Spoken Word no 127
Leadership, Following God’s Lead
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
November 15, 2009
From
paragraph 99 of brother
Branham’s sermon, The
Spoken Word is the Original Seed "The
works that I do shall he do also." And what did He do? Just as
the Father led Him, what He saw. Saint
John 5:19, just... "I do
nothing till the Father shows Me." What was He, made Himself a man.
God was made flesh and dwelled among us. The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. God's spoken Word, through a virgin, brought forth a body, and in that
body come the--the Water, the Spirit, and washed by the water of the Word and
then went in Him, dwelt in Him, and there come the Life of God manifesting
Himself through Christ. God was in Christ, the anointed One.
Notice he speaks of Leadership here when
he says, And what did He do? Just as the Father led Him, what He saw. Saint John 5:19, just... "I do
nothing till the Father shows Me."
Now, this morning I would like to look at
this thought of the leadership of the Father to his Son, and sons, Because that
is how we as sons must learn to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and only
His leading.
In the book of Acts 16::
6 we find also that Paul was not allowed to go just anywhere he
wanted to go to preach the Word. In fact we read in verse 6, Now when
they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden
of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, 7 After
they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit
suffered them not. 8 And they passing by Mysia came
down to
William Branham taught us also this
same principle of how to follow the Lord in his sermon, Paul a prisoner of Christ 63-0717 P:44 Now, he could not go certain places that he
wanted. Because why? The Spirit
forbade him. You remember many times that Paul was trying to go some place,
thinking, "There's where I could have a great meeting," but the
Spirit would forbid him. Now, does that clearly state and prove that Paul was a
prisoner? A prisoner to Jesus Christ, harnessed
to His Word by the Spirit. Oh, I like that. He was bound. He was bound by a
chain, by fetters of love to do the will
of God and that only. He was a prisoner. He was in fetters of love. He was
in the yoke with Christ. He could yoke up with nothing else. He was yoked with
Him, and wherever the lead went, that's
where he had to go, regardless how green the path looked on this side or
that side; he had to go the way the
Leader and the yoke went.
And from his sermon, Christ is the mystery 63-0728 P:82 And
other night... If you didn't get the tape that I preached here one night on
"A Prisoner of Jesus Christ--Paul, a Prisoner..." See? When God gets you to be His prisoner, then
you can't do nothing but what the Spirit says do. Paul, with all of his
great intellects... He e was taught by Gamaliel to be a great priest or rabbi
someday. And he had high ambitions.
He was intellectually a great man: great authority, great man in the nation.
But he had to sacrifice every bit of it
(See?) to become part of the Word, to express Jesus Christ. He knew what it
was to say... He had a notion to go to
some place (some brethren had called him), but he was forbidden by the Spirit
to do his own will. Oh, if people half spiritual can pick that up... See? He was forbidden to do his own will. He
only could do... "The Spirit forbid
me." See? He was a prisoner to Christ.
Only one way provided by God 63-0731 P:47 Unless
God can get you, a prisoner... Paul become a prisoner. See, you can't look at what you think; you
can't look what somebody else thinks. You've
got to go just what He says do. You're a prisoner. Paul knew that he was
pressed in the Spirit to go a certain place, when he didn't want to go. He knew that the Spirit forbid him to go
certain places. He knew he had to hold his peace at many times. That little
old fortuneteller run out after him one day, a hollering around behind him. And
Paul, with that Spirit of God in him, wanted to rebuke it, and day after day.
And finally he got the message, "Rebuke him," and he turned around.
He couldn't do it till God said so. Amen. Oh,
if the church could only be so in the glorious Presence of God, someday God
will turn loose His power into It, things will take place. But you can't
mix your diet; you'll become a hybrid. Say
exactly what God said. Stay right in the Word, and God will vindicate It to be
the Truth.
Look, can I speak something to you this morning to
put a practical light on this subject? In my own life and in my own ministry, I
would like to explain what this means.
You see, before I began to make these missionary
journeys overseas where I go to teach the Doctrine of this message, I opened my
big mouth when I shouldn’t have and told some of you brothers outside the
church, that there were two places I would never go, and I said one was Africa
and the other was Asia, because I hate hot weather, insects and snakes. And so
we all laughed but after that I didn’t feel so good inside.
Suddenly I felt empty and disserted. I felt alone
and without that inner comfort of His Presence. I knew my Father was not pleased
with what I said, and I knew in my soul I had grieved him, and I could not find
any rest for my soul.
A few days later when I went to the airport to fly
from Dayton to Detroit and then to Oslo, the flight sat on the ground for
several hours with us in the plane waiting for a mechanic to show up because no
one knew why the plane was not working. Well, several hours passed as we sat on
that plane going no where, so I checked myself off of that plane, because I had
a connection to make in
I was able to get on that flight and usually I sleep
the entire way across the
I prayed and prayed and prayed, and finally after
about 5-6 hours I felt that sweet communion again, and I knew that now, I had a
covenant with Him that would govern how I was to operate concerning my
ministry. You see, I had not yet come to the place where I knew I had this
ministry to teach overseas. All I knew at that time was that I was going overseas
to speak at this particular convention in
I agreed that I would go only where He opened the
doors for me to go. And if He did not open any doors, I would not go, because
if I had to open any doors, then I would not know for certain that He wanted me
to go, and so unless He opened the doors, I would not go.
When I got to
Well, the rest is history, but I hope you see that
when God calls you to do His work, you are a prisoner to Him, and you do not
have any say in where to go and what to preach. Therefore, I agreed to His
covenant that I would only go where he wanted me to go, and if he did not open
the doors, I would not go. I said, “Lord, I don’t want to go to those certain places like Africa
and Asia, but as your Son Jesus Who didn’t want to go to Calvary said, ‘Yet not
my will but Thy will be done’ So if you open the doors, I will go”.
And since then I have gone to Africa 7 times and
over 13 countries there, and to
Brother Branham said if you want to know God’s Will
you will find it in His Word, and if you want to know if God is in it, then
there are five musts that must happen. So what are the rules to follow concerning any
calling or role that God has ordained us to fulfill?
From his
sermon, Trying
to do God a service 65-0718M 52 Notice, now
notice, there in following God... Now, I want you to kind-a jot this in your
mind. To keep God's commandments, to do anything right for God, to do God a
service correctly, there is five musts (See?), to do God service correctly. But there's
five musts; I want you to remember these. No matter how sincere a man may be in
doing it, doing God a service, these five must be there:
First, it must be His time to do it.
Second, It must be in His season. Third,
it must be according to His Word. Fourth, it must be given according to
the person He has chosen to do it by. Fifth, It must be a-vindicated by the Word of God. There's
your five musts.
So what does
it mean to be a-vindicated? The word vindicate means to be proven.
In other words it comes to pass. To make
it simple, there is another place where brother Branham said to know the will
of God there are three things that must be. First it must be revealed to you in
His Word, then secondly, it must be quickened in your spirit, and third, it
must come to pass. Then you know that is the will of God for you. And so these three things are what I must watch for
every time the brothers speak to me of having meetings in their country in
which they want for me to come.
From his sermon, Three
kinds of believers 63-1124E P:48 The Holy Ghost quickens the Word to you and
becomes alive, and there you are. You see it. By faith you see it. You know
it's so, because the Word said so, and the Spirit quickens the Word to you.
There you are.
And again in his sermon, Hebrews
Chapter 5 and 6 57-0908M P:9 And it was the same in the Old Testament. But
Paul, being well trained and knew the Scriptures by the Word... But, you see,
the Scriptures, no matter how well you know them, if the Spirit doesn't quicken
them, then the letter killeth. The Spirit giveth Life. See, it must be quickened or made alive by the
Spirit. If the Spirit doesn't liven the Word and make It a reality to you,
then the letter is just intellectual.
And in his sermon Testimony
63-1128M P:13 My, life, I'm not a preacher. Anybody knows that.
I'm not a preacher. But it's made up in a spiritual form of watching things and
seeing things move, and forewarning people of things that's coming to pass. And
it's just that's my makeup. I can't help that, no more than you can help your
makeup. But He, God has put us each one in the Body to do certain things. And I
watch every little move, every objective, every motive, 'cause everything is governed
by spirit.
So you see, we must be very careful not to do what
we feel should be done, but do only what the Father shows us to do.
From his sermon In His
presence 62-0909E P:2 But then on the back of the Book is sealed with
seven seals. Daniel heard the Voice as It thundered, and was forbidden to write it. John was forbidden to write it.
Therefore, just because you might know something, or
just because God reveals to you something, doesn’t mean that you are to take it
everywhere you think It is needed.
I have had some brothers, very precious brothers who
have attended my meetings over in
Remember how brother Branham was pulled to go to certain
places in
“Mr.
Baxter come to me; he said, "Well, you'll be starting out about tomorrow,
or I mean the day after that, tomorrow. He said, "We'll be starting down
to Kerksdorp." Said, "We will go from Kerksdorp, to
When
I told my wife, she said, "Where are you going to have these services at,
honey?"
I said, "They'll be
Well,
And I said, "Thank you."
And so we... And
all the newspapers, speaking, and how the Lord was blessing. Seemed pretty
strange to have to leave, where many, many, many thousands of people, they
couldn't even get them into the city. They was way out in a great big field of
a place, where they had a grounds out there. And so, well, I said, "I'd
like to go down to
Well, little did I know, that that
was the only place that they didn't have segregation...?... meetings
were...?... and Brother Baxter said, "We'd see the national
committee." And I went to see them, and oh, my, you talk about going
nuts." The...?... got an ecclesiastical setup, said, "No, sir. You're
not going to do it. You're going on down that way."
I said,
"Brethren, the Lord told me not to do it." So I said, "No, I
can't do that." So I just refused to do it. Well, here come the car, and
taken me anyhow. And on the road down, I said, "Stop the car!" I
said, "The Lord is telling me not to do this." So I stopped. There's
a lot of locust in
I said, "Korah
had that idea, one time, when he talked to Moses. The earth swallowed them
up." I said, "Just remember...?... I don't know what He has told you,
but I know what He's told me." And I said, "After I stood there for at
least three or four nights in
And
I know... and most all of you here know Brother Bosworth, a very fine Christian
gentleman. And he was with us. He walked over to me, said, "Brother
Branham, I think you're wrong in that." I said, "Oh, Brother
Bosworth," I said, "you'll see." So..?... I was right there just
a few nights, and then...?... a little place of about six thousand people, and
probably two thousand there, no place to eat, sleep, or nothing. So it was
laying out there. It was a nice fine warm day. And just before they got ready
to take me to the meeting that night there come a tropical storm. You people in
American don't know what a storm is till you seen one of those. It like to have
drowned everybody out there. At ten o'clock it was still going: no service!
All the ministers
came back to the place where I was. I said, "I told you." "He
was angry, because that we are doing out of His will." "Why,"
they said, "the Lord told us to do this." I said, "He might
have. But He told me not to." And he said, "Well, then," the
next day, he said, "oh, time,
Brother Branham." So the next day, just about time they got ready to take
me over here come a blizzard, like to like to froze everybody to death. When
they come back, I said, "Now, tomorrow night we'll have a earthquake,
perhaps." So they said, "Do you mean we'll have an earthquake?"
I said, "No, if
He told me we'd have a earthquake; but, brethren, we're out of the will of God.
And we can't prosper doing this." So two o'clock in the morning, there
they was still going strong. And I said, "The Lord has told me to return
to
Men sometimes, we
just get ourselves so wrapped up till... Just the way it was, that's the way it
is today (See?), same thing: so wrapped up, and they just simply has to be
according to the way your association says so, or you're not in the running.
You're wrong. God deals with individuals (That's right.), always has. And He
does things that's very hard to understand; you have to know God to understand
Him. And you know that. You know the Scriptures. If you know the Scriptures,
you know it's true. So we just had an awful time. Then I... about two o'clock
in the morning, somewhere along there, it was getting late, I said, "Well,
they all..." I said, "Oh, He has a permissive will, to permit
something, but who wants to work God's permissive will? I'd rather do what He
wants me to do (See?), not be in His permissive will. Well, it went on. So they
got... "Oh, my! His permissive will, go ask Him about that."
Well, I went in to
pray. And Billy Paul went in with me, my boy, the little fellow that gives out
the prayer cards here. And when we went in the room, I shall never forget. He
put his arm around me, as we walked in the door, said, "Daddy, you listen
to God. Don't you listen to them preachers out there." Said, "I'm
with you." Said, "If we have to swim home." See? Said, "I
will stay right with you, daddy. You better listen to God." It might have
been a million times better off if I'd have listen to the boy, too. Now, I say
that with respect. He's just a kid, but he's certainly... God was with him. And
I got down to pray. He was going to pray with me. 'Course, just being a lad,
and he got sleepy and went to bed. And I prayed on till long in the morning.
He
came into the room. I said, "What are those men? What do they mean?" He
said "Go on down with them." Said, "You're in...?... It's been
let out like this, so you'll have to do it." He said, "But, remember,
it's not the will of God, and you're going to pay for it." See? Said,
"Go on." Said, "You might know this." Said, "Go wake
up your son, and tell him, in the morning, you're going to send you to Sunday
school, and you're going to decide the pray for the sick, and on the road back,
you're going to start back, with a man in a little black car. And they're going
to pick up another little man. And on the road down there'll be a native
dressed in a white safari suit, standing by eucalyptus tree...?...
stop..." Said, "Your son will call your attention to it. And by that,
you'll know that I'm letting you go. But, remember, you'll pay for it."
So when He left the
room, I went and woke Billy up and told him. Mr. Baxter, which is right here
now, sitting right back behind the platform here, he can walk out and give a
testimony if there's any error to this, Mr. Jackson who is sitting present, and
many others. And I will...?... after waking Billy up, and telling Billy what
the Angel of the Lord said. See? God respected him because he was on the right
side. So I walked in to where the men was; I woke them all up, Brother
Bosworth, Brother Baxter, Brother Stadsklev, all of them. I said, "I have
the word from the Lord. He just met me in the room. Now He said, we could go
down there, but it will not be as successful as it should be. And we're going
to suffer; I am, myself, going to suffer a great loss. And you all are going to
suffer, too." And I said, "Because He told me that I was not obeying
His orders. But He would permit it, being that you Afrikaans ministers and
things had set this up, and done that. But it's not His will. And I will have
to pay for it."
And Brother Baxter,
which is listening to me now, I said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, if we take
that meeting, it'll be... when you go make you
I looked at him,
and my heart just broke. See, no matter
who it is, you got to put your trust in God. See? And there, my own
brother, and Brother Bosworth said, "Brother Branham, you're wrong
there." Said, "If you go down, to take this itinerary down through
there, you're going to see the exceeding, abundantly above all...?..."And
I said, "Brother Bosworth, do you mean to tell me? I'm speaking to you,
Brother Bosworth, that God has appeared in a vision, which cannot fail." And
he said, "Brother Branham," said, "Satan... I read in a book one
time where Satan give Adam a false vision." My brother!
I said,
"Brother Bosworth, you stood with me on the platform for the past five
years, nearly. And you've seen everything in their purpose." I said,
"I don't know what Satan did to Adam, but I know this come from God."
And I said, "Now look here." See, you, no matter who it is, when God tells you to do something, you do it. I
don't care if it's your mother, daddy, if it's the pastor, if it's the prophet,
or whoever it is, you listen to God. See? And you remember, I'm telling you
the truth. Witnesses are standing near. And God is my witness. I said,
"All right." And I told him what was going to happen, went on out.
That morning, when
I went down there, sure enough, they come back, the... when it come time to
pray for the sick, a young fellow come up, and he was with Billy in a little
black car, 'cause they're not supposed to speak to me, 'cause He done told me
to make ready the anointing to preach and to pray for the sick. And on the way
we picked up another boy on the road up. And Billy was all thrilled about that.
And on the road down, he turned around and said, "Daddy...?..." Stand
by a eucalyptus tree, by a bridge, stood a native with a white safari suit on,
just by the side of the road. He said, "Daddy, look at that man! Get a
look at him." And I said, "You remember what I told you?" And
the little fellow cried, when he seen what the Lord had done. I said, "You
see, Paul? I can go, but dad will suffer for this." See?
Well, after we left
there, we went to...?... There trouble set in: first one thing, then another.
One minister there, minister, said, "The brothers told me it would be held
in my church." About fifteen thousand people, with a church that would
seat about five hundred. "No, sir, we wasn't going to get no other place.
They promised it would have been in his church." And that's where it was
going to held. Brother Bosworth just took off and...?... and walked down the
street. Brother Baxter walked away, and he thought he had a place to stay. I
said, "Brother Bosworth, is that 'exceedingly, abundantly, above all that
you could...?...' Remember what was told you? It'll be this, until we go
home." I said, "You see if it isn't."
And Brother Baxter
who's is near now, as a witness before God, and know this to be the truth,
knows that that is the truth. And there it just started from thing to another,
just as... what was piling one on top the other, one on top the other, until we
come back down...?... time. Now the Lord blessed with His great power, His
work, went right on just the same, but when it came to the place that we
started back up towards...?... town, out of Port Elizabeth, Brother Baxter
taken very sick, very sick. Billy Paul taken very sick. Now we started with one
thing piling on top of another. And then, after while, I taken sick. I went to
the Lord. He turned His back on me. We went on to
And then when I got
there...?... They had the meeting already... been there for three days in
Then God begin to
speak to me. Then I promised Him as I walked the floor, and crying. And we
never had another until between seven, eight months, after that. I was so sick
I couldn't go. Just so sick, I just couldn't even raise my head up hardly, just laying there waiting for
God. And then, one night He came down in a vision. Oh, you'll never know how it
feels. He walked down there. I was laying in the room. He came to me and He
said, "Now, don't fear." My sin was forgiven. He told me what was
going to happen. And He said, "Now, it's going to go away from you; you'll
be all right." Said, "Don't
disobey no more, 'cause I've told you." He said, "Now, you're
going to take a meeting," and He set me down, "again at
Now, listen, didn’t God tell the
people through his prophet Samuel the same thing? In
1 Samuel 15: 20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the
voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have
brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the
Amalekites. 21 But the people took of
the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been
utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal. 22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great
delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken is better than the fat
of rams. 23. Because thou hast rejected
the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. 24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned:
for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I
feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me,
that I may worship the LORD. 26 And
Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the
word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over
Look at what Saul suffered because he didn’t obey
the voice the Lord? What is so important in a man’s job, his career, or his calling
that he would put his own will before the will of God? Is it worth it? Is any
friendship worth the damage to you and your relationship with your Father?
Look, you might think you are doing God a great
favor but he’s not interested in your favors, he’s interested in you obeying
His Will. He has a perfect will and a permissive will, But who in their right
mind would want to be in the permissive will of God?
Questions and answers COD 64-0830E P:49 395.
The seven thunders that had uttered their voices and no one could make out what
it was... John knew what it was, but he
was forbidden to write it. He said, "But the seventh angel, in the
days of his sounding, the seven mysteries of the seven thunders would be
revealed." And the seventh angel is a messenger of the seventh church age.
See?
Seventh seal the 63-0324E P:93 And
setting up in
Revelation chapter 4 pt 1 60-1231 P:58 I Corinthians
12:2 and 4, if you're putting it down. II Corinthians... 2 to 4. Paul was
caught up one day, in a vision too. Did you know that? And he saw things that wasn't expedient for him to even talk about;
fourteen years, never even mentioned it. See? But listen at the difference
between them. What Paul saw, he was
forbidden to speak of it or to tell it out to the public. Oh, my. I don't
believe he could do it. (Why, a little trip I took one day, I've never got over
it and never will.) See, he saw things
that he couldn't talk about. I guess he didn't have words to. He was caught
up in the third heavens though (See?), up in the third heaven.
God called man 58-1005E P:76 If that
was the sign of the Messiah then, it's got to be the Messiah's sign today. Now,
remember, not one time was that miracle ever performed before a Gentile. It was forbidden.
Now,
in closing, I request your prayers as I have a similar situation where I do not
feel the leading of God to go, but the brothers have been asking and pleading
for me to come. I do not wish to walk in God’s permissive will, I only wish to
walk in His perfect will. I am not gifted to receive visions from God to direct
me as Jesus, Paul and William Branham were. I have only His Word to walk in and
His still small voice to direct me, so it is very difficult sometimes to know
for certain without any vagueness.
There
is only a handful who believe the doctrine in that country and most others have
fallen away from the message to run after a man who claims to be brother Branham’s
successor, who believes we are in the millennium, who believes the second
coming took place in 1963 and we are waiting for the 3rd coming. The
country is in a real mess.
As
br. Branham spoke of his first trip to Africa and