The Pillar of Fire
is Here to Change our Heart
Brian Kocourek
Last Sunday we spoke from
paragraph 45 of brother Branham's sermon, "Who is this Melchisedec,"
and we focused our attention on brother Branham's comments about fellowship and
Worship. Our Thoughts focused upon the Principle that True Worship brings True
Fellowship, and the only way you can truly have genuine fellowship is by
entering into true worship. And you can
not have True Worship with a false Word.
John tells us also that in
order to come into this fellowship there is a certain way we must walk.
I JOHN 1:5 ¶ This then is the message which we have heard
of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at
all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we
lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we
walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 ¶ If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make
him a liar, and his word is not in us.
You can not walk in just any
way you want. You can not come into the light just any way you wish to
come, and not just any light will do.
The light of Luther or Wesley will not work today. John said we must walk in
the Light of His Presence. If you walk in the Light as He is IN the Light. Then
we have fellowship and the Blood is efficacious.
ISAIAH 50:10 ¶ Who [is] among you that feareth the LORD,
that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh [in] darkness, and hath no
light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God. 11 Behold,
all ye that kindle a fire, that compass [yourselves] about with sparks: walk in
the light of your fire, and in the sparks [that] ye have kindled. This
shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.
God gives you the challenge
here. Try to walk in your own light and see what it will bring you. You'll end
up in sorrow. That's your outcome.
This morning I would like to
move forward with our study of Brother Branham's sermon "Who is This
Melchisedec", and I would like to focus our thinking on what he says
in paragraph 45 And notice now, He made man, and man fell. So He
came down and redeemed man, because God loves to be worshipped. The
very word "god" means "object of worship." And this that
comes among us as a Pillar of Fire, as something that changes our
hearts, that is the same God that said, "Let there be light," and
there was light. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Notice this wonderful
thought He is telling us. The Pillar of
Fire (Godf Himself is here) to change our hearts.
And this that
comes among us as a Pillar of Fire, as something that changes our hearts, that
is the same God that said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same one Who created the
World is here, for the purpose of changing our hearts.
Now, how many know that
Jesus comes three times? The world only thinks in terms of two comings. The
church world anyway. They Look for the second Coming, and yet know nothing of
the third Coming.
QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS 54-0103M 75-104 Christ comes three times. The first time He
came to redeem His church. Is that right? The second time He comes to receive
His church. The third time He comes with His church. See? He come to redeem
her; He comes to rapture her and be caught away, in the time of the plagues and
so forth; returns back for the millennium, lives through the millennium.
FUTURE HOME 64-0802
51-1 Jesus comes three times. He come once to
redeem His Bride, next time to get His Bride, next time with His Bride. See?
And did you know that you
have three comings?
QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS 54-0103M 75-102
Just the elect goes in that time. Just the elect takes
the--the--the millennium. Oh, then, brother, what type of people should we be?
I want to live through the millennium. Let us lay aside every weight and the
sin that so easily beset us. If the fellow says something wrong or does
something this way, pray for him and keep moving on. Let your one alternative
be set towards God. If nobody else makes it, you make it. For there's going to
be an elect who's going to live through the millennium age and will go in and
out with Christ for a thousand years, and then they shall go up into glory with
Him and return again. When the resurrection of the wicked is brought forth,
then the millennium will set... After the millennium is over, then Christ will
go up with the church, and at the end of the thousand years He will return with
the church.
Now, we are getting ready to
leave this world as we presently know it. And Brother Branham is telling us
here in Who is This Melchisedec that God has come in the form of the Pillar of
Fire to change our hearts.
Now, when Jesus left us the
first time He made a promise to us. He said, JOHN
14:1 ¶
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.2
In my Father's house are many mansions: (in the Message Things
that are to be, brother Branham told us
that when Jesus said many mansions, he means many different kinds of mansions) if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare
a place for you. (Now who is talking? The Father or the Son) 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again,
and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also.
God has been preparing a
place for us and before we are escorted back to that place by His Son Jesus,
(\God, the Father of Glory) has come down to prepare us for that place that He
has prepared for us. Think about how
close it is if the preparation has already been completed. He is here now to
prepare us for the going home. And in
the Message, Who is this Melchisedec, we hear brother Branham say, "He's come to change our hearts".
And what does the heart signify?
EPHESIANS 1:17 That the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what [is] the
exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the
working of his mighty power,
From the Message, I stand at the Door and Knock 38, Brother Branham said, That door to the eye is in the
heart. It ain't what you see with your eye. That isn't seeing; that's looking.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
Kingdom of God." You don't see it with your eyes; you see it with your
understanding. You look with your eyes and understand with your heart. So the
door of your eyes is in your heart, because it's a door of understanding.
"Oh, I understand that Jesus said He would do that in the last day. I
understand that these things are the sign of God." Then how different. How
it becomes a reality to you. How things change if our eyes are open. He's
with you all the time. He helps you. He's standing at your door daily, but you
don't recognize it.
You see, I believe what most
people in this message are missing is the reality of the living Presence of God
among the people. Brother Branham said, And this that comes among us as a Pillar
of Fire, as something that changes our hearts, that is the same God…
And I ask the question, is
it a reality to you. Has it hit you yet in the eyes of your understanding?
MELCHISEDEC THE
GREAT PRINCE 27 55-0109M Healing
of the body doesn't become a fiction, it becomes a reality. The baptism of the
Holy Spirit doesn't become any emotional, worked-up substance. It becomes a
reality of the indwelling Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ to change the life.
In ROMANS 12:1 we tread, ¶ I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your
reasonable service. 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.
In order for us to receive a
body change, we first must receive a mind change, a heart change.
That is why God promised to send
a certain ministry to change our hearts. MALACHI 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming
of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart
of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their
fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
II CORINTHIANS
3:15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their
heart. 16 Nevertheless when it shall
turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the
Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty. 18 But we all, with open face
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.
WATERS OF SEPARATION 55-0606 E-29 That's what's the matter with
people today. You come to the church, the water of separation (That's all
right.), hear the Word (That's very good.); you get separated from your sin;
but you go out with an intellectual faith. That's the reason you can't believe.
That's the reason you go back out and sin the way you do, the reason you can't
hold up from one revival to another. If you'd let that intellectual faith move
down through your brains into your heart, then it becomes a reality with a new
birth. Then it'll stay there, anchored forever. God sealed you in by the Holy
Spirit, and it settles it forever.
E-30 Get away... Intellectual faith's all
right; that's as far as the nominal Christian goes. He hears the Word. He
believes It. He has a mental conception of It. That's fine. We believe that.
But notice, when the man come to the waters of separation, which was Word,
"Faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word." We believe that. God
wants us to believe it. That's part of It. But that's as far as he ever gets.
He never gets into the fellowship yonder. He just comes through the water of
separation. And when he comes to that part, he finds a mental conception.
"Yes, I believe it," thinks it in his mind, raises up his hand,
accepts it, and twenty days from there, he's back in the same rut he was in the
first place. Because it's never went any farther than his head. Right.
INFALLIBILITY OF
GOD'S WORD 56-0404 E-19 And every time God makes a thought, it's
a creation; and when He speaks it, it becomes a reality. So every Word of this
Bible is God's spoken creative thought. And every time It's taken into the
right ground, It'll be made manifest. Amen. Then all the spooks drop away,
every shadow moves, and we stand anchored; nothing can shake you then. See? All
the superstitions and ups-and-downs is passed away then; we're right on the
Word. God can't do nothing but honor that Word. He has to keep it; it's Him.
The Word is God.
BELIEVE FROM THE
HEART 57-0623 E-67 until it drops down into here, from your head
to your heart till--till it becomes a reality. Then it'll work. Only can it
work when it comes to the heart.
GREATEST BATTLE
EVER FOUGHT 62-0311 17-2 It must be accepted in the mind; then it's
believed with the heart; then the Word of God becomes a reality; then every
senses of soul and body is just scoured out with the Holy Spirit. Then you're
sense of God; you're conscience of God; everything that's godly flows through
you. There's not a doubt anywhere. There's nothing can rise up.
LAW OR GRACE 54-1006
100 The first man went
away under the law, under animal's blood; it couldn't change his heart,
We already read in [Romans 12:1-2] the progression of the
change from the mind first and then into the body bringing even our actions
into submission to the Word of God. I
believe it is necessary that we see the importance of passive Faith coming
first before we can have an active Faith, and I also want you to understand
that passive Faith kept isolated and alone is not a fulfillment of the
Principles of God either. Now, we know that for the past few weeks we have been
studying Brother Branham's Message pertaining to our understanding in the mind
must come first, and then once we have something in the mind to deal with, God
will anoint this understanding in our minds and it then will drop down into our
Soul and become a Spiritual Revelation. Then as a Spiritual Revelation it will
guide us and keep us in the way. It will direct our being, our whole or
complete being, Body, Soul and Spirit. Thus taking over the control of our
triune being.
Now, Brother Branham taught
us in the message [PP 37 Inter veil 56-0121] that "There is an intellectual faith. And
there's a faith that comes from the heart.
And we read in Ezekiel
that God gives us a new heart which is a new understanding first, then He gives
us a new spirit which is a new desire and finally when we are ready He gives us
His Spirit. Now let's just read this for ourselves...
[Ezekiel
36:26-28] A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put
within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will
give you an heart of flesh. And I will
put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye
shall keep my judgments, and do [them]. And ye shall dwell in the land that I
gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
And now, from the Message, IMPERSONATION OF CHRISTIANITY 57 Brother Branham said, "
God had to give you a new heart, not a
patched up one, a new heart. That's
your intellects that you think with, a new way of thinking. Then He give you a
new way of thinking, "Yes, that's right Then He said after that,
"Then I'll give you a new spirit."
What's that? A new desire, ... After you get a new heart and a new spirit, He
said, "Then I'll put My Spirit..." His Spirit, part of the Logos in you controlling
your emotions"
So we see then that this new heart is a new way of thinking or a
new mind-set. Then it brings with it a new desire in your heart. He that
hungers and thirsts for righteousness shall be filled. Then this new desire
opens the door of your heart to let in the Holy Spirit in to take complete
control by His Word which is the Logos. So with God's Word taking it's place in
your heart, His Word then becomes your tie-post in your soul. And your soul has
only one thing it can do and that is to receive or reject the Word of God. And
this is done before you receive the Holy Spirit. Once you receive the Word of
God into your Soul you are sealed in by the Spirit of the Word, and anything
contrary to the Word won't ring a bell with you as Brother Branham liked to put
it. Then what happens is that you begin to discern all things by the Word. You compare spiritual
things with spiritual things and measure everything that comes into your mind
by the Word of God. Then until a person has received the Word of God into their
Soul they can not tell the difference between any word and God's Word. Because
the Word, when it comes into your soul become the Absolute of your Life and
everything you think, do or say is brought back to the Word of God to see if it
fulfills the Word or not.
[I Corinthians 2:10-14] But
God hath revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we
might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words
which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual
things with spiritual. But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness
unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.
Now what I am trying to address
to you this evening is this: namely, we are to receive an understanding first,
( that is the part the True Five Fold Ministry play in this great drama) They bring the True Understanding of the
scripture to our minds. Next, this New understanding creates a desire in our
heart for God's Word. Finally, God sends forth His Word into our hearts by the
Holy Ghost who is the Teacher and He anoints the understanding in our heart
thus becoming a Spiritual Revelation. That is why John said in [ 1 John 2: 21] "that we have an unction or anointing
from the Holy One, that we might know all things." This
Revelation then takes over the guiding of our whole body, Soul and Spirit thus
perfecting the believer by the washing of water by the Word. So in effect every
fiber of our body is becoming subject to the Word of God which lives and abides
in our hearts, bringing us into captivity to the Word for the day we live in
and bringing us into subjection to it. Thus the sacrifice becomes a living
sacrifice, not just a mental conception. And a s that it actually changes the
actions done in the body.
Now in {Romans 7:
14] Paul tells us the law is Spiritual, and not for the
flesh, for if it were for the flesh then we could be expected to fulfill the
Law by our flesh, but since it is spiritual and not for the flesh, then the
flesh can in no way fulfill it. Therefore God does not look upon the flesh but
upon the desires in the heart, and thus although your desires may be righteous
and Holy yet your body may backslide a thousand times daily due to the mixed
nature because of Eve's transgression. Now notice how this ties with what
Brother Branham said, God will not come into your heart to fill it with His
Spirit which is His Word until the desires have been changed. Now you must
receive a new understanding first, then a new desire, which he called a new
spirit, and once you receive this new desire, then God will come into you by
His Word.
Now, God doesn't come into
your heart the first minute you have this new understanding. Oh, no! Uh, Uh!
There is an order to His coming. He is looking for the desires to be changed
first, and then He will come. Many people have heard the Gospel and seemed to
receive it gladly for a short space of time, but before the desires are changed
they fall away and thus never come to
this new desire. And why is that?
Because God sends them a testing of this new understanding, and because they
are not predestined to pass the test, they come up short and are easily
offended by the Word. Some people come
so far but when the Word speaks of things that hit them in the pocket book
or speaks of things that we should do or
a manner of living that makes them loose their popularity with the guys or
girls, then they lose what desire they did have and before they know it,
they fall away from the Truth.
Brother Branham said God
will not place His Word in Just anybody. He will not place His Spirit in just
anybody. So we find in [ Hebrews 12: 6-7] Paul teaching us, that "Every Son that cometh to God must first be tried and
tested. And if you can't take the testing then you are not a True Son but a
bastard born, meaning you are illegitimate to the Word."
I JOHN 3:1 ¶ Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. 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, we shall be like him; for we
shall see him as he is. 3 And every man
that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
COLOSSIANS 3:1 ¶ If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on
things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, [who is] our life,
shall appear, (phaneroo, to manifest in His True Character) then shall ye also appear (phaneroo, to
manifest in His True Character) with him in
glory.
But what if we don't see Him
as He really is? Jesus tells us in [Matthew 13:18-23 ] that
not every one is ordained to see and understand. Hear ye therefore
the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth [it] not, then cometh the wicked [one], and catcheth
away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by
the way side. But he that received the
seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy
receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in
himself, but dureth for a while: for when
tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is
offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth
the word; and the care of this world,
and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and the Word becometh
unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that
heareth the word, and understandeth [it]; which also beareth fruit, and
bringeth forth fruit with patience, some an hundred-fold, some sixty, some
thirty.
Now you will notice that the
first group mentioned are those who hear the Word but because they do not
understand it the Devil is able to step in and take what understanding they did
receive away from them and thus they just simply fall away from the Truth. Then
there are those who hear the Word but when the trials begin they can't take it
and because they too do not really understand what it is all about they give up
and they too fall away from the Truth. Then we have the Laodicean bunch who get
caught up into the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, and
these things choke off the word and it can not bring forth in these people what
it is meant to bring forth. These are the foolish virgins who run but do not
finish the race. They are caught in the trap called the deceitfulness of
riches. Money, money, money, the root of all evil. And notice that these riches
are called deceitful. And since this group does not have a full understanding,
they too fall short of receiving the True Word of God, which is His Holy Spirit
into their hearts and thus they come up short. But notice the group that comes
all the way into the True Baptism of the Holy Spirit, they are the Ones who
hear the Word and Understand it in their hearts, and because they understand it
they are not caught up by the deceitfulness of riches. They are focused and
ready and thus the Word brings forth Fruit in them some even a hundred fold.
So you can see how important
understanding is to the believer. And that is why Eve fell. Notice Eve had
understanding. She knew better than to partake with the Serpent, because she
told the serpent we must not eat of the Forbidden tree. It is cursed. And yet
the Serpent pulled one over on her and got her to eat anyway. Now, he didn't
tell her that her understanding was wrong entirely, but he told her that she
just didn't quite have the full
understanding of the picture. And so he explained it away from her. And so she stepped out from behind the
protection of the Word and she fell for His interpretation or understanding of
the Word of God. And that is exactly
what we are warned of will happen in 2 Peter 2: 1 - 3 ¶ But there were false prophets also among the
people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall
bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring
upon themselves swift destruction. 2
And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way
of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3
¶ And through covetousness shall
they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long
time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
These men will come into the
Message and give a wrong understanding of the Word of God and the people will
be caught up into what these men say as evil interpreters of the Word of Truth.
MATTHEW 13:13 Therefore speak I
to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not,
neither do they understand. 14 And in
them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall
hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not
perceive: 15 For this people's heart is
waxed gross, and [their] ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have
closed; lest at any time they should see with [their] eyes, and hear with
[their] ears, and should understand with [their] heart, and should be
converted, and I should heal them.
MATTHEW 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom,
and understandeth [it] not, then cometh the wicked [one], and catcheth away
that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way
side.
ROMANS 10:10 For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation.
EPHESIANS 4:17 ¶ This
I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in
them, because of the blindness of their heart: You see it is our heart that
believe or does not believe, and therefore it is the heart that needs change.
MATTHEW 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being
evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh. 35 A good man out of the
good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
MATTHEW 15:8 This people
draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with [their] lips; but
their heart is far from me.
MATTHEW 6:21 For where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also.But it all depends on where your treasure is.
MARK 12:30 And thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind, and with all thy strength: this [is] the first commandment. 31 And the second [is] like, [namely] this,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these. 32 And the scribe
said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God;
and there is none other but he: 33 And
to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all
the soul, and with all the strength, and to love [his] neighbor as himself, is
more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered
discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no
man after that durst ask him [any question].
God's purpose through His
Word is to deal with our hearts. I JOHN 3:20 ¶ For if our heart condemn us, God is greater
than our heart, and knoweth all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart
condemn us not, [then] have we confidence toward God. And how could you live in His Presence for
all Eternity with condemnation in your hearts. Therefore, He sent His Son to
die in your stead, and then He has come back to change your heart that you
might accept what has been done for you and to change your heart that you might
freely walk in the light knowing that while you are in the light, the Blood is
cleansing.
HEBREWS 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and
our bodies washed with pure water. 23
Let us hold fast the profession of [our] faith without wavering; (for he
[is] faithful that promised;)
I PETER 1:22 Seeing ye have
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren, [see that ye] love one another with a pure heart fervently: