What the Holy Ghost was Given
fro no 33
Assurance Love satisfaction and Life
Brian Kocourek,
1 John
We are still studying What
the Holy Ghost was Given for and we are about 10 paragraphs from the end.
Tonight we will study what brother Branham said in paragraph number 89 and 90.
89 As Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob sojourn, dwelling in tents in the land, they professing they
were pilgrims and strangers, the seed of the heir, the heir back there; the
father, the heir. We are their seed. And they was
looking for a city whose Builder and Maker was God. Amen. They were
searching. And today their seed is still looking for a city that comes
in... I don't want to get adjusted to this world. I don't want nothing to do with this world. I'm looking for a city
that's built foursquare. I'm
looking for a city that's got Eternal Life, where the sun will never
go down, where there'll never be old age, where there'll never be a crepe on a
doorknob or a grave on the hillside. I'm looking for that city whose Builder and Maker is God.
90 There's only one
way to find it. There was a Stone cut out of the mountain without hands that
rolled into the world and smashed it out, and it become like wheat, or chaff on
the threshing floors. Let
that Stone, the Christ Jesus, that Stumbling Stone to the world,
a Stone of an offense, a laughing Stone, a Stumbling Block to the church;
but a precious and a Lodestone to the believer, a Stone of assurance, a
Stone of rest (Oh, my.), resting... I know that I've passed from death unto
Life. My soul is at rest. Oh, "Come unto Me all ye
that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest to your soul." "A Sign that's to be evil
spoken of," said the prophet to Mary. It'll be a Sign. Sure it will. But It'll
be (1) an assurance; It'll be a (2)
love. It'll be a (3) satisfaction. It'll be something that (4) you know you've passed from death unto Life.
So what was the Holy Ghost Given for? He said, For Assurance,
for Love,
for satisfaction
and for
knowing you have Life.
May the Lord add His blessings to His word. You may be seated
We read for our text from 1
John 5:12 where we are told, He that hath (echos) the Son hath (echos) life; and he that hath (echos)
not the Son of God hath (echos) not life.
And we find the word translated as "hath" is used several times in this verse
and it was translated from the Greek word "echo".
Now, if the translators had left the word echo un-translated as they left the word baptisma
un-translated, which we can see our English word baptism, then our
understanding of this verse of Scripture would be completely different than
what most men will read this using the word hath instead of echo.
In reading
this verse with the word un-translated we read it as: He that echoes the Son echoes life; and he that echoes not
the Son of God echoes not life.
Now, that means
that since "God is the fountain of Life"
and in John
therefore, we see that the life comes from the father and then
into son and sons. And in reading this scripture also with the word echo left
un-translated it reads, it reads, John
And as the
heart pumps the blood over and over again to echo forth the life in the body,
so too the father's word echoed over and over and over again in His mind and
then when it begin to come forth from the Father this same echo of life moved
forward into manifestation, first into His Son and then into Sons. Listen
carefully to what brother Branham says about this.
Who Do You Say
This Is? 64-1227 P:31 You have an
attribute. It's your thought. You think of something, then you speak it, then
you take it. That's God. He, in the beginning... If you ever was or ever
will be in heaven, you was in heaven to start with. You're
part of God. You were His thought. He knew your name. He knew who you were
before there ever was a molecule, before there was a light. Before there was
anything, He knew you and your name, and put it on the Lamb's Book of Life
before the world was ever formed. See, you were His thought. And Then you become a Word. And a word is a thought expressed.
Then you're manifested.
P:32 That's the way
He was. He was in the beginning by Himself. God dwelt alone with His thoughts.
He'll never do that again 'cause His thoughts are being made manifest. And
that's why we are right here this day: is God fellowshipping with His thoughts
being made manifest. See? There we are. So you, by taking
thought, cannot add one cubit to your statue. You cannot do
this, that, or other. It's God that showeth mercy. It's God.
"All the Father has given Me will
come to Me, and no man can come except My Father draws him." That
settles it.
Now, we can see
that 1 John
Let's just read 2 John 9
again. Whosoever does not keep pace with, or goes
beyond the limits of the doctrine of Christ, echoes not God. He that abideth in
the doctrine of Christ, he echoes both the Father and the Son.
Now, let's look
at what Jesus said about himself. Notice in the next 4 verses of Scripture
Jesus tells us exactly what Brother Branham said here.
John 12:49 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.
John 12:50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting:
whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
John 14:31 But that the
world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment,
even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
John 15:10 If ye keep my
commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's
commandments, and abide in his love.
Now, let's
examine again what William Branham said concerning this echoing back of God's
word.
Why I'm against
Organized Religion 62-1111E P:117 Notice, this
is the Angel of Light. Remember, the last Angel, it's the Angel in the church
age to the
P:118 Notice, this Angel is the last messenger before the
coming of Christ in the 18th chapter of Revelation. The messenger's
voice, if we notice, when he gave his voice on the earth, there was a voice
echoed again in heaven: 4th verse, if you want to read it (All right.), 4th
verse, the 18th chapter. This messenger on the earth was so inclined with God
until, when he spoke it on the earth, God echoed
the same thing out of heaven. What is that 4th verse translation? What does
it mean? God's voice speaking to His predestinated people, saying,
"Come out of her," just exactly what the voice was. He's got
people all out in there, all out through
And that is exactly what
we see in 1 Thessalonians 4 as well. The
Lord Himself descends with a Shout. That is exactly Revelations 10, the Mighty
angel descends to earth with a loud voice, which is a shout, and he gives that
shout to the 7th angel that's on earth at the time of this coming, and then he
echoes it to the world.
Greater than
Solomon 64-0306 P:13 There
must be a supernatural sign from God to
vindicate. No matter how real, how deep it was in theology, how great it
sounded, still, if God's supernatural sign didn't vindicate it,
it wasn't so, to the Jew. Now, the Old Testament, the Aaron's plate was done
away, with the old covenant. But in the New Covenant, God still remains with
the Urim Thummim. That is,
if a prophet, dreamer, theologian, or whatever it is, speaks something that's
contrary to the Word, and God don't echo it back through the Word, I'll let it
alone, for It's God's Urim Thummim.
And I believe it with all my heart, that It's God's
Word.
Demonology 2 Religious
53-0609 P:55 Now, then the Urim Thummim today is this Bible.
If somebody has give a prophecy or a dream, and it don't compare or echo with
God's Bible, it's false; don't believe it.
Spoken Word is
the original Seed 62-0318M P:23 The
Word of God continually goes on. I'm told that if we could pick up an
instrument that could catch it, that a man's voice, my voice that I speak
today, ten thousand years from now could still be picked up in the air. It's
like dropping a pebble in the middle of a pond. And the teeny little waves
after they fail to be seen by the eye, continue on
till it hits the bank. And the air-wave of our voices continually travels
around and around the world; therefore, then our voice, what we say will be
our judgment. Our testimony will rise right against us. Our own voices
will echo in our own ears at the judgment bar of God when His great
instrument catches every voice that's been spoke--every word that's been
muttered.
So what are you
echoing today? Because what you echo today will be played back at the white
throne judgment. Then if all our words are the Words of our Father, God, then
won't it be a wonderful experience at the White throne judgment? Won't it be
wonderful for our Father God, and all the saints, and all the angels to hear
our Father's words being repeated back at that time as our Life is reviewed
before all to see? Then what will your echo be? Will it be His
own words being spoken from your mouth? Or will it be worldly echoes? Worldly songs of lust and sin? Will we all hear songs of
praises at that day? Or will we hear country song lyrics when your life is
played back for everyone to hear?
1 John
In other words our life in Christ becomes
an echo of the Father's Words for everyone to hear. For the Son of God echoes
forth the Words of the Father and when we echo His Words we are echoing the
Words of Life.
And did you
know that the Son of God was so single focused that He shut out everything that
was not from the Father? Remember when we spoke on the parable that Jesus told.
Matthew
Remember when we studied this parable we found that he
is not speaking if we have but one eye like a Cyclops, but rather when he says:
if therefore thine eye be single he is speaking of our being single focused.
And if we are single focused as Jesus was single focused, then we will be full
of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, (that
means if your focus becomes deviated from the Truth) thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
We find in Isaiah 42:19 that the Scriptures teach us
that the Son of God was blind to everything except God's Word. And he was deaf
to everything but God.
KJV Isaiah 42:19 Who is blind, but my
servant? or deaf, as my
messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is
perfect, and blind as the LORD'S servant?
Rothetham Translation Who is blind if not My servant? Or
deaf like my messenger that I send? Who is blind like an intimate friend is
blind, or blind like the servant of Yahweh?
Jerusalem Bible Who is so blind as My servant? So deaf as the Messenger that I send? In other words, it should read Who in all the
world is as blind as my Servant ? Who is designed to
be my Messenger of Truth. Who is so
blind as My dedicated one, the "servant of the Lord"?
So we see here
that Jesus Christ was absolutely blind concerning anything that was contrary to
God's Word, God's Will and God's purpose.
Now, this
brings us to the fifth benefit in our series, and The fifth benefit to us in
believing the relationship between the Father and the Son is to know that we
have Life, Now, this is different than to echo life, for to know that we echo
life brings the benefit of rest. And if we know we echo Life our whole nature
changes, and thus our relationship with God changes, and thus we enter into
such a peace that no man could ever rob you of your confidence in your
relationship to God and thus God's word. We find the text for this study in 1 John 5:13.
1 John 5:13 These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may
know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son
of God.
Again we find
that the word have here, not hath as before, but the word have was translated
as have from the Greek word echo. These things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have (that you
echo) eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
So here is not
the fact that you echo but the fact that you know that you are echoing. Because
then the echo is not just something being done out of a rote learning, as
though you are able to simply repeat, because to just repeat does not mean that
you truly know and understand what you are doing. But to know that you are
echoing back the same words as the Son means that you also understand what
those words are that you are saying.
How many people
can quote the scriptures verbatim and not even know what it is that they are
saying. The denominational world is full of such people. And Jesus faced those kind of people all the time.
Who Do You Say
This Is? 64-1227 P:34 And
again, the church seen Him in His great power of manifesting. Manifesting what?
Not manifesting a creed, He was manifesting the Word. He was the Anointed Word,
Himself. And when they seen that taking place, the manifestation, the anointed
Messiah, they turned It down. They didn't want It. It
wasn't in their taste. That's the pitiful part. How many... Just think of it.
Just as in other days. See, each had their own interpretation of the Word.
That's what the reason
P:42 By the way,
did you know the Word of God never did come to a theologian? Find the
Scriptures where It ever did. The Word don't come to theologians; not at all. But, you see, if the
Word was made manifest today, the Word for our day, It would be in the taste of
God's Word, not in the taste of somebody's idea. God would take His Word that
He promised for this day, and anoint It, and It would happen. That's all.
There's no way to keep It from happening. It'll do it
anyhow, no matter what the church says and what the rest of them believes and it... God will do it anyhow. There'll be just a
very few that'll ever know about it. That's right, just a very few. It's always
was that way.
So you see, when we speak of the echoing of God's Word the
understanding must be there or the echo will not truly give a certain sound,
but an uncertain sound. But we are looking at the benefit of knowing that we
are truly echoing the Son of God and thus the life that was manifested in the
Son.
"These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that
ye may know that ye "Echo Eternal life, and that ye may believe on the
name of the Son of God."
As I said
earlier the benefit of knowing that we echo is that we receive a certain peace
and rest from our own works, and enter into an assurance of Faith that brings
us into a peace that surpasses all understanding.
We find
ourselves saying the same thing as the prophet said,
when we are confronted by the same unbelief he was confronted with. I do not
know how many times this has happened to me when men will bring up a question,
or will challenge our understanding of the doctrine of Christ, and I find words
coming our of my mouth that I had not even thought about, but when I check them
out later, I find brother Branham had said those very same words and so it
brings comfort.
Remember, Jesus
said, "He that will confess me before men, I will confess before My Father
which is in Heaven." And knowing the word confess was taken from the Greek
word Homo-logeo which means the same words, I find it
quite comforting to find myself saying the same words as the Son of God said,
because those are the Words of Life that came forth from the Father. For Jesus
said, "My words are spirit and they are life."
Now, this rest
is spoken of to take place in this hour, and it is called by the Greek Word
parrhesia which means a certain boldness to speak.
Parrhesia (Assurance, Openly
Confident, Absence of fear in speaking.)
This word parrhesia
is a Greek word used in scripture to show assurance,
open confidence and an absence of fear. I am placing this scripture
among those which refer to the end - time condition of the Elect. This
condition of assurance, confidence and absence of fear are a direct result of
the Parousia of Christ, His manifesting in His true character and the
fact that when He openly reveals Who He is and Why He is here, this brings the
Elect into a place where they now know and understand their own position in
Christ. This makes them bold, and unashamed before Him. And so we shall examine
in this section the word parrhesia and how it ties in with the revelation of
Christ in this hour.
John
I John 2:28 " And now, little
children, abide in Him; that when He shall phaneroo,
( To manifest in His True Character) we may have
parrhesia, and not be ashamed before Him at His Parousia."
This lets you
know that God's Children are to come to a condition of Parrhesia or an absence
of fear when Christ's great presence and disclosure (His manifesting Himself in
His True Character) takes place. Remember in 1 John
3: 1-2 we are told that when he
phaneroo's we too will phaneroo because we see his phaneroo.
So in essence, we begin to echo Him, and
in echoing Him, we begin to manifest his Word to
the world, and thus as His true character is revealed or openly manifested to
us, we in turn begin to manifest openly our true character that was predestined
in us from before the foundations of the world, which is the Word coming into
manifestation again, which the word again means another echo off from the
original. And we know that since the Spoken Word is the original, and then each
time it manifests, it echoes forth from the original, again and again and
again.
Therefore at
this time we come into a condition of uninhibited assurance and open
confidence. This condition is a result of the unveiling of Christ. He comes not
only as Husband, but as our Advocate and Judge. As Husband He does not have to
testify against us, and as our advocate He is our defense attorney, and as our
Judge the case is sowed up. We are predestined not to fall. He that has begun
the good work in you shall perform it. He is the Author and finisher of our
faith. As Paul said in Galatians 2,
"we live by the faith of the Son of God."
It is His faith we live by, not our own. Therefore, "whom the Son shall make free is free indeed."
What else could we ask for. This brings confidence as
never known before, when, "He which gave the Word is here to confirm it."
I John
Notice, there is that echo again. "As he is so are we". In the Day when the
Judge is present, which we find in James 5: 9,
This statement
alone ensures us of tremendous blessings and confidence or absence of fear. How
could God deny any part of Himself. He can't. Then how
could He deny His Seed? He can't. Then what have we to fear? He is here to
ensure that we do not fall this time.
In Ephesians
Again we find
the Apostle Paul speaking of the parrhesia
in Hebrews
God wants us to come into His presence by revelation
with full assurance and He has assured us that in so doing we shall receive not
only His mercy but also His Grace that will meet whatsoever requirements we
might lack. "He that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is
a Rewarder of them who diligently seek Him." We
must come in confidence that He hears us.
The very fact
that He has come down in this hour and has unveiled Himself to His Seed and has
let us know Him as never before and has established a relationship with us
let's us see how much He loves us and wants to fellowship with us. Then, seeing through the revealed Word for
this hour our place in Christ, and our relationship to
God as our Loving Father, we understand more fully our relationship that began
in Him before the foundations of the world, where we were in His thoughts and
made manifest finally in this hour. What confidence this should brings to us.
Again we find
in Hebrews
Now, the word Recompense is an award given as a form
of retribution for hurt or damage. God knows that "all that live Godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." So He gives us a boldness to stand
when we have done all we can do to stand, and "through faith and patience
we shall inherit the promises." We also see in 2
Thess 1: 4 - 5, 7, 10-12 that we receive a
manifest token of God's judging us worthy, and thus we receive His very
mindset, His Glory, His Doxa.
In John 16:25-29 "we find Jesus speaking to the
disciples the following about this parrhesia. "These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: But the time
cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you
parrhesia of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name; and I shall say
unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father Himself loveth
you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I
came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the
world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto Him, lo, now speakest Thou parrhesia, and speakest
no proverb."
Jesus Himself is full of parrhesia and He says that in the day when He discloses or
unveils the Mighty God before us, that we will also come into this state of
parrhesia and will not be inhibited in our prayer to God. We will know the will
of God and the mind of God. He will show parrhesia to us. This let's you know
that we get this parrhesia from something that is shown us or disclosed to us.
And thus echoed to us, and we thus echo it back to God from whence it came
originally.
In our text we
read of the importance to know that we echo the Son of God. And we found that
it brings us into a rest and assurance of Faith. In this next scripture we will
find the evidence of our parrhesia with God.
I John
The condition of our heart is the only inhibiting
force in our parrhesia toward God. As we saw earlier, our parrhesia comes by
His faith. We are assured of receiving His parrhesia if we receive His Faith, if we echo Him, we echo the Father. And how could God condemn you for echoing him? Every
Father wants his child to echo himself, and His Words.
1 John 5:13 These things have I
written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know
that ye echo eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of
God. And now I John
Notice he said "according
to Your will." That's what Jesus said,
"I have come to do thy will O God".
I have come to manifest openly thy thoughts and echo
thee Father. What uninhibited confidence we have in Him, that we are assured that He will always hear us. And always remember, "It is God working in you to will first and then to do".
Let us pray.