Preparation #8 (Unless you are Converted
)
Brian Kocourek
Wednesday
night we continued our study of Brother Branham’s Message Preparation as we examined paragraph #12. In this paragraph brother
Branham took us to the book of Exodus and the Book of Acts to read for his
text. Exodus 4:2 & Acts 1:8. Let me read again to you the
main focus of these two verses.
Now, he begins here by saying, E-12 Now, there's no man can open the Word of
God. I can pull back the pages, read off of them, but it takes the Holy Spirit
to open the Word of God. John saw Him setting upon a throne. No man was able to
take the Book or look on it. And the Lamb come and took the Book out of His
hand, set down on the throne, opened the Book and loosed the seals. So it's to
Him we're looking for tonight. While giving out as going to speak for a few
minutes, I thought of something maybe that would help while I was speaking these sick people that's setting along here. I
don't know hardly what more to do than to first bring you this Word, God's
Word, and then after that has been brought, then God's Spirit come down and confirm that Word: signs, wonders and so
forth,(Vindication) telling the
people everything, just exactly way Supernatural Spirit Beings does. …. And how we ought to love Him. How we ought to appreciate Him
in His great power. E-13 013
Now, I want to read from two places. One of them is from Exodus 4 and
the other one is Acts 2. In Exodus 4 we read this: And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they
will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord has
not appeared to you... or to thee. The Lord said unto him, What
is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
I
want you to notice here that his emphasis is upon what Moses is saying to God,
“I
know that you have come down and Appeared unto me, but the people will not
believe this thing has happened and is now taking place.” And the Lord
replied, “then I will give you something that
will catch the attention of the people that they might know that these things
that you will do, can be done by no mere mortal man.”
God told Moses to stretch forth his hand, and when he
did, God said, “What is that thing which is in thine hand? And Moses said a
rod. Then God told him to throw it down on the ground and it became a serpent.
Now, remember the same rod that God used to bring deliverance to the people was
the same rod God used to bring forth the judgment upon
Wednesday night we examined this rod, the rod of God; and saw how God
continues through the ages to refer to the Rod of God in a sense of that which
God used to bring Mercy to His Children and the Rod of God was also seen
throughout the scriptures as the vehicle in which God brings forth His wrath
upon the disobedient.
PSALMS 23:4
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil: for thou [art] with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
PSALMS 89:30 If
his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; 31
If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; 32
Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with
stripes.
PROVERBS
PROVERBS
PROVERBS 29:15 ¶ The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a
child left [to himself] bringeth his mother to shame.
ISAIAH
11: 1 ¶ And there shall come forth a rod out of the
stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding
in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
4 But with righteousness shall
he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he
shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his
lips shall he slay the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of
his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
REVELATION 2:26 And he that overcometh,
and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give
power over the nations: 27 And he
shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be
broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Now, let’s continue with Brother Branham’s message on
Preparation as we pick up from paragraph #14.
E-14 014
Now, in Acts 2 and 8 we read. I beg your pardon, Acts 1 and 8 we read this: But
you shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you:... you shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, Judaea,
Samaria... unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And when He had spoken these things, while
they beheld, he was taken up in a cloud; and received Him out of their
sight. And while they looked steadfast
towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood with them in white
apparel; Which also said, You men of
Galilee, why stand here looking up into heaven? this
same Jesus, which was taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as you have seen Him go into heaven. May the Lord add His blessings
to His Word. If I'd say a subject, I want to speak to
you tonight...
E-15 015 And now, mother, you here in the stretcher,
and this dear loving person, mother here, and here, and all around over in the
building now, what I want to do tonight, by God's help if He will let me, is to
speak His Word to you, that'll prepare your heart for the healing service. Now,
I want you to listen close. Now, "Preparation..."
God, before He does anything, He always prepares for it. How
could we... As it's spoke in the Bible, ... Before we
go over to fight a war, first we have to prepare for that war.
We find this in …LUKE
14:31 Or what king, going to make war against
another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him
that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
32 Or else, while the other is
yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
If you're going to get married, why, you
prepare for that time. And you have preparations.
ISAIAH 61:10 ¶ I
will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he
hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the
robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh
[himself] with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth
[herself] with her jewels.
JEREMIAH
REVELATION 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband.
REVELATION 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
And before you come to church you made
preparations, the ambulance to bring you, or your loved one to bring you, or
you had to get a certain amount of money ready before you could come; it's
preparations. And God is always prepares
the people for the events that's just about to happen.
I would like to stop here this morning and focus our
attention on this thought that brother Branham just laid out for us. He said, “Now, "Preparation..." God, before He does anything, He always prepares
for it. How could we... As it's spoke in the
Bible, if we... Before we go over to fight a war, first we have to prepare for
that war. If you're going to get married, why, you prepare for that time. And
you have preparations. And before you come to church you made preparations, the
ambulance to bring you, or your loved one to bring you, or you had to get a
certain amount of money ready before you could come; it's preparations. And God is always prepares the people for the
events that's just about to happen.”
Now, let’s just stop for a moment and look more
closely at what Brother Branham is speaking here.
E-16 016 And may I stop right
here just a minute and say: I believe that the people are in the preparation of
the last great destruction this world will ever know. I believe we're at the
end. You can speak to people; you could put a Billy Graham in every city in
the
Now, we have reviewed this statement of brother
Branham’s in light of the oncoming judgments of God, and we have reviewed this
statement as to God’s sending a prophet to get the people ready. But this
morning, I want to review this statement about the condition of the people who
are being prepared for the going home. After all the spirit
of Elijah is to come in order to make ready a prepared people for the Lord.
Now, when the angel came and announced the ministry of
John, he said, LUKE 1:17 And
he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of
the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to
make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Now, notice the Spirit and Power of Elijah was to do
one thing and that is to change the heart of the people. And in John’s case he
was quoting from the Book of Malachi.
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.
Now, if you will notice this scripture speaks of the
ministry of Elijah doing two different things. First of all we see him turning the
hearts of the fathers toward the children, and then it speaks of turning the
hearts of the children back to the apostolic fathers.
Therefore, we must ask ourselves what is the condition
of the people to become. Jesus gives us the answer in MATTHEW 18:1 ¶ At the same time
came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven? 2 And Jesus called a little child unto him,
and set him in the midst of them,
3 And said, Verily I say unto
you, Except ye be converted, and become
as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Now, most people read this as, “except ye be like this
child,” and they stop there. But that is not what he said. He said, except ye
be converted and become as little children. There must be a convertion
first, and then you become like little children.
Now, Jesus I talking about the condition of the people
who will be allowed to enter into His Kingdom. He said, unless you are #1)
converted, and #2) unless you become like little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Therefore,
there has got to come a ministry to do these two
things. To make ready a prepared people for the Lord.
Now, we know by looking back upon
Now, if God is the same and changes not, won’t He also
send a prophet to prepare the way for the Real King when He comes? The Son of David? And isn’t the Son of David the role that
Jesus will have in the Millennium? And
isn’t the new millennium just around the corner? Then it is imperative that God
had to send a prophet in this generation to prepare the way for the coming
Kingdom.
I SAMUEL
ACTS 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that
your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the
presence of the Lord; 20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which
before was preached unto you: 21 Whom the heaven must receive until the
times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all
his holy prophets since the world began.
22 For Moses truly said unto
the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say
unto you. 23 And it shall come to pass, [that] every
soul, which will no hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the
people. 24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and
those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of
these days.
Now, then what we are to be focusing upon in this hour
is the setting up of the Kingdom. The ministry of the Presence of the Lord, the
refreshing that has come is to prepare the hearts of the people for this
Kingdom of God that is coming. The Millennial Kingdom.
Now, how do we know of this Kingdom, when it will
come? Jesus told the pharisees what to expect.
LUKE 17:20 ¶ And
when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he
answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (entos
means in the midst of you).
He was not telling these Christ rejecting pharisees that the Kingdom of God is not a physical place.
He was not telling them that it is something that will be in them. The word entos means to be in the midts
of. He told them that the Kingdom of God will be in their very midst and they
won’t even recognize it. And what is a Kingdom? It is a King and His People. It
is not a piece of real-estate, but a King and his people.
The King and His people will be in your very midst and
you will not recognize it. You don’t see it by observation. It’s a condition of the heart. You see with
your heart.
II
CORINTHIANS 3:12 ¶ Seeing then that we
have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 13
And not as Moses, [which] put a vail over his
face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly
look to the end of that which is abolished:
14 But their minds were
blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament;
which [vail] is done away in Christ. 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.(When what shall
turn tot he Lord? He’s speaking about the heart. And when the heart turns to
the Lord, what happens? A conversion takes places.
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.
Therefore, the condition that the Spirit of the Lord
is here to change us is a condition in the heart that is to get us ready for
the kingdom of God. And what condition did Jesus Himself tell us that alone
would be accepted in His Kingdom? He said, a converted
heart that would make us like these little children.
Therefore, we must ask ourselves, what is the
attributes of these little children that is so important for us that without it
we can not enter His kingdom. If we examine again what Jesus was speaking of He
was asked the question, whose going to be greatest in your kingdom? Whose going to have the most prestigue?
Whose going to be top dog? And he said, unless your converted and become as this little child here, you
won’t even be allowed to enter. So we see the conversion is number one, and
then the attitude of the little child will come forth by this conversion or new
birth.
Will you listen? Will you try to understand? Will you
be obedient? Will you be totally dependent upon God as a child is to it’s parent? Will you be dependent upon your father for your
daily bread? Will you be dependent upon your father for your meat in due
season? Now, The
focus is not upon our being like this child, but the focus of what Jesus is
telling the disciples here is that you must be converted. And that means to be born again> Baptized
with the Holy Ghost. Regenerated. Filled
with the Holy Ghost.
He never said, if you agree
with the word. He said, You must be born again. And in
1 Peter He tells us how we are born again. Not of corruptible Word but of
Incorruptible, by the Word of God which lives and abides forever. But so many want to go by a feeling or simply believing.
That’s not it. He never said when you believe it that’s it. He said you must be
quickened to it. The Word has got to become a reality to you and when it does,
then you become transformed by It’s power. (1 John 3: 1-3)
We are living in a most terrible time upon earth when
words don’t any longer hold their meaning. The hippie, beatnik 60’s mentality
that has finally put one of their own in the white house.
Words used to have meaning, but today they have been changed to fit their own
notions. It used to be when you said the word joint, everyone knew what you
meant. But through time it’s meaning changed from an appendage, finger, knee, elbow
etc. to a place where you lived, to a thing that people smoked. Gay used to
mean you were happy but has been changed to mean a homosexual person. Is that to give you the idea that
these people are happy, and this lifestyle is happy.
We used to call such people faggots, because after all a faggot in the old
English was a burning stick that would be thrown upon a fire. And that is what
they are, cannon fodder.
But the bible tells us that there is coming a day, and I believe that we are now living in that time, “when
they would call good evil and evil good.”
ISAIAH 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good
evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for
sweet, and sweet for bitter!
That day is upon us when men don’t know the meaning of
words, or only use word to justify themselves.
JOHN 9:39 ¶ And Jesus said, For
judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that
they which see might be made blind.
40 And [some] of the Pharisees
which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind
also? 41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye
should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore
your sin remaineth.
But why is it that theydon’t
understand His Word? Because they don’t want it.
JOHN
Michener said, “When words lose their meaning, the nation
is gone.” And I say unto you, “when the word
loses it’s meaning, the church is gone.”
When he said, JOHN
1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: He
was not saying you were once a pig and now have power to become a son. “it’s not by power, nor by might but by My Spirit saith the
Lord.” Notice the very next verse, we read… 13 Which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God. In fact the word power
here does not mean power at all in the sense of the word as if you have some
stronghold to make happen that which before could not happen. But the word
become is a Greek word, Ginomai which means to become
fulfilled. And the word power speaks of authority. Therefore we should read
this verse as follows: But as many as received him, to them gave he
authority to
become fulfilled as sons of God,
From “Testimony
of a True witness,’ Brother Branham said, For we realize, Lord, that a tired, weary, sick body dragging around,
cannot enjoy the blessings of God as they could if they were well. And we
realize, as Christians, that we live so far under our privileges, that You do not desire us to be like that, tired and weary, and
run-down and weakening. You desire us to be filled with the Spirit of God.
Grant that to us, Lord,