Spoken
Word no. 170
Holy
Ghost Evidence
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
June 13th,
2010
19 Look tonight;
just look what happened even last night, this senator of Kentucky said about
having a Republican in the--in the seat up there now representing the State of
Kentucky and said, "He's a Protestant and makes no bones of it," him
a Catholic. They're getting just as bold
as they can be. And remember, there's other things that goes with that. Unwise
virgin's time, we see that. Things that's never happened, that none of the men,
the teachers down through the age could say these things like we can now,
'cause we're here.
20
Now, the unwise virgin and the hybrid
Pentecostals (That's the same thing: hybrid with the things of the
world.)... Now, remember, I'm Pentecostal, but not Pentecostal by denomination.
I resent that. I'm Pentecostal by experience. We must have the... The
Methodists are Pentecostal; the Baptists are Pentecostal; the Catholic are
Pentecostal if they've got the Pentecostal experience. You cannot organize
Pentecost, because it is an experience, and it's God, and God cannot be organized.
21
Now, now, Jesus has told us these things would come, now--told us about what
would take place, the unwise virgin would rise up and the things that she would
do, and how that the people would call out in their days and want oil, but
they'd be too late. See? Now, watch them three, them three churches. There is the prostitute; she didn't
come for nothing. Now, she's
self-centered in herself. There was
the unwise virgin, which is the Protestant church. And there was the Bride. See? Now, there's the three stages of the
church in the last days. Now, watch, we're going to bring them right straight
out and from Genesis and bring them out here and place them in Revelations in
the rapture, the Lord willing.
22
All these things look real. Pentecost looks real. Think they... "Why I
belong to a Pentecostal organization." That don't mean no more than if you lived in a hog pen. Wouldn't
make a bit of difference. Wouldn't! It's just a sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal. Yeah, no matter where you belong, if you're not born of the Spirit of
God and receive the Holy Ghost... And the reason... If you don't believe all the Word of God, you haven't received the Holy
Ghost yet. That's right. That's exactly right. The Holy Spirit... When you hear the truth, and the Holy
Spirit don't lead you to it, then there's another spirit in there keeping you
away from it. So the spirit you got
in you ain't the Holy Spirit. Oh, yeah.
Now, these are strong words from Brother Branham but
they are very scriptural. If we turn in our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 1
we will find out just how scriptural they are.
1 Corinthians 2: 11 For
what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12Now we
have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God;
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13Which
things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. 15But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself
is judged of no man. 16For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he
may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.
Now, Jesus said the same thing in John 3:3 Jesus
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. Notice he said,
unless ou are born again you can not see the kingdom of Heaven, so it is
important for us to understand what he means by you can not see it.
Now, concerning this point Brother Branham said, in his sermon Mary's belief 61-0121 P:30 "Except a man be born
again he cannot even see the
And from IT SHALL BE EVEN
AS IT WAS TOLD ME 50-0818 23 Anyhow, "to see" doesn't mean "to look
at." The word "see" means
"to understand." Jesus said, "Except a man be born of water
and Spirit, he cannot see the
Notice in particular
that Jesus is saying “unless you are born again there is absolutely no way for you
to understand the message.”
Now, as much as I
travel overseas, it is very apparent to me that most of the 2 million people
who claim to believe the Message in this world have not yet been born again. So
why do I say that? Because Brother Branham said that when you are born again
you will see this Message in the light
of scripture and you will understand it. And when men baptize in the name of
William Branham and when men can believe that Jesus was His own Father, and
that the body of Jesus went back to the gases, it tells me that not only are
they not born again, but they have a devil that is leading them.
Now, forgive me if
that offends you but that is the truth and I will stand by those words at the
white throne judgment. Now, we just read
several places where brother Branham said the same thing. He said from our
reading today, If you don't believe all the Word of God, you
haven't received the Holy Ghost yet. And he also said, When you hear the truth, and the Holy Spirit don't lead you
to it, then there's another spirit in there keeping you away from it. So the spirit you got in you ain't the
Holy Spirit. Oh, yeah.
And again we heard him
say, There's a lot of people that say they're born again and
can't understand the message of God. And we also heard him say, The word "see" means "to understand.
So we have some pretty
tough things to bring out here because if they turn down the Holy Ghost to lead
them, God will indeed give them another spirit to lead and influence them as we
heard brother Branham say earlier in this series.
Now, when a Son of God
is born again, he receives power from God to make a right decision concerning
who he is.
John 1: 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power (exusia, the authority and ability to make a right
decision. And what is that right decision? To become what they were ordained to
become.) to them
gave he exusia to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
So we see that those
who were of such a nature that they were able to receive Him when He was
manifested in the person of His Son, these are the ones who He has given power, Authority and
an ability to make a right decision concerning who they are, sons of God. Now, this tells us in verse 13 that
it is not something you can do by your own will, nor can you do it via your own power. But it says that this
birth can only be done by what God Himself has done.
So we see two forms of birth, one that is produced by an act of the flesh
and that which is not produced by an act of the flesh, but by the Will of God. Then
the one produced by an act of the flesh must gravitate towards the flesh. But
the other birth, the one that is born of the will of God, it must gravitate
towards the will of God. Then this is the only birth that will gravitate to the
will of God instead of the will of man, because every seed must bring forth
after its kind.
In John 3: 6 we read, That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. So you see there is a difference
in the nature between the two kinds of seeds.
In 1 Peter 1: 23 Peter tells us “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” So
we see what it means to be born of corruptible seed, because corruptible seed
must produce a corruptible life.
Now, let’s look at the
natural birth to see just how the soul and spirit join together with the body
to make a tri-partite being. From his sermon The Comforter
61-1001E P:24 brother
Branham said, When a little baby
is conceived in the mother's womb, it's just flesh and blood, jumping,
quivering. But as soon as it's born, you don't see it, but there's a spirit and soul hanging near that
mother to come into that baby just as soon as it's born. Just as soon as that
baby is born, God has created a soul and
created a spirit to be in that baby just as soon as it's born into this world.
That little baby becomes matured, and it begins to learn; then it becomes a
living soul when it knows what's right and wrong. Then it's got, just like Adam
and Eve, set before a tree of right and wrong. It makes its choice. And then it
becomes intelligent. It's growing all the time in God's great economy. And
finally it comes down to the end of the road, for this physical body. And just
as this body is deteriorating and going away, there is one being prepared to
receive it. Just as soon as it leaves here, this soul that's in us now and this
spirit leaves this body and goes to another, a young one, a good one, a better
one, a one that won't get old, or one that won't pass away. …
Now, this makes the human being a very complex character, because he is
born with a body that has a spirit allowed by God. Then when he is born again,
the spirit of God comes into that body, changing the life of that body from
mortal to immortal. When his soul and spirit leave that body it goes to another
Body which is already waiting for us.
That is what Paul also taught us in 1
Corinthians 15:35 But
some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? 36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: 37 And that which
thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may
chance of wheat, or of some other grain: 38 But
God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. 39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there
is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and
another of birds. 40 There are also celestial
bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the
glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is
one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 42 So
also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in
incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is
raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It
is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body,
and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is
written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a
quickening spirit. 46 Howbeit that was not first
which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy:
the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is
the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have
borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the
That is why brother Branham taught us that what we are here is only a
reflection of where we are going.
EXPLAINING HEALING AND JAIRUS 54-0216 E-37
What you are here is a reflection of what you are somewhere else. "Those
who He called, He justifies." Is that right? "Those
who He justified, He has glorified" Romans
8:29. Already in the
Presence of the Father, we have a glorified body. Whew! Wasn't that deep? All
right We'll find out whether it right or not "If
this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting"
Is that right? That's right So right now, and what we are there, is a
reflection. Here, what we are here, is a reflection of what we arc somewhere
else. So if your deeds are evil, you know where it comes from. You know where
your other body's a waiting.
Then my question is
this… If my earthly body is only reflecting where my heavenly body is, then
where is my earthly body… is it in church, fellowshipping around the Word of
God? Is it in fellowship around God’s Word? Is it studying God’s word to show myself approved a
workman that needs not be ashamed? Or is it feeding on the things of
the world? Ask yourself where does my joy come from? That will tell you where
your soul is reflecting….
Webster’s
dictionary tells us that an Attitude is the position or posture
assumed by the body in connection with an action, feeling or mood. A manner of
acting, feeling, or thinking, that
show's ones disposition, opinion or mental set.
So we can see here
that the attitude is a condition of growth. It is the outward reflection of our
mind set. And if your attitude is a reflection of what is going on in your
heart, then the heart and mind must come into the right disposition first and
then the body will only reflect what is on the inside. Once your mind has come
to the place of live, die, sink or drown, then your body will follow. So many
people walk around with such rotten attitudes that you have to wonder what they
have been feeding their souls. The attitude is only a reflection of the inside.
Now when we think of the conditions we think of mechanics, but when we think of
attitude, we see something different. It is the breach between mechanics and
dynamics. You can have all the mechanics right and like brother Branham said,
put a live egg under a dead hen and it won't work. You can have all the
mechanics right, al the conditions right, but without this link between the
mechanics and dynamics you will only be a legalist. The mechanics is the
conditions, the dynamics is the Living Word of God in operation, and the little
link between them is your attitude.
God spoke in Genesis 1:11 the law
of reproduction when he said, “every seed shall bring forth after its kind.” That
means that every seed will reproduce the nature of the original life the seed
came forth from.
And the nature or
character of a seed is what distinguishes one form of life from another. The
characteristics describe the nature, and our character defines what Life is
governing us. Therefore you either have the beast nature ruling in the flesh or
you have God's very own nature ruling and living out Itself in you. And there
is only one thing we will take with you when you die, and that is your
character. It doesn't matter how popular you are, or how much wealth you have
accumulated, that will all stay here. When you die you are stripped naked of
everything you own, or possess with one exception, and that is your character.
That is who you are. That is the essence of your being. And your life here is
just a reflection of where you are going. Now, the thing that we are looking at
here is the Nature of God in the believer. In other words, it is the God-life
reflecting itself out in the believer. But we have a problem. We have this
flesh to deal with. And to have the actions and speech of god cannot come until
we have a mind like God's own mind. And unless we think God's thoughts we could
never do or speak words that are pleasing to God.
II
Cor 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of
this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring
to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be
found naked. 4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not
for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be
swallowed up of life. 5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is
God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 6 Therefore we are
always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are
absent from the Lord: 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are
confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be
present with the Lord. 9 Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent,
we may be accepted of him.
ROMANS 12:1 I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your
reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Now,
what I am bringing to you this morning is very important because if you are not
born again you will not go in the rapture. So you had better know that you are
born again. And how do you know that you are born? You will understand the Word
of God for the day that you are living. From his sermon, Super sign
62-0624 P:78 Brother Branham said, Now, let me tell you. Anything outside of being born again will
never reach the rapture. Unless
there is a germ of life inside you, you'll perish. You cannot rise up again.
And again from his sermon, Questions and
answers COD 64-0823E P:106 317 he said, Will all born again believers go in the rapture? No, just the remnant,
just the remnant, not all born again believers. The Bible said, "And
the rest of the dead lived not for a thousand years," and then they was
raised up and separated, the sheep from the goats. Not all born again will go in the... according to the Scripture. 1040-Q-318
318. What is the evidence that a person is really filled with the Holy
Ghost? John
14:26: He will... "When the Holy Ghost is come (See?), He will show you things
to come." See? He'll be a... He'll perfect
it; man made won't do it; and He is the Word. When He the Holy Ghost is come, He will identify Himself in you with
the Scripture. And that is the
true sign that the Holy Spirit is in you, because It is the Word.
From Hearing Recognizing,
and Acting upon the Word of God 60-0221 30 First, faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the
Word of God. Then the believer hears It,
recognizes It, and acts on It. The carnal man will hear It, the sound of
It, but never... "Hear" means to "understand It". Look at,
is looking at something; but to see it, is to "understand it".
"Except a man be born again, he
cannot see or understand the
I am concerned for the generation of children that have come up in
Message churches and have never been taught anything but the message, and yet
what Message they have been taught in most cases has been wrong because they
have been taught a Oneness concept of the Godhead instead of the truth as
taught by William Branham. But their parents say, well to believe the prophet makes you born again. Listen, the
Devil believes and he trembles. Your children may what they have been taught,
but the real question is, have they been taught the truth? Or have been
indoctrinated into a church creed or just a movement? Now, if this is the case,
that does not mean anything to God.
As brother Branham
said in our reading this morning, That don't mean no
more than if you lived in a hog pen. Wouldn't make a bit of difference. Wouldn't!
It's just a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Yeah, no matter where you
belong, if you're not born of the Spirit of God and receive the Holy Ghost.
To believe God has sent a prophet in our day does not get you into the
family of God. A new Birth brings the very Life into you of God Himself.
Christ
is the mystery 63-0728 P:120 Look, Christ
in you makes Him the center of Life of the revelation. See? Christ's Life in you makes Him the center
of the revelation. Christ in the Bible, makes the Bible a complete
revelation of Christ. Christ in you
makes you the complete revelation of the whole thing. See, what God's
trying to do? What is the new birth then? You say, "Well, Brother Branham,
what is the new birth?" It is the revelation of Jesus Christ
personally to you. Amen. See? Not you joined a church, you shook a hand;
you done something different; you said a creed; you promised to live by a code
of rules; but Christ, the Bible... He is
the Word that was revealed to you. And no matter what anybody says, what
takes place, it's Christ. Pastor, priest, whatever it might be... It's Christ
in you. That is the revelation that the Church was built upon.
Second coming 55-0220A P:28 Now,
you can have a intellectual faith by
hearing the Word, and perceiving it
in your mind, and accepting it upon
those basis, which is intellectual faith. But the faith that Jesus was
speaking of in
From Christ is the mystery 63-0728 P:128 brother
Branham tells us But
the only way that you're saved is by knowing Him by revelation.
And there is a big difference between knowing something as a creed and
then having it revealed to you down in your soul. Too many people have seen
their children come up in this message and either just be good church members,
or they leave church altogether. The latter is because they haven’t been born
again, and I wonder sometimes if the parents had any experience with God
either.
Brother Branham makes it clear in his sermon, Christ
is the mystery 63-0728 P:130 where he said, Paul
knew Him by revelation. That's how we
know Him today, is the only way you could know Him. Not say, "I'm
Methodist." That means nothing. "I'm Baptist." That means
nothing. "I'm Catholic." That means nothing. But by the revelation
that God has revealed the Word to you. He is the Word, and the Word, how you
know It's revealed, It lives Itself and
expresses Itself through you.
Now, if you have received the son of God Seed-Life in you, then it must express
itself out from you. It has to. God never called us to a Message denomination, He
called us to become what we were meant to become, sons of God conformed to the
Image of His first-born son.
Years ago a young man came to me and said, “I always believed that I’m God’s elect”,
and I said you can believe what you want to but unless you are born again what
good will it do you. There are seeds planted that never came to fruit, they fell
among the thorns.
So don’t think, praise God I was born into a
From Christ is the mystery 63-0728 P:121 brother
Branham said, It's Christ being revealed, and He is the
Word. And when the Word is revealed, It
expresses Itself. See? That's God's purpose for Jesus Christ, was to
express Himself, to take His own laws and live by His laws, and fulfill His law
by death. Christ, God died in flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh that
He might bring to Himself a glorious Bride, redeemed back, that will believe
only in the Word of God and not swap It, like Eve did, for intellectual
conceptions of men. You see it?
And that is the problem that I see even
among those who claim to have the doctrine right. If they have it by revelation
and not just an intellectual conception, then it has a life to it, and it must
live itself out in their lives, or it isn’t revealed to them. Faith is a
revelation and if it is truly revealed it must build up an energy and that
energy must manifest itself in an action. That is what Life is all about. A
dead horse doesn’t kick back when it is kicked, and dead people spiritually do
not manifest the energy of God concerning the revelation of Christ. They are
just preoccupied with the cares of this life just like the rest of the world,
and except for the church they attend or the ministry they ascribe to, they are
no different than the rest of the world.
Christ is the mystery 63-0728 P:124 The new birth is Christ, is a revelation.
God has revealed to you this great mystery, and that's the new birth. Now, what
are you going to do when you get all that group together, where the revelation
is perfectly in harmony, and God expressing it through His Word by the same actions,
the same things that He did, making the Word manifest? Oh, if the Church only knew its position.
It will one day. Then, the rapture will go when it knows what it is.
So the new birth is a real event. Many people look at it as though it
just sort of happens and they’re not sure when it happened but they presume
they have it because they attended the right church. That’s hogwash, and the
person that thinks that has not been born again. Many say, well we have brother
Branham, we believe he is a prophet of God. That sort of thinking is carnal.
You won’t make the rapture based on Br. Branham’s Life. You’ll make the rapture
based on being a Born again Son or daughter of God, period. And to be born
again is a life altering experience. And if you Life has not been altered to
serve the Living God, then I wonder if you have been truly born again.
Oh, you might talk the talk and walk the walk, but are you alive to
Christ and what He is doing now? There is a world wide revival taking place
among the bride right now, and yet most Americans who claim to believe the
Message are not even aware of what God is doing, and not only is He doing it,
but He is confirming it with signs and wonders.
From his sermon, Is your life worthy 63-0630E
P:80 Brother Branham said, I was telling someone this
afternoon in a little meeting; I said, "Every son that's born of God has to be tried first, chastened."
And I remember when I had mine. On my greatest hour... When a man's born again, there's a little spot like the size of his
fingernail that God injects into his system, and it falls into his heart
and there anchors. Then Satan makes him prove it. And if that ain't there,
you're gone.
Jesus said in Matthew 13: 23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that
heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth
forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. And William Branham taught us that to “see” means to understand.
Now,
notice how brother Branham tells us that the Holy Spirit comes and anoints our mental Faith and then it becomes a spiritual
revelation that builds upon Word upon Word upon Word. that brother Branham says
when these streams of Grace pour in upon our mental faith. Then he says “when them streams of grace has poured into
that mental faith that you've got, then upon this, a spiritual revelation.”
Now,
Peter, the one who Jesus praised for receiving the Revelation of the Godhead,
that there is One God and He had a Son, and Jesus was that Son of God. In 1
Peter 1:13 he tells us Wherefore
gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; Notice he says at the end time there
will be a certain Grace that will be brought to you at the time of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 we read, 1
Corinthians 1; 3 - 10 Grace
be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I
thank My God always on your behalf, for the [Grace] of God which is given you
by Jesus Christ; that in every thing you are to be enriched [this Grace brings on a maturity like
fertilizer] by Him, in all utterance [Logos] and in all knowledge; Even as
the testimony of Jesus Christ was confirmed in you: [This is the same as in 2
Thessalonians 1: 10 when
God comes to be glorified in His saints. When the very mind of God comes into
His elect seed.] And the reason for this is so that you will not come behind
in no gift [Charisma
which is a spiritual endowment]; waiting for the Apokalupsis [ Revealing or unveiling] of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be
blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 4: 7 - 8 “Saying,
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” So we find then, the identifiable
characteristic of the new birth is that the people will be caught up into the
Revelation of Jesus Christ as spoken in 1
Peter 1: 13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be
sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ;
And as this
Revelation breaks, we'll understand the Grace that comes with it, bringing us
into the same mindset so that we might all cry out in One accord, " Grace,
Grace, unto It!" which we find in the following scripture...
1 Thessalonians 3: 13 To the end he may stablish
your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
1 Corinthians 1: 10 God
is faithful, by Whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but
that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment."
So you see,
if we have the mind of the Father and to have His mind we must have His spirit,
and we know that by One spirit we are all baptized into one body, the body of
Christ. So it's already a done deal. So as we see from 1
Peter 1: 13 and 1
Corinthians 1: 4-10, God has given us the spirit of Grace in
this hour to have the mind of Christ. And He said, "let the mind that was in Christ be in you", so it is possible for you to have
God's own thoughts within your very mind, and that is what brother Branham was
talking about, in that last quotation we read from The Spoken word is the
Original Seed. Notice how He begins quoting from John 5:19 where Jesus said, "the
son can of Himself do nothing, but whatsoever He seeth the Father do, that the
Son doeth likewise."
That is
what Ephesians 1: is
all about, that we were in His mind before the world began and at that time we
were predestinated unto the adoption of Children by receiving the very mind of
the Father.
Let us pray…