Christ Revealed in His Own Word #72

The Garden of the Mind”#2

 Sunday Morning Communion Service, January 26, 1997

Brian  Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship

 

 

 

[Matt 13:24-30]  Let’s pray

 

Last night we showed you how that everything you are, even your Character comes forth from the garden of thought that is in your heart, making you what you really are. Brother Branham told us that when we are born again, we receive everything that we will ever have need of to bring forth the image of God in us.

 

In Fact we here John tell us this in [1 John 3:2] Here we find that we are already Sons of God, but that at this point we just don’t look like it, and therefore we may not know it.

 

This morning, I would like to show you how the garden of your thoughts affects every thing that is already in you,  not only affecting your character, and molding your character,  but even to the circumstances that you enter into daily, which circumstances are used by God in the shaping of  your character into it’s final product that God has predestined for you. Therefore, every trial you must endure, every test that God puts you through, comes about only as a result of the Seed Thoughts that lay within your heart.

 

[1 Peter 4:12] Here we see that it should not surprise us when we face our trials, because these trials are made for the purpose of testing us. In fact we see in [1 Peter 1:7] that not only are we ordained to these test, but we are also ordained to pass them. WUEST TRANSLATION ....In which last season you are to be constantly rejoicing with a joy that expresses itself in a triumphant exuberance, although for a little while at the present time if perchance there is a need for it, you have been made sorrowful in the midst of many different kinds of testings in order that the approval of your faith, which faith was examined by testing for the purpose of being approved, that your approval being much more precious than the approval of gold which  perishes, even though that gold be approved by fire-testing, may be discovered after scrutiny to result in Praise, Honor and Glory at the time of the Revelation of Jesus Christ;

 

Therefore, we can say that every trial that you go through and ever time you are put to a test by God and you can not see beyond the circumstance which surround your life, just remember that these are all a result of the seeds of your thinking and they have spawned forth from the garden of your own mind. Remember, what Paul told us in the book of [Romans 8:28-31] And so if everything about us is already predestined from God, then the very thoughts we think He knew before the foundations of the World, and He knows not only what you have thought, but what thoughts you will think too. Then we can see the relationship of these thoughts that we have and how they influence our growth into the image of His Son.

 

Remember, our minds are in a constant flux of change. When we were children we had certain thoughts that filled our minds. Then through our life experiences, we begin to further develop our thoughts. And as we receive each and every new experience, our minds begin to examine the circumstances in our lives with a more mature understanding. Paul said in [1 Cor 13:11] When I was a child, I spoke as a child, because I understood as a child understands, because I thought as a child thinks, but now that I have become a man, I put away from my mind childish thinking.”  

 

And so we see that our mind is constant growth pattern, in which our garden or thought is constantly bring upgraded so to speak, or renewed by what life experiences we go through on our journey of becoming.

 

Paul tells us in [Romans 5:3-5] that we should glory in our tribulations, or testings. Now this word here is a Greek word which means those things that seem to bring forth the pressure upon us. We always think of these trials as an outward influence,  but we are told by Paul that we should glory in these things,  because he went on to say, “knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience; experience which is character, and character brings forth an earnest expectation, and having an earnest expectation makes us to be not ashamed, because we know that the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts or understanding by the Holy Ghost which God has given to us by the receiving of His Word. And so we see how God uses all outward influences called circumstances to bring forth in us character and Grace.

 

 

Christ Revealed in His Own Word #72

 The Garden of the Mind

 

Therefore we must understand that since our character development is dependent upon receiving every outside stimuli that will produce in our thinking, the thoughts of God, thus we can see the dependence  upon these stimuli in order to bring us into fulfillment toward the ultimate goal of receiving the very mind of God. Therefore, our reactions that we show toward these circumstances is an outward indication as to where we stand in our development toward the end-product of our being. How we handle each circumstance will depend upon what stage we are in, in our progression toward our ultimate character. Then what appears to be a test at one stage in our progression, will not appear to be so at a further stage in our character development.

 

Circumstances are just like taking a test in school. What would appear to be a very difficult thing for us in the first year of schooling, say grade 1,  would not even appear to be a test after twelve years of schooling, or grade twelve. And the further on in our progressive state that we move into toward the image of God that we are conforming to, the further developed will be our response mechanism that we harbor in our mind set or seed garden of our thinking. Therefore out circumstances we face are a growth from our own mind or thoughts. Circumstances grow out of thought. We are only buffeted by circumstances so long as we perceive these to be an outside influence upon our lives. But when we come to the place where we realize that circumstances that come forth in our lives are a direct result of our own mental state, we will begin to appreciate their use and purpose in our growth toward the finished product that God has destined for each one of us.

 

Anyone who has for any length of time, been a practicing Christian, and  who has practiced self control and self purification, which is sanctification,  will have noticed that the alteration in their circumstances have been in a direct ratio to the alteration in their mental state. When a man purposely and earnestly makes an effort to remedy their personal character defects, and makes a swift and marked progress, toward bettering themselves in those areas of weakness, they pass swiftly through a succession of unpredictable changes.  Therefore, the soul attracts that which it secretly desires, and also that which it fears the most. It not only reaches the heights of it’s desired aspirations, but it also falls to the level of it’s unchastened desires, and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives what it longs for.

 

Therefore, every thought seed that is sown,  or that we allow to fall into the fertile soil of our minds, to take root there, will produce it’s own, after it’s own likeness or nature. Sooner or later each thought seed we have sown in our hearts will have to take blossom and become manifested in our lives as an action or deed. And each action or deed will bear it’s own fruit in terms of opportunity or circumstances. As the Scripture tells us, good thoughts will bear good fruit and bad thoughts will bear bad fruit.

 

That is why we must come to the place where we begin to monitor and control what we think and believe.

[1 Peter 1: 20-22] Here we find Peter tell us that if we suffer for Christ sake it is acceptable with God, but if we suffer for what we have caused, then we should just take it patiently, knowing that all things are working together for our own good. As you can see, you thoughts are seeds that must by nature of being a seed bring forth into manifestation the nature that is in the seed, and since the life in the seed will make itself know, then when the seed thought does give way to a life experience in the form of an action or a deed, it will then cause other things to happen in response. Therefore as Peter said, don’t be so shocked and surprised if your actions cause other circumstances to happen which you may feel you can not control. Because you really can control them by not causing them to happen in the first place.

 

You see, for every action there is a reaction. And so it behooves us to be careful how we do things. If we really believe that everything we sow will result in a reaping, then when we sow hateful speech, or criticisms, we should not be surprised when the criticisms come back our way. Therefore we should be able to now see how that the outer world of circumstance actually shapes themselves to our inner world of thought. And both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make for our ultimate good, or work together for our good.  That is why we learn by both suffering and receiving blessings. Each of these outward stimuli helps to further our growth toward that image of Christ that we so long to be in our souls.  Therefore we should be able to see that our actions are only an expression of our thoughts.  Circumstances do not just happen, they grow out of the conditions of our heart.

Christ Revealed in His Own Word #72

Sunday Morning Communion Service, January 26, 1997

The Garden of the Mind

 

Just as our spiritual lives are progressive where word must be piled upon word to bring forth that Glorified body, so too do our circumstances add to our suffering in order to help our character to grow and develop.  Every situation we face in life is like the piece of a large puzzle that once fitted together gives purpose and meaning to each of them. The circumstances and conditions we face each day are only reflectors which help us to know how far along in our development we have come. A man does not always receive what he prays for, but he will always receive what he has sown for. Therefore our desires and prayers are only really gratifying to us when they are in harmony with what we are sowing in the recesses of our mind. When we fight circumstances we are only revolting against the effect of what we have been sowing. We se the circumstances or conditions that are without and we may not like what we see, yet they are there only because we keep nourishing them in our minds, and we keep feeding and thus preserving them in the gardens of our mind.

 

We so often are wish to improve upon our circumstances, but yet we are so unwilling to improve ourselves. And that is why our circumstances remain the same. If we shrink from crucifixion of self, we shall never achieve our hearts desire. A man who wishes to have a better life style, must be willing to work for what he wants. Too many people live at the poverty level and wish daily that they could rise above it, and yet they are personally unwilling to do something about their condition other than gripe and complain about it. People who are over weight very often look in the mirror and wish they could change the way that they look, and yet they are that way because they do not do anything about it. You are the reason you are rich or poor, fat or thin, educated or not, Spiritual or not. What you have sown in your life is what you are reaping in your life.

 

You don’t get a close knit family by shear luck, you get a close nit family by hard work and constant communication. Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results. Jesus told us that a Good tree can not produce bad fruit.  Therefore if we think good thoughts, we will have good actions which will produce good results. [Matt 7:17-19] You reap only what you sow. Therefore if you delight in the Lord, you will receive the things that you have need of. [Psalms 37:4] [Proverbs 16:4] You make the commitment, and you are the one who must sow, and then God simply honors the Law or Reproduction that says, every seed will bring forth after it’s own kind.

 

 Beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of Grace and kindness, which solidify into friendly and cheerful circumstances: pure thoughts crystallize into habits of holiness and self control, which further solidify into circumstances of rest and peace. If you sow thoughts of  self reliance, courage and decisiveness, they will bring forth circumstances of  success, plenty and freedom; energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness and industry, which solidify into circumstances of  pleasantness: gentle and forgiving thoughts solidify into protective and preservative circumstances: loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of  self-forgetfulness for other which solidify into circumstances sure and abiding prosperity and true riches.

 

 If you keep sowing the same particular train of thoughts, be it good or bad, it cannot help but to produce its results on the character and circumstances in which you live.

 

[77]  See, down through the age we started off from the foundation, from the first church age when the Seed went in the ground, the complete Seed. Then it come out through the feet, Luther, come back out then through Wesley, then into Pentecostals, the tongues and the lips. See? Now, it's in the eyes, prophetic, of Malachi 4 and so forth. And now, there's nothing else left for it to come, but Him Himself to step into that, 'cause that's the last thing there is. The next is the intelligence, and we have no intelligence of our own; it's His. See? We have no sight of our own.(Now, notice here that he is not referring to physical sight because he goes on to say,) How can a man foresee those things? He can't do it; It's God Himself. See, it's becoming to a place... And He's governed the body all the way through. Then the complete Body of Christ is revealed in the form of a Bride that was taken out of His side, like Adam did at the beginning--like Adam's was, rather, at the beginning.