What the Holy Ghost was Given for no 13

The readiness of the bride

Brian Kocourek, Pastor

 

This morning I would like to take a subject that stems from our next few paragraphs of reading from br. Branham's sermon, What the Holy Ghost was Given for, but I would actually like to take my text first from the book of Philippians. Now, the Apostle Paul gives us much to think about in chapter 3 as we begin reading at verse 7. here he has just spoken of his many accomplishments as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of pharisee's, and yet all he had ever accomplished in pedigree and in Judaism, he said he counted all loss that he might win Christ. 

 

Philippians 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9  And be found in him, not having mine own right-wise-ness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the right-wise-ness which is of God by faith: 10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Notice he tells us, "Gaining then loosing what he gained", "gaining and then loosing all for Christ". Think about those words as we bow our heads in prayer.

 

You may be seated:

 

I would like for you to consider what the apostle Paul is telling us here.

 

Therefore, let me read this Scripture also from the transliteration called The Message 7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash, along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant, dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of right-wise-ness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ, God’s right-wise-ness.

 

Now, as the Apostle Paul continues I want us to pay close attention to his words, for they speak multitudes for where we are at in this present hour.

 

11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

 

Notice Paul is saying I am willing to let go of everything that used to be important to me, in order to come up in the resurrection of the just. In other words, Paul was dead to everything except Christ and the Power of His resurrection. And then in the next verse, he let's you know that he has not yet arrived at where he wants to be, but he is on his way there, and will not stop along the way to look back at where he has come from and come to.

12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, (mature) be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

 

Notice that the Apostle Paul is telling us that our journey is in a progression. we start at point A and move on to point B in our growth. Then we pick up at point B and move on to point C. Always moving forward and never stopping for too long and finding comfort where we are presently at along this journey.

 

And then he tells us in verse 16. That whatever level we have arrived at we should walk at that level, and never look back.  16  Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

 

17  Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. 18  (For many walk, (many are in this journey with us) of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19  Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) 20  For our conversation (our life) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:  21  Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

 

Notice, he concludes, I press toward, that means I am not content to stop, but I move forward towards that mark of the high calling of God that I saw in Christ Jesus.

 

Recently I received I've received contact from some brothers who were putting down other minister friends of mine, telling me those ministers do not teach the doctrine in their churches. Now, I know first hand that both the ministers mentioned do teach it, but they have progressed in the doctrine to a point this other brother has not yet come. And I thought about what this particular brothers version of the Message Doctrine is all about, and it came to me that if you are preaching the "Parousia of Christ", or as brother Branham called it the "Appearing before the Coming", this brother thought, "that is the Doctrine".

 

And then I thought, you know, that is where so many people get hung up on these things.   

 

It is true, that you must have a knowledge of what God is doing in this hour, and therefore, it is essential to understand the Parousia Presence of Christ, which was taught by William Branham as "the Appearing before the Coming",  but that is not all of what the Message Doctrine is all about.

 

And So I thought today I would break things down a little bit so you can understand how all the doctrine William Branham taught us tie together so that we might have a full comprehension of what God is in the process of doing in this hour.

 

Ok, so let's start with the Parousia. Now, brother Branham taught the Parousia of Christ as the Appearing which comes before the actual Second Coming.

 

From his sermon, Jesus Christ the same 62-0718 P:82 Heavenly Father, we are grateful to know that we are living in this last day, just before the coming of that just One, that wonderful, glorious, loving Son of Yours, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Who we love. And we know the Bible speaks of an appearing before the coming, and there's a great difference in the word "appearing," and then "coming." Now, Father, we realize that the church has come through the stage of justification, come through the stage of sanctification, come through the stage of receiving the Holy Spirit. Now, the stones are being honed down for the fitting of the ministry of Jesus Christ, to blend right in to take the church.

 

What I want you to notice is that brother Branham speaks of stages that the church must pass through. And that is where I think so many get hung up in this hour.

 

And as I mentioned, we have brothers thinking "this brother doesn't preach the doctrine in his church and neither does this brother, because they are not preaching what I am preaching as the doctrine." And they think teaching the doctrine is all about the Parousia and the Godhead. Brother Branham said we should never criticize another preacher or another church for what they are teaching. I know I've made that error in the past, and I try not do that, but sometimes, in defense of what we do believe and teach, I have to hit what others are saying in opposition to what we believe, so we can systematically take apart those arguments and show where the truth actually lays.

 

But because of this kind of under current discord, I told the brothers in my email, I think we need to establish what the Message Doctrine is all about.

 

The Message Doctrine is the doctrine that William Branham taught, period. The Appearing and Coming is only a part of that doctrine. And the Godhead, although it is the greatest of all revelations, understanding the Supreme deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, yet it is only a part of the Message Doctrine. The relationship between Father and Son, between Father and sons, is only a part of  that doctrine. and yet all these doctrines work together hand in hand and each is  just a stage in our growing up into Christ.

 

The problem as I see it, is as we just read, Justification was only a stage of understanding that the church had to come up to on its way towards the rapture,  and yet justification made a way for sanctification to come into the church. And Sanctification was just another stage that the church had to go through on its way to the rapture readiness, and yet  Sanctification made a way for the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

 

So you can see how that each stage leads to another stage, or a higher calling in Christ Jesus. But no one stage is the all of it. And yet too many people say, you don't believe parousia, your not in it. And then they preach Parousia and they say, but you don't know who came down, you do not understand Godhead, so you're not in it.

And what I see happening is this: men look at the current stage they are in and say if you are not in this stage with me, you are not in the picture at all. And that is where we show our immaturity as Christian Believers.

 

The Parousia-Presence (which is The Appearing) can be seen in Matthew 25.

 

In Matthew 25 we hear the midnight cry, which is the "Shout" of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  Now,  both the wise virgins and the foolish virgins heard this Midnight Shout.

 

Notice, when they both heard it, they both all came out to meet the One Who was outside.

 

The Message of the one crying was "come out to meet HIM", and they came out to meet this one that the midnight cry was saying come out to meet Him.

 

Both wise and foolish heard this same Message. They both heard the Shout, they both heard the Message, and they both came out to investigate who this one is that they were to come out to meet.  

 

And to come out to meet Him, meant coming into His presence. Thus Matthew 25 the Midnight cry or shout is presence, he is here. And both wise and foolish virgin believed the Parousia of this one they were to come out to meet.

 

Therefore, if you believe and preach the Parousia-Presence, that only gets you into the group of virgins, wise or foolish. 

 

Now, during this investigation they find out who truly came down. (That is why brother Vayle went from teaching the Parousia from 1977 until 1984 showing the appearing before the coming. And then when he found that people did not understand who it was that came down (because many were teaching the lamb came down,) then he began to teach on the Godhead so they could understand Who came down.

 

To then understand the Godhead, you had to understand the difference between Father and Son, and that it was the Father of Glory who came down.

 

It does not say the foolish did not understand who came down, (That's Godhead) but rather we are told they just were not ready to meet Him.

 

Therefore the five foolish realizing they were not ready went to buy oil, (they realized they didn't have the Holy Ghost) and they realized they were not ready to actually meet the One Spoken of in the Shout.

 

The wise went in because they were ready. Now, these are three stages of the condition of the Wise virgin of Matthew 25. They hear the Shout, that is one stage, they investigate the presence of the one the Shout speaks of, that's another stage, they understand who it is that has come down, (Godhead), that is another stage of the Wise virgins, but that is not the end of the story.

 

They have made themselves ready to meet this one spoken of in the midnight cry, the midnight Shout, That is another stage altogether. And finally they enter in with this One Whose presence has come, and the door, (the word of God) is shut. Just like in Noah's day when God shut the door, and "He that is righteous, (rightly wise) is rightly wise still and he that is not rightly wise remains in their un-right-wiseness still. And he that is holy is holy still and he that is unholy is unholy still.

 

This is where the picture stands today. We have turned a corner, and those who teach only appearing and coming without showing who came down are only saying as the foolish virgin and Wise virgins together said, "Someone is here, let us go and find out who it is"?

 

That's where most people are at that have come that far. They are in discovery mode of who came down. Who was the Shout speaking of that is outside waiting.

 

The Godhead is essential to understanding who came down. This is not being taught by many. However, Godhead is essential to know who is standing outside the door knocking, it is the Supreme Judge of James 5,  and yet they still want to live any old way, knowing that the Judge is here and that white throne has already begun.

 

From his sermon, Perfect faith 63-0825E P:82 brother Branham said,  "I'm your brother, standing as your brother, an intercessor, trying my best to hold you before God. And I'm standing here right before the white throne now, and is pointing my finger at that bloody Sacrifice there, and speaking through His Name that it's done. It has to happen, and it has to happen. You know it's happened. I know it's happened, so do you know it's happened, and it's so. That's right.

 

Therefore, the Judge being present here now, he can bring on the judgments.  And as Jesus said in John 12:48  "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. 49  For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50  And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

 

So we see that it is the Father who is the Word that will come as Judge in the last days. So it is God "the Word" the Father of Gory who is standing at the door knocking, and he has come down as the judge.

 

James 5:9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

 

And in the book of Revelations at the time of the Laodicea church, we read... Revelations 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

 

Those who have only come as far as "the appearing", or the "Parousia" are preaching an understanding brother Vayle preached way back from 1977 through 1984. That's more than 30 years ago. They are just now at that stage.

 

In 1984 he began to teach who it is that came down because many were teaching that the lamb had come down. But brother Branham taught it different.

William Branham  taught us the Lamb is not seen from revelations chapter 5 when he opens the seals, until revelations 19 when he returns back with his saints. Therefore, the lamb has not yet come, and it is the Father of Glory who has stepped off his throne, and  who has come down with the book open. The lamb had climbed back onto the throne when that happened.

 

But some are preaching Parousia only, and without understanding the Godhead they do not have the entire picture. And some are preaching the Godhead correctly but they are not readying themselves to meet Him.

 

So you can be at any stage along the way, and still not be ready to go into the wedding supper my brothers and sisters.

 

Some have come up to Godhead and teach it but stop there. They are not readying themselves by their understanding of the doctrine they have. You must have the same Spirit that was in Jesus to be quickened and made ready. doctrine alone will not produce this readiness of the bride.

 

The entire Revelation of Jesus Christ is to bring the elect to completion in their character, to make them rapture ready.

 

That is what Ephesians 4 is all about. That is why the whole purpose of the five fold ministry Paul says, is to bring the people together in a unity of The Faith, and Paul also tells us in Ephesians 4 that there is only One Faith because their is only one Lord, and we know that Faith is a Revelation. So if you teach Two Lords, you do not understand Godhead. and if you do not know Him you are not ready to meet Him.

 

Therefore the ministry of the five fold is to bring the Elect to a unity in that Revelation of Jesus Christ. And then Paul adds and to the knowledge of the Son of God. Now, without teaching Father and Son you have no understanding, no knowledge of the Son of God and are left in Oneness mentality.

 

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, (that's the finishing off or maturing of the saints) for the work of the ministry, for the edifying (building up) of the body of Christ: 13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, (not just faith, but The faith and in verse 8 he said, there's only One Lord, and one faith, which is the revelation of jesus Christ, How God was IN Christ reconciling Himself to the world and then Paul adds) and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect (fully mature) man, unto the measure (the metron, the portion) of the stature (character) of the fulfilling 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:

 

Therefore, brother Vayle taught the Godhead from 1984 until 2000 which was his last series was on Godhead, because the people just did not understand who came down.

 

But Matthew 25 does not end with the wise and foolish coming out into His Presence, and knowing who it is that came down. It ends with the wise have made themselves ready to meet him, while the foolish did not make ready.

 

God has taken us beyond the stage of understanding Appearing and coming, Understanding Godhead and knowing who has come down. He has taken us into the actual revelation of Jesus Christ to where we become Him because we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. We are sons, and we are conformed to the image of the first born son. And that makes us rapture ready. Outside of that we can not be rapture ready.

 

We just read where the Apostle Paul said we must grow up into Him, not unto Him.

 

Therefore our focus should be on getting the bride to the place where she echos, or reflects the Son of God in every detail even as God's prophet was a kind of first fruit to this age.

 

And if you are preaching only Parousia, or Parousia and Godhead, and you are not ready to meet the one Who has come down, then you have not turned the last corner. You will not be a people who have made themselves ready.

 

From his sermon, Knoweth it not 65-0815 P:15 brother Branham said,  "As far as I know, I don't see anything to hinder at this time the coming of the Lord Jesus, outside of the readiness of His church."

 
And why could he make such a statement? Because the midnight Cry, the Shout has called us to come out to meet Him. He introduced us to the Word, God standing before groups of men, the mighty God unveiled before us.

 

And in order to be ready, we must be conformed to the image of the firstborn son, and we must be the right kind of a son in order to be adopted as sons.

 

In closing I want to read from What the Holy Ghost was Given for so that you can see how clear this is that we are progressing from one stage to another.

 

17 God poured Himself into Christ. Correct. Christ poured Himself into the church; therefore... Now, watch. "At that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you." At that day you'll know it, for it's, the whole thing is one plan of redemption coming down, that God coming back to live in, and dwell with, and commune to His people as He did at the beginning. Now, then as soon as He gets His church in speaking conditions, gets His church to a place that He can flow Himself through, and love, and persuade, and fellowship, then there'll come a Eden. He'll take His church back to where it left Him at back to an Eden again, there where it fell. Now, that's where it made its first start of fall; there's where it'll be taken right back with every clean slate of redemption, bringing them straight back to that place again.


18 The church has been in the world for some time. And the church, really, after the reformation of 1500 years of dark ages... Luther was the first reformer to come forth after the round of the apostles. And then, when Luther come forth, God tipped up a little bit of the Spirit and poured It out upon the church in justification. And then in the days of Wesley He poured out a little more of Himself into sanctification. And as the age has grown on to the end time, God has been filling His church. Just look around and find out if that's truth or not. Look at the Lutheran age, you who read history. Look at their revival and what they did. Look how much greater the Wesley revival was, how much more power they had, but in the minority. Watch in the days of Pentecost, what a revival they had then, what a great wide sweeping through...

19 "Our Sunday Visitor," the Catholic paper, give confession that the Pentecostals produced 1,500,000 conversions in one year, outdone all the rest the churches together. The Catholic only changed, claimed a million. In their own "Sunday Visitor," the paper called the "Sunday Visitor" gave statement that the Pentecostals outrun them. And remember, Pentecostal conversions is Holy Ghost filled conversions. In the minority to start with, on the side of the alley out there with an old guitar... And women couldn't even afford a pair of stockings. Laying out on the railroad tracks, and picking up corn and mashing it, and making bread for their children. But what's it come to? The most powerful standing church in the world today, not in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of God, because He proves it by what He's doing for them; He's pouring Hisself into them, pouring It in.

 

20 Notice now what taken place. God pouring Himself into them... Now, the church has got to a place, from Luther, Wesley... And the revival's on with the Pentecost. And now into this age that we're coming now by the same Holy Spirit, just more of It... Now, when them Lutherans back there got saved, they got a portion of the Holy Spirit. When the Methodists got sanctified, that was a work of the Holy Spirit. See? It was a part of the Holy Spirit. "They without us are not made perfect," says the Scriptures. See? Now, God... As the Light has begin to shine in the last days, He's expecting us, a great thing from us, because where there's much given, there's much required. So He's going to require much more of us than He did of the Lutherans or the Methodists, because we walk in a greater Light, with a greater power, with a greater witness than they had. Now, we have a greater witness of the resurrection. We have things more firmer, more sure than they had.

22   Now, then the Methodists, they were tassels. They looked back to the Lutherans, said, "We got sanctification; you haven't got nothing in it." By and by, from that pollen, from the Methodist come forth a grain, a ear of corn; that was Pentecost. There you are: justification, one stage of it; sanctification, another stage of it; the Holy Spirit, another stage of it. Pentecost--Luther, Wesley, Pentecost. Now, what does Pentecost... I liken it, because in Pentecost it brought back, not a green leaf, not a tassel... But the corn cannot say to the tassel, "I don't have no use of you." Or the tassel can't say to the leaf, "I have no use of you," because the same life that was in the leaf made the tassel. The same life was in the tassel made the ear. And it was a Lutheran church that made the Wesley church. It was the Wesley church that made Pentecost. But Pentecost, what is it? It's a restoration of the same kind of a grain that went into the ground at the beginning, bringing back all the fullness of the power of Pentecost by the baptism of the Holy Ghost (See?) in the last day. Oh, it's a great thing to look, to believe and to look at.


23   Now, in this age that we're now living, this age, it's beyond Pentecost. Pentecost has settled itself into organizations and started faking whole lot about organizations. "We are this, and we are that." That's just nature; you just can't help it. It's nature; they'll do that. It's the plan for them to do that. But the church has moved on. It's gone into greater, more powerful... It's the restoration of gifts. And many Pentecostal people does not believe in Divine healing, ministry of Angels, and powers of God. Many Pentecostals calls these visions that I see, the devil. Many organizations won't even have nothing to do with it in Pentecost. See, we've moved beyond that. Just as Methodists called Pentecostal crazy for speaking in tongues, just as Lutheran called Methodists crazy for shouting... See? But it's all a coming forth of the Holy Spirit till the great church is being filled up and chugged full (Hallelujah.) of the great powers of Almighty God, until It's got to a place until the very works that Jesus done has manifest itself right in the church now. We're close, friends.

 

let us pray...