ONENESS
# 8
He’s Here to
Confirm His Promise
Brian Kocourek
Last week we touched upon something brother Branham said, that
bears more attention. we examined pp. # 30 where brother Branham
said, the following:
pp. 30 ONENESS -- JEFF.IN --
V-10 N-2 -- 62-0211
"
But the true believer won't compromise on any Word. It'll hold
the
Sword of the Faith with... in faith, rather, the Sword of the
Word,
and claim every [1]Divine
promise God made[1]."
Now there is something here about this PROMISE that really struck
home to me.
That's what we want. To claim every Divine promise of God as our
own possession. But first we must know what a promise is. Does
anyone remember what a promise is? And now we are not dealing
with just a promise, but a Divine promise. There's a big
difference. Men make promises they can not keep. Just look at all
the promises that the politicians make daily and yet how many are
held to their own words. But with God it is impossible for Him to
lie.
Now a PROMISE is: "an oral or written vow of performance. To give
a basis for expectation. To engage or pledge."
That's it! To give a basis for expectation. How can you even
expect without something to base your expectation on?
In our studies of the scripture both on Sundays and more
intimately on Wednesdays, we have studied many scriptural words
which refer to the things that God by His presence is doing among
us and for us in this hour. And we have seen that He has come not
only to declare Himself as if that declaration in itself is the
end of it. But we have seen that this declaration of Himself is
actually the very beginning, for us, so to speak. Because we have
been drawn into His marvelous presence and as we begin to see Him
in all His Glory, we begin to understand more fully His Love and
Grace toward us in contrast to His wrath and judgment upon those
who are not His.
1
PRESENCE.GOD.UNRECOGNIZED -- TPK.KS -- V-20 N-2 -- 64-0618
...
working for this one purpose, for
you to recognize the
Presence of
Jesus Christ. See? If He is present,
then, why,
everything is settled. He made the Word. He is
here to confirm
It. He
proves that He will confirm It.
"He is just the
same
yesterday, today,
and forever." We see Him do
it last night,
infallibly;
we see Him, night after night, and day after day, and
year after
year. Never one time has
He predicted anything,
regardless of
what it was, when it would
happen, out of the
thousands of times, of what was perfectly on the
dot, on time,
and right.
How can it? How many knows that, and knows
the
ministry, and
knows that that's true? [The
congregation says,
"Amen."--Ed.] There you are. Not one time, regardless,
how even
impossible, happened just the same. He is God! And
if we
would
just
recognize that, take a hold of it!
p73
Now I want to say this one thing to you this morning. I just
quoted something to you that ought to let you know that God is
not here on a vacation. He is here on serious business. He is
here to confirm every divine promise that He has made to His
Elect Children. Therefore as he says in the message:
E-32
WE.WOULD.SEE.JESUS -- PHOENIX.AZ -- 57-0226
...
" we should be the happiest people
on all the earth. Because
that
He Who gave us the promise of Eternal Life is alive and with
us
tonight to confirm that promise. What a wonderful thing."
Then again in the message :
E-66 ALL.THINGS -- SHREVEPORT.LA --
62-1124.2E
"
It's over. It's finished. The God that made the promise is here
to
confirm the promise."
And again in the message :
4 GOD'S.PROVIDED.WAY -- BAKF.CA -- V-22
N-6 -- 64-0206.2E
" Remember, we believe that Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He is not dead; but alive forevermore. And
He's
here tonight. We are in his presence tonight. And He's here
to
confirm, and make [1]good
any promise that He made for this day."
Now, look! We know that the major promise spoken of in the bible
pertaining to this hour is that God Himself would come down and
have a ministry through a prophet thus fulfilling The Son of Man
role to the gentiles that the scripture and even Jesus Himself in
the scriptures spoke of. But where our problem lies is that we
see what God has done in this hour through His prophet, and we
believe that it was God doing it and we say, that was great. We
have seen God manifested in the flesh in this hour, so Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
But that was nearly 30 years ago, and we must ask this question.
If that same Jesus Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit is still
here, what is He doing today, this 27th day of September, 1992?
You see, too many people are still looking back upon a historical
occurrence that took place nearly 3 decades ago. But He is not
dead. The Holy Spirit is still here among us.
Now many people miss quote what the Voice said in 1933. The Voice
of God did not say "as John the Baptist foreran my first coming
so shall you forerun my second coming." Nor did it say, "as John
the Baptist foreran my first coming so shall your ministry
forerun my second coming." But what it did say was, " as John the
Baptist foreran my first coming so shall your [1]message forerun my
second coming. That is what has come and that is what is still
here forerunning. That Message is Christ. Brother Branham said in
the Anointed Ones at the End- time pg. 63 "The Son of Man is
Christ. He's the one your feeding on. You're not feeding on a
man. A man, his words will fail, but you're feeding on the un
failing body word of the Son of Man."
So you see, the vessel God used to bring the message is the only
thing that has gone off the scene for now, and that is because
the Message has entered another vessel and has brought to Life
this other vessel. Would you like to know who that is? You and
me. His Bride.
167 GOD.OF.THIS.EVIL.AGE -- JEFF.IN -- V-4 N-9 -- 65-0801.1M
But in obedience this little faith Woman, that lives by faith,
the Bride, the person here, there, here, off somewhere else, some
other church, ...?... believes the Word of God, obedient, waiting
in love for the promise of the age to be confirmed. She's
watching for it. She is part of that Word, and she's watching for
Her life to manifest that Word. Brethren, can't you see that? I
hope that didn't go over you. The Body is waiting for, which is
the Word, waiting for the Life, which is the Spirit, to confirm
or make It alive. That's what she's waiting for. No other life
will work in her. She can't come to life any other way, yet she
feels it out there, and she knows it's going to happen; then here
it happens, then she wakes up. God said, "Let there be," and She
came forth like the first one come forth.
Now, before you get any grandiose ideas about your part in this
let me just say this. We just read a quote here where brother
Branham let's you know that the only way the Life will come to
life in you is for you to receive the promised Word for your
hour. Now we know the promise for this hour is the Son of Man to
appear and manifest Himself in the office of a prophet and Judge.
When you see that, something happens to you and you that are
Elect come alive or are quickened to receive every promise of the
Word for the hour in which you live.
Now that might be a mouthful or shall we say a mindful. So let me
bring this out in another way.
The promise of the Hour is for Christ to Appear in this Hour.
Right? Then, as we have studied so diligently over the past year,
this is called the Parousia of our Lord, His Presence. But as we
have seen, what good is His presence doing those who are not
aware of it. So we must be made aware that He is Here, right?
Then we see that the scripture speaks of an Epiphanaea, or a
shining forth. Something is done to attract the attention of the
world so that those of His Elect that are in the world might take
notice. Kind of like the shout of the mother eagle attracting the
attention of her little eaglet in the chicken yard.
Now, even the Catholic church has come this far. They say openly
that God's presence is here because they see too many
supernatural things taking place and they say that it can only be
Him. So then there must be something beyond a mere presence and
epiphanaea. There must be something beyond that which catches the
people attention. For if God only wanted to catch the people
attention and then once He had their attention, He did nothing,
what sense would that make. So there is a purpose behind This
epiphanaea. He has attracted the attention of His elect for a
purpose. And what is that purpose. That's what we want to know
So, we see that we start with a parousia which in order to be
known there must also be an Epiphanaea or shining forth, right?
Then once the attention has been focussed, we begin to see Christ
openly declare Himself. He Apocalypses or reveals Himself. How?
By manifesting Himself in His true character, which is His
Phaneroo. This phaneroo does something to the Elect.
We see in Col 3:4 it says,
COLOSSIANS.3:4
" When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with him in glory. "
So when Christ manifests Himself in His true Character, it does
something to His Elect that allows them to manifest themselves in
their True character. And what is our character? Well, if He is
our Life, then we will manifest what He manifests.
I.JOHN.3:2
" 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; [1]for we shall see him as he is.[1] "
So then the seeing Him as He is does something to us that causes
us to be like Him. Thus allowing us to truly manifest who we
really are for the first time in these lives of ours. It changes
our opinion to His opinion, our thoughts become His thoughts. Our
Doxa becomes His Doxa.
This phaneroo of Him or the manifesting in His true character
brings us to a wisdom and a knowledge of Him as stated in
Ephesians chapter one:
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,
This enlightening brings us into a relationship as sons in which
we develop a GINOSKO or an intimate relationship with our Father.
A relationship which we do not remember having with Him before
the foundations of the world because we have bypassed our
theophanies, which is our spirit body or our celestial body. But
as this GINOSKO develops into full maturity, it brings us into an
assurance or a confidence which gives us great boldness of faith
which is called parrhesia.
This parrhesia is a state of condition in which we know our place
in Him and are not afraid to express it outwardly. We hold to His
Word regardless, because we understand the immutability of His
Word.
It is impossible for Him not to fulfill His Word. The very pur
pose of there even being a Word is that in the beginning God was
Eternal Thought. But He wanted to fulfill Himself and give Him
self reason of being. So He began to express Himself in order to
fulfill Himself.
This then was the Word forming and coming forth into view. God
fulfilling Himself. But it did not stop just in the Word form.
That Word that was spoken was not ever meant to remain as Word
alone. It was meant to come into a form of manifestation. It
would not be complete and God could not be fulfilled unless His
Word were to come into a completed state which is manifested in
Flesh or material substance.
That is what we are focusing on today. If God gave a promise,
then that Word is still evolving or coming forth and can not stop
until it has come into realization or manifestation. In other
words, God's Word with skin on it.
In the beginning God said, Let there be light. It may have taken
a million billion years, but one day that Word became flesh or
manifested and there was light.
So too, we see in this Hour that God said He would return to
earth as the Son of Man. we have seen the fulfillment of that
Word. If God said it, it's got to happen. That's what I want us
to see this morning.
There are other promises that are meant for this hour and one of
them is that He has come down to gather a Bride. Well, if you can
see that He has come down, then is not this scripture in the
processing of being completed. Is it not in the process of becom
ing Word or promise manifested. Is it not becoming the Word of
God made flesh?
Do you see Him manifested in His Word in this Hour? Did you
recognize that Word when it was tabernacling in a body of flesh?
His prophet? Are you being gathered to it? To the same message
that attracted the prophet? Is it changing your DOXA, your
opinion? Is your opinion becoming His opinion?
Then brother, sister, your becoming. You're in the process of
fulfillment. The Word made flesh.
HEBREWS.6:10
For God [is] not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of
love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have
ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11 And we desire that
every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance
of hope unto the end: 12 That ye be not slothful, but followers
of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 13
For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by
no greater, he sware by himself, 14 Saying, Surely blessing I
will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 15 And so,
after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise
God is just waiting for His seed to come into His exact likeness
or His exact image, and He is the Word. He had so much confidence
in His own Word That the scripture says, by faith He created the
world.
Even Abraham knew his own position with His heavenly Father. God
had given Him a promise of having his own seed and Abraham went
back to God and finally asked God to anti up. If God promised Him
he wanted to see the fulfillment of that promise.
GENESIS.13:14
And the LORD said unto Abram, after that
him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou
art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: 15 For
all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy
seed for ever. 16 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the
earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, [then]
shall thy seed also be numbered.
Here we see the Promise that God made to Abraham. 5 years had
passed by and now let's read where he became bold in his approach
to God about this promise.
GENESIS 15:1
" After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a
vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I [am] thy shield, [and] thy
exceeding great reward. 2 And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt
thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house
[is] this Eliezer of Damascus? 3 And Abram said, Behold, to me
thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine
heir. 4 And, behold, the word of the LORD [came] unto him, say
ing, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth
out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. 5 And he brought him
forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the
stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So
shall thy seed be. 6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted
it to him for righteousness."
Brother Branham remarked about this event in his message:
E-68 JEHOVAH.JIREH.1 -- LOUISVILLE.MS -- 64-0402
" Now. We find out then, that in the 15th chapter we find
something very outstanding here. [1]I kind of like this extremely
well[1]. Seeing who Abraham was, now, and Abraham and his seed after
him, we find here that after Abraham had done all these great
things--believing God, holding to the promise, separating
himself, and all along following out the way of carrying out the
commandments of the Lord--we find out that God appeared to him at
the altar. And Abraham asked him the question, he said, "Now, who
is my heir but this Eleazar of Damascus? And now, You promised me
a seed, And I want You to do something. I want You to confirm
this promise to me."
He had parrhesia with God. He knew His position as a son and was
not afraid to take God at His own word
He didn't look at his own flesh and say, well I guess I'm just
not fit to have this child. I guess I'm just unworthy. He stag
gered not at the promise of God. He held firm to the promise
because He wanted it more than anything. He made a mistake with
listening to his wife and bringing forth Ishmael from Hagar. But
that didn't stop Him. He didn't look at his mistakes. he looked
at the Promise. Thus saith the Lord has nothing to do with
whether you can believe it or not. If God said it, all the
unbelief in the world will not stop it from happening. And the
Royal seed of Abraham will not look at their mistakes either. In
fact the next PP. in this message ONENESS brother Branham says,..
33 ONENESS -- JEFF.IN -- V-10 N-2 -- 62-0211
We know we make mistakes, but you mustn't look at that. It's
not your mistakes, because you're always going to have them. But,
you see, it's following His Rules, following what He said do.
Stumble and falling doesn't have one thing to do with It. A real
true servant, if he will stumble, [1]he will get up again. If he
wobbles, God pulls him right back in the path, as long as he's in
the path of duty. But if he's off of the path of duty, God's not
obligated to him. But as long as he's in the path of duty, God's
obligated to him, knowing that he's just a man or a woman. [1]He's
obligated to that person as long as they're in the path of duty.
Does His Word say He will come with a shout to gather a bride?
Does it say they will hear and recognize and act upon that Word?
Do you recognize that He is Here gathering His Bride? Are you
part of that gathering to Christ the Word? Are you hearing,
recognizing and acting upon this Word? Then you are in the path
of Duty, Right? Then God is obligated to hear your desire and
grant you your place in His Kingdom. He's here to do it and as I
said last week, He wants to fellowship more with you than you
want it from him. He wants to give you of His kingdom more than
you want it yourself. He wants to give you the desire of your
heart. Won't you let Him come in and confirm His Word to you and
in you and through you.
From his message UNRECOGNIZED PRESENCE brother Branham said, "If
we could realize that He is Appearing to us in these meetings for
one purpose and that's to release our desires that we have in Him
to us. But we've got to recognize His presence."
Remember what the definition of a promise is?
A PROMISE is: "an oral or written vow of performance. To give a
basis for expectation. To engage or pledge."
He has not only given us a vow that He will perform but a vow is
an engagement. It's His Word of Betrothal which means be truthful.
He's given you and me His Word that He shall perform it Himself.
Do you think you can become His Bride on your own merit? Do you
think you can even make it through this exodus much less the
squeeze on your own accord? Even in the first Exodus God let them
know that they were not able, that it was up to Him to perform it
DEUTERONOMY.9:5
Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart,
dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of
these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before
thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto
thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
ROMANS.4:16
Therefore [it is] of faith, that [it might be] by grace; to the
end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only
which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of
Abraham; who is the father of us all, 17 As it is written, I have
made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed,
[even] God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things
which be not as though they were. 18 Who against hope believed in
hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according
to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 19 And being not
weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he
was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of
Sara's womb: 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21 And
being fully persuaded that, [1]what he had promised, he was able
also to perform.[1] 22 And therefore it was imputed to him for
righteousness. 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that
it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be
imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from
the dead;
PHILIPPIANS.1:3
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 Always in every
prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5 For your
fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; 6 [1]Being
confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform [it][1] until the day of Jesus Christ:
PP. 34 ONENESS -- JEFF.IN -- V-10 N-2 -- 62-0211
"Now, the Church now is engaged to Christ for the wedding. The
wedding has never been performed yet, it will be at the Wedding
Supper of the Lamb. So, we see that the Church is now engaged,"
( She's vowed to, she's promised to ) "like a man engaged to his
wife. What does he do while they're engaged? He's just bestowing
all kinds of things, sending her presents, making her feel good.
Well, that's what Christ is doing to His Church. He's sending us
gifts of the Spirit. How can you be engaged then when you're
denying these gifts exist? It's the very love [1]tokens[1]. It's God's
[1]token[1] to the Church. Jesus said so, "These signs shall follow
them that believe."
35 ONENESS -- JEFF.IN -- V-10 N-2 -- 62-0211
Now, keep those things in mind. The Church must believe every
Word, every promise, every iota, [1]and claim It for themselves, and
exercise themselves in It.[1] If I was engaged to a girl, and I was
a single man, and I'd send her something, an engagement ring, and
she wouldn't wear it, then that shows she doesn't believe me.
She-she-she doesn't want to be my bride
And if Christ sends His church the gifts that He promised, and
they refuse them and say "they're not so," they don't want to be
the Bride of Christ. They are espoused to some other lover, and
not to Christ, the Bridegroom. [1]So the real Church keeps the
promise, and keeps all, and accepts the gifts that God sends. All
right.[1]
Oh brothers and sisters, if we could only realize that He is here
to release the desires that we have in Him to us. But you've got
to recognize His presence.
Receive the Promise of the Hour. The change of the mind and the
change of the body. You've come this far. You've received the
messenger, receive then His message. Christ is the message.
To many people have only received the messenger bearing gifts.
Remember, Eliazar not only brought gifts to Isaac's bride, but
also to her relations which represented the church. They received
the messenger gladly until he proclaimed His message and then
they weren't quite sure that's what they wanted. And so too in
this hour many have received only the messenger, which that is a
good start, but receive ye the message.
And what is the message? The opening of the seals. Not just six
of them but all seven. And what are the seals? They are non other
than Christ Himself.
45-3 THE.RISING.OF THE.SUN -- JEFF.IN - V-3 N-12 - 65-0418.1M
He is the One Who opened those Seals; [1]He is those Seals. For
the whole Word of God is Christ, and Christ is the Seals that was
open. What is the opening of those Seals then? Revealing Christ.
And the very seven Angels which represented the Seven Churches
was all completed, and we couldn't even see It. They did--they
took the picture, not us. And there He is standing there, Supreme
Judge, showing that He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end. What identification!
Are we Identified with Alpha and Omega. Are we Identified with
the Supreme judge. He's given you your pardon. You never did do
it in the first place. That's what God's prophet said to us.
we're innocent. Completely justified as though we never did sin
to begin with. Then what can hamper your prayer, your request,
your petition. "Ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find.
Knock and it shall be opened."
LUKE.12:31
" But
rather seek ye the
shall be added unto you. 32 Fear not, little flock; for it is
your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
ROMANS.8:35 - 39
Let's pray