Spoken Word #98
Conformed
to the Image of the First Born Son
Brian Kocourek
May 31st, 2009
This morning we will continue in our study
of paragraphs 72-73 of the Spoken word is the original seed, where brother
Branham said, 72 “Jesus is the Word of God, and when 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 then he said in PP. 73, 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.
Therefore we are looking at the very Life
that was in Christ Jesus coming back upon the believers. Now, if we are looking
at the very Life then we are not looking at something like it. No that would
not do. He said the very life that was in Christ Jesus was released from His body when it was torn
open at Calvary and that very same Life or Spirit has come back to indwell the
believer, those that are born again believers.
Therefore if the
very life that lived itself out in Christ Jesus was released from His body in
order to come into your body, then the life that is living in you is not your
own but His. And if that is so then we are only stewards of this body that we
have just as Jesus was only a steward of that Body which became God’s Body when
God took over that body.
Now, if we could
ever get that across in our thinking then perhaps we might start to allow that
Spirit to have control over what we do, and what we say, and even what we allow
to come into our minds and think.
That is exactly
what the Apostle Paul said in, Galatians 2:20
I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I
live; yet it is not I that is living,
but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith (and Faith is a
revelation, so the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by the Revelation)of the Son of God, who loved me, and
gave himself for me. 21 I do not frustrate the grace of
God:.
Then Christ is
My life. And it’s not just a nice saying, or a nice thing to think about, but
it is a fact if you are born again, and the Life of Christ is living itself out
in your vessel. That’s what Paul said to the Colossians in Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with him in glory. Let me read this to you
in my own words. When Christ Who is My very Life living His Life out through my vessel,
when He shall come to manifest Himself openly, it will be because he is at that
time using my own vessel to manifest Himself openly through.
That is what William Branham said, in True Easter Seal 61-0402 P:121 Now, I don't know
you. That's me, me and my spirit; we don't know you. But He knows you. But He
wants to borrow my body to prove that He's the resurrected Christ. I'm so happy
to loan it to Him, give it to Him, anything He can get out of it. Therefore,
Paul continues, 5 Mortify
therefore your members which are upon the earth.
In other words, when Christ comes to
manifest Himself through your vessel, then it is only natural that you will die
out to the things of this world, and to the pulls of your own flesh, that He
might have pre-eminence in your vessel that He has come to manifest Himself to
the World through.
That is why Paul
told us in Romans 12: 1-3 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 Therefore, be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove (manifest
openly) what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to
every man that is among you, not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath
dealt to every man the measure of faith.
So Paul said,
when you see God taking over your vessel, as you yield yourself to the Revelation
of Christ, don’t let it go to your head, but rather it should humble you even
as it humbled Christ to place where He yielded His vessel even to the point of
death on the cross.
That is why John
could say in 1 John 3: 2-3 2 Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: (beloved, we are already sons of God, but it is not
exactly showing in our flesh that we are,) but we know that, when he shall appear, (we know
that when he shall openly manifest His Life in us, then ) we shall be like him; for we shall see him as
he is. (for at that
time we shall see Him as he truly is, because we will see Him living out His
life in our very vessels. And the John says,) 3 And every man that
hath this hope in him, purifieth
himself, even as he is pure.
MESSAGE 1 John 3: 2-3 But
friends, that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the
beginning. What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we'll see him, and
in seeing him, we will become like him. All of us who look forward to his
Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus' life as a model for our
own.
Again Paul said, in Romans 8:29-30
For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son,
that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did
predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified:
and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Let me translate this into Message
ease. Paul is saying here, “God knew what He was doing from the very beginning, even
before the very foundations of the world. Back then, He decided from that He
wanted the lives of His children to be molded and shaped along the same lines
as the life of His only begotten Son would be molded and shaped, making the
eldest Son the very pattern for all His children. Therefore, the only begotten Son
stands first in the line of God Life brought forth into humanity. We see the
original seed life and the intended shape and manifestation for our very owns lives
there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like,
he followed it up by calling His people by name. After he called them by name,
he gave them His name as a matter of birth privilege or inheritance, and set
them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established,
he stayed with them by indwelling them with His very own Life, to ensure their
end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
Now, I think
that is a pretty good translation of Romans 8:29-30, and that is exactly what
brother Branham is bringing out in paragraphs 72-73.
By dying on the
cross the eldest Son who received his Life from the Father, as we see in John 5:26 For as the Father hath life in
himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
And if the first born son came into the
world full of God-Life, and thus was birthed with the very image of His Father,
then it is essential when the other sons or seed of God come forth, they too
will by necessity conform to the image of the first born who was in the image
of the Father, that God may be all in all.
So what we are
looking at in this study is that brother Branham is beginning to show us the
purpose and plan of God in manifesting His very life not only in His uniquely
born son, but it was His purpose and plan all along to manifest His own Life in
other children, other seed as well.
And that is what
I believe the purpose of and the importance of understanding the Doctrine of Christ. For he that hath the son
hath Life. He that echoes the son echoes the very life of the son of God.
Then we can see
from 1 John 4: 15 the importance of our
confession of Jesus Christ. Whosoever
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Now, many people do not
understand just what it means to confess that Jesus is the Son of God. The
fundamentalist bases his whole salvation on his own confession and that is why
the fundamental churches are full of people who have not been born again. They
have made a confession, but not according to the Scripture.
They think that this
simply means that if they make a declaration with their mouth that Jesus is the
Son of God, this will fulfill the requirements of this Scripture, and that is
so far from the truth. I’m afraid that right in this Message we have churches
full of people who believe just the same as the fundamentalist. People quote
Br. Branham and say the evidence of being filled with the Spirit of God is to
believe the message for your hour. And that is true, but just what does it mean
to believe the message for your hour? And so we have some questions here that
need answering, because many have not sought after the new birth because they
think they are ok since they believe that God sent a prophet. But that is not
what the Message of the hour is.
No message from
any hour was that “God sent a prophet”.
If a prophet even came forth declaring himself, he would have been a
false prophet. Even Jesus said in John 5:31 If
I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. And if any prophet would come onto the scene declaring
himself, then he is a false witness of God, because the purpose of a prophet is
to declare the things of God. As a messenger, his first obedience is to the
Message God gives him to deliver to the people. And that message is never to
point to himself, but to point the people to the One that sent him.
So that is the
first mistake people do when they say, “The evidence of being born again is to
believe the Message of the hour, because they more likely than not do not
understand what the message is. And so we see the same mistake made among the
fundamentalists, whether they be Baptist, Evangelical, Pentecostal or whatever
their brand of organization. They place
the full evidence of their new birth in their own confession.
They go to ROMANS 10: 9 That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation.
Now the
fundamentalist will take this scripture and combine it with 1 John 4: 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God,
God dwelleth in him, and he in God, and they place there salvation and belief that they
are filled with the Holy Ghost in their own understanding of these two
scriptures, and because they misunderstand what these two scriptures say, they
stop moving forward with God and yet they think they’ve got it.
They think, “If I
just tell people that God raised up Jesus from the dead, and if I confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, then I am saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. And if
you question whether they are even born again or not, they say, you do not
believe the Bible.
To prove that
you can confess that Jesus is the Son of God and not be filled with the Holy
Spirit is easy. In the Scriptures there was a man who was filled with many
devils, and yet that man identified Jesus as the Son of God, and was afraid
that Jesus had come to torment him.
Luke 8: 28 When
he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice
said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech
thee, torment me not.
You see this is
where the fundamentalist stops reading. Because he believes that the calling
upon the Lord is the confession that is being made. So we must examine what it
means to confess
that Jesus is the Son of God, for in knowing what this confession is
all about, we will also understand why God will come into them that make this
confession, and we will also avoid the trap that has beset so many
fundamentalists into believing that the confession is merely some magical words
that are said by the believer.
Now, the word
confess was translated from the Greek word Homo-Logeo or Homo-logos, and just about all Christians know the word Logos
speaks of The Word of God.
We know that in the beginning was
The Logos and The Logos was God. So we see that this
word for confession is made from two Greek words, of which one is the
word Logos which speaks of The Word.
Now, the first
part of this two part word, “Homo-Logeo” is the Greek word “Homo”,
and it simply means “the same”. We use it in the English language as a prefix
with many words. We say homo-centric which means having the same
center, or homo-gamous which is used in botany and means having one
kind of flower on the same plant, or homo-genous which means having a similar nature and comes from
the two words homo meaning the same
and genous which speaks of the
genes. So it speaks of having the same genes.
So you see the
word homo-Logeo or homo-logos means “having
the same Word”. So if we are to read this verse of Scripture correctly
we must read it as follows: Whosoever
shall say the same words as what was originally said about the Son of God, God
will dwell in him, and he in God.
Now, it says,
whosoever will say the same words, and we must know who first said those words,
and then we have a clue as to the author of those words, and thus whose Life is
expressed through those words. For Jesus
told us “as a man
thinketh in his heart so is he, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh”.
Then really what we are essentially and what we are intrinsically
is what we think in our minds or our hearts. And our actions must first come
from what we think, and then when we do what we think it brings our thoughts
into some form of expression. So when we
read the statement, Whosoever
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, we are thus saying, Whosoever shall think and thus say the same
Word, “that Jesus is the Son of
God”, He it is that God’s Spirit
indwells.
That is what Paul said in 1Corinthians 1:2 10
But
God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for
The Spirit (God’s Spirit) searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
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 knows. 12 Now
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. 13 Which
things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But 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.
15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself
is judged of no man. 16 For
who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
And having the mind of Christ is only
possible if we have the spirit of Christ living itself out in us. Now, William
Branham taught us that confession means
to say the same thing. And the reason he could tell us that is not
because he was a prophet, nor is it because he just arbitrarily decided to call
it that and we must believe it because he was vindicated. But the reason he
could say that is because that is what the Greek word homologeo means. It means
the “Same-Homo, Word-Logeo”.
Now in the
sermon Christ 55-0221 P:49 William
Branham said, You're not using your own thoughts; you're using His thoughts.
"Let the mind that was in
Christ be in you." See? Think His way of thinking; say what He says. "Confession" means "to say the
same thing." Confess is to confess the same thing, say the same thing. Then don't confess
your own mental conception. Be born again and confess His Word, confess
what He said. That's confession. Say, "By
His stripes, I was healed." By His stripes, I have a right--by
His wounds, right now, I have a right for salvation. I have a right for the
Holy Spirit. He promised it to me. Said, 'It's in you and your children, and
them that is far off, and as many as the Lord our God shall call.’” I believe
it. It's for any generation. "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of
the world." He died that He might raise again and be with His church all
the way to the end of the world, to confirm the Word with signs following. How
far was that to be? "Go ye..." Did it end it with the apostles? Mark
16 said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every
creature." It's never met there yet, just about one third of it. God's
depending on us.
And again from his
sermon Be not afraid it is I 62-0629 P:9 William
Branham told us how to just say the same Word. He said, “I
just believe the Word and just stay right with the Word. And any level thinker
will know that that Word is right. It's just got to be right. See? And I don't put any interpretation to it. I try to just read it the way it reads,
then say the same thing. That’s confessing. "Confess" means the same thing,
like, "He's the High Priest of our..." Well, King James puts it
"profession." But "profess" and "confess" is the
same thing. See? So then "to
confess," that means "to say the same thing He did." "By His stripes I am healed."
I'm confessing. See? I am confessing the
same thing that He said. See? I'm making a confession. That's what it is in
court. You have to say the same thing. Now, I am … To my great High Priest, for
He sits at the right hand of the Majesty to make intercessions upon my
confession.”
So we are
looking at a promise of God that is promised to us, that if we have the same
confession that God gave to us, then He promises to come into us and indwell
us.
In the book of Luke 12: 8, and
Matthew 10: 32 we
read, Whosoever shall confess me
before men, him shall the Son of man also confess
before the angels of God: Here we
find Jesus telling us if we say the same Word about Jesus before men, then He
will say the same Word before His Father about us.
And in 1 John 1: 9 If we confess our sins, (if we
say the same Word that God says about our sins,) He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But how many people would rather deny what the
Father says, and try to justify there own actions instead of repudiating their
own actions as God has repudiated them.
How many times over my 30 years in this
Message have I met people who have had two sets of rules for conduct. They have one set for themselves and another
set of rules for everyone else. But Jesus said we must say the same thing God
says of us and of our sins. Thus as Brother Branham said, we do not try to interpret the Word for
ourselves, we just simply say what God said, and that means we are to repeat
His words, just like an echo. And if
you hear an echo it sounds just like the original, only it repeats it over and
over again. And when you echo, you must have the same expression in the echo as
was in the original Word.
The Apostle Paul
tells us in the Book of Romans, chapter 10, that our confession is most
important if we are to place into action what we actually do believe.
Romans 10: 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Not just with the mouth, but with the
heart the confession is made, an the confession is heard in heaven.
Anyone who reads history knows that Jesus
died on the cross, but it is our
confession that turns that self-less act into a saving act for the
believer. And Paul is not saying, he that confesses Jesus Christ is one thing,
and to believe in your heart is another thing. For out for the abundance of the heart the
mouth speaketh. So if you believe in your heart, then your mouth
will say the same thing. And the formula Paul is speaking of here is essential
that we say the same thing that God says about His Son.
That if thou shalt say the same word with thy mouth about the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
In 1 John 5: 10 we read, He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself: he
that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son.
So God has a record, and that record
declares to us that God raised up His Son. So we have One being the Son of God
who needed to be raised from the dead, and the other being God Himself who did
the raising up of His Son, and that is the record, and there are 18 individual
Scriptures that speaks of God raising up His Son. And if you do not believe God’s record, you
are making Him a liar in your own eyes. Paul said, “he that
believeth not God hath made him a liar.”
Now, that we have established that the
confession is an all important act of faith towards God in believing His report
concerning His Son, let’s look now at the second half of our text where we are
told that if we have the right confession concerning the Son of God, we will
receive a promise from God that He will come into us and we into Him.
1 John Chapter 4:15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God,
God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Now, notice the promise is,
“that if we make this right confession, if we say what God Himself says
concerning His Son, then God Himself will come into us, and indwell us”.
Now, this takes us to John
chapter 17 where we find Jesus praying in the garden before he is taken to
finish the work that He was sent to do on the cross.
JOHN 17:1 ¶ These words
spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is
come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: (Now, if Jesus and God were
one like your finger is one, then this prayer is pretty ridiculous, because why
would he ask for something he already had, and why would he ask to begin with.
Why ask if you already have what you ask for? And why ask if you are talking to
yourself?)
2
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 3. And this is life
eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent
Now, if Jesus is
declaring here that God has given him power, then he did not have it before God
gave it. And notice here that he shows us what eternal life is, to know God and
to know His Son.
4. I have glorified thee on the earth: I
have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Now, why would God give him
a work to do if He and the Father were one like your finger is one.
5. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with
thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. 6. ¶ I
have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:
thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now, notice here that He
does not say they have kept my word, but they have kept Thy Word. Showing that
God is the Word, and it is His Word that Jesus came and spoke to them, not his
own word.
7. Now they have known that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gave to me; and they have received them, and have known surely
that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
9. I pray for them: I pray not for the
world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10. And all
mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. (I
see my doxa in them, my opinion, my values, my judgments, the same ones I
received from you, I see them manifesting in them) 11. ¶
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I
come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast
given me, that they may be one, as we are.
Now, again we
see here that Jesus is asking the Father to make us one with the Father in the
same manner as he and the Father are one. So if you are not a hypocrite, then
you must believe that God has made us One with Himself in the same manner as He
made Himself and His Son Jesus one. And if you believe it in any other way, you
are not confessing the same thing Jesus confessed here.
In John 17:14 Jesus said, I
have given them thy Word; and the world hath hated them, because they are
not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15. I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from
the evil. 16. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17. ¶
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy Word is truth.
Therefore he is
saying here that the Word is what sanctifies the believer.
18. As thou hast sent me into the world, even
so have I also sent them into the world. 19. And for their sakes I sanctify
myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Remember Thy
Word is Truth, so the Word of God is what sanctifies us.
20. ¶
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on
me through their word;
That is you and
me who have believed the Word of God that was written for our admonition.
Now, here is the
jest of what confession is all about. It is entering into the same mind set
that we might become one through that same mind set. Now, listen to what Jesus
is petitioning the Father for. 21. That they all may be one; as (and
the word as means in the same manner or in like manner) as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Now, notice the
context of the prayer is that God may grant to us oneness as he did with His
Son and in the very same manner as He did with His Son. And the4 next verse
tells us how this is made possible.
22. And the glory which thou gavest me
I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Now, I want you
to pay close attention to the Words of Jesus here. He says, the glory which thou
gavest me I have given them…Ok, so there is something about this
glory that we should know about because the same Glory God gave to Him He has
given to us, and what is there about this glory? Notice he continues, that they may be
one, even as we are one:
So we see that
it is the glory that was given to Jesus from God that made Him One with God,
and in the same Manner he has given us this glory that we might also be One
with God and one with Him. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that
they may be one, even as we are one: Therefore in order to make
the same confession or to say the same thing, we must know what this glory is
that we al share together having received it from Jesus and He from His own
Father, God. And once we know what this
glory is, then we should be able to see how it is that we become one with God
even as the Son of God was One with God.
Now, the Greek
word that this word glory was translated from is the Greek word Doxa which
means the opinion, judgment or
assessment of… And the word assessment means the judgment of the value.
Therefore, if we are to receive the same
opinion Jesus has and He received the same opinion God had, this is what makes
us one. Thus we receive not only the same opinion, but the same judgment, and
the same values that God possesses, and the same values, opinions, and
judgments that He gave to His Son and Jesus here in this prayer tells the
Father that He has passed these along to us that we might become one with the
Father even as He and the Father were One.
Thus the very mind of God in the believer makes us one with the Father
the same way that Jesus was one with the Father.
From the sermon HARVEST
TIME 641212 87 034 William
Branham said, Jesus said, "That they might be one, Father, as You and I are one." Not for some man to be over something, it never will
work; one denomination wants to take over the other, and one man over the
other. But that you might be one with God, like Christ and God was one;
that's what the prayer is. That... He was the Word, and Jesus prayed that
we might be the Word, reflecting Him. That's His prayer to be answered.
See how Satan scruples it up in the carnal mind? But that wasn't Jesus' prayer,
at all, that we might all congregate together and all have a certain creed and
so forth. Every time they do it, they go further and further from God.
He wants us to be one with God, and God is
the Word. Each individual in his heart must
be that one with God.
So we se here in brother
Branham’s own words that the Oneness that Jesus had with the Father and that he
prayed that we would have is that we might be one with the Word even as Jesus
was One with God’s Word, for God is the Word.
And that is how God will come into us when we say the same thing. When
our confession is His confession. When our thoughts are His thoughts, “let this mind be in
you that was in Christ Jesus.”
What more can a man ask of
his wife than to have the same mind-set concerning the family and the raising
of the children. What greater oneness than to share the same values, opinions,
and judgments. And what more could a Father ask of his children than for them
to share His values, opinions, and judgments. And that is what Jesus prayed
for.
GIFTS 56-1207 E-30 Now, notice closely. Now, God
dwelling in Christ used His voice to speak by. Jesus said in His miracle,
"Verily, verily, I
say unto you, the Son can do nothing in Himself, but what He sees the Father
doing, that doeth the Son likewise." Is that right?
And why do you think we have
had to wait almost 40 years since God took home His prophet. He’s waiting for
us to get ourselves out of the way, that God might have the pre-eminence, and
that we might think God’s thoughts, and do His actions, and speak only His
words. That’s what He’s waiting for. And adoption can not come until the son
has the mind of the father.
From the sermon, SHOW US THE FATHER AND IT WILL SATISFY 60-0731 E-15
Brother Branham said, "The works that I do, shall you also." And seeing the same results by human
beings so submitted to God, until the Holy Spirit can work through those human
beings just like the Holy Spirit worked through Jesus, Who just has confessed that, "I and My Father are One. My Father dwelleth in Me. He doeth the works. It's not My words; it's His
words."... See? He was so submitted
to God.
And from the sermon, UNVEILING OF GOD 64-0614M 257 Brother Branham said, Jesus once said, "When you see Me, you see the Father." See? God and His Word is One.
Now you understand? When the Word is manifested, what is It? Right. See?
260 Jesus said, "Search the Scriptures, you think you have... You believe in
God, believe also in Me. If I do not the works of My Father, then don't believe
Me. But if I do do the works, I and My Father are One. When you see Me, you
have seen the Father."
And when you see the Word made manifest, you see the Father God, because the Word is the Father; the Word
is God. And the Word made manifest is God Himself taking His Own Word and
manifesting It among believers. Nothing can
make It live but believers, just believers.
Now, when he is
talking about God manifesting His own word in the believers, he is talking
about God doing the manifestation of Himself through the believers. God
manifesting Himself in the flesh, your flesh…
Now, in getting
back to
That day on
Door to the heart 58-0112E P:12 You
say, "Oh, yes, Jesus, I will receive You as my Saviour; but now, don't
meddle in my business." That's the attitude of lots of Christians,
so-called. "Now, I want to live my own life. But I don't want You... I
want You to keep me from hell. But don't meddle in my affairs." Well then,
Jesus can't have the preeminences. Jesus can't be your Lord, because you want
to be your own ruler. And He wants to rule in your place. But as long as you
keep the door shut, though you have accepted Him as your personal Saviour, yet
you haven't fully given Him preeminence in your life. And oh, churches, isn't
that the truth in all the world. They won't let Him have Lordship.