Preparation #13 (You Shall Receive Power)
Brian
Kocourek
Before we begin this morning, I would like for us to
pray for the believers in
The real problem does not lie in the fact that these
brothers were arrested, interrogated, and
then deported, but that real problem is that the believers in China who risked
their own lives to have these meetings will probably be sent to prison for
their part in holding these meetings which are against the law. These are the men we need to be praying for.
Now, I know what it is like to be interrogated in
another country. A few years ago when I went to Canada, to visit John McCrae
who was sick, I was stopped in customs, detained and interrogated in one of
those little rooms where they read through my sermon notes and threatened to
send me back to the states. I asked them by what law they were doing these
things, and since when is it a crime in
Let’s bow
our heads once more in prayer… Now, while we are still standing, let’s open our
bibles to …
Revelations
Chapter 5: 1-14 (read) Now, 10,000’s x 10,000’s = hundreds (plural) of millions
of angels + millions more. And let’s
pray once more, shall we…. If we would bow our heads and our
hearts once more to God our Father…
Last week we spoke on the Book of Redemption as we
examined paragraph 12 of the Message Preparation. 012 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.
Now, these words of course Brother Branham is speaking
from the Book of Revelations Chapter 5,
where the Lamb of God came forth to open the Book which had been sealed with
seven seals. Now,
Brother Branham in speaking of
Revelations 5, in the Souls in Prison Now, sermon, when the Lamb came forth to take the book and
open it, he said, “the Lamb came for
what He'd redeemed. He come to claim what He had
redeemed. 084
He's already got it right here in the Book. Take It from His hand... Now, He's coming to receive what He has
redeemed; that's His work He has done; He's come to receive it. Oh, what a
time. And proving it... The Seventh Seal proved it. Come back and took the Book
of Redemption.
Why were the opening of the seals so important,
because it showed that finally after waiting for 2,000 years, He has finally
come back to claim that which he redeemed on Calvary. That is why Paul was so
ecstatic about the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of God to
come to the church.
Ephesians 1:
13-20 (read) and explain
FIVE
JUNCTIONS OF TIME 56-0122 057 Notice again, and when the waters begin to
fall, and they seen what that the miracle actually was taking place, the outside world that scorned and made fun
of him was locked out of mercy. So
will it be in the coming of the Son of man. Many who laugh and make fun and
say the days of miracles is past, when miracles happening daily in the
believer's life... It'll be too late for them at that day. The doors of mercy will be closed; the sanctuary will become smoky.
And there's no more intercession for sin
from then on. "Let him that's filthy be filthy still. Let him that's
righteous, righteous still, and him that's holy, holy still." That's
what the Bible says. And we believe it, and you know it, my brethren and
sisters.
BREACH THE 63-0317E {201}
102 Remember, He'd been
on His mediatorial work back here. But remember,
these Seals are ready to be opened, and the Lamb come
from the sanctuary of God, advanced forward... Wait till we get over there at
that one hour--take that one-half hour that is silent; the sanctuary's smoking;
there's no more intercession; the
Sacrifice has left; it's a judgment seat. There's no Blood on it no more, for
the Blood covered Lamb has walked away. Don't you wait till that time.
FIRST SEAL
THE 63-0318 027 Now,
the mystery of the Book are revealed when the Seals are broken. And when the Seals completely are broken, the
time of redemption is over, because the Lamb left the intercession post to walk
out to take His claims. He was a Mediator between that, but when the real
revelation happens on the Seals as they begin to break, the Lamb is coming
forth from the sanctuary. It's according to the Word. We read it last
night. He come from the--out of the midst and took the Book. So He's no more Mediator, because even
they called Him a Lion, and that's the--that's the King, and He's not a Mediator then.
Brothers and sister, we are on a Kingdom journey, and
the rest of the world is locked out of mercy, except those last seed that are
still laying out there ordained to come in. John
10:25=>33 He can’t lose one of them & John 6:67=>6:40 All the rest
will result in Hebrews 6:1-6
& 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3,
10-13
FOURTH SEAL
THE 63-0321 151 Now, just search your heart, my brother, my
sister, my friends. I've been with you a long time. This is about thirty-three
years. Have I ever told you anything in the Name of the Lord but what come to
pass? Search Christ now while you have a chance to. It may come pretty soon
where you can't do it. See? He may leave
the seat anytime of His intercession; then you could cry with all your
heart, you could stomp, you could speak in tongues, you could run up and down
the floor, you could do anything you wanted to and join every church in the
world; there's nothing, no more Bleach
for your--your sins. Then what do you, where are you then? 152
While I believe, with all my heart, the
seat's still open. I believe He's still on the throne of God, but soon He's
going to rise now and come forth to claim what He has redeemed. He's doing
the work of Kinsman Redeemer while Ruth is waiting. But soon, you know, after
Boaz done the kinsman work, then he come and claimed his possessions, and
that's exactly what the Bible said He done. He come forth and took the Book; then intercession is over. He's off the
throne. There's no more Blood on the mercy seat, and then what is it? Judgment seat.
Don't let it be said some of these days. "I thought the rapture was supposed to come," and hear the
Voice say back, "It's in the past."
God help you. Now, let's bow our heads.
SOULS IN
PRISON NOW 63-1110M 24-1 078 See, it
wasn't revealed when that Seventh Trumpet sounded, or the Seventh Angel
or--Seal was opened, then there was silence in the heaven: See? It wasn't give
away, what would take place. But under the Sixth Seal where
these Trumpets opened... Remember, under there we find out that the Lamb
came forth, appeared on the scene. He
had left the mercy seat. His work of
redemption was finished. And He came forth and took the Book out of the
right hand of Him that set upon the throne, and time was no more. And
immediately an Angel appeared in the 7th chapter--the 10th chapter and 7th
verse, saying, this Angel came down and swore that time was no longer. But you
see, in this Book was what was redeemed; it
was the Book of Redemption. And everything
that He had redeemed was written in that Book. All that He died for was written
in the Book, and He could not leave His mediatorial
seat until He had thoroughly redeemed, and He couldn't redeem it at the
cross, because they were predestinated in the Lamb's Book of Life, and had to
stay on there to make intercession until that last person was finished.
Glory.
BREACH THE
63-0317E 105-3 {254}
127 And here He is as a Mediator
on the altar, "Just a little longer until there's more has to suffer like
you." But now He comes from here at this last Seal. He's no more Mediator; He's King now. And
what does He do? If He's a King, He has to have subjects, and His subjects is
them that He has redeemed; and they cannot come before Him until He takes the
rights of redemption. And now, He walks forth from a Mediator, where death put
us in the grave, He comes forth with the rights. Amen. And even those who are
alive and remain till His coming shall not hinder them which are asleep, for
the trumpet of God shall sound at that last trumpet, when the last Seal is
broke, and when the seventh angel's given his message; the last trumpet shall
sound and the dead in Christ shall rise, and we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them to meet Him in the air. He claims... He's
come forth now to claim His--His possession. Watch, look at this. My, broke the
Seals, revealed the mysteries... Revealed them where? To the last church age,
the only one that's living. The rest of them's
sleeping.
Now this
morning I want to speak from paragraph 14 where Brother Branham is quoting from
the Book of ACTS 1: 6-11. (read) explain…
Now,
So far in our study of this Message Preparation we can firmly establish by the
Scripture and from Brother Branham’s text of Exodus 4 and Acts 1 that three
times God has come down and manifested Himself to man in the form of the Pillar
of Fire. In each Appearance, there was an Exodus for His People. Each time this
Exodus was critical to the deliverance of the people, and each time God
empowered the people with the ministry of becoming Witnesses to this
Appearing.
Let’s read again from paragraph 12 OF Brother Branham’s Message, as he
quotes from ACTS 1:8…..
“But you shall receive power, after the Holy
Ghost is come upon you:... you shall be witnesses unto me…”
I like that, And you shall
receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you….
I would like to take a short message this morning and
examine this power that we are to receive after the Holy Ghost is come upon
us.
This word Power that is used here is first spoken of
by Jesus Himself when he is addressing the subject of prayer and how we should
pray. We spoke on this subject on Wednesday night for those of you who were not
present. The word, power used here is a Greek word Dunamis
which means power, sterength or might. The word is
first used in the New testament by Jesus himself in reference to the coming
Matthew 6;
1-34 (read) notice the attitude that
Jesus is telling us that we must have concerning prayer. We must come forth
with reverence toward God, and with thankfulness as
well. Then He admonishes us to have our focus right, not on what this life can
offer, but on what we can store up in heaven, where noone
can take it away from us.
Now, just because Jesus Speaks of the Dunamis of God as pertaining to the Kingdom journey, this
does not mean even that our focus is to be upon this power. This is where I
believe many have erred in this hour. They look at the Dunamis
of God, the power and might of God in manifestation in the ministry of Brother
Branham and they want that for themselves as well. But they do not see Dunamis as vindication. They see it for themselves, but
they likewise reject it for the one God sent with it, and backed up. You see,
God never vindicated the works, nor does He vindicate his gifts. God vindicates
only His Word.
The second time Jesus uses this word dunamis we see him speak of those who claimed to have it
operating in their own lives, and thus they held to that operation as some
vindication of God’s approval for them.
Matthew
7:15-28 verse 22 wonderful works is
the word dunamis. Now, notice here that the same
trials came down upon both those who were founded on a rock and those who were
not. Notice, the foundation of the two is what made the difference when the
trials came forth. Both the true believer and the make believer face the same
sort of trials. But what separates them and their outcome is what kind of foundatin they have.
Now, the ones on sand are those who have an unstable
foundation. The homes that crumbled in the
Matthew
16:15-18 (read) notice here that Jesus is not telling Peter
that He will build His Church upon Peter as the Catholic interpret this
Scripture, but He is saying, Upon this rock of revelation will I build my
Church, and the gates of hell will never prevail against revelation. This is
just like the parable of the storm. It could not
prevail against the house that was built upon a rock. Jesus said, “Thou art Petros, a small pebble, but upon this
Now, in getting down to this power, this dunamis which Jesus Is speaking to us about, and in which
Brother Branham spoke to us from ACTS
1:8 Jesus Said, “But you
shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you”...
Therefore, we know that we are to receive this dunamis, this power after the Holy Ghost is come upon us,
but how do we know when we the Holy Ghost is come upon us. What is the evidence
of this power in my life? And what can I
expect from this power?
Now, this word dunamis is
used 117 times in the New Testament, and for the next few minutes I want to
give you other examples of how it is used. I want you to notice that it most
often speaks in light of god vindicating His Word.
MATTHEW
11:20
Then began he to
upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty
works were done, because they repented
not: 21 Woe unto thee, Chorazin!
woe unto thee,
Notice here the works are done to bring about a
certain effect upon the people. And that work is repentance which is a change
of the mind. Therefore the dunamis of God is for one
purpose. It is to vindicate His Word, and to change the hearts of the people in
doing so.
The next time we see the word used it is in connection
with wisdom as Wisdom and power go hand in hand when we refer to God. For He is omniscient and Omnipotent.
And what good would it be if God was omnipotent (all powerful) if he was not
Omniscient (all knowing). Power in the hands of the ignorant is a horrible
thought, because the damage that would be done would be tremendous.
MATTHEW
13:54 And when he was come into his
own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were
astonished, and said, Whence hath this [man] this wisdom, and [these] mighty works?
The next time we see this word dunamis
used is In MATT
Notice that the unbelief of the people would not allow
this dunamis to work. Have you stopped to ask
yourself why? Remember, the reason for this Dunamis
in the first place is to vindicate God’s Word, and to change the hearts of the
people. To cause them to repent. But if they are not
capable of repentance, then why perform the miracles and mighty acts? That
would be just putting on a show. Do you
remember when the Angel of the Lord told Brother Branham that he must never
make a show out of the gift? You know the devil tried to get Jesus to show of
the power and he wouldn’t do it. The devil said, if you jump the angels will
bear thee up, and Jesus replied, depart from me, satan,
for it is written, “ Thou chalt not tempt the Lord
thy God.” Notice Jesus kept going back to the Word Himself for His defense. And
If He had to, what about you and me?.
So we see that the unbelief of the people prevented
them from seeing the mighty works of God. God will never exercise His power
just to impress someone. He is not a respecter of persons. He exercises His
Power for one reason, and that is to vindicate His Word which is to change the
heart of the people.
So when we hear brother Branham read from ACTS 1:8
which says, “But you shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you”... We
should understand that this power which is to come upon us is for the purpose
of bringing forth a change in the condition of our heart. A
true repentance.
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. Notice the spirit of Elijah is one which is
anointed to bring forth the Spirit and Power of God.
MATT 24:30 And
then shall appear the sign of the Son of
man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they
shall see the Son of man coming in the
clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Notice how the sign of the Son of Man, the Prophet God will be
seen in the clouds of heaven. And notice we are told at this time that this
Appearing will be in Power and Glory. Dunamis & Doxa. (explain). Again we see this spoken of in MARK 13:26 26 And then shall they see the Son of man
coming in the clouds with great power and glory.27 And then shall he send his angels, and
shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of
the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.
Now, let’s look further at this power of God and see
just how it affects us when the Holy Ghot comes upon
us. Because after all, if we are to know what it will do for
us, then there must be an example in the Scripture.
LUKE 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her,
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God.
Notice the effect of the Holy Ghost when it came upon
Mary. As it oveshadowed her, a life began to come
forth in her. That Life was God life that began to add cell to cell and fiber
to fiber.
ACTS
Notice that when the people received the Holy Spirit,
they received power to witness and to speak the Word of God with boldness. They
did not care what people thought of them, they believed only what God’s Word said. Their lives were changed. Before they
received the Holy ghost they were always afraid, and
they hid themselves because of this fear. But the Holy Ghost emboldened them to
witness the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
ROMANS
ROMANS
I
CORINTHIANS
II
CORINTHIANS 4:5-18 ( read)
Paul tells us
in Ephesians 1: 17-19 That the very purposeof the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation is to make us know the workings of his
Mighty Power.
EPHESIANS
3:16 That he would grant you,
according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his
Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by
faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints
what [is] the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
PHILIPPIANS
3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count
all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but]
dung, that I may win Christ, 9 ¶
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is
of God by faith: 10 That I may know
him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death;
11 If by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I
follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of
Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
1 Thess 1: 7-12 (read) 7 & 11
HEBREWS 7:15 for that after
the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, 16
Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the
power of an endless life.
1 Peter 1:
3-5 The power of God will keep you… Acts 2: 38-40 (read)