Token no 20
Infused Life
September 20, 2015
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
This morning we will pick
up at paragraph 74 of brother Branham's sermon, the Token, and continue in our
examination through the Scriptures of this Token Message.
74 This fine scholar went on talking
to me, as I said awhile ago. He said, "Billy," he said, "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness". "What more could the man do, but
believe God?" I said, "That is true, doctor. It's right. He did
believe God. The Bible said so. You're right. As far as you've come you're
correct. As long as the-the twelve spies that were sent out to go over to spy
out on the land of Canaan, as long as they went forward towards Canaan, they
were gaining ground; but when they came to the border line,
then they rejected." I said, "You Baptists are all right
as far as you come, but have you received the Holy Ghost since you
believed?" I said, "Remember, God recognized Abraham's faith. He believed God, and it was imputed to him
for righteousness. That's true. But then God gave him the seal of circumcision
as a sign to him. Not that his flesh circumcised had anything to do with
his soul, but it was a sign that God had recognized his faith. And He gives us the sign of the Holy Ghost that He has recognized us as
believers. For, 'Repent and be baptized
every one in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you...'" You get the point, now?
Notice, brother Branham gives us two Scriptures here to establish his
point because that is all that is needed to establish any point. The Bible says
in 2
Corinthians 13:1, "In the mouth of Two or Three
witnesses shall any word be established." And so The word or
point that brother Branham is making is established via these two scriptures
but let me give you a few more.
and the point brother
Branham is establishing here is "He gives us the sign of the Holy Ghost that He has recognized us as
believers."
Let's turn also in our
Bibles to
1
John 5:1 Whosoever believeth (and you have to be a believer to
believe, right?) Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is
begotten of him.
Notice now, he tells us
here that you can not call Jesus the Christ, or Jesus the anointed one, because
the word Christ means, anointer, anointed, and anointing. It all depends on the
context of the sentence. But He is telling us that Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, and you can not believe unless you are a believer, Therefore, "Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God.
Therefore as brother
Branham explained this, Questions and
answers COD 59-0628E P:27 Now, the Scripture says that no man can say Jesus is the
Christ only by the Holy Ghost.
So you cannot believe that Jesus is the
Christ until you have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. You're only
testifying or saying what the Scripture says, saying what the pastor says,
saying what mother says, or some good preacher says. But you don't know it yourself until He has witnessed His resurrection to
you. And no man can call Jesus the Christ until by the Holy Ghost.
Let me
say this in another way, and then we will go back and read what brother Branham
just said and you will perfectly understand what he is saying here.
Notice
he says, "
So you cannot believe that Jesus is the
Christ until you have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. (then
brother Branham says, "o you can talk it, and repeat what others have said
to you, but until you actually experience that anointing in you, changing your
life, you cannot actually say it with a true confirmation, in other words,
until you have actually experienced God's anointing upon and in your life, you
can are not a witness to the actuality of Him being an anointer) But you don't know it yourself until He has witnessed His
resurrection to you."
"Now,
the Scripture says that "no man can say Jesus is the Christ only by the Holy Ghost". So you cannot believe that Jesus is
the Christ until you have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. You're only
testifying or saying what the Scripture says, saying what the pastor says,
saying what mother says, or some good preacher says. But you don't know it
yourself until He has witnessed His resurrection to you.
And no man can call Jesus the Christ until by the Holy Ghost."
So the witness has to be in you of the anointed one, or you can say it
all you want but those words are only words, and have no meaning to you,
because you have not personally experienced
or witnessed the Holy Ghost anointing in you.
Listen to the language, how perfectly brother Branham lays this out for
us in his sermon, Patmos vision 60-1204E P:39 Now, ask God to... While we're talking on Revelations, ask Him to give you a revelation of this.
For it can only be known by revelation,
and you can only be saved by revelation. You have a knowledge of it
intellectually, but you can't be saved until it's
revealed to you. "No man can call Jesus the Christ, only by the Holy Ghost." That's what the Bible says. No man can say Jesus is the Christ until he has received the
Holy Ghost. He might say, "The pastor said
so; the Bible said so." Them are true. "The church says so."
That is true. But you don't know
yourself until the Holy Ghost has revealed it to you, and He's become in you.
"No man can call Jesus the Christ, only by
the Holy Ghost." Not by knowledge, not by intellectual.
So brother Branham is telling us
this revelation of Jesus being the Christ, or being the anointer,
doesn't come by intellectual understanding, but it comes via Christ actually
entering into you and anointing you with his anointing. Then you can speak from
an experiential knowledge, and not just repeating what someone else has told
you. When you have truly witnessed within yourself the anointing of Jesus you
can say He is the anointer.
And the Apostle Paul told us in Romans 8:11 "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."
Notice what the apostle Paul is telling us is that the same Spirit,
God's Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead will also quicken or
make alive
our own mortal bodies by His same Spirit as it dwells in us. So we are not
talking about intellectual understanding here, we are talking about
experiential knowledge. You know because you have personally witnessed it.
What Holy Ghost
was given for 59-1217 P:45 Now. "The works that I do..." God is in His church to continue His works. That's why He sent the
Holy Ghost. Now, He knowed that. He knowed it wouldn't be, it couldn't be done
that way, so was it by otherwise... So He had to send... The Father that sent the Son, put all that's in the Son in you. And
the same works that He did, the same very works now that
Jesus did, you'll do also, the church. Wouldn't you like to do the
works of God? Jesus said, "If you want to do the works of God, believe on Me." How you believe on Him? You can't do it till you got the Holy
Ghost, 'cause no man can say He is the Son of God. You're saying what somebody else said," The Bible said that
He's the Son of God; I believe the Bible." All right. "The Bible says
He's the Son of God; I believe the Bible. The pastor says He's the Son of God;
I believe the pastor. Mama says He's the Son of God; I believe Mama. My friend
says He's the Son of God; I believe my friend." But the only
way that I can say He's the Son of God, is when the Holy Ghost comes in and
bears record of Itself. Then
I know He's the Son of God. No man can call Jesus "Christ," only by the Holy Ghost.
There.
Super sense
59-1227E P:34 Now, you cannot believe it until you are
regenerated. The Bible said that no man can call Jesus the Christ, only by the Holy Ghost. We went through that this last week. And
it's been such a stumbling block, especially to the Pentecostal believing
people, when they hear me say that. Jesus said in Saint John 5:24,
"He that heareth My
Word and believeth on Him that sent Me, has Eternal Life." Eternal Life comes
from God alone. "And no man can say Jesus is
the Christ, only by the Holy Ghost." You're only taking
what somebody else said, what you learned by
intellectual, what you learned by the natural five senses. But when the sixth sense comes in, the Holy
Spirit, It takes away all the reasonings of these six senses--and the five
senses, and lifts you up into that sixth sense, to make you believe things that
you can't see, taste, feel, smell, or hear. It does something to you. Then you can say Jesus is the Christ, because you have
witnessed it; not what intellectual teaching has taught you, but
what you've experienced.
Questions and
answers COD 59-0628E P:27 Now, now, I knowed that great Scripture; I use It myself--I've got It
written here: St. John the 5th chapter, 24th verse. It's
a pet Scripture to me. For Jesus said this: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, 'He that
believeth on Me has Eternal Life.'" Let me read it, so that I'll get It just perfectly right.
St. John 5, and I want you to listen close now as we go into this
Scripture, 5 and the 24th verse. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
heareth my words, and believeth on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and
shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."He that believeth on Me..." Now, the Scripture says that no man can say Jesus is the Christ only by the Holy Ghost. So
you cannot believe that Jesus is the Christ until you have received the baptism
of the Holy Ghost. You're only testifying or saying
what the Scripture says, saying what the pastor says, saying what
mother says, or some good preacher says. But you don't know it
yourself until He has witnessed His
resurrection to you. And no man can call Jesus the Christ until by the Holy Ghost.
Attitude and who
is God? 50-0815 P:4 And
I'm happy tonight to know that people still believe in the Blood (See?), the
Blood of Christ. And I do not believe in this social gospel they have today,
and these cults that go around saying, "Well, there's no such a thing as
the Blood, and the Holy Spirit." You just... Your not a Christian when you
do that. You can't be. You can't be a
Christian without being born again. That's right. You can't be, no matter
what you try to profess. But He said, "No man can say Jesus is the Christ, only by
the Holy Ghost."
See? If you're just taking what somebody
else said, you're going by what
someone said. But you'll never know it until the
Holy Ghost has filled you with His Presence, and witnessed to you that He
is the Holy Spirit and is right. I know you that believe that Jesus Christ
the Son of God, is born in the Spirit of God. But you are only taken
what somebody else said until it's a witness to you. See?
Infallible Word
of God 56-0406 P:38 "Upon this rock I'll build My church; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Yes, sir. The spiritual Divine
revelation that Jesus Christ is the Son of God... The Bible said, "No man can say Jesus is the Christ only by
the witness of the Holy Ghost." And if you deny the Holy Ghost exists, if you deny there's
no such a thing as the baptism of the Holy Ghost, how can you believe in Jesus
Christ? Only by historical standpoint you can believe it. But when you have
received Christ the Holy Spirit into your heart, and been regenerated and
borned anew, then the Holy Ghost Itself bears record. And
that's the reason people today that can believe in Divine healing in the
supernatural, because the very God that made the Word created it, has sent His own Spirit in the hearts to
vindicate that to be truth. And that's why today we have signs and wonders
and powers working among us all over the world.
God's provided
way of healing 54-0719A P:26 Now, in you, up here, every person here this afternoon, I want to
believe, believes in Divine healing, every one of you. You say, "Sure,
Brother Branham, I believe in Divine healing."Now, maybe you mean that with all the intelligence you know how to
speak it. You believe it. That's in your head. But remember, there's a subconscious down there, that's
got to say the same thing. If it doesn't, you'll never get nowhere. You
might read the Bible, say, "Well, here Brother Branham, the Bible says
this."That's true. That's exactly right. There's where people say today,
"Well, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and I'm
saved.""How do you know He's the Son of
God?""The Bible said so." See? And I say, "Well,
how do you know He's the Son of God.""Mother said so. The preacher
said so."Well, they're right. But how do you know? The Bible said
that you cannot know it until you have received the Holy Ghost. You're only taking somebody else's word.
Did you know that? That didn't go very good. But that's the truth. Quote it,
"No man can say
Jesus is the Christ, only by the Holy Ghost." That right? The Holy Ghost in
you has to bear record to the resurrection and Jesus being the Son
of God, or you're only taking somebody
else's word for it. You're only taking what the Bible says. The Bible's
right. Or you're only taking what the minister says. The minister's right. Or
what some other good person said. They're right. But you, as an individual doesn't know that Jesus is the Christ until the
Holy Ghost has brought it to you. That's right.
And notice in all these quotes brother Branham is telling us there must
be a Witness of His Spirit, the resurrected Spirit of Jesus Christ alive in
you. Not an intellectual understanding, anybody can say they believe but the
true believer can say He believes because His life has been made anew. He has
personally experienced the Spirit of God living His life for him. And until you
have died to yourself, God will never place His Holy Spirit in an unholy
vessel.
Witnesses
54-0303 P:18 Now, He
didn't say, "I want you to go now and be my witnesses." He said,
"You shall receive power, after the
Holy Ghost is come upon you, and then you shall be witnesses." See,
you must be... You must have a first-hand experience.
If I go down here to the worst roadhouse or whiskey place that there is in
Phoenix tonight (a gambling devicities), and every person in there that would
be drinking, I'd walk up to him and say, "What do you think of Jesus
Christ?" He'd say, "The Son of God." That doesn't make him saved. Then I'd say this, "How do you
know He's the Son of God?" "Well, my mother said so.""Well,
maybe mother was right, but what about you?" See? If I went out here to a
church member, and I said, "What do you think of Jesus Christ? Who was
He?""Why, He was the Son of God.""Well, how do you
know?""My pastor said so.""Your pastor's right, but what do
you know about it?" See, see? Mother's right and the pastor's right. But
before you know He is the Son of God... The Bible said no man can say Jesus is the Christ, only by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost has to witness it
to you: must be a personal experience. I hope you see that.
All things are
possible 56-0722 P:14 "Well,
just a minute." He eat--peeled the apple, took a piece, put it in his
mouth, begin to chew on it and swallowed it, said, "I want to ask you a
question. Is this apple sweet or sour?"The infidel said, "I'm not
eating it. I don't know."Said, "That's what I thought." Walked
right back and set down. How do you know whether there's
a Holy Ghost or not until you've received It? How do you know Jesus heals or not, until you
received it? Said, "No man can say Jesus is the Christ, only by the Holy Ghost." No matter how much you read out of
the Bible that won't work. The Holy Ghost has got to
witness it to you--His resurrection in your life--or you don't
know whether it's sweet or sour. That's right. The poet said, "Taste and see the Lord is good." Who
knows before he tastes it? It's
he that tastes that knows. As the old saying is "The proof of the pudding is the eating
thereof." So that's good. So this infidel was defeated in this case.
Jesus arose
56-0405 P:14 One place
said, "I'll be in you to the end of the world." He will be with us, even in
us to the end of the world. "I," not someone else, "I will be to the end of the world." "I,"
is a personal pronoun. "And I'll be with you to the end
of the world."And
many people today doesn't realize that. Only those who have their names
written in the Lamb's Book of Life and has been born again by the Holy Ghost,
is a witness of the resurrection. The Bible said, "No man can say Jesus is the Christ only by
the Holy Ghost."
You might know it by the way of Word. You might know it by the way of the
pastor, or by your mother, or some other testimony. You... But you don't know
it yourself until personally He has witnessed to you that He's raised from the
dead and lives in your heart. What a beautiful picture. And now,
these disciples, we're taught that they was not educated. They might not have
knowed all about algebra. They might not have knowed all about the geographics
of the world; but there was one thing they did know: they knew Him.
In this same Message, The
Token 63-09-01 in
paragraph 345 brother Branham said,
"Let me live the
example of what Christ said a man should be. Let me be a brother
to a brother, a brother to a sister.
Let me be a minister to the ministers. Let me be an
example of examples. Let me show to the world that this Word is Christ.
The only way I can do it is come into Him.
Cause, I can't do it myself , you can't do it. But Let
the Word and you become
One, then It lives Itself out. You are a walking
epistle of Jesus Christ, when He's got
complete control, control of you , to make every Word."
Philippians
2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Hebrews 13:20 Now the
God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that
great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, 21 Make
you perfect (that means
equipped and fully mature) in every good work to
do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing
in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be
glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some,
prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of
the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of The faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 That we henceforth
be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking the
truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
The Voice 4:15 Instead, by
truth spoken in love, we are to grow in every way into
Him—the Anointed One,
That
is how you know that he is the Christ, because you have become anointed with His
same anointing. You have become Him. You have become a reflection of Him, and you
have been conformed to the image of the first born son.
NIV 15 Instead,
speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every
respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
The Token 63-09-01 par 224 " Don't you rely upon no speaking in
tongues, no nothing else. but let the
Token Itself be there, the Person of Jesus Christ, His Own Life in you. Circumcise not
just this, that: but circumcise your whole being, till you and Christ are One.
Christ is in you, and His Life lives out through you."
We
would see Jesus 57-0226 P:21 But now,
while He's here working with His Church in the form of the Spirit... Then if
His Spirit is with us, He will act just exactly like He act when He was here on
earth. It'll make you act the same way, because it's not your
spirit any more; it's His Spirit in you, Christ's Spirit in
you." The things
that I do... He that believeth on Me (Saint John
14:12.), the works that I do, shall ye do also." See? We'll do the same works, think the same thoughts,
live the same type of
life. If the Spirit of God is in you, it makes you live like Christ, Christ-like. Then you
become a written epistle, read of all men, Christ in you, reflecting His Light out of you,
as God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself, and reflecting God from His own body.
No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten of the Father has
declared Him. God was in Christ. And what Christ's attitude was, was
God's attitude, 'cause the two work together, the Spirit and flesh united
together. Got a sermon on that: "The Dove And The Lamb."
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.
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?
Christ is the mystery -
63-0728 So that same
Word moves from the Head as the day comes close, down into the Body, down
into the Body vindicating that they are One. They're Husband and Wife. They're flesh of his flesh, Word of His Word, Life of His Life, Spirit
of His Spirit. See? Amen. How do you know it? Bears the same record, same
fruit, same Word (See?), manifests Christ: same Life, same God, same Spirit, same Word, same Book
(Amen!), same signs, "Things that I do shall you also." Oh hallelujah. My...
63-0728 - "Christ Is
The Mystery Of God Revealed" And Paul, this great intellectual man, never tried to express his
great theological terms upon the people. He humbly accepted the Word of the
Lord, and he lived the
Word so that It expressed through him. He lived so godly until they seen Jesus
Christ in him, so much, till they wanted his handkerchief, to take
it and lay it upon the sick. There is
the Life of Christ.
No theologian can know this Life. They
can know about it, but they will never know it by study. It comes by surrendering
your own life and dying to your own self. It is not and cannot be received through
theological study, nor from educating yourself to it, nor from any mental
effort on your part. It comes when God Himself
injects you with His own Life, when your life has died and His Life
comes in to live itself out in you.
Romans 9:16
So then it is not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name: 13 Which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God.
63-0728 - "Christ Is
The Mystery Of God Revealed" 147 God is known by simplicity and of revelation of Jesus Christ to the
most illiterate person. See? Not your
theology. It's a revelation of Jesus Christ. "Upon this rock I'll build My Church." No other rocks accepted, no other
things accepted, no other Roman rock, no other Protestant rock, no other
school, no other nothing, but on exactly the
revelation of Jesus Christ through the new Birth. He borns in there, and He injects His Own Life, and your life is gone.
And the Life of Christ is projecting Itself through you, with
the preeminences, to the people; that they see the very Life, and works, and
signs, and wonders, that He did, is doing the same thing through you.
Outside of that, the rest of it's not even called to, at all. Watch God's great
revelation unfolding. By lack of this revelation is why we have so many different
divisions among us, and so much mockery. So
much division among us, is because the people lack that revelation. See, they
lack that revelation, the teachers.
63-0728 - "Christ Is
The Mystery Of God Revealed" And if the Life, the Life of Jesus Christ ever puts out another
body of believers, it'll bear the fruit
that the first one did. They'll
write a Book of Acts behind it, 'cause It'll be the same, same Life. See what I mean? You just can't get away from it. It's the Life of Christ in you, been injected in you,
by the Holy Spirit Itself living Its Life through you.
63-0630E - "Is Your
Life Worthy Of The Gospel?" A Christian is to be Christ-like. And a Christian cannot be a Christian until Christ comes into the man, the
Life of Christ in him. Then
it produces the Life that Christ lived, and you do the things that Christ did.
63-0120E - "Just One
More Time, Lord" And then if He
is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, you touch His garment, and His Holy Spirit will operate through us.
If you've got the right channel, the Spirit to believe by, the same channel
that's here, it'll operate the same way.
It's got to, it's God! You put the life of an apple tree in a peach tree, it
won't bear peaches no more, it'll bear apples. And you put the Life of Christ in a man that's a mortal being, he'll bear
the fruit of the Spirit. He'll bear the fruits of the resurrection.
The Voice 4 But God, with the unfathomable richness of His love and mercy focused on us,5 united us with the
Anointed One and infused our lifeless souls with life—even
though we were buried under mountains of sin—and saved us by His grace.6 He raised us up with Him
and seated us in the heavenly realms with our beloved Jesus the Anointed.
Questions
and answers COD - 59-1223 And "If
ye abide in Me and My Word in you..." See? We become a part of His Word,
part of His Life, for we are flesh of his flesh, and bone of His
bone, and life of His Life. Then we can no
more perish than God Himself could perish. That's what the Holy
Ghost is.
let us pray