ONENESS # 57
Loosing the Flame in your Life
Brian Kocourek
Before
we
begin this morning, I just want to say to those who were not here
Wednesday night, get the tape. If ever there was a
message for this church to hear I think it was that one. Brothers and sisters, we must never let this Word become common
to us. I see a lethargy sweeping in on
people and a complacency. People are
letting things get to them like I've never seen it
before. Everybodies on edge. Nerves are shot.
I've
already
seen one church ripped apart because people keep looking at
the flesh instead of the promises of God. And I'll not stand by and see another.
It's as if we've reached
the end of our rope and there isn't any more
rope to hold us. But that is only a lie of the devil. Your rope never will hold you. So don't even try. Neither will anything you do ever merit
anything with God. So don't, don't, don't let this Word become common to you.
LUKE 17: 20 - 30
Now Jesus Himself tells
us here that as the setting was in Noah's day and
also in
Now Satan will bring
along something that will take you out if you're
meant to be taken out. Some disagree
with one thing while others feel that thing is perfectly right. And both use the same scriptures and quotes to
validate their own opinions.
And I say, what if both positions are
wrong. "Shall not the Judge of all the
earth do right." We are all standing before
the Greatest Judge in all the earth who can only
Judge righteous judgment. But if we
honestly lay ourselves bare before the people and before God, and God has
shown the brethren their situation in light of the Message of Grace, then
to oppose it, will be found in opposition to something
ordained of God. So my advise is to just let be
what will be. Neither bless nor
curse. But If there are any
blessings to come, God will do the blessing. If
there is any cursing, God will do that as
well.
Brother
Branham
told us the reason we have these situations is because of
wrong teaching. So if wrong teaching brought
about error then it will take true teaching to correct the error.
Now, don't
ever try to force conviction on any one just because
they don't see things your way.
I've seen shunning take place here recently and
I despise it. Over what. Something that is
out of your hands anyway. I'm not going to
let it cause division without taking a stand against it.
Now the Christian thing
to do is to give them each other the benefit of
the doubt. Don't pass judgment upon
them. Let God be their Judge. Jesus
said, "The Word that I speak , it shall Judge in
the Last days". And our Father Abraham said, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right". And if
there be any of you that would still want to fuss over this
afterwards, then it shows you have a dictating spirit, that won't
rest until you have changed the minds of others.
Just
because
we are in the message together does not mean that every one will
see every thing the same. That is the beauty of Grace.
We are still in the body of this death and although we have
been given by God's very descent, a perfect revelation, yet we do
not have a perfect understanding of that perfect revelation
and we will not have as long as we are in an imperfect body.
Look at the Apostles.
They fussed with each other and Paul stood
against them all, and yet when the chips were down, he had
his churches in
Brother Branham said,
"if we can not bitterly disagree and still
love each other their is something wrong with our spirit".
Now,
we are to receive communion tonight and I am looking
for healing to take place sometime today. And I believe we have the correct healing balm in this Word of
Life. So pay close attention to the message this morning and if you so desire
healing in your hearts, then God is obligated to
heal you.
Now, actually, it does
not disturb me that I see a little tension and a little warfare going on even
though it is has been somewhat mild and subtle.
Because if I saw nothing
happening over this I would wonder what kind
of a group I had here that no one was willing to question
anything. It shows Life. It shows that you people have got
some conviction in you. That's good. Now let's focus it down and keep moving forward.
89
HEBREWS.CPT.7.PT.1 JEFF.IN HEB 287-330
57-0915 "Now,
"All wars," as I say, "are fought for principles."
Now, if you have a little war in church, it must be the right principle.
You must be fighting for the right thing. And [1]each
member of the church is supposed to do that. Now, this teaching is for the
church. That's what we're here for, that's what I'm standing here for, that's
what God's Word is for, is for the church."
But
let's
just be sure we still love each other through it. And let's leave the out
come up to God Himself.
Now,
this morning I want you to pay close attention to what br. Branham and the scripture is telling us. It is very
important for us to get our heads cleared, and back on track with God.
Now in
getting to our message this morning. Listen close now.
Oneness PP. 202 "The
Bible says, in the last days there'd be churches, another
Now,
really there is nothing wrong with churches. The
Now, actually those that
follow this message have more of a Word behavior
than any other groups that call themselves churches.
But if we are not careful, we come to a place of expectation that everyone must
conform to our way of thinking and that's when the Spirit of Christ leaves
right then.
The church is a
necessary instrument in the hands of God to give us a place in common where we
can come and hear the Word. But it is not a
place of social activity. Brother Branham even told the
tabernacle to do their fellowshipping at home. Very rare was it that the whole church did activities together outside
of Sunday and Wednesday Worship.
Yes, there was the
occasional picnic, but it was never a routine thing. I think we have gotten into
a place where we have come to expect the church to satisfy our social
obligations. And that is wrong. The church is a house of Prayer. We come
to worship God in Spirit and Truth. It is not the local pub, nor is it the local
entertainment hall. It is here to function as a lighthouse for our
souls. And that is it.
ACTS 2: 42 - 47
<read>
Now, in the reading of the scripture here it sounds
as if all the people lived continuously together, but that is not what the
scripture teaches us. In verse 44 it says and all who believed were
together. Now, this word means they were united as one. But notice also what took
place. The Holy Ghost put it upon the hearts
of the people to be together, because as we have found
here that their is something special about fellowshipping together around the
Word that beats any other kind of fellowship.
But
this
act of selling all and coming together was not
the ultimate desire the Holy Ghost wanted for the people.
Because, notice how the Lord gave them a period where everything was
going just great. Verse 47 says they had favor with all men.
You
know,
we see the same thing happened in
EXODUS 12: 36
<read>
They
found
favor with the people and they even gave their gold and silver to
them as gifts in departing.
But
what
was the result. When they were gone the
people and Pharoah changed their minds
and wanted the Hebrew children dead. So too we see here in the book of ACTS
that what God had in mind was not to see the people cloister
together, but He wanted the Gospel spread abroad as He
had commanded them before He left them.
MATT 27: 19 - 20
<read>
So we see the function
of the church is not to be a final resting place, but one which is a tie post
for worship even as the early temple had been.
Once the people were in
a condition where they were not tied down with property,
then the persecutions began in
Brother
Branham
was commenting on Moody's church in
He said,
"I preach the sermon once and the men in my
church preach it another 100 times over and the people
come in from every where." But what has happened to the
churches. The church has become the ultimate.
The people begin by spreading the message of
Jesus Christ, and then soon they get their focus off the spreading
of the Gospel and they begin to
settle into a flock, or little group and after a while they become
complacent. After all, in their early
zeal to share the New found truth, they tell all to every one
and soon after get burned out because the rejection rate is so
high. You run out of friends and acquaintances after a
while anyhow.
But Jesus never said go
into all the world and tell your friends and
acquaintances only. He said every creature.
And so what takes place
is the people give up and soon settle in for
the long hard winter and then complacency sets in. Then
the church becomes center stage for every thing. Our worship, our social life, our physical
recreation, you name it.
Instead
of
our hearts being so filled with a divine revelation because the
very God from Heaven, The Author and Finisher of our Faith has come
down to meet with us in service. But instead
of our total focus being His divine Word which brings a transformation, we
soon get caught up in the cares of life and the church has become a
caretaker of our daily bread.
Even Jesus had to fight
this attitude.
John 6: 26 <read>
I had a
very good friend turn on me a few years back and he
started to draw the people into skating parties in his church and other
social reforms, and when I went to talk to him about it
because I just hated to see the people being swallowed up in
a social Gospel, he said, "well, people are coming back
to church because of it." I could hardly believe what I heard.
Loaves and fishes
attract the crowds, but what happened when they found out Jesus was the bread
of Life.
John 6: 27 - 41
<read>
People
don't
want the simple Word of God any more. They want
a social life. And the church has to easily bent to there whim.
But
Jesus
hated it. He told the woman at the well, "They
that worship, must worship in Spirit and Truth." Not with bunco and skating
parties.
He
took
a whip and drove the money changers out of the House of God. Now those men were doing a service to the people
of God. There were many who lived in
the city and couldn't bring their own lamb or turtle dove, so these
full Gospel business men taught that they could really be a service to the
people and maybe even make a buck at it too. They were a service to the
people and yet Jesus whipped them out of the
He
said,
"My Father's House shall be called a House of Prayer, and you
have made it a den of robbers and thieves".
We could take you
through the scriptures but there is one purpose to gather together,
and that is to either worship Him in Spirit and Truth or as we have seen
in Malachi and other scripture that we gather together to
talk the Word. Outside of that our fellowship is in vain and need not be with
only believers.
Brother
Branham
didn't just hunt and fish with believers, although
many followed him wherever he went. But He liked to
hunt with this fella Burt, who had eyes
like a lizzard. But if you'll
notice, brother Branham led the man to Christ. The
same thing happened with Bud Southwick. I know because
I've talked to Bud for hours back in 78'.
1-2 WHY.CRY?.SPEAK JEFF.IN
63-0714"Heavenly Father, we are indeed a privileged people this
morning to be assembled in the
house of God, when we know that there's so many
that would want to be in the house of God this morning and
are in hospitals and beds of sickness, and Thou has given us this
privilege to be out here today. And we never come, Lord, to be seen of
each other, though we love our fellowship one with another, but we could do
that at our homes; but we have come here to fellowship with He Who has brought
us together as beloved children and brethren."
85 CHURCH.ORDER JEFF.IN COD 871-917 63-1226
"You
come here to worship, not even to visit. This
is not a--this is not a picnic ground, this is not a
visitation place; this is the visitation place of the Holy Spirit,
listen to what He has to say, not to one another. We don't
come here to fellowship with one another, we come
here to fellowship with Christ. This is the house of worship.
And children must be disciplined, and if
they are... of their parents. Let it be
known! That if these deacons... If these
parents of the children will not listen to
what these deacons said, then this parent should be corrected themselves."
149 CHURCH.ORDER JEFF.IN
COD 871-917 63-1226
"Now, deacons
of the church, and as I--as I said, are the police
of the church. But the church is not a general
meeting-house for fellowship and friendship and frolic. The church is a sanctuary of God! We come
here... Now, if we want to meet one
another, let me come to your house or you come to my house,
“or you go to one another's
house and meet one another. But just to frolic
around through the church, and talking and things like that, it's
not right, brethren; we come here, we get the whole thing off of
our mind. If we would come here...
I'm
afraid
that most everywhere we see the churches loosing the flame of
God in their lives. You know how you
can tell the condition of a church, or at least
of the individuals in that church. Listen
to what they talk about when they leave those
doors back there. If they have the Word of God on their
hearts, then it shows God is dealing with them and He is
alive in their hearts. But just
listen to the conversations that go on out their.
And I ask you, what is on your mind when you
leave this building. It shows whether or not you are thoroughly into what God's Word has for
your life when you leave here. After-all, if you
are made to echo, you'll echo. And to echo means to say
the same thing, with the same inflections. The
same emphasis."
Oneness pp. 202 -203
<read>So church isn't it. Then there's got
to be something way beyond church, and that's
His presence. Let's keep reading.
ONENESS pp. 204 - 205
<read>Same sign every time.
1st Exodus - God in
the form of the Pillar of fire on the scene with
His prophet Moses.
2nd Exodus - God in the form of the Pillar of fire on
the scene with His prophet Paul.
3rd Exodus - God in
the form of the Pillar of fire on the scene with
His prophet William Branham.
Oneness pp. 206 Notice
he let's you know that no one else saw it, only Paul. They had to take
Paul's word for it. But God backed up that Word. Yet in
this day He actually took His Picture with His Prophet.
But will the people believe it? No they won't. They are predicted not to
believe.
ACTS 13 40 - 41
Hebrews 12: 25 - 29 The Pillar of Fire.
Oneness
pp. 206 - 208.
Amos 3: 7,
2 Thes
1: 7-2:1
1 Thes
4; 16 - 18
Matt 10: 32 - 42
<read> Prayer