Spoken Word no. 86

Watering the Seed thoughts in Your Mind

Brian Kocourek, Pastor

Sunday, April 5, 2009

 

Let’s pray, Dear gracious and loving Father, you gave us a principle to think about in these last days, which even your Son Jesus, our brother spoke to us when He said, "Out from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh". And You also said in your Word, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Therefore, we realize Father, this speaks of all men. And we know we are the product of what we sow in our mind, and we believe the reason you  came down in this hour, is to change our minds, and renew our mind, that we might receive a bodily transformation. For You told us in Your Word that "we are transformed by the renewing of our minds." Therefore, Father, we approach Thy Word with reverence this morning as we seek to have our own minds changed, and we ask that the mind that was in Christ Jesus come into us. That is our desire this morning Dear Father, and  with these thoughts in mind, we graciously ask Your transforming power to touch us in our minds that our hearts might become regenerated with Thy Life, for we ask it in Jesus Name Amen.

 

Now, last week we spoke from paragraphs 71 through 73 of The Spoken Word is the Original Seed, and we focused on brother Branham’s thought that the seed is the Word of God. We went into the New Testament parables where Jesus explained that the seed which the Son of Man sowed is the Word of God.

 

Now, this morning I would like to look again at these three paragraphs because not only does brother Branham speak to us concerning the Word of God as a Seed, but he also expresses that the seed must be watered if it is to produce or manifest the life that is in that seed.

 

So this morning we are going to examine the watering process to show how the watering of the seed is necessary to bring the seed to life, or rather to bring the life in the seed into manifestation.

 

  71   Now, the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. What is the Seed of Life? The Word of God. Therefore, for Life, you can't come through a creed; you can't come through a denomination; you got to come back to the Word. Now, the seed of Life. All right, His Word is His Seed, and His Spirit is the Water. Now, right back to John 3:14 there, you get it again. You see? See? The Spirit is the Water. Now, look, John 3:14, we understand what it means if you want to read it. “as Moses lifted up the brass serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up. See? Now, if Moses lifted up the brass serpent, for the same cause Christ was lifted up, now what is it? Moses lifted up the brass serpent so that the people that was perishing might have water for life. And look, Jesus... (Oh, God.) Jesus is the Word of God. Now, we're going to hammer that down this afternoon (See?), prove it.

 

  72   Jesus is the Word of God, and He was bursted open, that Life, the Life that's inside the Seed, that this Life, which, is Spirit, Water flowing over, the Spirit over the Seed of God will bring forth the Life of the Seed. And to bring forth something else, there's some other kind of seed there then. Amen. Do you understand? If the Spirit of God comes forth to water the Seed, if it's the Seed it's watering, it'll produce the Life of the Seed. That clear? Produce the Life of the Seed, for that's what It's give for.


  73   I believe the Bible is the Word, the whole Truth, and Jesus is the Word made manifest; He and His Word is One and the same. What was He? Now, look. He was that Seed. (Now, I've got to hold something back in order to get it in here this evening. You see? It's hard.) He was that Seed that Eve should've produced. Do you get it? He was the Seed that Eve was to produce, but she hybrid it by disbelieving God's Word. So He was that Seed, and the only way that Life could be, in the reproduction of Life, Life had to come through that Seed, and that Seed had to die in order to spread out the Life. Can't you see it? That's why the Water was given: to water the Seed.

 

Now, we know that the word of God is a seed. In fact the Apostle Peter tells us that the Word of God is an incorruptible seed. And if the Word of God is an incorruptible seed, then what is a corruptible seed? You say, corruptible seed? Yes, that is what Peter said in 1 Peter 1:23. He said there is an incorruptible seed and a corruptible seed. But he says, the incorruptible seed is the word of God which lives and abides forever.

 

1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. So according to the Word of God there is a corruptible seed and an incorruptible seed, and the difference is in the Life. One lives and abides forever, so it is an eternal life in that seed. Therefore the other life would have to be other than incorruptible and eternal.

 

From his sermon, Jesus Christ the same 62-0718 P:42 brother Branham said,  I believe that this Bible, this Word right here, the Bible, is God in print form. And I believe that the Bible is a seed. Those words are seeds. Jesus said a sower went forth sowing seeds. This is it. The Word of God is a Seed. Jesus said it was. Then, if it is God in print form, and you receive It into your heart, and then the Holy Spirit waters that Seed, it brings forth what it's promised. (Then brother Branham says…) Any kind of a seed you sow, it'll bring forth that kind of a crop. Exactly right. We've sowed in this great revival going by a lot of intellectual seed. We've got a intellectual crop. That's right. If we would sow Gospel Seed, we'd have a Gospel crop. And we need to get back to the principles, and the Bible teachings, back to the Bible, back to the Holy Spirit upon the Word of God that makes the Word of God live. That's exactly what it was.”

 

Now, I got a call yesterday from a minister who heard from another minister about a sermon I preached years ago that I called “The Garden of your mind”. And I thought, you know that sermon ties in so well with what brother Branham is saying here, and I know it has been many, many years since I preached that sermon, but I believe the Holy Spirit wants me to do bring those same points out again. In fact that is the way we best learn is through rote teaching which is over and over and over again until those principles become so ingrained in our minds that we just can not forget them.

So we will again examine the principles we laid down for you concerning the watering of the seeds that lay within our minds. Because the seeds we plant in our heart and our mind have life in them, and it just takes a watering to bring them into manifestation. And we know that every seed we plant in our mind and heart will come into manifestation if we just water it.

 

And since we are studying this sermon “The Spoken Word is the original Seed”, and we find brother Branham is speaking about the Word of God being a seed that must be watered for it to come alive and manifest the Word of God in our Life. Therefore, he is laying out for us the law of reproduction whereby whatever seed is planted, the life that is in that seed can not come forth into manifestation of the same nature of the seed that is planted until it I watered.

 

Therefore I will ask the question, “How many of you in here would plant watermelon seeds but in reality you are expecting grapefruits? None? I’m shocked!!! Of course none. You know better than that. So then why do we sow certain kinds of seeds in our life  and then  expect the results to be different than what we have sown?

 

Let's begin our Message this Morning by reading from the following scriptures

 

Matt 13:24-30    Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29  But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30    Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

 

Mark 4:4    And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

 

Genesis 1:11    And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

 

As we examine these scriptures tonight I want you to see that there are three things we should notice.

 

#1) He is speaking of a Seed that was sewn into the ground, and we know by definition that a seed is Life.

 

#2) This life that is within the seed must come forth in a manifestation and bring forth an expression of  the Life that lays within it, and it can not express anything outside of what life is within itself.

 

#3) By viewing that life expression you will know what Life it is, which is identification.

Now, let’s begin by looking at point #1). The Seed that is sewn is the Word.

 

Mark 4:4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

 

We read in John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2 The same was in the beginning with God.  3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

 

Notice that in Him was Life, and that is why all things were made by Him. Because It takes Life to bring forth Life. And He is the Word. So this Life is in the Word.

Let’s read the parable that Br. Branham used in this sermon, the Spoken Word is the original Seed.

 

Let’s turn in our Bibles to Luke 8:4-15 ¶ And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable: 5 A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.  6 And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. 8 And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 9And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? 10 And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. 11Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.  12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved 13 They on the rock [are they], which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. 14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of [this] life, and bring no fruit to perfection.  15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep [it], and bring forth fruit with patience.

 

Now notice that the seed that was sown is the Word of God, and yet we see that unless this Word or Seed is sown in the proper place it will not produce Life.

 

In 1 Peter 1:23 we read this morning that the Word of God is not only a seed, but an incorruptible seed.  Therefore it is called a seed, and yet we found in 1st Peter that there are two types of seed, or word which are sown. A corruptible word and an incorruptible word. And the evidence that we have received an incorruptible Word in the right kind of soil, is that we shall live and abide forever. Now let’s take this thought one step further. If Peter is telling us that there are 2 different types of seeds, one which is corruptible and the other which is not corruptible, and if one is called the Word of God, then the other must be the words of one who is not God. Therefore, if a seed must manifest its life, then one life will manifest attributes which are eternal while the other will manifest attributes which shall surely perish.

 

Further more, we know that the Son of Man went forth sowing the Word Seed, and the man in black was Satan who goes behind Him with his own version of the Word which is another gospel or one of a different nature. So if he sows a different seed it must have a different nature, for the law of reproduction says every seed will bring forth after it kind.

 

From the Message Israel in Egypt 53-0325 104, brother Branham said,  Well, they say, "I don't need anybody to teach me. Glory to God, I got the Holy Ghost." Well then, the Holy Ghost was wrong when It said It set some in the church, teachers. God put them in the church as teachers. That settles it. Why'd He put teachers in there, if the Holy Ghost is going to do all the teaching? See? What people needs is their brains baptized, besides their water. That's right.

 

Again in the message Demonology 2 Religious 41-78 53-0609 178 he said,  I said, "Instead of baptizing your body, you need your brains baptized." That's right. You don't stop to think of things. You don't try to consider it."

 

And in the message Blasphemous Names 62, 22-1 Brother Branham said,  The biggest part of our faith is mental faith. By hearing the Word it brings us to a mental recognition of God. But if this coming from above, oh, brother, if it ever strikes this, there is a godly, spiritual faith. Then what does that faith do? That faith recognizes only the Word. No matter what anything else says, it only recognizes the Word, because "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (And the Word's still God.) And the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us." And when the word Itself is pouring into our faith, our mental faith becomes a spiritual revelation. "And upon this foundation I'll build My Church," (See?), not upon a mental conception of church joining, a mental conception of that, but upon the revelation. When them streams of grace has poured into that mental faith that you've got, then upon this, a spiritual revelation, "I'll build My Church and the gates of hell can't prevail against it." See?

 

Now, in studying the law of reproduction the next principle I want to bring out is thisThe life that is within the seed must come forth in a manifestation and bring forth an expression of the Life that lies within it, and it can not express anything outside of what life is within itself. Therefore, every seed must bring forth after it’s kind or nature.

 

E-39 God Revealing Himself to His People 50-0813E. The right mental attitude towards any promise of God will bring it to pass. Do you believe that? The Word is a Seed (Is that right?) that a Sower sowed in the ground. And every Seed will bring forth of its kind. If you need salvation, the Seed's here. If you need healing, here's the Seed in the Word. The Word of God is a Seed. Put it in your heart. Don't dig it up every morning to see if it's sprouted, put it in there and leave it there. It's God's business to bring forth the harvest. You just leave it there; water it by faith and praise every day thanking God for it. All right.

 

E-50 At Thy Word 53-1204 I don't know how I'm going to do it, but at Thy Word, Lord." That's it. Take God at His Word, and God's spoken Word must--will materialize and produce just exactly what It says It will. Listen. The right mental attitude towards any Divine promise of God will bring it to pass. I don't care what it is. If you want corn, you plant corn, water corn, leave corn alone. It'll produce corn. Is that right? Wheat will produce wheat. The promise of salvation will produce a Christian. The promise of the Holy Ghost will bring It to you. The promise of Divine healing will make you well. Any Divine promise of God... And the Bible said that the Word of God is a Seed. Is that right?

E-8 What Think Ye of Christ 53-1213M And if the right mental attitude, you just take the right mental attitude towards any Divine promise, watch it materialize. See? No matter how it looks, if it looks impossible, if God said so He makes it possible.

 

175 Word Became Flesh India Trip 54-1003M Every Word in the Bible is God's thoughts laid in seed form, that if received into the human being, and spoke by the same thought that materialized the Bible, brings the thing to pass. See what I mean? How powerful could the Church be? The Bible said, "Let this mind that was in Christ be in you. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Now, your thoughts, if they become expression... Like, God said, "Let there be a world." Before it could be a word, it had to be a thought. So God in the creation, created the world by His thought first, then spoke it, and the thought, expressed became material. See what I mean? 180 Now, you can express it by mental conception, but if it becomes a real revelation of God, that you see it before it happened, and express it in word form, that word takes a hold and becomes material: a thought expressed. Oh, my, how God could... See? If your heart and your mind is so, and infilled with God's Spirit, until your thoughts become His thoughts... Amen. There you are. When your mind, and your leading, and your guiding, becomes a direct place, or a direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit that's moving your mortal being... Oh, my. What kind of people should we be? If the very Holy Spirit has you so embodied or empowered, that you don't use your own thoughts, you don't use your own mind, you don't use your own opinion; but the Holy Spirit has you so built, until your thoughts and your being is God's Spirit expressing Itself through you, what kind of a church would we be? What kind of a people would it be, this morning, if this Branham Tabernacle, this morning, was so filled with the Presence of God, why, when you didn't even use your own mind, didn't even use your own thoughts, didn't even have no alternative of your own, but just to be led by the Spirit...? 212 "As a man thinketh..."It has to become a thought before it can become a word. And a word expressed, materializes. I believe in my heart that I am a Christian, because I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ; if I don't cry, if I don't move, if I don't do a thing. In my heart first, I believe that Christ died for me in my stead. Amen. I accept it as a Christian; I believe it as a Christian; then it's in my heart. Then I express it in a word, "I am a Christian." Hallelujah. Then I start walking as a Christian, talking as a Christian, living as a Christian, being as a Christian. And by my fruits I'm recognized by the world as a Christian. Hallelujah.

 

John 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

 

And in  John 16:7 we read,    Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

 

Now, brother Branham spoke of the original seed being the Word of God and he mentioned in the Rapture Message that this life has been coming forth since Luther’s Message, and on up through Wesley’s, continuing up through the Pentecostal message until it finally comes to a rest in the intelligence, which is the very mind of God, back in the people.

 

Now in looking at these three thoughts here we see that

 

#1) The seed contains the Life of the original That’s 2 Peter 1:3-4    According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

 

#2) The same Life that was sown in the Original Seed, which is the very Life that was in Christ Jesus, shall  That’s Genesis 1:11 The Law of reproduction Every seed after its kind.

 

#3) That Life shall return in this hour, not only among the people, but It shall enter into the people as well.

 

That’s Colossians 3:4    When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

 

He said "The Complete Seed," comes forth in It’s Complete Body (which is the complete Life that was in the Seed has got to come back into human flesh in a Bride) in this hour. So we are speaking of the Original Seed, the original Word-Life back in human flesh again. And that is why we are told our New Birth comes by a seed which is the incorruptible Word of God.

 

In fact Jesus said in John 6:63 "My Words are Spirit and they are Life."

And, so we see that the Word is a Seed carrier of Eternal Life. Now, this morning I would like to look at this thought of the Word being a Seed in a little different way than perhaps you have heard before. Since we are talking about the Word as a Seed, I would like to break this down to our own personal level for a few minutes. And we shall subtitle this Message "The Garden of your mind."

 

Now, we know that the Word is a Seed, right? Then if the Word is a Seed, there is a life that is in that seed. Every seed is a carrier of life. We know this by definition. But what is in a Word? The answer is thoughts. Before there were any words there were thoughts. Then the word is an expression of the thoughts. So in essence the thoughts within the word are the life of the Word, right?

 

In other words, if I said to you, Salge, you might not understand what I am saying, because that word is Norwegian for Sale. But if I speak to you in Words that you understand, then when I say the Word SALE, it brings up many things to your mind. Immediately your mind goes into gear and you begin to think of other things which are associated with a sale. If you are in real estate, you think of a house that is on the market.

 

If you are just a common ordinary person, you immediately think, sale of what? So you can see that a word is not just a guttural sound, but it really has some significance.

 

1 Cor 14:6-11    Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? 7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? 8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?  9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. 10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them [is] without signification. 11    Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh [shall be] a barbarian unto me.

 

What Paul is saying here is that every sound has some significance in some language. Just to speak words which have no meaning does not do anything for any one. But when we speak in words which can be understood, then those words can and will bring forth fruit.

 

In Jeremiah 6:19 we read, Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.  Here God tells us that our thoughts actually will produce fruit.

 

And we know that man is likened to a tree, as we see in Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

 

Here we see that a righteous man is likened to a tree that is planted by the rivers of water. And we are told that his fruit will bring forth in its proper season and his leaf shall never wither. Now what does God mean by this metaphor?

 

We know that God likens His Word to Water and Eternal Life to the River of Life that flows from the Throne of God as we see in  Revelations 22:1    And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

 

Next we see that this man, is planted. That means he can not move, but he is fixed in this place which means that he is rooted in, and his roots are reaching out for the waters of Life, and he is living off of the waters of Eternal Life. And of course we know what these Waters of Life are.

 

It is the Word of God, for we are told by Paul in Ephesians 5:26 that we are washed by the washing of water by the word. And since this tree, or righteous man has a good water supply, his leaf will never wither, as Peter said, we are born again of a Seedthat will not perish, the Word of God that Liveth and abideth forever. And so we see this speaks of Eternal Life, for the Life in this Tree will never wither. But I want you to also see that the greatest thing about this tree is that it is constant, and It will always bring forth it’s fruit in the proper season. And so we see that the fruit is tied to a season. It is a seasonal fruit.

 

Now we hear Jesus speak of knowing a man by his fruits, in the book of Matt 7:15-20  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16  Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19  Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

 

 Now, what does He mean by this? You will know Him by his fruits? A closer examination of this scripture, allows us to see that you will be able to tell who and what a man is by his fruit. Then it is the fruit that identifies and declares the man.

 

Now remember, he begins by warning us about false prophets. And he calls them wolves in sheep’s clothing, but then talks about fruit. He is using metaphors to get a point across. But what are these fruits that he is speaking about? Some would have you to think these fruits are the fruits of the spirit or the fruits of the flesh, but brother Branham told us in his sermon “Anointed Ones at the End-Time,” “the fruit is the teaching of the season.”

 

Therefore we must ask ourselves “what is teaching but the very thoughts of the person made known through words”. Therefore if we break down this thought of what a man’s fruit is, we find that it is his thoughts, what he is thinking. And we find a righteous man will have the right thoughts for the right season. Or better said, A righteous man will have thoughts that are a correct match for the season in which he is living.

 

Those who were Elect in Moses day did not look to Noah’s Message for the bread of life in their day. They received Moses Message in Moses day.

 

In Jesus day, those who were looking to Moses missed Him when He came. And so we see that the righteous man is like a tree that is planted and rooted in the waters or Word of Eternal Life, and their thoughts will be in season for their day and therefore they shall never wither.