Faith
no 66
Faith produces that
know-so
February 18, 2018
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
1 John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life,
and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Perseverant 63-0802 P:26 See, you've got
to know. And you
cannot know until you have faith, and faith produces that know-so.
Faith is that know.
Faith is that thing that says it.
Let us bow our
heads in prayer,
"Gracious Father we have read from Thy word
this morning where the Apostle John said
that he had written to us that believe in order for us to know whether we have Eternal Life, and then we heard from your end time prophet
of Malachi 4 whose job it was to turn the hearts
(the Understanding) of the children back to the
hearts (or understanding) of the Fathers.
And This prophet of Malachi 4 which we
believe to be William Branham whom you vindicated so many times not only with
"Thus Saith the Lord" but also
with "the sign of Messiah" and
he told us that "Faith is what produces this
know so".
Therefore Father we ask that you would help us this
morning to come to the place that "we know that
we know" concerning our possessing of Eternal Life. For what
good will our Eternal Life do us if we do not even know what it is that we
have, and if we do not know whether we even have it or not.
And that seems to be the question on so many hearts
today as I get questions from around the world asking "How do I know
whether I have the Holy Spirit or not"? Therefore Father we ask
that your Presence would guide us further in your Word this Morning to secure
our assurance and knowing for certain we possess this promise of Eternal Life for
we ask it in Jesus Christ's name, amen."
Now, notice in
the 1 John 5:13
These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life,
and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
1 John 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath (or echoes) the witness in
himself:
Now, we know the
Witness is the Holy Ghost Himself, the very Life that was in the
Father and was given to the Son. We read in John 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath
he given to the Son to have life in himself;
And then we skip forward to verse 32 where
Jesus says, John 5:30 I
can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just;
because I seek not mine own will,
but the will of the Father
which hath sent me. 31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is
not true. 32 There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. 33 Ye sent unto John,
and he bare witness unto the truth. 34 But
I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be
saved. 35 He
was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice
in his light. 36 But
I have greater witness than that of John: for the works
which the Father hath given me to finish, the
same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. 37 And
the Father himself, which
hath sent me, hath borne witness of
me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 38 And
ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. 39 Search
the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they
which testify of me.
So Jesus is telling them that if you
think you have eternal Life, know one thing for sure, unless you have the same
Witness in you as was in Him, you are just fooling yourself. And he tells us
that no to only the works He does of the Father are a witness but the Father's
Life in Him is also another witness altogether.
Now, the works and the Life are one and
the same, for Jesus said, 36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to
finish, the same works that I do,
bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. 37 And the Father himself, which hath
sent me, hath borne witness of me.
So notice that the same God that sent
him went in him.
From his
sermon Why it had to be shepherds 64-1221 P:67 Br.
Branham said, "Notice, He said, "As
the Father sent Me, so send I you." The
Father that sent Him, went in Him to confirm the Word. And the
same Jesus that sends His people, goes in the people that He sends;
that's saying, "The works that I do,
shall you do also." Sure, He prayed that we might be one: one with Him, not one with an organization, not one with a system, but
one with God. For God and His Word is One, and Jesus and God was One, and
you and I and the Word must be one. That's right. We must be one in agreement with
the Word. Not what somebody else says, This is of no private
interpretation. Take It, what It says, and believe It; and God will
vindicate It, and prove that It's right. You think it's just for disciples only, take His
Word for it; go try it once and see. You'll find out that it will work for you
just the same as He promised. Yes, sir. They won't eat on slop;
they have to have a sheep diet. St. John 10 declares that; "My sheep know My Voice."
And if He is the Word, then what kind of a Voice does He have? "My sheep know My Voice; strangers they will not follow." See? Jesus said, "A strange voice they would not follow." So His sheep doesn't follow stranger's voice. They
won't follow them. Prophets, shepherds, and sheep, all testify of the coming.
So we are looking at the witness not
only being the very Life of the Father in the Son and sons, but the knowing
that we have eternal life comes in knowing that we have the life in us that was
in him. And how can we know? "He said, "As the Father sent Me, so send I you." The Father that sent
Him, went in Him to confirm the Word. And the same Jesus that
sends His people, goes in the people that He sends; that's saying,
"The works that I do, shall you do
also." Sure,
He prayed that we might be one: one with Him,
Now, let's go back to our text for this
morning and read again from 1 John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have
eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
And so in order to know we must go back
to verse 10 and begin to read from there forward.
1 John 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath (or
echoes) the witness in himself: he that believeth
not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
So what is the
record that God gave of His Son? Art the river Jordan God came down in the form
of the Pillar of Fire and entered into his son and said, "This is my beloved Son, IN whom I am
pleased to dwell in." God bearing witness to His son, that he
is pleased to dwell in him.
The
Apostle Paul speaking of the prophets, said in Hebrews 2:4 God also bearing them
witness, (How?)
both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
So if God bore
record of the prophets with signs and wonders then why have we drifted so far
from them? Because we understand that God gives these gifts to the rebellious
also.
But just because
God gives gifts unto me, to the rebellious also, does not mean that we should
flee from the gifts of that God has given us. If that were the case then only
the rebellious would have them, but that is not the case. We identified William
Branham as God's end time prophet because of not only John 14:12 was in him but also the
sign of Messiah.
Now, can you
imagine if William Branham having had God reveal to him concerning the false
anointed ones at the end time? Could you imagine after receiving this great
revelation, could you imagine William Branham deciding not to obey God anymore
and do the works of Christ he saw God show him to do because he was afraid he
might be identified as a false anointed one that he preached against?
Well that is the
same logic that many of the pastors are using who refuse to allow God to
operate in his church, because they are afraid people may say they are false
anointed. It's like a preacher friend of mine for many years, he told me about
5 years ago he doesn't preach on the adoption because too many ministers are
teaching it wrong.
I said what? You mean that you refuse to teach a truth
because some people teach that truth wrong? I said that is the reason why we
should teach it right, to straighten out the wrong that is being taught.
Well, that is no
different than those men who think that you are going back into Pentecost if
you believe the works of Christ are to be in the church. Whether a person is
false anointed or not has nothing to do with the anointing that is genuine. It
has all to do with what they teach. It is not the anointing that is false but
their teaching is false. That is what makes them a false anointed one.
Now, back to our
text...1 John 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath
given to us Eternal life, and this life
is in his Son.
So what is the
record that God has given to us Eternal Life? What is the witness we have
eternal Life? Notice what he says next. 12 He that hath
(He that echoes) the Son hath (echoes) life; and he that hath (echoes)
not the Son of
God hath (echoes) not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God; that
ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Notice that John
is telling us the record that we have eternal life, or the witness that we have
eternal life is that the same life that was in God and then given to the son
and reflected in His life is reflecting or echoing in our life.
Look, how do you
know any life? How do you identify what any life is? Every seed must come forth
after its kind, according to Genesis 1:11, right? And that means every seed
has certain identifiable attributes and characteristics that identify the life.
And by echoing
the life, by saying what it says in the same way it says it, and living out the
same expression whereby it expressed itself, shows that the same Life is in
you. You want to know whether you have eternal life, then look at the
attributes of eternal life and ask yourself if you are expressing the same
attributes and characteristics.
The Apostle John
boiled it down to one word and that was the word echo, because an echo is a
reflection, but not just a reflection as though the light is one thing and you
are able to bounce that light off of you. But John used the word echo which
means to not only say the same thing, but to say it in the same way with the
same inflection that anyone hearing it would not know the difference of that
life in the original or in the seed that comes forth from the original.
And then John
says, 14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his
will, he heareth us: 15And if we know that he hear us,
whatsoever we ask, we know that we
have the petitions that we desired of him.
The problem
today is that most Christian professors do not have the same Faith to believe
that God hears them. They ask and ask and ask, and get no response because they
ask amiss.
He said "And this is the confidence that we
have in him, that, if we ask
any thing according to his will, he
heareth us:"
Notice he did
not say if we ask anything according to our will, but according to his will. And
according to His Will is according to His Word.
The Apostle
Paul tells us at the end time God is to send us His Holy Spirit in the form of
Wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Himself.
Ephesians 1:17 That the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
(The
Father of Doxa, and we know that doxa is
the opinions, values, and judgments of God. And the Apostle Paul said God come
down in the form of the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation bringing us into the
knowledge of Himself to get us ready and that we might know...) 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: 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,
Now, brother
Branham said in his sermon,
Seventy weeks of Daniel
61-0806 P:36 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 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 we see that
this knowing, this knowing that we have eternal Life was not for just any time,
but for this end time. And so the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the
knowledge of Him comes into the church bringing with it eternal life, and the
evidence that we know for certain that we are possessors of eternal life.
From his
sermon, Doctor Moses 55-0114 P:4 brother
Branham said, So
you believe God, and
God confirms your faith by giving you back what your faith produces.
You say, "I have faith to be healed." If you have, you're
healed. God's
obligated to His Word. You see it?
So you see, when we speak of the echoing
of God’s Word, the understanding must be there or the echo will not truly give
a certain sound, but an uncertain sound.
But we are looking at the benefit of knowing
that we are truly echoing the Son of God and thus the life that was manifested
in the Son.
1 John 5:13 These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye “Echo Eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the
Son of God.
The benefit of knowing that we echo is
that we receive a certain peace and rest from our own works, and enter into an assurance of Faith that brings us into a peace
that surpasses all understanding.
We find ourselves saying the same thing
as the prophets said, when we are confronted by the same unbelief they was
confronted with.
I don't know how many times this has
happened to me when men bring up questions because of their unbelief. Or
challenge our understanding of the doctrine of Christ because their minds are
still inflexible and perhaps Jesus only. But I find words coming out of my
mouth many times that I hadn't even thought about, but when I check them out
later, I find brother Branham had said those very same words and so it brings
comfort.
Remember, Jesus said, “He that will
confess me before men, I will confess before My Father which is in Heaven.” And
knowing the word confess was taken from the Greek
word Homo-logeo which means the same word, I find it quite comforting to find myself
saying the same words the Son of God said, because those are the Words of Life that came forth from the
Father. For Jesus said, “My words are spirit and they are life.” And to
say the same words is to echo
or express the same Word.
And this brings rest, and this rest is
spoken of to take place in this hour, and it is called by the Greek Word parrhesia which means a certain boldness to
speak.
The Greek word Parrhesia means an assurance, or being openly confident, and
it speaks of an absence of fear in speaking. This word parrhesia is a Greek word used in scripture to
show assurance, open confidence and an absence of fear.
The word is used most in scriptures
which refer to or speak of the end-time condition of the Elect. This condition of assurance,
confidence and absence of fear are a direct result of the
Parousia of Christ, which is His appearing before the coming. His manifesting
in His true character and the fact that when He openly reveals Who He is and
Why He is here, this brings the Elect into a place where they now
know and understand their own position in Christ. This makes
them bold, and unashamed before Him.
Notice this word is used in the negative
sense in jesus day as we read in John 7:13 " Howbeit no
man spoke parrhesia of Him for fear of the Jews." This
shows plainly that parrhesia has to do with having no fear and these people
could not have parrhesia which was an absence of fear
and then have fear at the same time. The
reason they did not have parrhesia and thus were afraid is that they were too
concerned with what others thought, and not concerned enough with what God
Himself thought. This is where parrhesia comes from. When we have become so
filled with a sense of honor to God that we have no other thoughts but His
thoughts that we are willing and wanting to express.
But when people look for position and
station with man, they then trim their words to please men. But those with parrhesia are those who because they know who
they are and that He is here, they are willing to say only what He said, and do
what He says to do. They have placed the highest esteem in the Vindicated Word
of the hour, and no other words have value to them.
I John 2:28 " And now, little children, abide in Him; that when He shall
phaneroo, ( To manifest in His True Character) we may have parrhesia, and not be ashamed before Him at His
Parousia Presence."
This lets you know that God's Children
are to come to a condition of Parrhesia
or an absence of fear when Christ's great Presence
and disclosure (His manifesting Himself in His True Character) takes
place. And that is when the prophet of
Malachi 4 is on the scene and God Himself has descended with a SHOUT, which is
a Message.
Remember in 1 John 3:1-2 we are told that when
he phaneroo’s we too
will phaneroo because we see his phaneroo. So in essence, we begin to echo Him, and in
echoing Him, we begin to manifest his Word to the world, and
thus as His true character is revealed or openly manifested to us, we in turn
begin to manifest openly our true character that was predestined in us from
before the foundations of the world, which is the Word coming into
manifestation again. And the word again
means another echo off from the original. And we know that since the Spoken
Word is the original Seed, then each time the Life of that seed manifests, it
echoes forth from the original, again and again and again.
Therefore at this time we come into a
condition of uninhibited assurance and open confidence. This condition is a
result of the unveiling of Christ. He comes not only as Husband, but as our
Advocate and Judge. As Husband He does not have to testify against us, and as
our advocate He is our defense attorney, and as our Judge the case is sown up.
We are predestined not to fall. He that has begun the good work in you shall perform it.
He is the Author and
finisher of our faith. As Paul said in Galatians 2, "we live by the faith
of the Son of God." It
is His faith we live by, not our own. Therefore, "whom the Son shall make free is free indeed."
What else could we ask for. This brings confidence as never known before, when,
"He who gave the Word is here to confirm it,"
as brother Branham said.
Now, in I John 4:17
we read, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have parrhesia in the Day of
Judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.” Notice, we see
that there's that echo again. As he is so are we…In
the Day when the Judge is present, which we find in James 5:9, and in Revelations 3:20
and John 12:48
we shall have parrhesia, which is an absence of fear. It also lets us know that
this parrhesia comes as a result of seeing Him as He truly is. Because, "As He is so are we". And thus we know that we echo eternal life.
This statement alone ensures us of
tremendous blessings and confidence which is an absence of fear. How could God deny any part of Himself.
He can't. Then how could He deny His
Seed? He can't. Then what have we to fear? He is here to ensure that we
do not fall this time.
In Ephesians 3:12 We read, "In Whom we have parrhesia
and access with confidence by the faith of Him."
Notice, this uninhibited confidence or absence of fear comes by
receiving His
Faith. It tells us that it comes by the faith of Him. It
is not our faith, but His faith that does this. Jesus was the first one to
display this uninhibited boldness because He knew who he was and Who sent Him
as we find him in John chapters 6,7,8,9,10 where Jesus stood boldly against the
Pharisees and religious leaders of His day, and even took a whip to them in the
Temple.
Again we find the Apostle Paul speaking
of the parrhesia in Hebrews 4:16 " Let us
therefore come with parrhesia unto
the throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find Grace to help in time
of need." God wants us to come into His presence by revelation
with full assurance and He has
assured us that in so doing we shall receive not only His mercy but also His
Grace that will meet whatsoever requirements we might lack. "He that cometh to
God must believe that He is and that He is a Rewarder of them who diligently
seek Him." We must come in confidence that He hears us.
The very fact that He has come down in
this hour and has unveiled Himself to His Seed and has let us know Him as never
before and has established a relationship with us let's us see how much He loves us and wants
to fellowship with us.
Then, seeing through the Revealed Word
for this hour our place in Christ, and our relationship to God as our Loving
Father, we understand more fully our relationship that began in Him before the
foundations of the world, where we were in His thoughts and made manifest
finally in this hour. What confidence
this should brings to us.
Again we find in Hebrews 10:35 "Cast not away therefore your parrhesia, which hath great
recompense of reward." He has already blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, but we fail to receive
what He has already assured us by promise. Therefore, Paul is telling us here
that we must first receive this Parrhesia
in order to receive every other predestined blessing; especially those promises
that have to do with our placement and inheritance. And notice here that he
says, "the parrhesia has great recompense
of reward."
Now, the word Recompense is an award that
is given as a form of retribution for hurt or damage. God knows that "all that live
Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." So He gives us
a boldness to
stand when we have done all we can do to stand, and “through faith and
patience we shall inherit the promises." We also see in 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5,
7, 10-12 that we receive a
manifest token of God's judging us worthy, and thus we receive
His very mindset, His Glory, His Doxa.
And when you are filled with the doxa of
God, His opinions, His values, and his judgments, how can you not have parrhesia or absence of fear?
In John 16:25-29 "we find Jesus speaking to the
disciples the following about this parrhesia..”These things have I
spoken unto you in proverbs: But the time cometh, when I shall no more speak
unto you in proverbs, but I shall show
you parrhesia of the Father. At
that day ye shall ask in my name; and I shall say unto you, that I will
pray the Father for you: For the Father Himself loves you, because ye have
loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the
Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the
Father. His disciples said unto Him, lo, now
speakest Thou parrhesia, and speakest no proverb."
Notice that Jesus Himself is full of
parrhesia and He says that in the day when He
discloses or unveils the Mighty God before us, that we will also come into this state of parrhesia and
will not be inhibited in our prayer to God. We will know the will of God and the mind of God. He will show parrhesia to us. This lets you know that we
get this parrhesia from something that is
shown us or disclosed to us. And thus echoed
to us, and we thus echo it back to God from whence
it came originally.
In our text we read of the importance "to know that we echo the Son of God." And
we found that it brings us into a rest
and assurance of Faith.
In this next scripture we will find the
evidence of our parrhesia with God.
We read in I John 3:21 "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we parrhesia toward God."
The
condition of our heart is the only inhibiting force in our parrhesia toward God. As we saw
earlier, our parrhesia comes by His faith. We
are assured of receiving His parrhesia
if we receive His Faith, if
we echo Him, we echo
the Father. And how could God condemn you for echoing
him? Every Father wants his child to echo
himself, and His Words.
I John 5:14
"And this is the parrhesia
that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears
us."
Notice he said “according to His will. That’s
what Jesus said, “I have come to do thy will O God”.
I have come to manifest openly thy thoughts and echo the
Father. What uninhibited confidence we have in Him, that we are assured that He
will always hear us.
1 John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God; that ye may know that
ye echo eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of
God.
From his
sermon Queen of Sheba 61-0219 P:33 brother
Branham said, "The commission was "Go
into the all the world and preach the Gospel." Preaching
the Gospel was to demonstrate the power. It had to be.
What's the next verse say? "And these
signs shall follow them that believe."
The manifestations
are--the
demonstrations are the works out of the Word made positive. When
the Word is preached, signs of the Word confirms the Word to be true. If it doesn't, it doesn't come
from the heart of faith. It doesn't anchor in the heart of faith.
Did not Jesus say that some sowed seeds and when
it did it fell by the wayside and the birds gathered it? Some went in stony
ground and riches of the earth choked them out, like briers and so forth. And didn't He say some
went over and brought forth a hundredfold?
See, you must first let the Word fall in the right type of faith. And then that faith produces what
the Word said, because the Word is a Seed. The
Word of God, right here, is a Seed that a sower sows. And every
seed will produce its kind if it's put in the right atmospheres and the right condition.
You see that
is what brings parrhesia, that is what brings such assurance of Faith. It is
that kind of Faith that produces what the Word spoke of. That is how you know
that you know you have eternal Life.
1 John 5:12 that says, He
that hath (echoes)
the Son hath (echoes) life; and he that hath (echoes)
not the Son of
God hath (echoes) not life.
So when you echo the very life of the
son, then you know that you have eternal life. When you speak like he spoke,
live like he lived, act like he acted and do the same works that he did, then
you know that you are echoing tghe life of the son of God and are saying
exactly what he said,
As I have already made clear, the word
translated as “hath” that is used several times
in this verse was translated from the Greek word “echo”.
Now, if the translators had left that word un-translated as they left the word baptisma un-translated, where we get our
English equivalent baptism
from, then our understanding of this verse of Scripture would be completely
different than what most men will read this using the word hath instead of echo.
Now, in reading this verse with the word
un-translated we read it as: He that echoes the
Son echoes life; and he that echoes
not the Son of God echoes not life
of the son.
Now, that means that since God is the great fountain of Life and in John 5:26
we read "For
as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in
himself;" So we see that the life comes from the father and
then into the son. And in reading this scripture also with the word echo left un-translated it reads, it reads, John 5:26 For as the Father echoes life in himself; so hath he
given to the Son to echo life in
himself.
And as the
heart pumps the blood over and over again to echo forth the life in the body,
so too the father’s word echoed over and over and over again in His
mind and then when it begin to come forth from the Father this same echo
of life moved forward into manifestation, first into His Son and then into
Sons. Listen carefully to what brother Branham says about this.
Who do you say this is?
64-1227 P:31 Just
notice, how few recognized Him to be the anointed Word of that day. See, God in
the beginning, being infinite, and knowed all things from the beginning... And the only thing that these things are is the
display of His attributes. An attribute... You have an attribute. It's your thought. You think of
something, then you speak it, then you take it. That's God. He, in the
beginning... If you're... If you ever was or ever will be in heaven, you was in
heaven to start with. You're part of God. You
were His thought. He knew your name. He knew who you were before there ever
was a molecule, before there was a light. Before there was anything, He knew
you and your name, and put it on the Lamb's Book of Life before the world was
ever formed. See, you were His thought.
And Then you become a Word. And a word is a thought expressed. Then you're
manifested. P:32 That's
the way He was. He was in the beginning by Himself. God dwelt alone with His thoughts. He'll
never do that again 'cause His thoughts are being made manifest. And that's
why we are right here this day: is God
fellowshipping with His thoughts being made manifest. See? There we are. So
you, by taking thought, cannot add one cubit to your statue. You cannot do
this, that, or other. It's God that showeth mercy. It's God. "All the Father has given Me will come to
Me, and no man can come except My Father draws him." That settles it.
Now, we can see that 1 John 5:12 is
a perfect echo of 2 John 9, in the sense that both
speak of this great echo of Life that comes forth
from God and was echoed by the Son of God and
then by us who are able to receive the doctrine of Christ..
Turn to 2 John 9 'Whosoever
does not keep pace with, or goes beyond the limits of the doctrine of
Christ, echoes not God. He
that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he echoes
both the Father and the Son.
Now, for any
who might think that this talk on the echoing the son echoes life is just my own
little thoughts, let me show you that William Branham spoke of the same thing.
Come let us reason together
55-1004 P:90 And
now, not knowing nothing about you, and this is our first time meeting in life,
if Jesus will tell me, what you come up here to ask Him about... You come up,
not to see Brother Branham; you come up to see the Lord Jesus. And now, you believe that I'm just like this
microphone. See? This microphone can't speak 'less something speaks through
it. See? It's just a piece of metal. It's
got to have a sound here to hit it first, before it will echo (See?),
'fore it'll carry out. Now, that's the way I am.
I'm just like the microphone. See?
Now, there has to be some real intelligence behind here, Something that knows
you, and knows all about you, knows what you're here for, to speak through these lips to say that. Isn't that right?
Now, let’s look at what Jesus said about
himself. Notice in the next 4 verses of Scripture Jesus tells us exactly what
Brother Branham said here.
John 12:49 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.
That sounds
like Jesus could only echo what the father said first.
John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of
himself, but what he seeth the Father
do: for what things soever he
doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
Ok, there's
your son echoing the Father again.
John 12:50 And I know that his commandment is life
everlasting: whatsoever I speak
therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
There's your
Father speaking and then the son speaking the very say things. That's an
echoing of the father.
John 14:31 But that the world may know that I love
the Father; and as the Father gave me
commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
Again as the
father gave to me commandment that is what I do. There's your echoing again of
the father by the son.
And we'll read
one more even though the entire New testament is full of these golden nuggets.
John 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide
in my love; even as I have kept my
Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
Now, let’s examine again what William
Branham said concerning this echoing
back of God’s word.
Conference
60-1125 P:44 Then
that Holy Spirit of God, as we see on the picture of Gethsemane, that Light,
which God is Light, El Elohim, the self existing One, when He came down into His Presence. "Do you want to go through with this, Son?" What? The Angels are listening.
"What's going to be the result? The whole world lays upon Your shoulder.
Do You want to pay the price, or what do You want to do? You can come right on
now without death. There lays Calvary before you. There they'll spit in Your
face, and they'll take You to Calvary, all these things. You'll die in agony
with the crown of thorns on Your head, and Your Blood will drain out. Are You willing?" Let's see
what the conference. What’s the echo's going to be?
All Angels are standing around wondering what takes place now. The decision's
made. What is it? "Not My will but Thine be done." Notice
that Br. Branham tells us that Jesus response was to echo
the fathers will and not his own. And you must know the Fathers will in order
to echo it.
Why I'm against organized
religion 62-1111E P:117What
was the Laodicean church age messenger? Calling them out of Babylon. Look.
Churches caught in her cage with her, with her dogmas, denying the Word and
accepting dogmas. This is the Angel of Light to the Laodicean church that had
rejected Christ and His Word for dogma and had put Him outside. And He stood at
the door, knocking, trying to get in. See it? The church age had rejected the Christ, and Christ is the Word, and had
rejected It, and He was on the outside. The only church age that we have of
Christ on the outside, knocking, trying to get in. And this angel's Message, messenger come from God, was echoing his message
on the earth to come out of Babylon; come out of the organizations." The Holy Spirit today, the manifestation of
the Holy Spirit is that Angel trying to get the people back to the Word, 'cause
the Holy Spirit will only vindicate the Word. It can't vindicate dogmas;
there's no life in them. He's Life.
Notice, the Laodicean church age had denied Him, rejected Him, and had put Him
on the outside. P:118 Notice,
this Angel is the last messenger before the coming of Christ in the 18th
chapter of Revelation. The messenger's voice, if we notice, when he gave his
voice on the earth, there was a voice echoed again in
heaven: 4th verse, if you want to read it (All right.), 4th verse, the 18th
chapter. This messenger on the earth was
so inclined with God until, when he spoke it on the earth, God echoed the same thing
out of heaven. What is that 4th verse translation? What does it mean? God's voice speaking to His
predestinated people, saying, "Come out of her," just exactly what the voice was.
He's got people all out in there, all out through Babylon. Come
out of her, that you be not partakers of her sins (Yes, sir.), out of that dogma and
creeds to the Word made Spirit and Life. Amen.
Notice that
William Branham shows us how that God comes down with a SHOUT which is a
Message and then the earthly messenger only echoes what God himself spoke to
begin with.
Anointed ones at end time
65-0725M P:193 Now, I want you to know this is sure. And you that
listen to this tape, you might have thought today that I was trying to say that
about myself, being that I was packing this Message. I have no more to do
with it than nothing, no more than just a voice. And my voice,
even against my better judgment... I wanted to be a trapper. But it's
the will of my Father that I declare to do, and determined to do. I
wasn't the One that appeared down on the river; I was only standing there when
He appeared. I'm not the One that performs these things and
foretells these things that happens as perfect as they are; I'm only one that's
near when He does it. I was only a voice that He used to say it.
It wasn't what I knew;
it's what I just surrendered myself to, that He spoke through. It
isn't me. It wasn't the seventh angel, oh, no; it was a manifestation of the
Son of man. It wasn't the angel, his Message; it was the mystery that God
unfolded. It's not a man; it's God. The angel was not the Son of man; he was a
messenger from the Son of man. The Son of man is Christ. He's the One that
you're feeding on. You're not feeding on a man. A man, his words will fail, but
you're feeding on the unfailing Body-Word of the Son of man. If you haven't fed
fully on every Word to give yourself strength to fly above all these
denominations and things of the world, will you at this time do it, while we
pray?
So the prophet
is only a reflector or one who echoes what the father said first. and that is what
all sons will do.
Things that are to be 65-1205
P:20 A prophet is a reflector of God. He is made so that he cannot speak his
own word; it has to be God's Words that he speaks. He's just like a
reflector. And he is God's mouthpiece. And so, therefore, He said, "A
virgin shall conceive"; he probably could not have understand it, but God
had spoke it through him, because He promised that He would do nothing until He
revealed it to His servants the prophets. Then when he said that, it was eight hundred
years before that ever come to pass, but it had to come to pass. Finally, those
words of God anchored in the womb of a virgin and she conceived and brought
forth Emmanuel. "Unto us a--a Child is born; unto us a Son is given.
And His Name shall be called the Counseller, the Mighty God, the Prince of
Peace, the Everlasting Father." That had to be that way, because God had
spoke it through the mouth of His prophet. And all the words of God has to be
fulfilled; therefore, we know that Jesus has gone to prepare a place to receive
a people unto Himself.
Rapture the 65-1204 P:77 Now, remember,
the Word of the Lord comes to the prophet, not the theologian, the prophet. He
is a reflector of God's Word. He can't say nothing; he can't say his own
thoughts; he can only speak what God reveals. Even to the prophet Balaam when
he was tried to be sold--sell his right; he said, "How can any prophet say anything but what
God puts in his mouth?"
God's only provided place of
worship 65-1128M P:111 A prophet is God's
reflector. How many knows that? The reflector doesn't
reflect itself; the reflector isn't the reflection. There
has to be something strike the reflector to make it reflect. So a
prophet is a chosen vessel of God that cannot reflect nothing at all, but he's
in direct line with that reflection, God, to reflect the image of Christ the
Word;
Again we see
this principle laid out in his sermon Greater than
Solomon 64-0306 P:13 There
must be a supernatural sign from God to vindicate. No matter how real, how deep
it was in theology, how great it sounded, still, if God's supernatural sign
didn't vindicate it, it wasn't so, to the Jew. Now, the Old Testament, the
Aaron's plate was done away, with the old covenant. But in the New Covenant,
God still remains with the Urim Thummim. That is, if a prophet, dreamer,
theologian, or whatever it is, speaks something that's contrary to the Word,
and God don't echo it back through the Word, I'll
let it alone, for It's God's Urim Thummim. And I believe it with all my heart,
that It's God's Word.
And again in Demonology 2 Religious 53-0609 P:55 Now, then the Urim Thummim today is this
Bible. If somebody has give a prophecy or a dream, and it don't compare or echo with God's Bible, it's false; don't believe it.
Spoken word original seed
62-0318M P:23 The
Word of God continually goes on. I'm told that if we could pick up an
instrument that could catch it, that a man's voice, my voice that I speak
today, ten thousand years from now could still be picked up in the air. It's
like dropping a pebble in the middle of a pond. And the teeny little waves
after they fail to be seen by the eye, continue on till it hits the bank. And
the air-wave of our voices continually travels around and around the world;
therefore, then our voice, what we say
will be our judgment. Our testimony will rise right against us. Our own voices will echo in our own ears at
the judgment bar of God when His great instrument catches every voice that's
been spoke--every word that's been muttered.
So what are
you echoing
today? Because what you echo today will be played back at the
white throne judgment. Then if all our words are the Words of our Father God,
then won’t it be a wonderful experience at the White throne judgment? Won’t it
be wonderful for our Father God, and all the saints, and all the angels to hear
our Father’s words being repeated back at that time as our Life is reviewed
before all to see? Then what will your echo be? Will it be His own words being
spoken from your mouth? Or will it be worldly echoes? Worldly songs of lust and
sin? Will we all hear songs of praises at that day? Or will we hear country
song lyrics when your life is played back for everyone to hear?
1 John 5:12 that says, He
that echoes the Son echoes life; and he that echoes not the Son of God echoes not life.
In other words our life in Christ
becomes an echo
of the Father’s Words for everyone to hear. For the Son of God echoes forth the Words of the Father and
when we echo His Words we are echoing the Words of Life.
So we see here that Jesus Christ was
absolutely blind concerning anything that was contrary to God’s Word, God’s
Will and God’s purpose.
To know that we have Life, that is what it Faith is all about. Faith is not the promise, but Faith
is knowing you have received it.
Now, this is
different than to just repeating what the promise is, and in this case the
promise is life, But Faith lets you know that you are echoing life,
and that adds brings us into rest. And if
we know we echo Life our whole nature changes, and thus our relationship
with God changes, and thus we enter into such a peace that no man could ever
rob you of your confidence in your relationship to God and thus God’s
word.
1 John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God; that ye may know that
ye have (that you echo) eternal life, and that ye may
believe on the name of the Son of God.
So here is not the fact that you echo but the fact that you know
that you are echoing. Because then the echo
is not just something being done out of rote learning, as though you are able
to simply repeat, because to just repeat does not mean that you truly know and
understand what you are doing. But to know that you are echoing back
the same words as the Son means that you also understand what those words are
that you are saying.
How many people can quote the scriptures
verbatim and not even know what it is that they are saying. The denominational
world is full of such people. And Jesus faced those kind of people all the
time.
Let’s bow our heads and our hearts in
prayer.