Preparation #14 (Laying in the Presence to Ripen)
Brian
Kocourek
This morning we shall examine paragraph 15 of the
Message Preparation. 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, 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, 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
always prepares the people for the events that's just about to happen.
Now, thus far we have looked at this preparation from
various aspects. We have examined this
thought of preparing in advance for that which is coming upon the earth. In
fact brother Branham said in the very next paragraph,
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
We have also examined this thought of preparing in
advance for a wedding. We actually took six messages on this subject back in
January. Brother Branham said,
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, 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,
Therefore, we have looked at this thought that Brother
Branham laid out here in the light of Marriage, in the light of the oncoming storm of Judgment, etc.
This morning I would like to look at this thought of
preparation in the light of this Message.
What is the Shout supposed to preparing us for? If we say the Spiritual
Union of the bride to the Groom, we have already looked at that in the natural
when we studied those messages on building relationships. Now, I suppose we
could go further into the role of the Wife and the Role of the Husband, but we
have done that in the past when we took our mini series on “Home and the House
of God”.
But this morning, I would like to approach this
thought that brother Branham is bringing to us in another way. I would like to bring out this preparation
from the stand point, not so much what we are preparing for, as much as what we
must do to prepare.
Now, I suppose, if I were preparing for war, I would
be stock piling up weapons, and ammunition, and first aid supplies, and water
and all sorts of items that I will need for this battle. But I would also need to be doing something
else if I am preparing to war.
It does not matter much if I have all the ammunition
and weapons that money can buy, it won’t mean a thing to me if I do not have a
plan as to how to defeat the enemy. Therefore, a very important part of any
preparation is having a plan. What Must
I do to defeat the enemy.
And if I am preparing for marriage, I must not only
prepare for the ceremony and all the things involved with the ceremony, but I
must also prepare for the marriage itself. As the husband, I must prepare for
our housing, and for our transportation, and for our nourishment, and for our
health protection, and for our entertainment, and for our sleep, and for our
clothing, etc. etc. etc… There is more to a marriage than just a ceremony.
There is a whole life together where two people come together from two
different households, and they come together to build one household. There are physical needs, there will be
emotional and spiritual needs as well.
And therefore, this morning I want to look at the plan
that God has for His Bride. I want to
look at the advice that God has given His bride. We know the people of this
world are preparing for their destruction. But what are the people of God,
those who will miss this destruction, what are we to be doing to get ready for
the going home. What has brother Branham told us that we must be doing to
prepare ourselves for this next step in our homeward journey.
Just Before brother Branham went off the seen, he left
us with instructions of just what we must do. He told us that we were to be
like the people he saw across the curtain of time, and he told us how we would
become like those people.
GOD'S ONLY
PROVIDED PLACE OF WORSHIP 65-1128M 40 020 I believe the church is begin to hear the
message, and beginning to understand.
But, friends, listen, we've got to lay
in the Presence of the Son; we've got to be ripened. Our--our faith isn't ripe. Intellectually
we're hearing the message that God has give us, and seeing the signs that He
showed us, and proving it by the Bible as that; but, oh, how the church needs to lay in His Presence till it
tenders up, you know, and gets sweet
in the Spirit so that it can bathe
down. Sometimes in speaking the message, you get harsh, have to break it in
like that, because you've got to clinch a nail to make it hold. But when the church once gets it, the Elected is called out and separated then
in the Presence of God, I know it'll be something like the people
was there when it takes its rapture.
Therefore, there is a process that we must go through
in order for us to be ready for the rapture. Because he tells us here that we
will be in a certain condition when we take our rapture, or our flight out of
here. Now, the question is this. What condition is he talking about. This is the key. And how do we get there?
First of all is we know what it is, then there must be
a way to get there. After all, we just read this morning from the Message
preparation, that before God does anything, He first prepares for it. God,
before He does anything, He always prepares for it. Then brother Branham immediately adds, How could we... if we go to war we must prepare, if we
get married we must prepare, if we are going to church we must prepare, or
going to school, or to the grocery store, we first must prepare a list, and on
and on and on…
So brother Branham lays out the principle of
preparation, and that before anything of significance is to be done, we must
prepare for it if we are to accomplish what we set out to accomplish.
Then what about the Rapture. What does the Scripture
speak concerning our preparing for the Rapture? Brother branham
said we must lay in the presence of the SON to ripen.
He said, I
believe the church is begin to hear the message, and beginning to understand.
Remember, to hear means to understand. But he says
that’s not all we must do, there is something else…
But, friends, listen, we've got to lay in the Presence of the Son; we've got to be ripened.
Our--our faith isn't ripe.
Now what does it mean to be ripe? When you use the word ripe what comes to your
mind? Fruit, right? And why does the fruit need to be ripe? Because it is not
ready to be ate until it is ripe. Then the word ripe suggests to us a being
ready, or a making ready.
For what? He says, for the rapture. A making ready for
the rapture.
Intellectually
we're hearing the message that God has give us, and seeing the signs that He
showed us, and proving it by the Bible as that; In
other words, he is telling us that we are grasping the message in our minds,
and we see the signs and can take them back to the Bible and see that they were
placed among us for a vindication by God of His Presence among us to vindicate
the Message,
but, oh, how
the church NEEDS to lay in His Presence
till it tenders up, you know, and gets
sweet in the Spirit
Oh, how there is such a need for the church to become
tender and sweet in their Spirit. Why?
so that it
can bathe down. Now what does the
word bathe down suggest to your mind?
According to Webster, it means to immerse oneself
into, to soak oneself in some substance or influence. And I believe that is
what Brother Branham was speaking of here. To immerse ourselves into a certain
influence which alone comes from laying in the presence of the Lord. And in
laying in that atmosphere, there is but one result that will take place, and
that is a tenderness, and a sweetness that we alone can not produce in
ourselves. It must come from the Presence of the SON and that alone will
produce this result.
Sometimes in
speaking the message, you get harsh, have to break it in like that, because
you've got to clinch a nail to make it hold. Here he let’s us know that it
won’t be an easy thing, this laying in the presence of the SON, or Word,
because sometimes you have to hit it hard to knock off all the wrong
influences, and stuff.
But when the church once gets it,
What about this thought here. When the church once
they get it, what will begin to happen? the Elected
is called out and separated
So we see that this separation we have seen is a vital
part of the rapture process that is going on.
When the Elected is called out and separated, then and only then we are
freed up to lay in the presence to ripen, to become ready, … then in the Presence of God, I
know it'll be something like the people was there when it takes its rapture.
What people where? He had just told how he had been
translated to the 6th dimension and how lovely and sweet the people
were there. And remember, the angel of God told him,
BEYOND THE
CURTAIN OF TIME 61-0305 025 As I
begin to move from that beautiful, joyful place, as far as my eyes could see,
people were coming towards me to embrace me crying, "My precious
brother." Suddenly I was back on the bed again. I said, "O God, help
me. Never let me compromise with the Word. Let me stay straight on the Word. I
don't care what anyone else does, Lord. Let me press on to that beautiful,
joyful place." I am more convinced than ever in my life, that it will take
perfect love to enter that place. There was no jealousy, no tiredness, no
sickness, no old age, no death, only supreme beauty and joy.] (Hallelujah!) [Whatever you do, lay aside everything else
until you get perfect love. Get to where you can love everybody, even every
enemy. No matter if the plane is rocking, the lightning is flashing, or the
guns of the enemy are upon you, these things do not matter; get perfect love.
If you're not saved, accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour,
now. If you have not been baptized in water, be baptized now. If you have not
received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, receive It now. Press on in that
perfect love, which will take you to that beautiful and joyful place beyond the
curtain of time.] Hallelujah. Glory to God. Amen.
Now, how do we get this perfect love? By laying in the
atmosphere that will produce it.
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. 9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed [are] they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true
sayings of God.
MAN RUNNING
FROM PRESENCE 1 001 Let's
bow our heads. Dear God, we are happy this afternoon for this privilege that we
have of assembling ourselves together once more. And You alone, Lord, knows how
our hearts has yearned for this hour that when we could stand before Thy people
again here and bring this message that we so vitally feel that it's so urgent
in this hour. And Thou has 'lotted us these few days
now, and we pray, dear God, that Your hand of mercy will be upon us to guide us
and direct us. And give us those things which we have need of, Lord, for our
hearts yearn to know You better. We see the great harvest field, white, ripe,
and know the grain is ready now for the great threshing time. Dear God, we pray
that You'll open back the shucks from around us; let us lay in the Presence of
the Son now these next few days and ripen to the Kingdom of God. 38
021 I--I believe we have Truth. I'm satisfied with that. And I believe the
wheat is absolutely, the shucks pulling away from it. You know? And to see... I
may give a little prelude on that tomorrow night (See?), how the shuck's pulling away from the wheat. But the wheat has to
lay in the presence of the sun to ripen. And that's what we're here for,
friends. Stay in the Presence of the Son till our little group of people here,
till it becomes so ripe to Christ, that it becomes bread on His table. That's
what I want it to do.
TRYING TO DO
GOD A SERVICE 65-1127B 257 111
I
heard a guy say one time, said, "I believe that man prays for the sick; I
believe it's fine. But as being a prophet," said, "I believe he's
God's prophet; but as a teacher, why, he's a Jesus only." What a... What
kind of a person would you call that? A man doesn't know what he's talking
about.
The very word
"prophet" means that "he is a revealer of the Word of God";
the interpretation only comes to that. And that's why today we're in such a
need of this great person that's supposed to be sent to us in the form of the
prophet Elijah, because it'll be the revelation of God made known to us by
vindication, showing that it's the day and the hour and the season that God
promised it to be in. And remember, he'll be spoken against; always has been,
always will be. Rejected, just like the shuck will pull... First he'll be
accepted, because the shuck only holds the wheat until it's able to get forth
to the sun. Pentecost will only sheltered the message, giving it an open door
until it gets scattered, and then the shuck will pull away, and the wheat will
lay in the Presence of the Son (See?), to ripen.
259
112 There won't be any
denomination; you just remember. Brother Jack here's a historian; many of you
here are. There's never been a revival but about three years after the revival
they start a denomination on it. Is that right? And this last great miracle
move of God in this last days, it's went twenty years; and it's a million miles
from a denomination, going further away all the time; the shuck's
pulling away, no cooperation, no nothing with it. See? Always it pulls away
from it. There can't be no more, it's a wheat now. But we're plenty green.
Uh-huh. That's right. Have to lay in the Presence of the Son to be mellowed up;
that's all of it. Plenty green; we haven't got the sincerity, the sacredness,
the thing we ought to have in our midst to know that the Spirit of the living
God, moving in His Word and showing us the things yet.
260
113 We have false impersonators rise
up. What's that to do? To deceive. The Bible said they would. "As Jambres and Jannes withstood
Moses, so will these in the last days." See? They're the same thing, come right along
impersonating it, just exactly. See? Be careful. Watch the doctrine of the
Bible. Watch the message that follows them signs. Still the same old school of
message? Forget it. God sent the miracles and signs to attract attention of His
people. When Jesus come just healing the sick and so forth, so did the
prophets. They thought, "Oh, glory, He's a-coming; He's going to be a
Pharisee. He's going to be a Sadducee." But He said, "You generation
of serpents and vipers." Said, "You're of your father the Devil; his
works you do." Said, "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and
drink His Blood, there's no Life in you." He didn't explain It. He didn't
have to explain It (Hallelujah.); that was for another season. (uh-huh) He just
said what He had to say, "I always do that what's pleasing to the
Father," and that's keeping His Word. "If I don't, My life and My
works don't compare with His Word I'm supposed to do, then don't believe Me,
I'm not Him; but if it does, then believe the works if you can't believe
Me," He said. Notice now these musts that must be done.
264
114 Now, see, God had not
revealed the thing to them by His provided way; He had revealed it by
inspiration, but it was in the wrong channel. See, inspiration will go fine,
but if it's in the wrong channel, it'll be channeled wrong. Like you take a
bullet and shoot it directly to a target, it's making its way right to the
target, but a puff of wind can blow it out. Now, in your automobile, you go
down the road sixty, seventy miles an hour and a puff of wind blows you, you
can straighten your wheels back up, throw it back on the road again, but you
can't a bullet; ain't nothing there to straighten its wheels up; it misses the
target. See, it must travel in its original channel.
265
115 So must the Word of God
travel in Its original channel. No little puff of wind's going to blow It off;
no little denomination or nothing's going to blow It off; no little
persecution's going to blow It off; It's directed to the point. It's going to
hit there too. And then God... When It hits that point, God will vindicate It,
"Bull's-eye." Uh-huh, exactly what He said He'd do. Here it is in the
Scriptures, this, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'It shall come to pass.'"
Here it is. See? There you are.
266
116 Now, God had not revealed it
in His provided way. So they went about to do it apart from His Word, and apart
from the season, just the same as they have now. When man, no matter how
sincere, trying to do Him a service outside of His provided way, they always
mess it up. Like Balaam, Balaam thought he was doing God a service.
You think God
lies? Does God ever change His mind? Well, people act today like He did. When
He said for women not to cut their hair; they say, "We can cut it; Dr.
So-and-so said we could. Brother So-and-so said you're just too
narrow-minded." Uh-huh, uh-huh. See? "Well, can this happen, this
happen?" "Yeah, uh-huh, So-and-so said so." God don't change His
mind.
MODERN
EVENTS MADE CLEAR BY PROPHECY 65-1206
37 018 Now, remember, this message started first
with Divine healing, performing miracles. Now, if God let that go through a
ordinary church just like we already had, then it wasn't God. God don't have to
show off; He don't--He don't have to do these things to entertain us, like we
Americans are used to (entertainment), but He does it to attract the attention
of the people, that He's fixing to do something. Look at Him Hisself when He come, the wonderful little prophet, the
Rabbi, the Prophet of Galilee." Why, His ministry was wonderful; He was
welcome in every church. But one day He set down and said, "I and My
Father are One." "Oh, my." That was out. "Away with such a
fellow." "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His
Blood, you have no Life in you." "Why, he's a vampire. Get away from
such a person." See? See, there was something had to follow that sign.
See? Something followed. The shuck held it, but now the shuck pulls away; it
has to. And remember, twenty years has passed by and no more denominations has
come out of it, and it won't. We're at the end of denominations; the wheat's taking
shape. But what's the matter with the wheat now, you can't... It must lay in
the Presence of the Son to ripen before the combine picks it up.
45
019 Now, the events that we see
taking place, it's absolutely showed in the Bible of every age. We think we're
all out of cater, but we're not; everything's moving just exactly with God's
Word. Now, the Bible is a different book from any other sacred book. There's no
book like the Bible, because the Bible is God in Word form. See? It's... A
"word" is "a thought expressed." God's thinking expressed
It, His Words through the prophets; and they wrote the Bible, which is in word
form. And Jesus called It a Seed. And any seed will bring forth of its kind if
it's in the right condition, or right atmosphere. Now, this Book of--is a...
This Book of prophecy, It--It is foretelling future events. Now, the book
contains the entire revelation of Jesus Christ. You don't add to It or take
from It, and every revelation must come by It. See, it must be the Word.
47 020
So people say, "I had a revelation." Yes, we know Joseph Smith
and many had revelations and things, but was contrary to the Word. It's got to
come according to the Word if it comes from God, because it's to vindicate or
to prove God's Presence. And He foreknew all these things, being... By His
foreknowledge He ordained, foreordained (it's called in the Bible)
predestinated every age to its place, and every man to its place, and every
messenger to its place. He is God; the Devil ain't pulling nothing over on Him.
And He's God, and He has ordained everything to take place, and it falls just
exactly in line with His Word. So if we can see, by His Word, what age and what
time we're living, you'll see it right here in the Bible, of this age, what
we're supposed--what's supposed to take place at this time.
MAN RUNNING
FROM PRESENCE 65-0217
We see the great harvest field,
white, ripe, and know the grain is ready now for the great threshing time. Dear
God, we pray that You'll open back the shucks from around us; let us lay in the
Presence of the Son now these next few days and ripen to the