have already taken place,
or that they are in the process of taking place, and we are able to not only
see them take place, but we are also able to recognize what is happening and
tie them back to the promise.
Oh, brothers
and sisters, you know, I've been hammering for years now that revelation is
manifestation of Divine truth. Revelation is watching the unfolding, the
unveiling of the Word which is Divine truth.
And when God begins to open the eyes of your heart (which is revelation)
and you actually see unfolding His purpose and plan for you to be a part of the
Shout, Voice and Trump. Then you are no longer waiting, you are no longer
needing faith to help you hold on until, because until is already come.
Then we have
come to the place that we are no longer looking for the rapture but we have
entered into the process of receiving it as it is unfolding one stage at a
time, thus making you and that part of the Word One, and thus making you an integral part of these End-time
manifestations of Christ.
Now, seeing
and recognizing this manifested End-Time Revelation of Jesus Christ does not make
you Him, but it makes you a part of Him. Just like John
Hebrews 11:1 KJV Now Faith is
the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Before
we move on I want you to look at this verse of scripture here and notice it
says that Faith is not only the Substance... But Paul tells us Faith is the very evidence or assurance of things hoped for.
Notice that the Apostle Paul tells us that
Faith is The Substance and The Evidence.
And notice he tells us that Faith is not a
substance, but THE Substance. And
we know that the word "substance" according to Webster, is "the real or essential part
or element of anything; the essence, reality or basic matter. The physical matter of which a thing exists.'
Therefore, if Faith is THE Substance, then Faith must be made from
the same essence
that God is. Right?
Now, this word for Substance was translated from the Greek word, Hupostasis and
we find this word also uses by the same author of this Book of Hebrews
in the first chapter.
Hebrews 1:3 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;
Now, which word do you suppose in this verse
is the same Greek word for substance
that was used in chapter 11?
It's the word Person.
Which describes the very essence of God. Therefore if Faith is THE Substance or Essence of God, then Faith is no different than the Son of God
because let's face it, "In the beginning was
the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became
flesh."
And since we are
also told by Scripture that "as a man thinks
in his heart, so is he". And Jesus added to that, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth does speak",
then a man and His Word are the same.
Therefore a man is the composite of what his thoughts are, and no more and no
less than what he thinks in his heart is what he is.
Now, what I am trying to do this morning is
to help you see how that the revelation of Jesus Christ will crystallize who
you are.
In the book of Job we hear him say these
words, "The things I feared the most have come
upon me", and this is not just a truism, but it's a fact.
Because after all, our minds are but a garden of seeds that have we have sown.
And whatever seed we sow is what we shall reap
according to the law of reproduction as God set forth in the Book of Genesis.
If we sew positive seeds of Faith, we shall
reap what we have been sewing, and we shall reap the blessings that come by
believing. But if we sew negative seeds of doubt, then we shall also receive
what doubts we have been sewing.
Therefore if we are to doubt anything, we
should doubt our doubts. For Faith is the evidence of things which we do not
see, touch, feel, smell or hear. Faith is the evidence, therefore if Faith is
the evidence, then it is the conviction, and assurance of those things being
there, although in our five outer senses we can not detect it's
presence. And Faith is not only the evidence
but it is the substance.
Then our faith, which is a revelation being
not a substance but The Substance, is also The person.
So we are going far beyond just a right
mental attitude. we are coming into God Himself.
Revelation is THE Substance, the Person of
God, and It being manifested openly to you is the
evidence that you are part of that great drama.
And so we
then begin to see the significance of our being Elected and specially chosen by
God Himself, even before He framed the world, to become recipients of His Glory,
His values and opinions, and therefore, we see the great significance
of the Holy Spirit, the Great Father of Glory Who has personally came down
among us in this last hour, and He is here with the purpose of giving us The Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Himself which we see 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:
Now, this ought
to let us know that the Shout which brought the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation
in the knowledge of God also began the working of the Voice within us, which is
the resurrection and change of the body.
As Paul said, Philippians
Ephesians
3:20 Now unto him that is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power
that worketh in us,
1
Thessalonians 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye
received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the
word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you
that believe.
Brother Branham
taught us that when you are born again then you now
have a new heart which is a new understanding, and this new understanding gave
you a new desire and then God gave you His own spirit or life into you and now,
you are able to know and understand, and so then you have faith, you
have revelation, and that revelation works into you an outward expression
and that gets you out of the way so God's own spirit now is the
tie-post in your soul. And when Paul was looking for the very mind of God, the
Spirit of wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of God the Father, and he did
this for one purpose, and we see that in Ephesians 1:18 That the eyes of
your understanding may be enlightened; and that you may know what is the hope
(or the earnest expectation) of his calling
(is all about. In other words, then you will know what and why God has called
you, and that is ) what the riches of the glory of
his inheritance is in the saints, You see, The Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of the
Father is the spirit of adoption.
Its to get you ready for the adoption. Brother Branham
taught us that the child, though a son was placed under tutors and governors
until the time for adoption, and when he had the mind of His father, then he
was worthy of being adopted. And then everything that belonged to the Father
was shared co-equally with the son.
I hope you
are getting what I am trying to tell you. God has come in this hour with the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Himself
to give us a change of the mind and to get us ready for a change of the body
which Paul called the adoption, to whit the redemption of the body.
Now, before
anyone has a chance to think brother Brian is going
off the deep end here, let me explain what I mean by that. When you receive the
baptism of the Holy Spirit you have received the earnest of the resurrection in
you right there.
So
Paul tells us this, we are to be given the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in
the knowledge of Him (and don't forget this revelation is in the form of
manifestation of Divine Truth.) In other words, we have witnessed the power of
God in the Shout, and He gave us a certain anointing to know all things
concerning Him and our inheritance and resurrection.
Let me read
this again, ... ... 18 That the eyes of your
understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the
saints, 19 And what is the exceeding
greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working
of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ,
when he raised him from
the dead, and set him at his own right
hand in the heavenly places,
And this
same Apostle said in Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the
dead dwell in you, he
that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by
his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Now, we know
this quickening is a making alive. But it is more than just being alive, it is a transforming power in you. a
resurrection power which is now in your body.
True Easter seal 61-0402 P:69 Now, we are resurrected today. Why can we have such a time over
the things of God? Because we're resurrected.
"Those who He
foreknew, He called; those who He called, He justified; those who He justified,
He has glorified." Then
we are now resurrected. We
are resurrected from the inside out, not from the outside in. Oh, do
you notice, not sealed out this way, but sealed in. Oh, my, if the
church could just see it. See, we're not sealed out; we're sealed in.
Them days, when sin was abomination before God, and there was no appropriation
to take it away, we were sealed away from it. Now, when that ripped in
two, and that seal was broke by a sin-offering being made from us, now we're
baptized inside and sealed inside. We are resurrected. We are now
resurrected, already resurrected. How do you know? The Bible said so. Amen.
We are now resurrected. We are now raised with Him in spiritual resurrection.
What does the word "quickened" mean? "Quickened" means "resurrection." That's right. We're
already resurrected right now, setting together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, enjoying the Easter Seal. Amen. That's God's true Easter Seal. How
are we? By one Spirit baptized into the Body, and sealed eternally. We are
now raised spiritually. What did we raise from?
From a life of sin; we were once sinners and loved the things of the world.
You see where
we are at? We are past tense, already quickened, which means we are made alive
from being dead. That's resurrection, the resurrection power of the Holy Ghost
in you.
Therefore, I
hope you can see the importance of receiving this Spirit
of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of him. (that word knowledge is epiginosko,
meaning a full knowledge based on a full intimate relationship.
And it takes
this Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation
or manifested Divine truth coming into His church to make her a bride filled
with the mind of Christ and readies us by quickening us, or making us alive. The Spiritual union of the bride of Christ.
For only those who receive it can in fact receive first the change in the inner
man, which is needed before we are able to receive a change of the body that
will allow for a Rapture or catching away.
That's why Paul said in Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, (one that is) holy,(and
don't ever forget that, because God said, I am Holy therefore be ye Holy, and
He who is Holy gave us His Holy Spirit, His Holy Life to make us Holy). "that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service." 2 "And be not conformed to this world: but be
ye transformed (how?) by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove (that you may
approve by being put to the test) what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will
of God.
So we are looking at the effects of "the Shout" in your inner man which is being transformed by the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Seventy weeks of Daniel 61-0806 P:36 It's laying back in that condition. And that only shows that this is
just a period of time. Can't you see? God don't have things out of cater.
He's just letting it run like that for a little time. And I truly believe that
that thing was done, and at this last days is when God
is going to reveal these secrets to the church. He hasn't done it before,
and the reason He hasn't done it is to keep the church a-watching and
praying all the time, not knowing when it was coming. But you remember in
Daniel 12 He said, "The wise shall understand in the last--in this last days"? It's been given to him. The Spirit of
wisdom comes into the church to make known to the church by the revelation of
the Holy Ghost, bringing
the church in and revealing what day that we're living in. Just the same as
Gabriel come to Daniel, the Holy Spirit comes to the church in the last days to
reveal these great, deep, secret things. Do you understand now?
So the Revelation of His presence, the manifestation of His
presence, was for the purpose of the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in
the full disclosure of Him coming to the church in the last days to reveal
these great, deep, secret things.
That's the shout of 1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in
the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore
comfort one another with these words.
Notice what it does for us, as we see in 2
Corinthians 4: 16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
And we see
where this renewing takes place in Ephesians
And we see
how it is renewed in Colossians
Notice in
both Ephesians
Now, I think
it is interesting to note that in everything God has for us, there is always a
positive and a negative, to that thing. Deuteronomy 28 tells us that for every Blessing,
there is also a cursing, but it all depends on our approach with Gods Word.
Whether we
want to receive it or reject it. For in receiving It,
we receive the blessings, but in rejecting His Word or just walking away from
it, we receive the curse of God. And since Life is the fruit of the blessing,
and suffering and death are the fruits of the cursing, then why would anyone in
their right mind, want to reject what blesses.
And if
you'll notice we read in both Ephesians 4:24
and in Colossians
3:10 the word after
where it says, And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him, is the manner in which God will bring forth
the image of our inner man.
This Word after
is taken from a Greek word, Kata
and is pronounce the same as the Japanese word Kata.
Now in the Japanese culture the "Kata" is a form or an exercise
that one does to make a harmony between your body and spirit. But
whereas the natural man always focuses on his body, the True Believer is
focused on His Soul and Spirit being in harmony with God through being in
harmony with His Word.
So in reading both Ephesians
After the image, kata the image,
and the word kata
in Hebrew means in the likeness of.
So we read it as thus: And have put
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge in the likness
of the image of him that created him
Notice he is renewed in knowledge in the likeness of
the creator Himself. So it is God's own knowledge that brings on our change,
when he reveals this knowledge to us.
And God's Word
is a seed and therefore it is a carrier of God-Life. And therefore after it is
sown, it must begin to bring forth a life in the image of what was sown. And
that is exactly what we read in Colossians 3:10, and Ephesians
4:23.
Now, we are told by Peter in 1 Peter 1: 23 Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth for ever.
Then those
born of incorruptible
seed must come forth after or in the likeness of God-Life, and those born of
corruptible seed will bring forth a corrupt form of life. They cant help it, The law or life in Genesis
And what
makes every seed come into manifestation of what life is in there is the Light of
God's Word shining on that seed.
The Apostle
Paul said that it takes Light to make anything manifest. Ephesians 5:13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by
the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. ,
Therefore,
if there is no light then we will never know what the seed really is. Then we
should not be so surprised when we see people who we might have known for years
and years become different so quickly when we echo or reflect the Light of God
to them.
And we are told by Peter in 2 Peter
1: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and
of Jesus our Lord,
And
therefore we see the manifestation of the Attributes and characteristics of God
are formed into us through His Word. As we read in 2 Peter 2: 4 Gods very nature, His
Divine Nature comes into us by His Word.
2 Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
So
therefore brethren, in closing, if we have truly been caught up into the
revelation of the Shout, which is the manifestation of God's presence to us,
then we should not be looking for some ourselves to be coming into some sort of
Faith that will put us in the rapture, for Faith or Revelation is the
Substance, it is the person of God, and he has come to you. It's not you rising
up to Him, but He has come down to your level to make you a part of His great
unfolding, and he began the unfolding in His own Son, and in this day in
William Branham vindicated prophet of God, the first fruit of the harvest, and
now in you.
Then
what are you afraid of today? Brother Branham told us that the One who gave the promise is here to confirm the promise.
And what is the promise for this day? That there will be a Rapture, which is a shout, a Voice, and a trumpet! And has
He not already confirmed to you your place in His Shout? Have you not
heard the
Just learn
to trust and obey for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus, you've got to
trust and obey.
Let's just
bow our hearts for a word of prayer.