God’s Only Provided Place of
Worship # 84
Brian Kocourek,
Our
Source In God
Wednesday night we spoke from pp. 251 where brother
Branham said, "you become a new creation, to the Word. and
You're a
creation of the Word.
We found that if we are a new creation, it is to the Word and of The Word. And remember, the
word "of" means, having
it's source from. Just as we read [Galatians
With this in mind, we read again [Ephesians
We then broke this Scripture down into 5 basic points
which are as follows:
POINT # I. Be
renewed in the Spirit of your mind
POINT # II. Then you
put on the new man
POINT # III. which after God is
created
POINT # IV. In Righteousness
POINT # IV. True
Holiness
We began by examining POINT # I. Paul
said, "Be renewed in the Spirit of your
mind" The word [renewed] is a Greek word
that means "to be recently born, or young again". What we found here
is an element of innocence and cleanness and freshness. Just thinking of a
newborn or even a young child and you automatically picture in your mind a
certain innocence involved, and remember it is this renewing, or bringing forth
of a certain innocence in the spirit of your mind which allows for the Word to
come forth and change your thinking first, and then the body will follow.
So we see that Paul wanting the Bride to be renewed in
the attitude of her mind. He wanted her to create within her an atmosphere that
is conducive to walking in the Spirit. In [Phillipians
[ Phil 4: 8] Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. That's how you create that
atmosphere! Didn't brother Branham say that you create an atmosphere by the
things you talk about and the things you think about?
[James 3: 17] The wisdom that is from above is pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without
partiality, and without hypocrisy.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace and of them that make
peace.
We also saw that when he said, "Be
renewed in the Spirit of your mind," the word for [spirit] here, is a Greek word, [pneuma], which
means
"the disposition or influence that governs the soul, the vital principal by which the human body
is animated, the rational spirit" So we see that Paul is telling
us that we must bring forth a certain innocence to the governing influence of
our Soul.
In other words, we are to create a certain atmosphere
that will become an influence in the way we perceive things, and view things,
or in other words, we create an atmosphere or right attitude. So we see it
begins by putting on a new attitude toward God and His Word. Now let's examine
this further. We find the word for mind,
here is a Greek word, which also means understanding. So then he is telling us
to be made innocent again in the attitude of our understanding. In other words,
we are to create an atmosphere within us of that which is pure, and
peaceable. Brother Branham said, "The
right mental attitude toward any Divine promise of God will bring it to
pass." So this renewing is
actually a creation of the Word, doing some thing in us that brings about an
atmosphere that animates and governs our Soul.
An expectation of sorts. We see the same word
used for the mind is also used in scripture for our understanding.
[Luke 24: 45]
Then opened He
their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. Now we might say, open up your mind, and that
is what he is saying here. But the word understanding is used because that is
actually what you are doing when you open up your mind. Now, let's face it, if our understanding is wrong, then the wrong
understanding will have a wrong influence upon us. A wrong understanding is a
deadly understanding, especially when we are dealing with Life, Eternal Life.
[Proverbs 16: 25 ] There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, at the
end thereof is the ways of death.
So we see the importance of this renewing in the attitude of the mind. Paul
wants us to have an attitude that is Live, Die, Sink or Drown! A Christ centered attitude that becomes so
influential to our Spirit which Governs our minds that
it actually causes us to forsake everything but the Pearl of Great Price, which
is the Word of God for your day.
[Romans 12: 2]
And be not conformed to this world: but be
ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Then if our mind is not
renewed correctly, with the Word of God which is Life, then what transformation
we do receive will only be from bad to worse, and end in total corruption. So you see the renewal of the mind is not the
end in itself, but the beginning, a new beginning, a new creation or a bringing
forth into being our Glorified condition.
[2
Thessalonians
So we move from point number 1 "to Be renewed in the Spirit of your mind" to Point
number II. "put on the new man". We
asked the question, "how do we put on this new
man?" And "who is this new
man?"
[Romans 8: 29] " For whom
he did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now we also know that Jesus
Himself, this eldest Son, also according to [Hebrews 1] came forth in the Image of the Father. So then the image
we actually come forth in is that of our Father, and Who
is He?
[John 1: 1] Tells us, in the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. So then what is this new man
that we are to put on? It is the Word! Brother Branham said, "when Word is piled upon Word upon Word, it will
take a hold of every fiber of your body." We are actually talking
about a new creation of the Word by the Word.
[Colossians 3:
10] And have put on the new man,
which is renewed in knowledge after ( or according to) the Image of Him that created him: So we see that this new man that we
are to put on is the Word which then takes hold on every fiber of our bodies
and we thus are transformed by the
renewing of our minds.
Now point # III. In speaking about this new man, Paul said, "and put on the new man, which after God is created" And we know that this word after means
"in the image of". So he is
telling us that we shall put on the new man which is created in the
image of God. The
[ 2 Peter 1:
3-4]
According as His Divine Power ( which we know is the Word
according to [Romans 1: 16] ) hath given unto us all things that pertain
unto Life and Godliness ( which is God likeness, and how does this
come?) through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to Glory and Virtue. Now notice what else Paul says, here in verse
4...Whereby
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: ( OK! So what are these promises that are so exceedingly
great? ) That by these, ye might be partakers of the Divine Nature,... So how
is it possible to receive a nature other than what we already possess, ... and when did we receive these Divine Promises?
Ephesians One tells us we received them while we were yet in Him before the
World was even framed. Just like a seed we received these promises which
contain the very Life of God. And what is a nature, but attributes of Life. And what is
a Promise, but someone's, word. When I say, I give you my word,
I am making you a promise. And when God gave us a Promise He gave us His
Word. And when did He do this? Before
the world was even framed!
So there we have it. 5 Steps toward
our Glorified condition. Step
one), we must have a mind change, this mind change then brings forth step two),
a body change which step #3) mind and
body must both bear the image of the Word of God which alone is Life. Then this
Image will reflect Step #4) True Righteousness which we know is right wise
ness, and this right wise ness will be called by God step #5) True Holiness
which we know is a correct attitude and relationship toward God. Now let's see
if we have this right! Let's go to the Book of Ephesians and read the first
chapter.
[ Ephesians 1: 3 - 5 ] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ,(
Now, if we are reading this correctly we see that God is both God and Father of
Jesus Christ. So we shall understand Godhead correctly. Now let's continue) ... Who
hath blessed us (Now, notice he says, hath which means
He has already done this because hath is in the past tense) with all
Spiritual blessing ( Now, when He says all spiritual blessing, He means
al Spiritual blessing. Not some, not a few, but all. Every Blessing that God
has for His Elect He has already given
to us to receive, even while we were yet in Him as we shall read here,) in
Heavenly places in Christ. ( so you see we
have already received these blessings. Then why would we look outside what has
already been given to us for any fulfillment. We are already possessors of every Divine
Promise of God as brother Branham put it when he said, "God placed the Foundation
stone in us before the world was ever even framed. So as you see, the
Word which is Christ,
was laid in us even before the world was even formed. And we know
that if God spoke the world into existence, then it had to be in His Word for
it to come forth from His Word, and become manifested or visible. And the blessing or the Promise came to us
when we were still in Him, in Word form even before the world was even
framed.
In [Deuteronomy
29:29] Moses said, " The secret things belong unto the Lord our
God, but those things which have been revealed belong unto us and to our
children for ever, that we may do all the Words of this Law." And brother Branham said, God reveals His Word or
interprets His Own Word by doing what? By bringing it to pass! So once
the Word which was in God becomes manifested, and thus revealed, then it is at
this point that we may possess it.
So we see that we were blessed with all spiritual
blessings while still in Him before any manifestation ever came forth of what
those blessing were. But then when the manifestation of His
Blessing begin to come forth, it is at this point that we may possess
them. Then it is no longer a blessing, as in promise, but it then becomes
reality as in possession. As long as the
Word is not revealed, it still lays in the realm of a promise, but once it has
been manifested, it then becomes reality. So what we are looking for is the
materialization of these promises and blessings.
Now let's continue..."According as He hath Chosen us in Him before the
foundations of the world, ( Now
this is important for us to see, because it speaks of our beginning and our
outcome. We see that we were actually
chosen before the world was ever framed. And this word chosen is a Greek word, EKLEGOMAI
which means to select out for oneself with the idea of favor and kindness
and love may be bestowed upon them. Now, we know that the Blessing were
a kindness, and show forth His favor and His Love, but what are some of these
Spiritual Blessing which He said, He already
had us in mind to receive even before He began to manifest any of His
thoughts. Well, in order to look at a few of them, let's just continue with
where we left off in the First chapter of Ephesians
"that we should be Holy and Blameless before Him" (Now this is a tremendous thing here, because we see
that two of the Spiritual Blessing that He already promised us while we were
yet in Him were these two mentioned here. That we should be Holy for One, and that we should be blameless, or shall we say
without blame for the second one. Holy, And without
Blame. Now this is very nice, because I get blamed for a lot of things, that I never did. It's hard enough when you make a
mistake and you know it, but it's even harder when you make a mistake and
others know that you made it. But the real killer is when you didn't make a
mistake but you get blamed for someone else's mistake. That's the ones that
really hurt. But here He tells us that it makes no difference whether you make
one or a thousand, you won't be blamed for any. Now, that's True Holiness.
[Romans 4: 5 -
8] But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth
the ungodly, His Faith is counted for righteousness. Even David also describeth the Blessedness, ( One of those
spiritual Blessings) of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are
they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins ( which is unbelief)
are
covered. Blessed ( Here's those Spiritual
Blessings again) Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. ( And
the word impute here is a Greek word which means to take into account or reckon
with, so if He will not even take your sins into account or even consider them
worthy of account and will not even consider them in His reckoning with you,
then it is as though you never did do them to begin with. Because it doesn't
say you didn't do them, it only says, that God doesn't even consider what you
did. It has nothing to do with His Selection of you to shed His favor, and Love
and goodness upon. Not one thing, He will not even look at it in His reckoning
of you. Now, to me, that's a real blessing. And so then if He will not even
consider one of your mistakes and sins, then what other Holiness could make you any
purer in His own eyes. And when does
this occur?
He said, "that we
should be Holy and Blameless before Him". Now, this word
before is a Greek word KATENOPION which means "in the Presence of"
and of Course this is speaking of HIM! So we see here that this condition where
the Spiritual Blessings that were promised to us while we were yet in Him are to become
manifested to us when we come into His Presence. And we know that we are now
standing in His Presence, so we see that these blessings have got to become
manifested to us in this hour. Now,
let's see how He brings this to pass as we read on.
"In
Love He has predestinated us ( Now,
what does the Love of God do for us? It says, In Love
He has predestinated us. That is He has pre- set our destiny. Now in order to
pre set our destiny, He had to set up everything in advance and make sure that
we turn out the way He pre planned it. Now, let's face it. The best thing
nature can show us is that a seed is the purest form of predestination, because
after all, a seed contains every element in itself already to bring forth into
manifestation it's nature and characteristics. In other words, the Life in the
seed is invisible, yet it is real. But it takes certain things to happen to set
the Life that is in the Seed into motion. It takes a dynamo, a catalyst. Which
God made the Sun to do. So when the Light of the Sun
strikes the Seed, then Predestination takes over. The Seed has a built in
reaction to the Sun, and so when the Sun shines forth, the reaction says,
"Life come forth and reach out for the Light!" And so too God has placed
in each of Us His Word Gene Seed, that when the SON of God begins to Shine
forth as we are told in [ Malachi 4
] When God shall come forth as the SUN of Righteousness, we see at this time
that we shall go forth and grow up. And when a child grew up in Biblical times,
when He was ready to go about His Fathers business, he was then ready for adoption. And that is
exactly what we read here in [Ephesians 1] as we
read on... "In Love He has predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to Himself,
(
So we see here that predestination takes us all the way to adoption. And we see that the Adoption of Children
comes though the First born Son, but we are adopted TO
God Himself who is our rightful Father. Now when we think in terms of adoption,
do not think of it in terms of twentieth century terms. Today people who can't
have children of their own adopt children who are not their own. But this is
not so according to the Word of God.
[ Galatians 4: 1 - 2] Now,
I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth
nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all; but is under tutors and
governors until the time appointed of the Father. (
Notice Paul tells us here that a child must be trained up in the ways of
His Father, until the appointed time, and when He has the mind of the father,
He then is ready for the business of the Father. He is ready to be adopted as a
Son! And so we are told in Ephesians,
... "In
Love He has predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, ( so then there must be
something Paul is going to tell us about this predestinated plan and how we
come tot he place where we have the mind of our Father, God and how we will
come tot he place of Adoption. ) And he tells us this is according to His own good pleasure of His
own will. And we find out in
verse 13-14 that He must first quicken us to Life by the baptism of the Holy
Ghost, and then in verse 17 He tells us that we will be ready once we have
received the baptism in the Spirit, we shall be ready to receive the Father of
Glory who shall give us the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of
the Father. So if He is the Father of Glory, and we know this word Glory is the
Greek word DOXA which is the Opinion, Estimate or Judgment of God, then as the
Father of Glory, He has come to give us His own Mindset, which we know is true
because in [2 Thessalonians 1: 10 ] we see at
this time that Christ comes to be glorified
IN His Saints. So the mind of
the Father comes into Sons, plural. "Let this mind be in you which was also in
the eldest Son, Jesus!"
So there you have it. This image is to be Holy and
without Blame as it stands in His Presence. Now if we come to this end, then we
had to be there to begin with, right?
And remember, we read in the book of [Job] the question that was asked, "where were
you when I laid out the foundations of the world and the morning stars sang
together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" And I am here this
morning to tell you that as you were there, so are you here this morning as a
representation or manifestation of the Gene Seed that was placed in you to
begin with. So then what were we before the foundations of the world. Were we the
sons of God shouting for Joy? And notice it uses the word shout which we know
the Shout is a Message. Then our joy came forth as a shout then, right? The
Shout was a reflection of our extreme joy, right? So, then if it was then, so
shall it be now, for If we are in Him and He is the same yesterday, today and forever,
then is not His descent with a shout a
manifestation of His extreme Joy? So then the shout is a message, and what is
the message the shout is trying to portray?
That we are back in His Presence again. [ The Spoken Word is the Original See]. What we were in Him
back then, we are now in Him again. The shout expressed our joy then, and our
echoing the shout again reflects or expresses our great joy now.
If you don't believe me, just open your Bibles to [ 1 Thessalonians
He said in, [ Ephesians 1: 3 - 5
] According
as He hath Chosen us, that we should be Holy and Blameless before Him
(which means while in His Presence). And
how do we know that we are blameless, and Holy before
Him while we are standing in His Presence? Is it by what we have done? Is it by
some great effort we have been able to perform? No! I tell you it is because He
said it would be that way. In [ 1 John 1: 7 ] He said, "If we
walk in the light as He is also in the Light, then the blood of His Son would
apply on our behalf and becomes
efficacious for us, and through it we are Holy and Blameless." He also told us
in [Jude
That is why Paul again speaks of this condition
of Holiness that we shall possess at the Parousia of Christ. [ 1 Thessalonians 3: 13 ] " to the end that He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God" [That's in His very Presence], Then he says, "even our Father, [what
identification] and when does Paul tell us this will
happen? "At the parousia of
our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." And notice [ 2 Thessalonians
[ Acts
Let's us bow our hearts and our heads in a word of
Prayer. Dear Gracious Father, we are so thankful today to know thy way of
Holiness, and to know that there is no way that we could ever through our own
efforts perfect anything much less holiness . But we know that You have said, our perfection comes by your presence that
ripens us and brings us to our completion. And in this we place our hope and
trust, in Jesus Christ name, your beloved Son. Amen!