The Doctrine of Christ no 68
He the Believeth no 22
The Life of Christ Part 8
“God-Life in You”
Brian
Kocourek
Tonight by God’s Grace we will end our
mini series on “he life of Christ” and “He that Believeth”. We will begin by
going to the Book of Romans and examining the effects of God’s own Spirit in
the believer. Then when we have read from Romans 8 we will simply read 5 pages
of quotes from Br. Branham showing how The Life of Christ in you will live
itself out in you no differently than it lived itself out in Jesus Christ 2,000
years ago.
Romans 8:1There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For
what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5 For they that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit
the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye
are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell
in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the
Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the
dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after
the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For
ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received
the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
together. 18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the
manifestation of the sons of God.
Now, I am going to read this same
Scripture from the AMPLIFIED version because it breaks down these thoughts
much more than we see in the King James version.
Romans 8:1 Therefore,
there is now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty
of wrong) for
those who are in Christ Jesus, who live
and walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of The
Spirit (God’s Spirit). 2 For the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ
Jesus (Which I now the law of our new being for we are now new a
creation in Christ Jesus, and this law of Life which guides our spirit) has freed me from
the law of sin and of death. 3 For God has done what the Law could not do, its power
being weakened by the flesh (the entire nature of man without the
Holy Spirit).
Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin,
God condemned sin in the flesh because he subdued the flesh and overcame the
nature of the flesh, by depriving it of its power over all who accept that
sacrifice, 4 So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be
fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways
of the Spirit and our lives are governed not by the standards and according to
the dictates of the flesh, but our lives are controlled by the Holy Spirit.
5 For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy
desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but
those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the
Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the Holy Spirit.
6 Now the mind of the flesh which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit
is death. Death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and
hereafter. But the mind of the Holy Spirit is life and peace in the soul,[both
now and forever. 7 That is because the mind of the flesh with its carnal
thoughts and purposes is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's
Law; indeed it cannot. 8 So then those who are living the life of the flesh, catering
to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature, cannot please or satisfy
God, or be acceptable to Him. 9 But you are not living the life of the flesh,
you are living the life of the Spirit, if the Holy Spirit of God really dwells
within you directing and controling you. But if anyone does not possess the
Holy Spirit of Christ, he is none of His; he does not belong to Christ, is not
truly a child of God. 10 But if Christ lives in you, then although your natural
body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of the
righteousness that He imputes to you. 11 And if the Spirit of Him Who
raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He Who raised up Christ Jesus
from the dead will also restore life to your mortal, perishable bodies through
His Spirit Who dwells in you. 12 So then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to
the flesh. We are not obligated to our
carnal nature, to live a life ruled by the standards set up by the dictates of
the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the dictates of the flesh, you will
surely die. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you are habitually
putting to death, making extinct,
deadening, the evil deeds prompted by the body, you shall really and genuinely
live forever. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of
God. 15 For The Spirit which you have now received is not a spirit of slavery
to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of
adoption, the Spirit producing sonship, in which we cry, Father! Father! 16 The
Spirit Himself thus testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we
are children of God. 17 And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also:
heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ sharing His inheritance with Him;
only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory. 18 But what of
that? For I consider that the sufferings of this present time this present life
are not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us
and in us and for us and conferred upon us! 19 For even the whole creation, all
nature itself, waits expectantly and
longs earnestly for God's sons to be made known waiting for the revealing, the
disclosing of their son-ship.
The Message The
law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing
of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is
accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what
the Spirit is doing in us. 5-8Those who think they can do it
on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never
get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them
find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self
in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open,
into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on
God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more
about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And
God isn't pleased at being ignored. 9-11But if God himself has
taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself
than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly
present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for
you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the
limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to
reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the
dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus,
bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does,
as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his
Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's! 12-14So
don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent.
There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a
decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are
things to do and places to go! 15-17This resurrection life you
received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously
expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's
Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is,
and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get
what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what
Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're
certainly going to go through the good times with him! 18-21That's
why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the
coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming
next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in
until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the
same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation
deepens.
Now, that we have read from
the Scriptures about how God’s own Life, His Own Spirit is given to us to live
our life for us, let’s now just simply read 5 pages of quotes from Brother
Branham showing how that Life is to be lived.
Forsaking
all 62-0123 P:86 If the spirit of a
gangster was in me, I'd have guns on me. If the spirit of a painter was in me,
I could paint the picture of a painter... he could do. If the spirit of a
mechanic was on me, I could tell you what was wrong with your car. See? And if
the Spirit of Jesus Christ is in me, I'll do the works of Christ because it's
the life of Christ in you. See? Manifested in who? Manifested in
who? He forsaken His Son-ship and became sin and took our sins, that He might
take sinners and make them sons. He became me that I might become Him. He
become a sinner that I might become a son of God. Oh, it's striking what He
done. See, He taken your place that you might take His place.
You're joint heirs with Him in the Kingdom. He become a sinner like you, your
sins placed upon Him that He might take you and make you a fellow citizen of
heaven and set you with Him in God's Kingdom. There you are: put His Spirit
in you. And if His Spirit's in you, the works that He did you'll do also.
Mark of the beast
61-0217 P:38 Now, remember, the Bible said, "Don't spare
nothing." Little or young or old or all. All that hasn't got this seal of
God would be marked otherwise. And look who was marked out of it? Lifelong men who gave their lives for
the clergy, priests and renowned men, great priests and scholars. Now, how many
knows that's true? Why, sure it is. Sure it's true. Just as scholar... Just as
holy, just as sweet, perhaps fine people, citizens of the country... But that's
no excuse. When God sends something and you fail to walk in it, then
you're out; that's all. You either do or you don't. That's the way it
was. All that didn't get in the ark, drowned, and that was all there was to it,
no matter who they was. That's the same thing, all that's not in Christ today
will perish without Christ. It's true. So you can't say, "I'm a Methodist,
or Baptist, or Pentecostal, or anything else; you've got to be of Christ. And if
you're of Christ, you do the works of Christ. That bears record and proves
that it is. It's just as clear as the Scripture, I know how to say it.
That's just as plain as the nose on this big face, or big nose on this face of
mine, rather. That's right.
Sirs we would see Jesus
60-0109 P:67 If we profess to have the Spirit of Christ, we should
do the works of Christ. He
said it Himself.
It is I be not afraid
59-0811 P:48 If the Spirit of Christ was in us, we'll do the
works of Christ.
Sirs we would see Jesus
57-0804E P:34 That was Jesus yesterday, if He's the same today, He
has to be the same. He will do the same; He will act the same. And if His
Church has got His Spirit, they'll be like Christ. If I told you I had
the spirit of some outlaw in me like John Dillinger, you'd expect me to have
big guns and be dangerous to be around me, if his spirit was in me. If I told
you I had the spirit of some famous artist, you'd expect me to be able to catch
the waves of the--or the sunset and so forth, and paint like that artist, if
his spirit is in me. Oh, I hope this goes home. But if the Christian Church has got
the Spirit of Christ, they'll do the works of Christ; Christ said so. If the
Spirit is in the Church. What faith are you to contend for? We're
just Christians by profession. We might be Christians by cold formal
profession; we might be Christians by radical, enthusiastic, hysterical faith.
But a real Christian, the Spirit of Christ produces the Bible again, for
it's His Spirit.
God in His Word
57-0323 P:53 He's sending us, and going with us, and
performing the works of Christ as Christ performed the works of God, going
with us through death, and raise us up at the last day. God's in His people.
Ministry explained
50-0711 P:12 And if we had the Spirit of Christ, then we do the
works of Christ. And the Spirit that was upon Him, He said, "A little
while and the world seeth Me no more; yet, you'll see Me, for I'll be with you,
even in you to the end of the age."
Jehovah Jireh
1 64-0402 P:47 And the Spirit that was in Christ is in you.
And if the spirit of a villain was in me, I'd have guns. If the spirit of a
artist was in me, I'd paint pictures. If the Spirit of Christ is in me, the works of
Christ you'll do. Amen. That's right.
Return and Jubilee
62-1122 P:39 But in order to be a son of God you've got to be born of the Spirit
of God, then you become Christ-like and do the works of Christ; then you're
not funny to them people. A human acting like a human's not funny. And a
Christian acting like a Christian, born of the same Spirit... You see the
Pentecostal group at the beginning, that same Pentecostal group acts the same
way if it's born of the same Spirit, 'cause it's born. That's why, today, that
people doesn't understand the church. And the church has begin to grow cold
and formal, getting after creeds and things and leaving off the following of
the Holy Spirit. All right.
Letting off the pressure
62-0609E P:64 Now, the Son of God is here tonight. I believe that.
I'm not no Son of God. I am adopted son of God, like you are. I'm a
portion of His Spirit. And if His Spirit is in me... … If I tell you the
Spirit of Christ is in me, then I should do the works of Christ, live the kind
of Life that He lived, a sacrificed Life for the people. That is right.
Letting off the pressure
62-0609E P:51 Jesus said in John 14, "I am the Vine; ye
are the branches." And the first branch that come forth out of that Vine
they wrote a Book of Acts behind it. That's right. And today, we have
denominations living on the name of Christianity, but only bearing
denominational fruit. That's right. But if that Vine ever puts forth another
branch, you'll write a Book of Acts behind it, because it'll bear the original
life. If the Spirit of Christ is in the church, well, it'll do the works
of Christ. Jesus said so. Then we can let off the steam, let off the
pressure. You don't have to run from church to church. Just come to Christ.
End time evangelism
62-0603 P:36 If I tell you I am a Christian, and the Spirit of
Christ is in me, or in you, then we do the works of Christ. Jesus said, in St.
John, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do
also." Then He said here, "These signs shall follow them that
believe. "
Have faith in God
58-0510 P:50 If I say, "The Spirit of Christ in me,"
then it produces the works of Christ. He promised it.
Will church go before tribulation
58-0309E P:48 If it's a Christian vine, it'll bear Christ, the life
of Christ, the works of Christ. See? Then our spirits has to be energized by something. I'm so glad to be in Him, tonight.
Hear ye Him
58-0301E P:87 If I tell you the Spirit of Christ is in me,
you'd expect me to do the works of Christ. That's right. That's what the
churches look to, not to have creeds, but to have the Spirit of Christ.
What shall I do with Jesus
63-1124M P:95 As I said, if the life of Beethoven was in you, you'd
live like Beethoven. If the life of Hitler was in you, you'd live like Hitler.
And when the Life of Christ is in you, you'll live like Christ. And the
works of Christ you do. And that'll be... If Christ lived today He'd do
exactly what the Word said He'd do today. And if the Word said that, "He
is the same yesterday, today, and forever," why can't this blind
ecclesiastical world see the time that they're living. See?
The way back
62-1123 P:90 If I tell you the Spirit of Christ is in me,
then do the works of Christ. It's what He said.
Ten virgins
60-1211M P:129 They were filled with the Holy Ghost (That's right.), and
their works was the works of Christ. They laid hands on the sick and they
recovered; they done all kinds of signs and miracles and wonders. And in their
forehead, was sealed by the revelation that He was the Son of God, and they were working with Him (the Deity of
Christ), there's the mark.
Blind Bartimaeus
59-0408 P:43 The Spirit of Christ is in the Church; It'll do the
works of Christ. It's got to; it's the same Spirit.
Look away to Jesus
63-1229E P:15 And if Christ lives in me, the works of Christ
you'll do. It's got to be. And what is Christ? The Word. He said, "If
ye abide in Me, My Word in you, then ask what you will, it'll be done,"
because the Word there, just needs the Light; and the Light makes it live.
Jesus Christ the same
58-0312 P:31 If a Christian church is the vine, or the branch
that's in Christ, they'll do the works of Christ and bear the Life of Christ.
"By their fruits you shall know them." Now, then the way that
He is today, He's here in the form of the Holy Spirit, working through His
Church, performing the same things that He did there. That makes Him the
same yesterday, today, and forever. His Life, the Life that was in Christ, which
was God, produced the kind of a life that He lived then, that same Life
comes into His churches, His church members, since they have been purged by
His Blood and given the Holy Spirit access to work through them, bears the
same fruit that He bore. So therefore, the world can see then that
Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Door to the heart 58-0316E P:92 If it's a sinful vine you're hooked into, it'll bear sin. If it's a church vine, it'll bear churchanity. If it's Christ, it'll bear the works of Christ: got to. "I am the Vine; ye are the branches." And now, He only has hands, mine and yours, eyes, mine and yours. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Hear ye Him
60-0712 P:94 Jesus beats it with the Holy Ghost until He sees His
own reflection in it. Then you can see the works of Christ being performed in
the Church; then she's ready for the rapture. Pure gold... Do you believe that, all of you?
What is the Holy Ghost
59-1216 P:45 They knew the church was to receive power that would
work in the church the same works of Christ, because as a shadow becomes
deeper and deeper and reflects more...
Adoption or placing
60-0522E P:23 The church has got to be so perfectly like Christ,
until Christ and the church can unite together, the same Spirit. And if the Spirit of
Christ is in you, It makes you live the life of Christ, act the life of Christ,
do the works of Christ. "He that believeth
on Me, the works that I do shall he do also."
Jesus said that. See?
Queen
of
It
wasn't so from the beginning 61-0411 P:45 And if
the Life of Christ is in you, It'll do the same thing. That was God's example church, was Pentecost. If we claim to begin from there, then
what's happened? What along the road taken place?
We
would see Jesus
58-0523 P:23 Everything's known in itself. Then the
Spirit of God in His church, will
reproduce the Life of Christ, if He is the Vine, and we are the branches.
Certainly, you see?
Be certain of God
59-0708E P:49 If I had the Spirit of Christ, I'll do the works of
Christ. Jesus said, "If I
do not the works of My Father, then believe Me not." And if the church
does not do the works of Christ, then don't believe that church. Jesus
said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." And we've
perverted it by works of man, doctrines of man. The Bibles said, "In
the last days, they'd be heady, high-minded, and lovers of pleasure more than
of God, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those
that are good." You say, "Them's communists." No, them's
Christians, so-called, and church members. "Having the form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof." Saying, "Oh, God did that in
another age, not this age." The Bible said, "From such, turn
away." We're living in that day.
Perseverance
62-0218 P:98 Now, if I told you that the life of John Dillinger was
in me, you'd expect me to have big guns out here to shoot you. If I told you
the life of a artist was in me, you'd expect me to paint the picture of an
artist. Listen, church. I'm not scolding you. See? Look, if the Life
of Christ is in the church, it'll do the... If the Holy Spirit is in the
church, if this Pillar of Fire that science has taken the picture of, and so
forth, that we see here in the church all the time, if that is the Spirit of
Christ It'll do the works of Christ. Jesus said, "If you can't believe
Me, believe the works that I do. They are the ones that testify of Me." If
the Holy Ghost is still real, then the Holy Ghost will testify for Himself.
Believe the works of the Holy Spirit.
We would see Jesus
59-0422 P:15 Then if the Spirit of Christ is in the Church, It
should be doing the works of Christ; because God set that body aside, the Lord
Jesus, His Son.
Let
us pray.