Follow Me #4
(False Shepherds and the Spirit of Destruction #2)
Sunday morning
Rev Brian Kocourek
Last Sunday we continued looking
into Brother Branham’s Message (Follow
Me), and we read where Brother Branham said, “God created man to follow like a
sheep, and they are supposed to follow a shepherd, but in this day when everything
is so corrupted and perverted, the ones who are leading are goats which is
actually a wrong leader. Now if
a goat is a wrong leader, then we can say he is a false leader, And that is what we spoke on last week. Those false leaders
or false shepherds and how they are ordained to bring the Spirit of destruction
on those who are ordained to receive the spirit of destruction. Because after
all, brother Branham told us in the Message Preparation, that “God
can not send destruction before the people are in the spirit for destruction. God
never did destroy anything. Man always destroys himself.” Therefore we
see that if man is created to follow, then someone has to lead them to this
destruction or this spirit for destruction. someone
has to lead man into this condition, and remember, judgment begins where? At the House of the Lord.
Now, to further elucidate upon this
thought of how the spirit of destruction is to come upon and overtake the
unbeliever, I want you to once again notice brother Branham’s words, where he
said, “we're
living in another day; everything's changed and perverted. You
know what man has to lead sheep today? A goat. And you
know where that goat leads them? Right into the slaughter.
The little sheep don't know where
they're going, so the goat goes up a pen, up at the slaughter, and the
sheep don't know no more than to follow a leader, so it leads them right up
into this slaughter. And then the goat jumps over the track, and the sheep goes
in and gets killed. See, the goat, a wrong leader.
So we see the example that he shows
us of how the slaughter is brought about by the sheep blindly following as
wrong leader. He said, the sheep don’t have any clue
to where they are being taken. “they don’t know
where they are going,” He said.
But they are going to the slaughter, and it is because they are
following a wrong leader. Therefore, if God can not send them destruction until
they are in the spirit for destruction, then someone has to get them to enter
into this spirit of destruction just as those goats get them to enter into the
slaughter pen.
Now, I said, this spirit of
destruction will come upon them and over take them. And remember, a spirit is
an anointing. It is a life. Jesus, when speaking of His Word, said, “The
Words which I speak, they are spirit and they are Life.” And since the word is a seed which the sower sowed. Then
according to Matthew 13, it takes the sowing of the seed before that seed can bring
forth and manifest it’s life. [Matt 13:36-43] Now,
what is this seed that was sown?
[Mark 4:10-14] The seed that is sown is the Word of God. But if the
Seed sown is the Word of God and in
Matthew it brings forth children of the kingdom, then what about the other
sowing that took place where the devil sowed seed as well and brought forth his
children. What Word was that? I believe
it is also the Word of God, but with a twist to it. In other words, the Devil
has no word of his own, so he takes God’s word and twists it. That is how death
entered into the garden, and into man. Remember, he first had to twist the
word, and Eve listened to that false word and then she was anointed by it and
opened herself up to receive another seed which produced in her a Cain child.
Now in the Book of Deuteronomy we
have the Book of two laws. Blessings and cursings.
Now, how do you suppose these blessings are given and the curse as well? Let’s
read [Deut 28:1-2, and 15] You will notice the blessing and the curse are both dependent
upon our response to the Word of the Lord. What we do with it is what result we
shall reap. If we plant it in our heart we shall reap all the blessings from
it. But if we say no to it, then we shall not only not receive the blessings, but we
shall receive the curse as well. And if you follow through and read the
blessings, for each blessing listed, there is a curse to match which is just
the opposite of the Blessing. Now, I
believe that this both the blessing and the curse is an anointing upon which
you enter, and not only do you enter into this anointing, but the anointing
actually takes you over as we see in these scriptures. The Blessings speak of
life and growth and abundance while the curse speaks of what life is there
being drained out, dying off and decaying, rotting, death. In fact we read in [Deut 28:45] That they curse will
overtake thee until you are destroyed which is destruction taking place. Now
the word curse is a word which means to treat with contempt. And it comes from
a root word which means to be consecrated to. Therefore,
anointed to a certain thing. And that thing is destruction as we see in
verse 45.
Follow Me #4 (False Shepherds and the Spirit of
Destruction #2)
Now, this morning I want you to once
again notice the
words brother Branham said concerning this age that we live. He said, “Everything
is changed and perverted”. Everything has been changed, changed from
what? From the way it was meant to be. And what is the result? It is all,
everything, is perverted.
He said,
EVERYTHING is PERVERTED. Now, what do you suppose the word PERVERTED means? Can anyone tell me?
_______ Webster
tells us that the word perverted means: To deviate from what is considered right,
good, or true; misdirected; corrupted. Then when we hear a vindicated
Prophet tell us that EVERYTHING is perverted, that tells us that we are living
in a time when EVERYTHING that was considered at one time to be right, and
good, and wholesome, and true, has now become twisted and made to seem wrong,
no good, and a
lie.
Then it is no wonder that
Christianity today is the most persecuted religion on earth. If you live by God’s standard, you are
considered to be a fanatic. If you don’t have a television set in your home
because you want to keep your children pure in heart, you are considered a
child abuser. If you hold In fact we see in the scripture that this condition
that brother Branham is speaking of here was spoken of by the Prophets of God
many thousands of years ago, that this time would come.
Isaiah 5:1 20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for
bitter! 21 Woe unto [them that are] wise in their own eyes, and prudent in
their own sight! 22 Woe unto [them that
are] mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: 23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! 24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, [so] their
root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the
LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of
Notice the judgment that is upon
those who call evil good and good evil will be destruction and he says
rottenness will enter into their roots, and they shall consume away like the
chaff. Now, the word consume means to use up and isn’t
it interesting that today people are not looked upon as carriers of life, but
as consumers. Those who use up and waste away. And
that is exactly what they are. They are like the chaff that will be burned and
destroyed.
Now, we are talking about this
spirit of destruction, which is an anointing o a life of death and destruction.
The people have been anointed to the curse by a false word from false shepherds,
who feed themselves instead of feeding their flock. And remember, where does
judgment first begin? In the house of the Lord. And
where has consumerism had it’s greatest success? Where
is the greatest market for consumers? It’s in
[2 Peter 3:9-18] And notice that in order to Grow in Grace the
roots have to be healthy, and not full of rottenness as the curse will produce.
Follow Me #4 (False Shepherds and the Spirit of
Destruction #2)
God did not send us His Prophet in
this hour for your convenience. He did not send us His Word, And
He did not come down Himself with a Shout which is a Message for no reason. He
came with a purpose and that is to save the Righteous from perishing. But those
who refuse to hear Him will perish. [Acts
3:19-23]
[Malachi 4: 1-5] Mercy for those who receive it
and destruction for those who will not. Remember, we showed you before I
went to
Now, remember, the old testament is a type in the natural of the New testament,
correct? And how many nations were destroyed by God during the Exodus of Israel?
Now, remember and Exodus is not only a leaving behind, but it is also an
entering in. So how many nations did God destroy during this Exodus? Let’s turn
to the Book of Acts to find out.[Acts
God knows what He is doing. Did not
Abraham say when God went down to destroy
Now, brother Branham told us here
that “we're living in another day;
everything's changed and perverted. But
how did it get that way? By goats leading. And it all
began back in the Alpha. Paul said back them that grievous wolves had already
entered in to destroy the sheep.
[Acts
[Matt 10:16-28] Now He warned them that these things would come, and
in [Matt
Paul told us that in his day the
people had already opened themselves to this spirit of destruction which he
called a perverted word. [Gal 1: 6-9]
And notice the curse is placed upon them that would speak another Gospel. And
notice that the Gospel they were already speaking was another Gospel, one of a
different nature, a perverted one. {perverted = metastepho}
to
turn around or turn back again. a change of the mind
going backwards from what one has come out from. And notice that these
men had come out of Judaism and went right back into it. In [Gal 2:4] he calls them false brethren
who came in. [Acts 15:4-5] Pharisees,
they were and yet they claimed to be believers.
[Hebrews 6:4-8] Notice here that the curse is followed by
destruction and burning.
[2 Cor 11:2-4, 13-15]
[2 Thess 2:10-12]