Rising of the Son no 38

The Resurrection process

February 4, 2017

Brian Kocourek, Pastor

71 Now, look. ... "been quickened". You who were once dead in sin and trespasses, and darkness has He quickened. What by? His Spirit that raised up Jesus on Easter morning from the dead. And if It dwells in your mortal bodies (Now, watch.), It also quickens, brings to Life, makes it subject to the Word. Now, how can you claim to have that Spirit and throw yourself away from the Word? You're quickened by something else. For It will quicken your mortal bodies to the Word. Sure It will. You can't run without It. You'll just sputter if you don't believe all of It. If you have part gasoline and part water, you ain't going to go nowhere. See? You've got to take it one hundred percent gasoline. If you don't, you're backfiring; you ain't got no power. See?"But I'll... I believe this, but I don't believe that." Pump-pump-pump-pump. You ain't going nowhere. But, oh, when you take the fullness, let it light up on that. Every Word is Truth.

72 Then (Notice now, as we close; notice this.) notice, it's just like a little seed laying in the ground. Now, potentially you are resurrected. You're resurrected when you receive the Holy Spirit in you; you're resurrected right then. Your body's potentially resurrected.

I want you to notice what brother Branham just said here. He said "when you receive the Holy Ghost you are resurrected right then", and then he adds and "your body is potentially resurrected".

Notice the difference between these two things he just said, because he says you are resurrected but your body is only potentially resurrected.

Now the word "potential" means "capable of being or becoming but not actualized yet".

In other words, it is capable right then but not actually resurrected yet. So there are two things that actually happens to you when you are born again.

Number 1) Your soul is quickened and made alive to Eternal Life, and

Number 2) Your body is quickened and made alive to the eternal soul life God gene seed.

Now, I don't want to sound too deep here, therefore what I am trying to explain is that when your soul is quickened By God's Spirit entering into you, it not only quickens that gene seed of God in your soul, but it also brings your body into an awareness that His Spirit now living and abiding in the tabernacle of your flesh.

The Apostle Paul said it best when he stated in Romans 8:11 But if The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead (he's talking about the Spirit of God, so if God's Spirit) dwells in you, he (God) that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his (God's) Spirit that dwells in you.

So the quickening is not a one-time thing, it is a continuous thing, because Paul is talking about the quickening or coming alive takes place by His (God's) Spirit dwelling in you.

Let me read that from the New International Version, NIV. "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you."

Let me read this from the version called the Message Bible 9-11 But if (And remember this is a big if, because if God is not in you, then you are none of His. But Paul says, ) "But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. (Now that is a very true statement because If God who is a Supernatural being, and Whose Life is supernatural in nature. And God who by His very nature is a supernatural being, if in fact His Life comes into your vessel and takes up residence in your vessel, then how can you not know it.)

Then Paul continues, "Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about."

And I am afraid that statement is very inclusive to most people who call themselves Christians today, but are merely in actuality just church goers.

In other words you are most certainly going to know if and when God has taken up residence in you. And you will most certainly know if you have offended His spirit and His Spirit departs from you until you restore yourself through repentance.

And then that Apostle continues, "But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin (that is because your body has not been resurrected in actuality yet, It is only potentially resurrected, meaning your body is only aware of the resurrection life living in you, but the vessel itself has not been changed yet in an immortal one, knowing no death.) So Paul says, "But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin, you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself?"

What Paul is saying here is that if God who is supernatural has come into your mortal vessel and has made His home in your mortal vessel, then you can't help seeing Him do the same things in and through your mortal vessel that He did in His firstborn sons mortal vessel. Therefore, your observation of the supernatural Life coming forth and projecting itself in and through your own mortal vessel makes you alive to Him and His nature expressing Itself in and through you.

Now, let's continue with what the Apostle Paul is telling us here. Notice he makes it so plain you would have to be very dull in your soul not to understand what he is saying.

Paul continues, "When God lives and breathes in you", and this is not the first time the scripture speaks of God living and breathing in your vessel. In other words, when God is resident in your vessel, then every breath you take, it is God that is breathing for you, and you become aware that it is also God living your life for you, and God breathing for you is surely as real to you as you are aware of your own short coming in your body.

We read in Acts 17:28 "For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

And we also see the apostle Paul speaking of the same thing in 1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

In other words, if indeed God dwells in you, then he has made you his Tabernacle, his Temple, His Vessel to live in, and since God has taken over your Temple, your vessel, you do not own it anymore. He owns it. And He has taken over control of your Temple, so you really don't have a say in what to do with it any longer.

Even the Apostle Peter spoke in terms of your body being the house of God. So we are dealing with real estate terms here.

Now, since the Apostle Paul is using words like "temple" and Peter uses the term of "House" when referring to your body, then let's look at real estate law for a better understanding of what he is telling us here.

Now, there is a saying that possession is 99% of the law. But 99% with God is not satisfactory. So the real estate law actually reads, "when you transfer the title to your home to another whether it be through a sale, or as a gift, when the title deed is transferred, you the first owner no longer have any say over that piece of property any longer. It simply does not belong to you any longer. It belongs to the one who now holds the title deed."

And we have been bought with a price. And we are His. Our bodies belong unto Him.

And the Apostle Paul addresses this fact in 1 Corinthians 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

So you can't just do what you want with property that no longer belongs to you. That is why when I hear people say things like, "we do not have to do the works of Christ, Brother Branham did the works of Christ and we're counting on that."

When I hear someone talk that way, that just tells me that person does not have the supernatural God living and breathing in him and he has no clue to what we are talking about because he has not God in him.

In fact that tells me that person not only does not understand the doctrine of Christ, but is not echoing what God said, nor what the son of God said.

The apostle John told us, in 2 John 9 Whosoever goes beyond the limits, and does not remain in the doctrine of Christ, echoes not God. He that remains in the doctrine of Christ, he echoes both the Father and the Son.

And how do we actually know that we are echoing the Father and Son? Because our Life will also echo their life.

We see this in 1 John 5 :10: "He that believeth on the Son of God echoes the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11  And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12  He that echoes the Son echoes His life; and he that echoes not the Son of God echoes not the life of the Son.

Now, you cannot get around what the Scripture is telling us here. He that echoes the son echoes his life. And how you going to echo His life if His life is not living in you to reflect or echo His life?

Now, getting back to what Paul was saying in Romans 8:11 from the Message version. "When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!"

And let's read from one more Bible version. Romans 8:11 The Voice - "If the Spirit of the One who resurrected Jesus from the dead lives inside of you, then you can be sure that He who raised Him will cast the light of life into your mortal bodies through the life-giving power of the Spirit residing in you."

Now, notice Paul said "When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life." and then "With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!"

So Paul said, "when God is living in you, you are delivered from that dead life". Why? because your are resurrected. Now, whether you are resurrected in the soul, or before you were made alive to that resurrection Spirit of Christ living in you, you still have the same body. But your body is not who you are, it is only the vessel that houses who you are. Who you are is your soul and spirit. Your spirit is the life you are living by, and your soul is the nature of that Spirit or life. And when you are born again, your Soul is quickened by God's Spirit, and the nature of His Spirit, His life comes into you and raises up and quickens or brings to life your soul and allows it to set in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But your body is not yet raised up. You are still in the body of this death as Paul calls it in Romans 7.

Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

Now, let's continue to read what the Apostle Paul tells us here in Romans 7.

Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16 If then I do that which I don't want to do, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I seem to do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would to do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Let me red this from the Message Version. 14-16 I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.

17-20 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

21-23 It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

24 I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

Now in Romans 7: 14 Paul tells us "the law is Spiritual," and if it is spiritual, it is not for the flesh, for if it were for the flesh then we could be expected to fulfill the Law by our flesh, but since it is spiritual and not for the flesh, then the flesh can in no way fulfill it.

Therefore God does not look upon your flesh but upon the desires of your heart, and thus although your desires may be righteous and Holy yet your body may backslide many times daily due to the mixed nature because of Eve's transgression.

Now Brother Branham told us in several places that "God will not come into your heart to fill it with His Spirit until the desires have been changed." Now you must receive a new understanding first, then a new desire, which he called a new spirit, and once you receive this new desire, then God will come into you by His Word.

And now, from the Message, Impersonation of Christianity 57 Brother Branham said, "God had to give you a new heart, not a patched up one, a new heart. That's your intellects that you think with, a new way of thinking. Then He give you a new way of thinking, "Yes, that's right Then He said after that, "Then I'll give you a new spirit." What's that? A new desire, ... After you get a new heart and a new spirit, He said, "Then I'll put My Spirit..." His Spirit, part of the Logos in you controlling your emotions"

Again, Brother Branham taught us in the message Inter veil 56-0121 PP 37 that "There is an intellectual faith. And there's a faith that comes from the heart. And we read in Ezekiel that God gives us a new heart which is a new understanding first, then He gives us a new spirit which is a new desire and finally when we are ready He gives us His Spirit. Now let's just read this for ourselves...

In Ezekiel 36:26 we read, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." 27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them

Now, in getting back to what Paul was saying in Romans 7:14, Martin Luther, God's 5th Church Age Messenger to the Sardisean Church Age said in his Commentary on Romans, "for even though you keep the law outwardly, with works, from fear of punishment or love of reward, nevertheless, you do all this without willingness or pleasure, and without love for the law, but rather with unwillingness, under compulsion; and you would rather do otherwise, if the law were not there. The conclusion is that at the bottom of your heart you hate the law. What matter then, that you teach others not to steal, if you are a thief at heart, and would gladly be one outwardly, if you dared? Though to be sure, the outward work is not far behind such hypocrites! Thus you teach others but not yourself; and you yourself know not what you teach, and have never yet rightly understood the law. Nay, the law increases sin, as he says in chapter 5, for the reason that the more the law demands what men cannot do, the more they hate the law.

For this reason he says in Chapter 7, "The Law is Spiritual." what is that? if the law were for the body, it could be satisfied with works, but since it is spiritual, no more can satisfy it, unless all you do is done from the bottom of the heart. But such a heart is given only by God's Spirit, who makes a man equal to the law, so that he acquires a desire for the law in his heart, and henceforth does nothing out of fear or compulsion, but everything out of a willing heart. The law then is spiritual which will be loved and fulfilled with such a spiritual heart, and requires such a spirit. Where the spirit is not in the heart, there sin remains, and displeasure with the law, and enmity toward it; though the law if good and just and holy.

How shall a work please God if it proceeds from a reluctant and resisting heart. To fulfill the law, however, is to do its works with pleasure and love, and to live a godly and good life of ones own accord, without the compulsion of the law. This pleasure and love for the law is put into the heart by the Holy Ghost, as he says in Chapter 5. But the Holy Ghost is not given except in, with, and by faith in Jesus Christ, and faith does not come, save only through God's Word, which preaches Christ, that He is God's Son and a man, and has died and risen again for our sakes, as he says in chapters 3,4 and 10.

Then Martin Luther says, "Faith is not that human notion and dream that some hold for faith. The reason people cannot accept Faith alone is because they see faith as something which it is not. Because they see that no betterment of life and no good works follow it, and they can hear and say much about faith, they fall into error, and say, "Faith isn't enough; one must do works in order to be righteous and be saved,"

He then tells us because they do not understand faith, they switch to the word believe, and say I believe, thinking that is faith. "This is the reason that when they hear the Gospel, they fall into the same old trap and make for themselves, by their own powers, an idea in their hearts, which says, "I believe". This they hold for true faith. But it is only a human imagination and idea that never reaches the depths of the heart, and so nothing comes of it and no betterment follows it".

Then he says, "Faith, however is a divine work in us. God places it there. It changes us and makes us to be born anew of God (John 1:12); it kills the old Adam and makes altogether different men, in heart and spirit and mind and powers, and it brings with it the Holy Ghost. Oh, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith; and so is it impossible for it not to do good works incessantly. It does not ask whether there are good works to do, but before the question rises; it has already done them, and it is always at the doing of them. He who does not these works is a faithless man. He gropes and looks about after faith and good works, and knows neither what faith is nor what good works are, though he talks and talks, with many words, about faith and good works.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man would stake his life on it a thousand times. for through faith a man becomes sinless and comes to take pleasure in God's commandments; thus he gives to God the honor that is His and pays Him what he owes Him; but he also serves man willingly, by whatever means he can, and thus pays his debt to everyone,

Faith then is not a belief, It is His Revelation that He has in Himself and by Grace He gives it to us. Paul said I live by the Faith of the Son of God. So it is His faith, His revelation in Himself that is given to us to live by.

From brother Branham's sermon, Things that are to be 65-1205 P:74 he told us, "There's three people of you; the outside is the body. You got five senses that you contact your earthly home with that. The inside is a spirit. There's five senses there: love, and conscience, and so forth you contact. But the inside of that is the soul. Remember, "the rain falls on the just and the unjust." The same rain that'll make a grain of wheat grow, makes a cocklebur grow too. See? What is it? At the inside of that seed is a nature, and that nature displays itself. It can stand in the same field, right there with the weed. The weed and the wheat stand together, rejoice just as much. It's head down; it's starving for a drink. When a rain comes, the cocklebur can shout just as loud as the wheat can. But "by their fruits you shall know them." See?"

From Thirst 65-0919 P:12 Brother Branham said, "Now, we find, God gives the control tower to you, to give to you the things that you need. Now, the control tower in you is what directs you. And this thirst runs in on this tower, control tower, and tells you what you have need of, spiritually speaking. The control tower in the body, and in the soul also. There's a control tower in the body that tells you the need that's needed in your body, and it's brought to you by thirst. Also there's a control tower in your soul, that tells you the spiritual things that you have need of, something in your spirit, and you by this can tell what kind of a life is controlling you. When you can see what your desires are, then you can tell by that what kind of something that's in you, that's creating this desire that you have. See, there's a certain thing that you thirst for, and it can tell you in your soul what this desire is by the nature of the thirst that you have. I hope that you can understand that."

You see, that is that supernatural nature of God in you if your desires are the things of God. But if your desires are the things of the world, then that is your flesh desiring those things. The other control tower, that caters to self.

Token the 64-0308 P:15 Now remember, now the soul is the nature of the spirit, of course.

Souls in prison now 63-1110M P:18 Now, the soul of man is not the body of man; it's the soul (See?); and the soul is something that's the nature of the spirit, and then when the nature of a man... When He said, "We are dead," the Scripture plainly tells us that we are dead, and our lives are hid in God through Christ, sealed there by the Holy Spirit. Now, it wasn't that your body died. It wasn't your spirit died. It was the nature of your spirit died. See? The nature, which is the soul. The nature of your soul is God, if you're born again. If it's not, it's of the world.

And from his sermon, Knoweth it not 65-0815 P:47 brother Branham said, "Now, inside of that is a spirit, which you become when you're born in here and the breath of life is breathed into you, that spirit is of a worldly nature, because it was not given from God, but it was given, permitted by God. Now, you got that? For every child that's born in the world is born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies. Is that right? So that person inside there is a sinner to begin with. But now, it's got five inlets, and them five inlets... I don't know whether I can call them right off now. First, I know is thought, conscience, and love, choice... No conscience, love, reason, there's five inlets to the spirit. You can't think with your body; you have to think with your spirit. You can't have conscience in your body. It has no mental faculties at all, your body doesn't. So you have to think with your spirit. You have to reason. You can't reason with your physical being, 'cause reason doesn't see, taste, feel, smell, or hear. Reason is what you can make in your mind. If you're asleep or you're out; your body's lying there dead, but your spirit can still reason; there's five senses that controls that inside man. And that... Now, to the last man, which is the soul. There's only one sense that controls that, and that is, free moral agency, free will, to choose or to reject.

Voice of the sign 64-0313 P:55 The Bible said there's one faith, one Lord, one baptism. And that baptism is spiritual baptism, the body being washed. It's just only a--an illustration, or to give a sign that something inside has happened. But it's that soul that's got to be baptized with the Holy Ghost. That's the eternal, coming into that human nature and changing it around, to make it a believer...

Token the 63-0901M P:40 Now, there's a life, a blood, a life, and a soul in the life. The soul is the nature of the life. Therefore it had no certain nature. It was an animal. Therefore, the blood stood for a token that the life had been given. But in this glorious place, under this covenant, there is a difference between the Blood and the Life. The Token for the believer today is the Holy Ghost, not a blood, a chemistry; but it is the Holy Spirit of God. That is the Token that God requires of the church today. God must see this Token. He must see it in every one of us. Therefore, as the evening shadows are appearing, and the wrath is ready to be poured out from on high upon the ungodly nations, and upon the ungodly unbelievers, upon the professors without a possession, upon these things... And I've tried to unfold myself and live right among it to see where it was standing before I said these things.

Now in getting back to brother Branham's sermon Rising of the son and picking up at paragraph 72 he said, "Look at a little seed plant in the ground. It has to drink from His fountain, the waters that pours down. And as it drinks, it pushes up toward Him, coming more like the likeness of the seed that went into the ground. See? The church come that way: through justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, now in the blossom. See? The Spirit of God come through that. And the spirit of the world has come through the antichrist the same way and now blossoming out in a great union of churches. See? The whole thing... And the individual comes that way. Everything works on the same scale of God, 'cause He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

73  Notice. On your way growing to the fullness of the resurrection, led by the Spirit, as the sun (s-u-n) pulls that little plant that's drinking from God's fountain, just keeps... See? It can only drink from one thing. You pour oil down on that little seed one time; kill it. That's right. You pour stagnated water, old water that ain't no good, that's contaminated; it'll stunt the growth; it won't bear fruit. Is that right? But you pour real good soft rainwater (Amen.), no manmade chemicals in it, just let it come from the heavens above, and watch that little plant. There's no water will grow that like that rainwater. You put chlorine and stuff in it like you try to dose us up with, and the first thing you know it kills the plant.

74 That's what's the matter today. They try to give them waters from the denominational fountain, and it stunts the growth. See? But let him come where the dew drops of mercy are bright; Shine all around me by day and by night, Jesus the Light of the world. Then you've got it then. We'll walk in the Light, that beautiful Light, Comes where the dew drops of mercy are bright, Just shine all around me... Take these manmade fountains away from me. "No other fount I know, nothing but the Blood of Jesus." That's all the fountain I want to know. Let the Word dwell in me, Lord; water It with Thy Spirit.

I think we will close at this time and continue on this last thought from paragraph 74 tomorrow morning.

let us pray...