Nurturing,
cherishing and resepecting the Promises
of God
Brian Kocourek
Last Sunday we again
examined a statement from Brother Branham's Message, WHO IS THIS
MELCHISEDEC. So far We have
focused our thoughts on his opening prayer. Last night we examined something he
said in the close of that prayer which I thought had much merit, and should
looked into with a fine tooth come. He said "Now,
bless us tonight, Lord, as we speak of Thy Word. And the promises that's given
to us, may we (1) nurture them in our
heart, (2) cherish them with (3)
reverence, and (4) obey them with
real (5) godly discipline. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen."
We broke down these words
and found the focus is on other not on self.
This morning I would like to
look at these five points of gratitude that we should have concerning the
promises of God for us in this hour. "We're so
grateful to Thee our God we're so glad that we found the safety zone,
the retreat, and we ask that "you
bless us tonight, Lord, as we speak of Thy Word. And the promises that's
given to us,"
"The
promises that's given to us, may we (1) nurture them
in our heart, (2) cherish them with reverence, and (3) obey them
with real godly discipline. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen
As we examineD these 5
points I want you to notice that these five things mentioned here all speak of
a relationship and the expected behavior that a husband and wife have for each
other. Brother Branham said we should do these things
for this great Revealed Promise. He said, We should nurture, cherish,
reverence, and obey with Godly Discipline.
Therefore, let's
examine each of these words and see how they speak of the relationship of a
wife to her groom.
NURTURE = This word nurture according to Webster means to nourish,
and speaks of feeding. It also speaks of
creating an environment as distinguished from an innate nature. In other words, creating something, an environment that helps
to build up and nourish. Not tear down and destroy. Then it looks at the actions
of the one in a selfless act of giving and creating and performing for the
benefit of the
EPHESIANS
CHERISH = I THESSALONIANS 2:7 ¶ But
we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: 8 So being
affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not
the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. 9
For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day,
because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the
gospel of God. 10 Ye [are] witnesses, and God [also], how holily and justly and
unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: 11 As ye know how we
exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father [doth] his
children, 12 That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his
kingdom and glory. 13 ¶ For this cause
also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God
which ye heard of us, ye received [it] not [as] the word of men, but as it is
in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
REVERENCE = PSALMS 89:7 God is greatly to
be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all
[them that are] about him.
MATTHEW 21:37 But last of all he sent unto them his son,
saying, They will reverence my son.
MARK 12:6 Having yet
therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying,
They will reverence my son.
LUKE 20:9 ¶ Then began he to speak to the people this
parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and
went into a far country for a long time. 10
And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should
give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent
[him] away empty. 11 And again he sent
another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated [him] shamefully, and
sent [him] away empty. 12 And again he
sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast [him] out. 13 Then said the lord of the vineyard, What
shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence [him]
when they see him. 14 But when the
husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir:
come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. 15 So they cast him out of the vineyard, and
killed [him]. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?
16 He shall come and destroy these
husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard [it],
they said, God forbid.
EPHESIANS 5:33 Nevertheless let every one of you in
particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife [see] that she
reverence [her] husband. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which
corrected [us], and we gave [them] reverence: shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
HEBREWS 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For
if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more [shall not]
we [escape], if we turn away from him that [speaketh] from heaven: 26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now
he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also
heaven. 27 And this [word], Yet once
more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things
that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which
cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with
reverence and godly fear: 29 For our God [is] a consuming fire.
OBEY =
I PETER 3:1 ¶ Likewise, ye wives, [be] in subjection to
your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the
word be won by the conversation of the wives;
TITUS 2:3 The aged women
likewise, that [they be] in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers,
not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be
sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 [To be] discreet, chaste, keepers at home,
good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
COLOSSIANS
3:20 Children, obey
[your] parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
EPHESIANS 6:1 ¶ Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for
this is right.
Now, we can
not address the atmosphere in our homes without addressing the atmosphere in
our marriages. And there are Three principals that will make any marriage
better. In fact if you are diligent to follow these three principals, your
marriage will be blessed.
HUSBANDS
Principal #1) Ephesians 5: 25 "Husbands,
Love your wives, EVEN AS Christ
loved the church, to the point of giving Himself for it; "
Now this is
principal #1) Husbands, you must love your wives even as. That means
your love must be equal with her as for yourself. What you do for yourself, you
must love to do for her. You spend $50 dollars on your self, you had better be
not only willing, but wanting to spend $50 on her. You spend $15,000 on your
self for tools or equipment or pleasure,
you had better have $30,000. Because she deserves an equal share. $15,000 for her would be EVEN AS. And the words Even As means the same as.
Your Love must be EVEN AS. And Paul let's us know that Christ is our example
who considered you and I even before He considered Himself, because He laid
down His own Life for us. So we see your love must be self sacrificial in
nature. Too many marriages break up today because the young men haven't learned
this principal and they are self centered and so the wife in order to have any
spending money of her own, she is forced to go out and get herself a job. Pretty soon, they both have their own check
books, their own savings accounts and finally careers of their own, and at that
time the marriage is in total ruin. And the worst part is that usually by this
time in the marriage there are children involved and at this point you may as
well give them up for adoption, because someone else is taking care of them for
you all day anyhow.
Principal #2) 1
Corinthians 7: 3 "Let the Husband render unto his wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto her husband." So here we see a principal in the marriage
that Paul says both husband and wife must utilize. To render due benevolence.
This word Benevolence is a Greek
word e-u-n-o-i-a and although it's pronounced "you - anoy - ya". it
actually means to show forth good will and kindness. Let's just see how Paul uses this same word
in Ephesians 6: 6 - 7 (read)
Principal #3)
Colossians 3: 19 "Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them." Be not bitter, this is point
number #3) Husbands, in the process of
loving your wives, even as, do not become bitter with them. Bitter, =
Pikraino to embitter, to exasperate, to
render angry, to be sharp or disagreeable, harsh or severe. Even to the point
of strong feelings of hatred or resentment. And there can be nothing worse in a marriage
than when this occurs.
WIVES
Now wives,
wouldn't you just love it, if your husband would always consider these 3
principals in your marriage? But are you
aware that you control whether he feels
bitterness toward you or not? Are you aware that you are in the control seat
when it comes to this? Let's just look
at what the bible tells us about your 3 principals. If you keep these 3
principals, you will never have to worry about an angry husband.
Principal # 1) Colossians 3: 18 "Wives, submit
yourselves unto your own husbands, as
it is fit in the Lord."
Ephesians 5: 22 "Wives,
submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as
unto the Lord."
This word
Submit = hupotasso = to subordinate, to
place yourself under , to yield yourself to his decision making, to yield to
his actions and control, to be obedient. Not just obedience because animals can
show obedience.
James 3: 3 "You put a bit in the horses mouth to make
him obey" So it is not just obedience here, but submit means an act
of the your will, not his. Though you may even know better than he, yet you
have made a choice to give up your choice, just like the Bride of Christ gives
over her will to our Husband the Word. And she does this in order to receive
His mindset. Well, so does a true Bride give over her will to meet his will and
his headship 1st. Remember, the
scriptures say, "as unto the Lord" or
" as it is fit in the Lord" So your
submission is unto the Lord but it is to and through your husband.
Now, The Lord
descends with a Shout which is a military command and it is said that we submit
to this command. The shout comes forth bringing all things into subjection to
Him.
Þ
Peter 3: 1
-2 Likewise,
ye wives, be in subjection to
your own husbands; that, if any obey
not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the
wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. ( now, this word
conversation is not her talking. It has nothing to do with talk. It is a Greek
word, anastrophe which means her manner of life, her conduct , her behavior.
Remember the
story brother Branham tells about the man who was out drinking with his buddies
and they got into a conversation down at the bar as to whether there any real
Christians any more or not. And he said, tell you what, My wife is a real
Christian And so they bet him and they
planned how they would put her to the test. They came home acting as if they
were drunk and carrying on. He crashed through the door and said in a harsh
manner as though he was drunk, " Make me some eggs." She proceeded to
cook up some eggs and when she served them to him, he through them on the floor
and shouted, "That's not the way I like them!" And he said, 'come on
boys, let's get out of here." And they left the kitchen. Instead of doing what most women would do,
and throw a fit and begin cussing and screaming, this woman just started to
clean up the eggs and as she did she began to sing, "Must Jesus bear the
cross alone, and all the world go free, no, there's a cross for every one and
there's a cross for me." And that night she led her husband and his
friends to Christ. It's not a matter of trying to get even, it's called
submission.
Principal #2)
Ephesians 5: 33 After Paul tells
the men they must love their wives even as they love themselves, then he tells
the wives, "and the wife, see
that she reverence her husband." Now
this word reverence is a Greek word, phobeo, not phobia. Now some of you might
have a phobia about this phobeo, but it
actually has a partial meaning of to fear, to be struck with fear, to be seized with alarm; of those startled by
strange sights or occurrences, of those struck with amazement. ( Now I'm sure
this must occur once about, ... oh I
guess about every morning when you see that awful looking, dis-sheveled sight
of half man, half animal get up out of bed and you look at him and you cry in your
pillow and you say, what a fearful looking monster that is. But the word also
means to reverence, and venerate (which
means to almost worship, and to look upon with deep feelings of respect and
love.) So we see that if you reverence your husband with a deep
respect and you submit yourself to your husband,
and
Principal #3) is as we said before, you must render
due benevolence which is to be kind and
to show good will toward him, how could he ever be bitter or angry or
stingy with you. What you are doing is you are creating an atmosphere. Remember the woman who came to brother
Branham and told him that she did not
love her husband. Brother Branham asked her if she wanted to love him and she
said, yes. So he got her to promise that she would do what he counseled her to
do. So he said, for the next 6 weeks, just act as though you do. Do the things
for him that you used to do when you loved him. And within a few weeks she was
back in love again. You see, what was it? She created an atmosphere, and he
fell into it. And he began to respond to the atmosphere that she had created.
And they were both back in love again. It was her that created the atmosphere,
but it affected them both.
Now, always
remember this, Her submission and reverence and due benevolence is all said to be "as unto the Lord" whereas, his Loving her
"even as," and His never being bitter against her and his render acts
of goodness and kindness are not said to be "as unto the Lord, but are
said to be As the Lord Himself would do". So, if you note carefully how
this is presented in the scriptures, you notice he is to act as Christ would
act and she is to act as though what she is doing is to Christ. Then what a
Marriage and what a blessing. You see, it is all in the approach we take. Our
approach is what either gets us upset with one another or is the very thing
that paves the way for our due benevolence to come forth into manifestation.
And From Proving His Word, he said, "It your approach,
the attitude is what it takes, and that's what
it is tonight dear friends, it takes the attitude. We are, and believe that we are in the presence of Jesus Christ, but
it's your attitude that brings the results. The mechanics is here and so is
the dynamics. If you can just get
started, God will do the rest." And if this is so essential with our
heavenly Mate, how much more with our earthly mate.
THE
TOKEN 63-0901 pg. 49 pp. 5 Apply it, create that
atmosphere around you, that they will just drop right into it. Oh, you are
, if you've got the Token, you create an
atmosphere around you of power, that when you walk, people know that you are a
Christian. In love for you to say something to them. They believe your
word, what you say, they hold onto it. See? That is it. Apply the Token, then
walk in it. Claim your household. You must do it, now. This is the evening
time.
GODLY
DISCIPLINE =