Spoken
Word no. 59
Where
Does Your Faith Rest?
Brian Kocourek
This
morning we will continue with our study from The Spoken Word is the Original Seed
and we will again read from paragraph 42 where brother Branham is speaking about God’s
Word, and the will of God is found only in His Word. It's there, the Truth, all the Truth,
and nothing but the Truth, and our faith
rests right there, right there on what God said. Don't try to interpret It; just say it the way It says it. Don't
put any private interpretation, ...
Now, this morning I
would like to speak on Faith. Because we are told in Hebrews 11: 6 that without faith it is impossible to please God:
for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him.
So having faith is
essential to the Christian if he is going to please God. Not only that but we
are told that “without
faith we can not please God.” Therefore if we are to receive anything from
God we must first have faith and believe God for what we seek.
But the reason people
do not have faith concerning receiving from God is that they are not sure if
what they are asking is the will of God to begin with. The reason they are not
sure what the will of God is, is because they do not know what the will of God
is. In order to have faith then, we must first have knowledge of what God’s
will is concerning the matter that we are wishing to have faith for. Before one
can have faith for any circumstance in our life we must first know what God’s
will for us is in that area that we are seeking faith for, whether it be for
healing or finances, or for other more specific blessings. “So then, Faith
cometh by hearing and hearing the Word of God” Rom 10: 17.
Therefore this morning we are going to examine what we
can do in our life to increase our Faith. We need to understand that God has
placed more than 800 promises in His Word for our benefit and all it takes to
receive those blessings is for us to know that they are there and that God
wants us to have them.
We live so below our privileges as sons and daughters
of God. We live in such a godless society that all we hear from day to day is
that if you are going to get anything out of life you have to do it yourself or
let the government do it for you. That is the two extremes and you hear them
everyday on the radio and television, or in the newspapers.
We are so saturated with a godless pessimistic message
in the media today that if we believe only a small part of what we are hearing,
then the devil has completed his victory.
We need to learn to tune out to the devils message and
tune into God’s Message. If we only knew just a portion of what God has for us
and believed what God had to say about those things he has for us, we would not
be such a defeated people, but we would truly be a people walking in the power
and demonstration of the Holy Spirit.
By knowing what God has to say about those promises
you are seeking, you will learn how to have faith with no uncertainty at all.
God is more eager for us to have them than we are to receive His blessings. But
until we know the will of God concerning those things, we have nothing to base
our faith upon.
You see, we must have the mind of Christ in us, and we
know the mind of the father must be in the son in order for the son to be
adopted. Our minds must be brought into
harmony with the mind of God if we are to receive what God has in mind for us
to receive.
In Romans 10:17
Paul told us how to appropriate our faith. He said, “Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Br. William Branham took this one step further and
preached a sermon entitled, hearing,
recognizing and acting upon the word of God.
So you see, faith comes by hearing the word of God.
What God has to say about it. Then if you hear and recognize it to be God’s
word for what you need in your life, then you appropriate it by acting upon
what you heard.
You say, what do you mean preacher? What I mean is
this. If you have any needs, you must find out what God says about those needs,
and you must look for the provisions in His Word concerning those needs, and
then after you have dug up all the scripture you can concerning those needs,
give that Scripture back to God. Then you are planting it in your mind and in
your heart. You are now planting in good soil.
Paul said in Romans 12:2 “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.”
Notice God wants us to prove His Word, but we must
first accept His Word in our minds and let our minds see only what God sees,
and that is where we fail time and time again.
Only by knowing what God has promised me, can I have
assurance in receiving it. Then, if God has promised something to me my
attitude should be to receive it as though it is already done. We need to know
that God not only has made His promise to you but He did so because He wants
for you to have it.
Hw many times have I seen people pray for something, a
real need in their life, and then cancel out their prayer by saying those Faith
canceling words, “if it is thy will o lord”.
But people do that because they do not understand what
went on in Jesus life in
Therefore we must first come to an understanding of
the Word of God. For without coming to an understanding of How God’s Word
works, we will never have faith for anything,
So let’s begin
our study. Now, in order to understand how the Word of God works, we must first
understand that the word of God is a Seed. We are speaking from the sermon the
Spoken Word is the original Seed, and yes, the Word of God is a Seed.
In Luke 8: 11 Jesus said, The seed is the word of God. And in 1 Peter 1:23 we are told by peter that “the Word of God is an incorruptible seed which liveth and
abideth for ever.” Therefore if it is a seed and it is incorruptible,
then we have a place to begin our faith building. Now a seed is a carrier of
Life, and if that Life in the seed is incorruptible, then it can never perish
or decay or go away. It lives and abides for ever. So it is not a promise that is good for one but not
goods for the other. It is a promise that is the same
yesterday, today and forever.
Now, the problem we have amongst Christians today is that so many
understand nothing about seed planting. But the poor farmer who is looked down
upon by the educated world knows more about the way the Word of God works than
the highly educated know it alls do today. The farmer knows how to plant and
then how to wait on the seed to do it’s thing. And he is fully aware that
unless he plants the seed into good ground it is not going to produce any crops
for him. And for you to expect the Word of God to work for you without first
knowing what seed you are planting, and then without planting that seed into
good ground is like a farmer who expects a crop even though he has not planted
any seed for that crop.
Brother Branham said, Hearing, recognizing, then acting upon the Word of God. You’ve
got to hear it first, for faith comes by hearing, then you must
recognize what it is and what it is for, and then once you know what seed you
are planting then plant it, and leave it up to God.
God has never willed it that a man can harvest without a planting first.
His law of reproduction in Genesis 1:11 says, every seed shall produce of it’s kind,
and His law of sowing and reaping says that unless you sow you shall not reap.
So sowing and reaping are instrumental
if you are to receive the blessings of God. For you reap what you sow, but if
you do not sow you do not reap. It is just that simple.
God wants you to know His will concerning that which you wish to reap,
and in knowing His Will you are able to recognize it and carefully sow it in
the right field.
Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”.
So knowing is what makes you free. Knowing first then the freedom comes as a
result of the knowing.
As brother Bosworth said, “Freedom from sickness comes from knowing the truth”.
God will do nothing outside His Word. His Word is the conduit that God operates
in.
Therefore the good field that we must plant the Word of God in is our own
mind and heart. For it is there that God can act upon it. Any farmer knows for
him to receive a harvest he must plant his seed in his own field. And therefore
What I wish to receive from God must be planted in my own heart and in my own
mind.
You can not plant seed for a certain crop if you are unsure what seed you
are planting. So you must study the seeds to know what seed is for what crop.
And then knowing the seed will produce for that crop, you simply sow it into
good soil and then go away, and let it do what it is supposed to do.
The farmer knows what seed he needs, then he goes out and gets the seed
that he knows that he needs, and then he plants it. Therefore he does not plant
the seed until he knows it, and receives it and then he plants it. Hearing, recognizing
and acting upon the Word of God.
You can not become a Christian until you know that it is God’s will to
save you. So you hear the Words of salvation, your receive those words, and you
act upon it by trusting in the Word of God to save you.
Then once you have planted the seed, do not go and dig it up every day
and replant it to make sure you planted the right seed. Can you imagine a
farmer who knows what seed he will need to produce the crop that he wants to
produce and then he plants it, but decides that he must check on it every day
to see if the seed is doing what it is meant to do? So he digs it up every day,
and looks for the seed to be doing it’s thing. But if he did that he would
never have any crop, because every seed has a certain built in time line for it
to decay and unleash the life that is in that seed. And so does the Seed Words
of God.
You have to understand the working of the Seed. It as a seed is a carrier
of Life. Therefore, you must allow that Life to work within it’s own set of
rules to bring forth what it is destined to bring forth. In other words, you have to trust that it is
a genuine seed, and it will do what it’s nature is programmed to do.
You have go to know the nature of the seed before you sow it, and so is
it with the Word of God. If you do not know God’s will for you to be saved or
to be healed or for you to receive his help financially or spiritually, then
you do not know what seed you are planting and what crop you will bring up.
To say, “I believe the Lord is able
to heal me,” is not the same as “I
know the Lord will heal me”. Being able
to do something verses knowing that something is going to be done are two
different things altogether.
Jesus did not say in vain if you say to this mountain and do not doubt in
your heart you can have what you ask. He did not say to the storm, “Storm I
hope you go away”, no, not for one second. He said, Storm, be gone, and it
went.
Brother Branham did not say to the storm in
You can’t stand there and think what if I command this storm and it
doesn’t go away. What will these ministers think. Right there you are defeated,
because you are not looking at the seed promise, but you are looking at the
circumstances.
You see, the farmer does not look at the circumstances, he looks at the
seed, and the nature of that seed, and he knows if he plants it in good soil it
will produce a good crop.
Did not the apostle Paul tell us in Romans
1:18 that “the Gospel of Christ is the Power of God.” So
what are you afraid of. If you have the power of God then use it.
So you see once you understand the nature of the seed you wish to plant,
you just plant it and leave the results up to God. And if you do not understand
the nature of the seed you wish to plant, you will never understand the nature
of the Word of God which is the original seed. That is what 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 again he said in Matthew 13: 19 When any one heareth the word
of the kingdom, and understandeth it not,
then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.
This is he which received seed by the way side.
So you see it all depends on whether you understand what you are planting
or not. If you do not understand how faith works you will never plant the right
seed for it to produce the thing you have need of in your life.
There is no
uncertainty in the Word of God concerning what you need to plant for each situation.
And in fact the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 14:23 “For whatsoever is not of faith is sin”. And we
know that sin is unbelief.
And we are told in James 1: 5-8 If any of you lack
wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (So you see here he is saying ask God and he shall
give what you ask). 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. (now
this word “wavereth” was translated from
a Greek word “diakrino” which means to hesitate, or to withdraw. So if you
hesitate to sow your seed or you withdraw from sowing your seed that means you
are not actually sowing it at all. Then how do you expect to get anything if
you don’t sow the seed?)For he that wavereth
(he that withdraws from sowing seed) is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind
and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
So not only are you
promised here that you will not receive anything from the Lord if you don’t sow
for it, but you are also called unstable in God’s great record book.
Seed is powerless
unless it is planted. Therefore asking others to pray for your harvest when you haven’t planted
the proper seeds is like the farmer asking his friends to pray for his harvest
knowing he has not even planted his seed in the ground. Therefore praying
before you know what you have sown for is futile.
Jesus said in Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when
ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Now, if you do not understand what it is that you are
to receive from God then how can you believe that you have received them?
Therefore you have got to understand what it is by the Word of God that you are
going after, and then after you have properly laid out the Word Seed of God and
plant them into your heart an do not let them depart from your sight but
meditate upon them day and night, then
and only then can you believe that you will receive what you have asked
for. Then you can rest in the promise.
Listen
to what God says concerning his handing out the rewards for our faith. Hebrews
10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence,
which hath great recompence of reward. 36 For ye
have need of patience, that, after ye
have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
(notice
that is not until you have done the will of God that you receive the promise.
So you must hear it for faith comes by hearing, then you have got to recognize what
it is that you are promised, and then after recognizing what it is that you are
promised, then you must act upon it. Hearing, recognizing and acting upon the
Word of God, then sit back and watch God’s Word go to work for you.) 37 For
yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. 38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back,(draw back means to keep back or with-hold. So you see
unless you fully plant it, it will never produce for you.) but if any man
draw back, my soul shall have
no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not of
them who draw back unto perdition;
but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
The wisest man that ever lived told us how to plant
our seeds into the right kind of soil. He said in Proverbs 4:20 My
son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them
not depart from thine eyes; keep
them in the midst of thine heart. 22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to
all their flesh.
Notice
that God tells us how to actually act upon His Word. He says Amplified version Proverbs 4:20 My son, attend to my
words; consent and submit to my sayings.
21 Let them not
depart from your sight; keep them in
the center of your heart. Therefore once you have decided what
it is that you are planting for, then you are to no longer look at the
circumstances, but you are to look to the planting that you have done. He said,
let not my promise depart from your eyes. And never let them depart from your
heart. Look how Abraham the older he got the more sure of the promise he
became.
Notice from brother Branham sermon, Works is faith expressed 65-1126 P:95 And
don’t forget to think about that title. Works or your actions is your faith expressed Here he said, Let's think of Abraham for just a few minutes. Abraham got
that holy union complete (See?); he got the whole thing together. He called things contrary to his faith as
though it was not; and acted
on the same principle. I can imagine, after about twenty years, somebody
come by and said, "Father of nations? Abram, you said your name was
'Abraham,' which means 'father of nations.' Just how many children do you have
right now, Abraham?" See? That
didn't stumble him a bit. The Bible said he staggered not at the Word of God, through unbelief. He went
right ahead making ready, keeping all the booties ready and the bird-eye and
everything; he was going to have the baby. That's all.
And so he waited until
he was 100 years old but it came. God said it would come and it came right on
time, when it was supposed to come.
The word of God can
not produce a crop that is in some multiplied 30 fold and in others 60 fold and
in others 100 fold if it is not first heard, received, and acted upon. Notice he says, the Word of God is life to only
those who find them, so that is the key. If you do not have the proper seed you
can not plant it and if you can not plant it you will not receive the crop that
you hoped for. James tells us that it is very crucial to our receiving that we
plant the right seed. He says you have not because you asked not, or you asked
amiss. In other words, you did not plant the right seed to get the crop that
you wanted. A farmer can not sow one seed expecting to reap another? He must
sow for what he wants to receive. If you keep planting in your heart seeds of
doubt that is the crop you will grow. So which kind of seed do you have in the
ground? And which kind of seed are you
watering each day. You know your own heart and if you are planting seeds of
doubt, then you will never receive the crop you have need of. And if your eyes
are on the circumstances, and the seed of doubt is what you are focused upon in
your heart, then that is what you are going to get.
James 4: 2
Ye lust, and have not (in
other words, you want it but you don’t receive it, so) ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot
obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. (he says, look at all the hard work and the emotions that you spend
trying to get the crop that you want, and sometimes you are even willing to
kill to get it, but you still can’t have it. Why?) 3 Ye ask, but you receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it
upon your lusts. So what does it mean that you ask amiss? It means
you are not planting the right seed for what you want.
1
Thessalonians 2: 13 For
this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the
word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as
it is in truth, the word of God, which
effectually worketh also in you that believe.
In closing, we can see that after you have planted your seed, you believe
that it is growing before you see it grow. That is why Paul said, “Faith is the evidence of things not seen.” Because
although you do not see it growing you know that the Word of God is working mightily in you to
the pulling down of strongholds. We are to look at only this
evidence of the seed that has been planted, for to look is to live. Learn that
if you are to doubt anything you must doubt your doubts, for God’s Word is a
perfect seed and it has a perfect law of reproduction and law or sowing and
reaping that will produce the desires that you have planted for. So look only
at the evidence of things not seen. That is the life that is in the seed that you
have planted.
The seed itself you can see, it is the word of God, but Jesus said My
words are spirit and they are life. And in any seed you see the shell and the
shuck but you do not see the life inside that shuck. But that life is the
evidence of the crop that you sowed for. And even thought you can pull back the
layers for that chuck you can not see the life and yet it is there and every
farmer learns to not trust his eyes, but to trust his sixth sense which is his
faith in sowing and reaping.
You learn to use your senses each one at a time, and yet because you do
not see something with your eyes, that does not mean that it is not there. You
can use your other senses to tell you that it is there. The blind man is
missing one sense and yet he can hear the person coming and tell by the manner
of walk who it is that is coming. Or he may be able to tell by the persons
smell who is that just entered the room.
So just because you can’t see it, does not mean it is not there. And
just because you can not hear it does not mean it is not there. And just
because you can not feel it does not mean it is there. And so we must learn
that when one sense fails us we have 5 more to rely upon, and when the 5 senses
fail you we have the sixth sense which is just as important as the other five.