WHO IS THIS MELCHISEDEC #71

The Energies of God

Brian Kocourek

July 1st, 2001

 

Last week we spoke from  WHO IS THIS MELCHISEDEC  70 where brother Branham said,  " See, that throws your body subject. You don't have to say, "Oh, if I could just quit drinking, if I could just..." Just get in Christ; it's all gone. See, see? Because your body is subject to the Spirit, it's no more subject to the things of the world; they're dead. They are dead; your sins are buried in baptism; and you are a new creation in Christ. And your body becoming subject to the Spirit, try to live a right kind of life...

 

Now, last night we spoke on having the right attitude or the attitude that was in Christ being in you.

 

Toward the end of our sermon we brought out a few things showing you that there has to be certain energies behind our prayer. And we found out that the thing that energizes your prayer and your faith is Love.

 

There's nothing like Love to build up energy within a young man or woman. Just look at what it will do for them. They could be as lazy and as discourteous as you had ever met, but let them fall in love and they begin to do things they never even thought they would do. They'll clean themselves up, they'll exercise to lose the fat, they'll tone their body to look better. If the one they are in love with goes to church and they've never gone to church before, they will start going to church with their girlfriend of boyfriend. That's how the Lord got a hold of brother Branham, was through Hope, his girlfriend and eventual wife. God had spoken to him several times before, through visions, and even face to face through the whirlwind in the tree, but did that get his attention? Not as much as when he tried to impress his girl.

 

Guys who could care less what their hair looks like will begin to cut it and wash it, and groom it, and even take the time to brush their teeth, and comb their hair, and they will buy new products like breath mints and you name it, trying new things to make their appearance better. Let the love bug bite and those energies build, and build and build, and begin to put into action that old dead weight.

 

So we see that Love is a great energy force and in 1 Corinthians 13:13    And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these [is] charity.

 

Paul says here that whern it is all said and done there remains three things, faith which is a revelation, hope which is an earnest expectation, and Love which is an outward expression of that revealtion and expectation. Revelation begins the energie cycle. It's the flipping of the swith, then the earnest expectation begins the building up of the energies, and finally love is the outward expression of what that revelation is all about.

 

A young man get's a revelation of the one he is to marry, and that begins to build up an expectation, this expecatation begins to build up energies within and when it reaches a level he can no longer contain, it bubbles over in an outward expression of love, and he begins doing. He courts her with flowers, and dinners, and things, trying to channel his feelings for her into some sort of expression. And if a phileo love can do this for a man, just think what the love of God that created the world can do for you.

 

I PETER 3:8  Finally, [be ye] all of one mind, having compassion one for another, LOVE as brethren, [be] pitiful, [be] courteous:

 

EXPLOITS OF FAITH  53-1213E  E-49  If we be in God then we're energized by His Spirit. And His--my hand are His hands."

 

I JOHN 3:13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 14    We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not [his] brother abideth in death. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16  Hereby perceive we the LOVE [of God], because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down [our] lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels [of compassion] from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. 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.  22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. 23 ¶  And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

 

WORKS THAT I DO BEAR WITNESS OF ME  51-0413 E-22    After all, I'd rather have the LOVE of God sealed in my heart than all the gifts there is in the Bible. That's right.

 

WHERE I THINK PENTECOST FAILED 55-1111  E-65 When you've really been sealed by the Holy Spirit, love Divine follows you. We saw last night in our study that Jesus prophecied, "because iniquity would abound, the Love of many would die out".

 

BELIEVEST THOU THIS?  50-0716  E-47 Used to be, a long time ago, when the neighbor got sick or something, we went over and cut his corn, cut him some wood if it was wintertime. And today the neighbor can die, and you don't know it till you read it in the paper. That's right. No friendship among one another anymore. That's awful. Love... "Because the iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold," said Jesus in Matthew's the 24th chapter. That's true. 

 

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS  54-0103M  87-176  I remember years ago. You always heard them talk about the sawdust trails and things in the Tabernacle. That didn't make it any more, not a bit more. But then it was fresh; God was calling His church. I've seen them sob and cry and lay on the altar all night long. I've went to their houses, and you could hear them when you come up, just in their--in their bedchamber, men and women, crying, "O God..." You'd see them walk through the church, and I'd see the piano start playing, "Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross," and the tears flowing down there, you know. [Brother Branham sniffles--Ed.] Walk into this church, then walk down to another church, and hear them there, "There's a precious Fountain..." "O God, save my boy. Save my daughter; she's lost, Lord. Please." You don't find that no more. What's the matter? The Spirit of God is withdrawed. Jesus said, predicted this, that the love... because the love of many... the love would fail. "That because iniquity would abound, the love of many would fail." See? See, grow cold, go away... The love is dying away. And what they got into, just a form;

Now, we are talking about what energizes a person, and we have shown that it is love. Love for a new car might enrgize a man to go to work to pay for it. Love for things causes people to work all kinds of jobs and hours in order to have those things. And what we just heard brother branham say, is that there used to be love for one another in our lives, but that love is dying out. Our Love for one another has been replaced with a love for things. That is the influence of Laodicea upon the people whether they are aware of it or not.  And the real Source of Love, pure Love, unselfish Love, unfeigned Love, is God. For God is Love. The reason that Love for the brethren is leaving the people is that God Himself is leaving. He's beginning to pull back, He's beginning to lift up from the earth.

 

Notice he said, there used to be such a Love for God that people would cry out to God day and night for their loved ones. But we don't see that any more. He said, years ago, it was fresh; God was calling His church. I've seen them sob and cry and lay on the altar all night long. I've went to their houses, and you could hear them when you come up, just in their--in their bedchamber, men and women, crying, "O God..." You'd see them walk through the church, and I'd see the piano start playing, "Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross," and the tears flowing down there, you know. [Brother Branham sniffles--Ed.] Walk into this church, then walk down to another church, and hear them there, "There's a precious Fountain..." "O God, save my boy. Save my daughter; she's lost, Lord. Please." You don't find that no more. What's the matter? The Spirit of God is withdrawed.

 

QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS_  JEFF.IN  COD  SUNDAY_  54-0103M You don't find that no more. What's the matter? The Spirit of God is withdrawed. Jesus said, predicted this, that the love... because the love of many... the love would fail. "That because iniquity would abound, the love of many would fail." See? See, grow cold, go away... The love is dying away. And what they got into, just a form;

 

THIRSTING FOR LIFE 60-0304  E-36    Oh God, if we have to take every miracle out of the church, if we have to take all the pipe organs out, and the plush pews, give us back to that godly love, brotherly love among the people and fellowship. If we have to do all that, take it back to that again. Life, oh, life...

 

HE CARES DO YOU CARE? 63-0721 56 You know, the Bible speaks that, that there'd be no love in the last days but just amongst the elect people. That's right. The Scripture speaks of that, that the husband would be against wife, and wife against husband, children against parents. Just among the elected of the Lord will there be any love left.

 

I Thessalonians 1:3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

 

Now notice how Paul phrazes his thoughts here. He says, Works OF Faith, and Labour OF Love, and Patience OF Hope. Now, we asll know the word "OF" means OUT FROM, or having it's source from,  and therefore we can read these words of Paul as,  your works which spring forth or spring out from your faith (revelation), and your labor which comes forth as a result of Love, etc.  It is the Love which produces it. Love then is an energizing power.

 

In GALATIANS 5:6 Paul said, …but faith which worketh by love. Then we see that Faith (revelation itself) is energized by love. Notrice Paul tells us again that our Faith worketh by Love. The word for worketh is a Greek word energeo and it means energizes. Our Faith is enrgized by Love, Paul says.

I THESSALONIANS 2:13  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 (effectually is energized) also in you that believe.

 

WISDOM VERSUS FAITH  62-0401 73-2 The disciples had It sowed into them, then the Spirit come to energize the Word. See? "Not by power, not by might, not by wisdom, not by understanding, not by this, not by that, but by My Spirit I will energize My Word. By My Spirit, says the Lord." It's the water of the Word of faith that energizes the Word of God and makes It work,

 

I CORINTHIANS 12:1   Now concerning spiritual [gifts], brethren, I would not have you ignorant. 2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. 3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and [that] no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. 4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. It is for yours and my benefit as we see in verse 6 And there are diversities of operations, (energema or energes)  but it is the same God which worketh (energizes) all in all. And what is the purpose behind the energies of God being utilized for you and me? 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. It is for our benefit. 8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another [divers] kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11 But all these worketh (Are energized) that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:13 For it is God which worketh (energizesd) in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.

 

JAMES 5:16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual (energized) fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And what then energizes your prayer for one another? Love is the energeo of God. And it is by Love that your prayers are engergized with the power of God behind them,.

 

HEAR YE HIM  58-0301E  E-112    Now, if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then He can, if He will come... And He knows you. And He can tell me, just like He showed the Son of God. If He's the same, He has to... See, Jesus... We are the (what?) branches; He's the Vine. Is that right? You Bible readers know that? Does the vine bear fruit? Be careful. No, the branches bear fruit. The vine only energizes the branches. So Jesus has no eyes tonight but mine and yours on earth. He has no hands but mine and yours. He has no voice but mine and yours. And He is the Spirit in us, and we are the branches to bear fruit as He energizes us. Is that right? Now, that's the way you'd have to do here.

 

I CORINTHIANS 12:5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

 

 

 

DEEP CALLETH TO THE DEEP  56-0415  E-54 Now, the vine only energizes the branch. The vine doesn't bear fruit. The branch bears fruit. How many knows that? You don't pick it off the vine; you pick it off of the branch. And who is the branch? The Church, the branch.

 

WHY  61-0125 E-70 Oh, how the Son of God took His own Life and inject it into my life, inject it into your life, and then comes down and energizes it with His Presence. Oh, my.

 

EPHESIANS 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh (energizes) all things after the counsel of his own will:

 

SPOKEN WORD ORIGINAL SEED  62-0318E  124-5 God never placed signs ahead of His Word. (Amen. That's a scorcher.) God never placed signs ahead of His Word. They were added for proof of the Word, but the Word is first. To prove it, Elijah said to the woman, "Bake me a cake first." Then watch the miracle happen. Come to the Word first and then watch the miracle. The Seed Word Itself is what the Holy Spirit energizes. How can a messenger sent from God just believe some of the Scriptures and not all the Word? deny part of It...

 

EPHESIANS 1:19 And what [is] the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20  Which he wrought (energized) in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set [him] at his own right hand in the heavenly [places],

 

AS I THOUGHT ON MY WAY  59-0814  E-70    So the woman touched Him, and He turned and told her. Now, if He's the same God tonight that He was then, the same High Priest that can now, this hour, be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, He'd act the same way. Now, He's gone into glory. He's the Vine, we are the branches. The vine doesn't bear fruit, the branch bares fruit. Is that right? You don't get fruit off the vine, you get it off the branch. Well, if we're the branches and He's the Vine, then He furnishes the energy, which is the Holy Spirit. And if the Holy Spirit's from Him, It'll act like Him.

 

EPHESIANS 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh (energizes) in us, (and what power is that? He answers it in the next verse…) 21 Unto him (Him Who? Him God! And What is God? God is Love, to Him) [be] glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

 

JEHOVAH JIREH  57-0106  E-63    Now, the vine doesn't bear fruit, does it? Who was He talking to? The church. "I'm the Vine. You are the branches." The branch is energized by the life of the Vine; therefore Jesus has no lips tonight on earth, but mine and yours. He has no eyes but mine and yours. He has no hands but mine and yours. He energizes us, and we bring forth His Life, as He brings it through us. Whether it's preaching the Gospel by lip, or it's seeing vision by eye, whether it's whatever it is, laying hands on the sick, whatever it is, it's Christ working through the branches of His Church, every office literally electrified by His Presence.

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:13 For it is God which worketh (energizes) in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.

 

FUNDAMENTAL FOUNDATION FOR FAITH  55-0113  E-54    Many of you ministers here, you wouldn't want to say that you just spitted out a sermon and stood, popped it off. You'd want to say it come from inspiration. I believe it. Certainly. Well, it has to come from the Holy Spirit that energizes you to speak that message. If it isn't, you'll never be successful. This is Charles Finney, and so forth, and man who copied their sermons out and when he got up there and preached with the inspiration, the Holy Ghost... The same sermon he preached the night before, hundreds brought to the altar. See? There's such a difference. It's got to be by inspired. The Holy Spirit's got to unctionize in that thing. So is it with healing. There's got to be something take place through a Divine gift that'll energize the people with the Holy Spirit to believe.

 

I THESSALONIANS 2:13  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 (effectually energizes) also in you that believe.

 

BELIEVE FROM THE HEART  57-0623  E-45    And now watch. I've seen it work. And to think that if you'll get into that contact with God, it becomes till it isn't your voice anymore. It's not your thought anymore. It becomes God's thought and God's voice. You are just a vine, or just a branch. He's the Vine. And if His Spirit that goes in and energizes, as long as you can get yourself out of the way, He will fill it up. And then you can be a witness just like Noah's ark was a witness, like Jesus was a witness of God. He become so full of God, till him and God was One. God dwelt in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, the very expression.

 

JAMES 5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual (Energizing) fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

 

ARROW OF GOD'S DELIVERANCE  56-0801  E-19    Why, the reason Moses failed in the first place... Here's what was the matter. It was the lack of having what the burning bush had. That's right. And what's our failure today, is lack having what the Holy Spirit has. And the Holy Spirit has all good things for us. And if we receive the Holy Spirit, then all things are possible; and not only possible, but promised to us. Jesus said, "Ask the Father anything in My Name, I'll do it. If ye abide in me and My word's in you, ask what you will, it'll be given to you." See? When we step into the Light of God's Word, with the unction of the Holy Spirit to shine the Light on It, brother, the impossible becomes little things then. God asks us to believe His Word. He sends the Holy Spirit to energize that Word when He falls into It. When the Word's being preached and the Holy Spirit brings the Word, He energizes that and flashes the same Light of God's blessed promise. God said, "I have remembered My promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I'm sending you down there to do it." See? Then when God's Word, His promise becomes enlightened by the Presence of the Angel of the Lord, stop Moses now; he's on his road. And God always keeps His promise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FUNDAMENTAL FOUNDATION FOR FAITH  55-0113  E-25    What did Christ redeem us for? Did you ever thing what He redeemed us for? Why didn't He just make you the atonement and say now, "There's no need of giving them deep powers. There's no need in making this man a son of God. There's no need in doing that. I will just ask him to believe it and write his name in the Book of heaven and that'll settle it." But He gave us these redeemed blessings that we might operate the work of God, by the energy of the Holy Spirit. In Saint John 15, He said, "I am the Vine, and ye are the branches." Do you know that the vine can't bear fruit, although the fruit is in the vine? But the fruit cannot be brought forth from a vine. It has to have the branch to bear the fruit. And you are the branches. Now, the vine with all of its energy cannot produce anything unless the br--branch is willing to receive the energy.

 

INNER MAN  53-1212 E-6  And I was just thinking. We are God's fruit bearers. And I believe in Saint John the 17th chapter, Jesus said, "Ye are the branches." And He was the Vine. Now, the Vine puts forth the fruit, but the branches has to bear the fruit. So, the... If the branch is getting its life out of the vine, well, it's the same kind of life that's in the vine. Don't you think so? It has to be. Now, our hands, and our lips, and our eyes, them's God's hands, lips, and eyes, that we have here, He has on earth. Now, He's gone back to God and sends forth His energy of His Spirit to anoint us with the Holy Spirit. And then if we are submissive to Him, and then our hands represents His hands. That's the reason He said, "They shall lay hands on the sick. They shall recover." See?

 

TESTIMONY OF A TRUE WITNESS  61-1105  191    A sheep's not asked to bear wool. He's not asked to manufacture some wool this year. If he's a sheep, he'll have wool, because he's a sheep. He don't have to say, "Well, now I--I'm--I'm... I believe I'm a sheep, so I better get--hurry up around here, I got to get some wool for the master." He don't have to worry about that. As long as he's a sheep, he'll bear wool. He don't have to manufacture it. You don't have to manufacture no self-made piety, and, "I, I've got... I... Now I shouldn't do this; I know I'm a Christian." Oh, brother, trying to save itself by itself, by its own human efforts, yet, sincere. What's the matter is weak pulpits, weak schools, weak seminaries. That's what's the matter: teaching man's theology. They give... You say today, the strength of a Christian, they just... "Are you a Christian?"  "Oh, I'm Methodist." "Are you a Christian?" "Oh, I--I--I'm Baptist." Now, that's the strength of Christianity. How different. Hallelujah. How different from that first Church. They had none of these things to say. But they had been filled with an energy, a power of the Holy Ghost, that had set them free from sin and death. They wasn't nominal. They had a love of God burning in their hearts, that sent them to death.

 

WE WOULD SEE JESUS  58-0523  E-31    Oh, if this group tonight, of you people here from Concord, in this great capital, of one of the most beautiful states in the union, if you could have that enthusiasm about Christ. He didn't wait, say, "I'm glad to see you," nothing about it; he said, "Come, see Who we found, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph." That enthusiasm, the church today has lost it's enthusiasm. Why? Because it's got out of the Vine. It's no more being energized by the Spirit, wells of water bubbling up into Everlasting Life. They've lost that zeal. Something's missing. God remains the same; Christ remains the same; but His Church has disassociated itself with His connection, the Vine, the Spirit.

 

QUEEN OF SHEBA 60-0110  E-76    If the first bunch of people... He's the Vine (John 15), and we are the branches. Now, the vine does not bear fruit. The branch bears fruit as it's energized by the vine. And if the first branch out of that vine produced a church that wrote a book of Acts, the second branch will do the same thing. Every branch that comes out of that vine will be energized by the same life that's in the vine. Amen.

 

176-1 PERGAMEAN CHURCH AGE  -  CAB CPT 5 The seed Word is energized by the Spirit.

 

JESUS CHRIST THE SAME  58-0214  E-47    You have to know it by the Spirit. Flesh cannot do those things. What is it? The vine, the branches, the same life that was in the vine comes through His branches. He feeds the branch through His vine. That's how He declares Himself to be the same yesterday, and forever, for He said, "I'm the Vine." The Holy Spirit now, Christ in Spirit form in you, energizing you with His Spirit to believe God, and He's everything that He does, He manifests Himself just like He did in the Bible times. "The works that I do, shall you also. A little while, and the world won't see Me no more (How many knows He said that? That's the unbeliever.), yet ye shall Me (the believer), for I ('I,' personal pronoun), I'll be with you, even in you, to the end of the world." Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. "The works that I do, shall you do also."