God’s Only Provided Place of
Worship # 80
Brian Kocourek,
You’re a Creation By the Word
Wednesday evening we examined pp. 250 again, where brother Branham
said, "your life is hid in God
through Christ, and sealed by the Holy Ghost.
We examined this thought of your Life being hid in God
through Christ in contrast Colossians 3: 4 that tells us "when Christ is
our Life shall Appear, we shall Appear with Him in
Glory." We looked at the apparent paradox that lays here because we see on
the one hand that the Scripture tells us that our Life is hid in God through
Christ, the anointed Word, and yet we are also told by scripture, and remember,
the Scripture is God breathed. It is the Word of God and the same Word of God
that tells us we are hid in God through Christ also tells us that when he
Appears, When He comes and manifests Himself in His true Character, we shall
also Appear or manifest ourselves in our true character with Him in Glory which
is the same mindset.
So then to reconcile these scriptures, we must ask
ourselves, "How can we be hidden and yet manifested at the same time. And
we found our answer in the place of hiding. It is in God through the anointed
Word which is Christ. So, although we are hidden in God, yet we are not hidden
from God. And remember, the last attribute that God appeared to Abraham before
the fire fell and before the promised Son arrived, He appeared as Judge.
Abraham said, "Shall not the Judge of All the earth do right?"
So we see that to the Judge we are manifested in our
true character, but to the world we are hidden in God who is the Judge. Now
remember, in 1 John 3: 1 He says therefore the world knoweth you not because it
know Him not." And if we are in Him, who is the
Word, then how can they know us. We even see in John 3: 19 - 21 that they will
flee from the Light and if you are the Light of the world they will flee from
you. I know this from first hand
experience. When I came into this Message all my friends forsook me. Even my
friends who were Christians at the
The next thing, I went to a supposed believers church in Mpls. And when
I began to see how wrong they were and that the pastor was off the word, I was
turned over to the Devil their with My wife and a few
friends. I walked into he church library one night
because I felt since I bought and made over half the tapes in their church
Library that I was entitled to be able to still go and use them. When I would
walk in the door, every one else would walk out. You don't know what a feeling
that is. Twice turned
over to the Devil. But I guess,
as much as the devil wanted me, God would not let him have me, because, though
the Devils ministering
angels of tried to turn me
over to him on two occasions, it never
worked. But this just goes to show, that their will be a continual thinning out
of the ranks before we reach the end of the road.
When I came into the Light of His Glorious Presence, I
finally thought, at least I have met some people that believe and will be
together for years to come. But as you know, even amongst those who believe
that He is here, the numbers have been thinning down more and more each year
with destructive heresies creeping in such as the Female Holy Ghost and the
Fullness of the Godhead
coming into the Bride. So we might as well get used to it.
Attrition has set in and it is because what we know and believe is also hid in
God through the same anointing of Christ. After all, if Christ is the Word and
the Word is hid, and we are hid in Him, then only those who are in Him will
manifest with Him in the same Doxa, which is His
mindset. All others will continue to go from bad to worse, deceiving and being
deceived.
Now, this morning I would like to continue with
Paragraph 251 of God's Only Provided Place of Worship. This is number 80 in our
series.
251 Then a
new creation, not to a denomination but
to the Word. You're a creation of
the Word. Because the foundation stone was laid in you before the foundation of
the world, predestinated to be sons
and daughters of God.
This morning I would like to take our emphasis on this
paragraph 251 where brother Branham said, . "You're a creation of
the Word. Because the foundation stone was laid in you before the foundation of
the world, predestinated to be sons
and daughters of God." Now, we see here 3 things that brother
Branham is telling us.
#1) He says, You are a New Creation, a Creation of The Word.
#2)
Because the Foundation stone was laid in you before
the foundation of the world.
#3) Through the intermediary agency of
predestination, you are also Sons and Daughters of God.
Now, let's look at Point #1) " You
are a New Creation, a Creation of the Word.
I believe we shall have to look at this as two
separate issues. 1st
of all, he said, you are a new creation. And then he said, you are a Creation of the Word. Now in order to understand
what he is telling us here we must first ask ourselves, what is a Creation. The
word Creation comes from the root word, to create. Webster's Dictionary says, a creation is
"a being created". So we then must ask ourselves what does
the word create mean? And we again find this according
to Webster, the word create means 1> to cause to come into existence; to
bring into being.... and another definition is this 4 > to be the first to play a
particular role in a play. Now,
I think this latter definition is a good one because we are indeed coming into
a role which is a first. We are a chosen people who are ordained to go in a Rapture. And that is a first, with the exception of Enoch.
But as a people, no other time in history has there
been a people who are called Bride and elect and who have collectively become
changed in the inner man and then in the outer man as well. The Bible does not
say that Enoch received a transformation in His body. He was just taken up and
we know that he must come back to the Jews along with Moses who also was taken
up into Glory by the angels.
Brother Branham told us that Moses and Elijah would be
the two witnesses to the Jews after the Rapture of the Bride. He said that they
had to come back to die in the flesh. From
Q & .A in
the COD book preached in
So we see in a sense we are the first to play a
certain role in God's great drama of redemption. We will be the first to be
changed and then raptured. And remember, [Romans
12: 1 - 2] tells us that we receive a change first in the inner man ( renewed in the mind) and then we receive a
transformation in our flesh. But the definition I think brother Branham was
truly focusing on is the first one we read from Webster's Dictionary. " to cause to come into existence; to bring into
being..."
Now, notice what brother Branham is telling us here.
He first says, we are a New creation, and then he
defines it much tighter by saying a Creation of the Word. So if we look at creation to mean, "a causing to come into existence",
or better yet, " a being brought into being" we
can then see that He is telling us something about the Word which is causing
something to happen in us that we could not see before. Something
new and wonderful. A New Creation. A New beginning. Something coming into existence that has it's source in the Word of God.
Now, we know that brother Branham is a Word Prophet.
So with this in mind let's take this thought he has given us here, to the word
of God.
Ephesians 2: 1 " And you hath He quickened (made alive) who
were dead in trespasses and sins;" here you'll notice that Paul is
telling us the same thing. We are made alive. We who
were actually dead as far as God is concerned, have been made alive by God.
Now, something that comes to life is said to have a new beginning. A new existence. And we see here that it is God Who brings
about this New Creation by His Word.
Notice how Paul uses the Word "Quickened",
which means to be made alive. We are dealing with Life. This is what the entire
Message of God is dealing with, Life. He is the Author of Life and He quickens
us to Life, Eternal Life, His Life. Do you remember
what Jesus said to
Martha, at the grave of Lazarus? He said, "I am
the Resurrection and the Life" [ John
[John 1: 1 - 4]
<read> Notice
the scripture says, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word
was with God and the Word was God," and then it says, " In
Him was Life and the Life was the Light of Man. " So we are
looking at a God here who is spoken of by His own Scripture as being the very
Word of God. Now, didn't Jesus also tell
us, "As a man thinketh, so is he. And out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." So in this sense a man is His
Word. He is no better
than His Word and no less than His word. And the same law holds true for God,
because He said it. So we find that His Word is just an expression of Who He is. That is why He has descended with a Shout in this
hour [ 1 Thes
But, notice what I am trying to make clear to you. God
is the Author of Life. And His Word is only His way of expressing that Life.
And When His Word became flesh, that flesh spoke to Martha and said, " I am The resurrection and the Life!"
Now Resurrection is a bringing back to Life and so we see the One Who is Life
can also bring back to Life. And in
[Ephesians 2: 1] When Paul said, "And you hath He quickened,"
this word "Quickened" is a Greek word which means "
To give Life to, to cause to become"
This sounds
just like the word create which also means to cause to become. Now, Webster
says the word "Quicken means to revive or to animate. And if something is
revived, it had life at one time, lost it and now has come back to Life again.
So when brother Branham says, " we are a new
creation , a creation of the Word," And we know a creation is something
that is becoming, or coming into existence, then we know that we are dealing
with a result of the Light or the Word. Life begets Life. And if we follow this
thought here with the other two points he made we see the entire picture
opening up before our very eyes.
#1) "He says, You are a New Creation, a Creation
of The Word." We see by Scripture that this new beginning is
actually a revival, or a reviving in us something that lay dormant. And
therefore the Light of God which is His Word is causing something in us to come
forth bearing Life. In [1 Peter 3: 8 ] "For
Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the
Spirit." Notice how Peter
uses the same word quicken in a sense not only to make alive, but notice how he
first let's you know that what Life Jesus had in His was taken from Him in
death, but by the Spirit of God He was made alive again, or quickened. So we
see the real sense of this word quicken means to make alive again. Not just for
the first time, but to <re-vive>
which the prefix RE means to do all over again.
And if this is the case with Jesus then it has to be repeated in God's
other Seed. In fact this same Greek word
for quicken is used in nature to suggest that each spring the plants receive
new life which is a type of resurrection.
So in point number one, we see the effect of the word
upon us. It actually takes a vessel which had Life at one time and brings back
Life into that Vessel. Now then the
question is, "When did we have Life at one time?" And our answer is
in point #2. He said, You are a New Creation, a Creation of The Word #2) Because the Foundation stone was laid in
you before the foundation of the world.
So we see here then that there had to be something in us before the
foundations of the world that was in us but lay dormant for ages until this
hour.
[Ephesians 1: 3
- 4] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be Holy and without blame before Him,
.." Now, you will notice we were
actually chosen, or selected out for placement, in Him before the world was
even framed.
We also find in [Job
38: 4 & 7] Where wast
thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast
understanding....verse 7 When the
morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy?" We see here that we were actually partaking in
the worship of God before the world was even framed but something happened.
Brother Branham said, we bypassed our theophany when
we came into these bodies. But he said, Jesus never bypassed His theophany, and
that is why Jesus knew Who He was all along and we find Him speaking tot he
Father in [John 17: 5] " And
now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with thine own Self with the glory which I had
with Thee before the world was." So we see here that Jesus knew Who He was and from whence He came. He said, " I came from God and I go back to God." And we find brother Branham telling us the
same thing about the Bride in this hour.
He said in our point #2) that this New creation which comes from the Word actually had
it's beginning in us before the foundations of the world. Because
He had laid the foundation stone in us even before He laid the foundations of
the World.
Now we must ask ourselves what is this foundation
stone? In [Ephesians
[Romans 8: 28 - 30] <read>
Notice, it is speaking of those that are "THE" called. Not just
called, but "THE" called. A special called out people. And notice it
tells us we have already been glorified. This is past tense, it is already a finished
work. That's why brother Branham could
point to [1 Corinthians 15] and tell
us we already have a Glorified body waiting for us and that this body is only a
reflection of the one we are going to.
We were in Him before the foundations of the world full of Life and Joy
and peace resting in Him. And then notice brother Branham said, we are a
Creation of the Word,
we have been RE-vived or made to live
again because He was in us before the
world ever began. That is what the term born
AGAIN is all about. Made alive again. Alive
at one point, (before the foundations of the world) then something happened,
(we bypassed out theophany and came into this world for testing) and now made
alive again. But remember, the test was for the purpose of approval. He only
tests us because He knows we are ordained to pass the test. But that's another
sermon altogether.
[1 Peter 1: 3] "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant Mercy hath begotten us AGAIN unto a Living Hope by the Resurrection of
Jesus Christ out from among those who are dead."
Now remember, Jesus said, "My Words are Spirit and they are
Life". So when we think in terms of the Word of God we must think
in terms of His very Spirit and Life. So
then in reviewing
Points # 1 & #2 #1)
"He says, You are a New Creation, a Creation of The Word." #2) Because the
Foundation stone was laid in you before the foundation of the world. In other words, we are being brought forth anew because the
very Life of Jesus Christ who is the Word,
was placed in us before the
foundations of the world. And because this God Life was already in us, when the
Light struck
the Seed, it had to come forth a new creation which Webster says is a being
brought into being. And this leads us to the catalyst behind all this.
Point #3) Through the intermediary agency of
predestination, you are also Sons and Daughters of God. In other words, as we saw in Ephesians 1: 3- 5 we
were in Him chosen before the He even began to frame the world. And this
choosing is actually a placing. So then what were we to be placed as? Sons and daughters. God's kids. His own Children.
[Romans 8: 29]
For
Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of
His Son, THAT ( The purpose for this ) He might be the Firstborn
among many brethren. Notice
God's purpose of conforming us to the Image of His Son is to have many brothers
and sisters for His firstborn.
[Romans 8: 29]
Wuest Translation
"Those whom He foreordained He also marked out beforehand as those who
were to be conformed to the derived image of His Son, with the result that He
is firstborn among many brethren."
[Romans 8: 29]
Weymouth Translation " For those whom He has known before hand He
has also predestined to bear the likeness of His Son, that He might be the
Eldest in a vast family of brothers;"
So we see that God was determined to have many
children that bear resemblance to His Eldest Son, His Only begotten Son. What a family! And what a
blessed hope. Even Jesus talked about this himself.
[John 20: 19]
" Jesus said unto her, 'touch me not;
for I am not yet ascended to My Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto
them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father; and to My God, and
your God."
#3) Through the intermediary agency of
predestination, you are also Sons and Daughters of God. Notice how God through Predestination brings us into
the same likeness as His Only begotten Son. And what is this predestination? It
comes from the word pre-destiny. Our destiny was marked out before hand. That
is the only way God could be sure that we would arrive in the image He
purposed in His Will for us. So as the law of reproduction was set forth in
Genesis 1: 11 " every Seed after it's kind". God then placed in us
the Original seed or Foundation stone which was Christ the Word. Are not Some fruit tree seeds called stones? And are we not the
fruit of the Tree of Life. If
every Seed must bring forth of It's kind, Then the Tree of Life
had to have Seed also or it was a dead tree. And you know what Jesus did to the
fig tree that did not bear fruit. He cursed it and it withered. So then the
Tree of Life had to have Seed, and the Spoken Word is the Original Seed. And
the Seed of the Tree of Life, the Foundation stone or seed was actually placed
in us before the world was even brought forth into existence. And in this hour
when God has come down in a ministry to unveil and reveal Himself, we are told
that when He appears we shall also appear with Him because as He is in this
world so are we.
[ Colossians 3: 4] 'When Christ who is our Life shall Appear,
then shall we Appear with Him in Glory."
Notice it tells
us that He is our very Life, and when this Life in Him manifests in it's true character, so shall the same Life that is in us
manifest in it's true character as well. Why? Because we are predestinated to
be in the same likeness as His Son. Why? Because we are His Sons!
[1 John 3: 2] Beloved, now are we The Sons of God, and it
doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall Appear,
( When? At His Appearing) we shall be like Him; (Why? ) For we shall see Him as He is. But just because we see Him, how does
this guarantee that we will be like Him?
[ 1 John
[ Acts
And Jesus said, " I have
come that you might have Life, and that you might have it more
abundantly." Then if He is the same,
yesterday, today and forever, if He is here today, won't he have the same
purpose in Mind? Now, we shall review
what this more abundant life is all about the next time we meet. Let's now just bow our head and our hearts in
prayer.
Our Gracious Father, we are such a privileged people to hear your voice in this day.
Lord, we have covered just one of your Prophets messages and we have already
spent 80 sermons feasting on the hidden manna. And Lord, we again thank you
this morning for what you have shown us from this message of your servant
brother Branham. May we take this word into our hearts and may it bring forth
into manifestation that new creation which you promised your Word would bring
forth, for we ask it in the name of your first born, Our Lord Jesus Christ.