MASTERPIECE No. 2

The River of Life

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Rev. Brian Kocourek

Revelation 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

For the past several weeks we have been examining Br. Branham’s opening prayer to his sermon, THE MASTERPIECE 64-0705 pp 2. As Br. Branham began his prayer he spoke of the the inexhaustible Fountain of Life of which we have entered into a study of this Great Fountain of Life for the past several weeks. In our study we have shown this Great Fountain of God-Life which existed in a solitary existence in God for an eternity in the past. Then God began to bring forth this God-life into manifestation as he brought forth His Son.

As we follow this God-Life down the stream of Life or the River of Life we have a beautiful picture of a Father and His lineage.

Future home 64-0802 P:199 Notice, the River of Life, perhaps many little streams making it up. Now, in this earth... (I'm going to close just in a few minutes.) In this earth... (I'm just going to stop. That's how much more notes I got: around about thirty pages. See?) In this--in this life I have never seen nothing so quenching as to be in the mountains and find (as I preached on the other night) that stream bubbling up. It's life giving resource--you'd be tired and thirsty, fall down by a good stream. Way down where germs can't go, way down hundreds of feet in the earth is bubbling forth pure, genuine, life-giving water. We appreciate that; that's little...

Now, I want you to picture in your mind this Great Fountain of Life which was in God. Now if anything is alive it must multiply. Cells that are living multiply themselves, and cells that are not alive do not multiply themselves.

Now, in the Book of Genesis which is called the Book of beginnings or more precisely the seed chapter of the Bible, shows how Life must come forth.

Notice in Chapter 1 and verse 3, the first time God speaks there is Light, and then God divides the Light from Darkness.

The second time God speaks he brings forth water and divides the water from above from the waters from below.

Notice the first two times God speaks there is separation. Why? Because unless you have a division of cells you can not have a multiplication of Life. Therefore, God who is Life, could not separate this Life from Himself without dividing this Life Cell upon Word Cell first into His Son, and then into Sons.

So we see the two most essential elements to maintain life are light and water. And thus God first sets the atmosphere for Life, by bringing forth light and then water. Now, then I ask you, what good would it have been for God to bring forth life if there was no atmosphere to sustain that life.

Therefore if it was necessary for God to create the right atmosphere to sustain life before He imparted Life, then how much more should we be aware that the atmosphere is most important if we are to sustain our Christian Life and walk.

To many churches do not understand this principle and instead of working on the atmosphere in the church, they go out with zeal to bring others into the fold and they end up bringing them into confusion and conflict.

The church should first focus on its atmosphere and once that atmosphere established, then they should share the God-Life which is the Anointed word to others. Then they can bring them into a place that will nourish and maintain the God-Life that is in them.

In 1 John 1:1 we read, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; Notice here that the Word is called the Word of Life. 2 (For the life was manifested, (what was manifested? He said the Life was manifested and yet this same apostle John write in 1:14 that the Word was manifested. So we see the word is Life, John 6:63 the Words which I speak unto you are Spirit and Life.)

And so John continues, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, (you see this Life was with the Father, for He is that Great Fountain of life) and was manifested unto us;)

3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

Now, as I was saying, the water represents the Word of God. We are washed in the washing of water by the word. And we are commanded in the Book of Revelations to come and drink freely from the River of Life. So the Word is Life and represented in Scripture by water.

Now light represents illumination upon the Word. We are told in Psalms 110 that the Word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. But we also found out that the five foolish virgins had a lamp but no oil to light that lamp. So the oil is the Spirit in and upon the Word, and that which is lit up is the Light of Revelation, revealing what had been in darkness and shining light upon it making it manifest and plainly seen, Light represents God’s Great wisdom and revelation. And this is the hour that He gives us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Himself.

Notice it was the Pillar of Fire that came down in this hour and brought forth a Shout. The Pillar of Fire is not God but is the anointing upon Him, showing us His Shekinah Presence. Illuminating His Presence among us.

Now, we were talking about an atmosphere that will sustain and maintain Life, and we see that God prepared the way for Life to come.

And what good would it do to receive the new birth if we do not have an atmosphere to enter into that will maintain our new life.

Now, this great fountain of God-Life as it began to flow forth from God down through His Son and into sons is the stream of God-Life, the River of Life coming forth from the throne of God.

Now, this Great Fountain of Life begin to move and as it began to move, (as God Himself began to bring forth into manifestation His thoughts, the God life began to overflow from God’s Presence. It flowed first into His Son, as we find John 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;

PROVERBS 8: 22- 36 NIV ²² "The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; ²³ I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. ²⁴ When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water; ²⁵ before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, ²⁶ before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world. ²⁷ I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,

So we see then that God had given Birth to Himself a Son. And then we pick up the story of this river of Life in Genesis and as we examined this God-Life going forth from generation to generation until we came to Christ. Now, in this last hour God has Himself to restore us back to where we fell at Eden, to the place where God began it all when He breathed into Adam, the Breath of Lives.

In the Book of Genesis which is the Book of beginnings and is called the seed chapter of the Bible, we see the law of reproduction defined.

Genesis 1:11 Let every seed bring forth after its Kind. Now this word kind was translated from a word that means portion. Therefore

Then we see that God began to send forth this God-Life into sons beginning with Adam, and then from generation to generation. He began by breathing into Adam the breath of Lives and then this seed of God-Life was passed from generation to generation until we see the seed running out in the last hour/

It is at this time when God has stepped down from Glory bringing with Him a Shout which is a Message, and in which contains this God-Life, for Jesus Said, “My words are Spirit and they are Life.” Thus this Life Stream of God-Life has once again in this hour come forth from the Loins of God’s mind, and has once again come to do the same thing that was intended in Adam.

Therefore in this hour God has once again come on the scene and breathed into the end-Time elect the Breath of God thus inspiring a people by the Breath of His own Mouth.

Now, tomorrow morning we will continue our study of this thought on this Great Fountain of God Life, only this time we will look at the Law of reproduction and show how the very nature of the Life giver must, according to this law of reproduction, bring forth its own nature in its seed.

To find this law of reproduction we must turn to the Book of Beginnings or the Book of Seeds, which is Genesis. The Very word Genesis has its roots in the word Genes, and we could in our English language pronounce it Genes Is, because that is what the Book of Genes is all about.

God identifying Himself 64-0320 P:3 Tomorrow morning, I understand, is the Full Gospel Business Men's breakfast. Usually where they have a chapter I have the privilege of speaking at their breakfast. To this time, that's the only organization--which is not an organization... But the only group that I--I belong to is the Christian Business Men. And now, I just speak for them internationally. Now, tonight, we're trusting that this gathering will not be in vain. I've come to you tired, a worn-out throat, and received a little bronchial from... I've come from Tucson, where it's really good and dry. And I come here, and it's really good and wet. So there's quite a contrast. If you all got all the water over here, if you'd send it over our way we'd appreciate it. But you can't do that, of course. But I tell you one thing, there's a parable there. All of our--our--our things in Arizona, our trees is full of stickers. Everything has a sticker. It's because it's dry. Now, if that same bush growed over here, it'd be a nice lovely leaf. See, it's without water. That's the reason it becomes a sticker. And when the church becomes without the Water of Life, it gets dry and sticky too: sticking and punching at everything. But where the waters of life flows, it opens up the leaf and makes it tender, mellow, and sweet, holy, and acceptable unto God. So may the Lord God water us tonight, that we won't be stickers--but we'll be fine leaves that the wayward people might set down under the tree of our shade, and find rest to their souls.

Trumpet gives an uncertain sound 63-0114 P:95 Our heavenly Father, I know that Your words are so true. They can't fail. They are the Word of God. They are God. And You said, "He that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." And these men and women under conviction, knowing that they're not right, they've walked forward tonight, Lord, to confess that they're wrong, knowing that they have been pulsated by some inward motion that bid them come to the fountain. And here they stand with bowed heads, and hearts, to drink of the waters of life freely that's been promised by God. Receive them, Father, into Thy Kingdom. They are Yours. You said, "No man can come to Me except My Father draws him first. And all that the Father has given Me will come to Me." And it shows that God has give these to Christ for a love gift. And here they stand, Lord. "No man can pluck them out of My hand," and I pray, God, that You'll secure them tonight as they stand here, and give them the baptism of the Holy Ghost while they are here at the altar. May the great power of Christ so saturate their lives now. They made their confession. They come forward. You said, "He that will confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father and the holy Angels." We know that work as being done. Now, Lord, seal them into the Kingdom of promise of the Holy Ghost. Grant it, Lord. Pour out Your Spirit upon them, and fill them with the Spirit of the living God, that they might be living testimonies all the days of their lives to the Kingdom of God.