Christ Revealed in His Own Word #145

See Thou Forgettest Not #3

Saturday, October 22, 1997

Brian Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship

[2 Peter 1:2-3] According as His Divine Power, His Word has given unto us all things that pertain unto Life and Godlikeness. and it comes through the knowledge of Him Who hath called us to Glory and virtue. Prayer....

Last week we began to look at paragraph 176 of Christ Revealed in His Own Word where brother Branham said, “We live by every word that proceeds... Not just a word now and then, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That's what the saints should live by.” and we began to look at this thought of “living by every Word of God”. We went to the book of Deuteronomy, where God commanded the people before they were to cross over into the promised land, that we “Do not forget His Commandments, and the things that He had shown to them concerning Himself during their 40 years of wandering. Before we begin our study this evening, I would like to say that although our society seems to be placing a greater emphasis on forgetfulness, it is not a new phenomena. In [Ecclesiastes 1:9] we read, The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. (In other words, those things that took place in the past are the same things that will take place in the future as well). Therefore, our memory is an important sense which God has given to us in order to keep and protect us. But just as any gift which God has given to man, Satan also wants to use this sense of memory.

God uses our memory to call to our remembrance those things which we have need of in order for us to not make the same mistake twice, and Satan will use our memory to bring to your remembrance how pleasurable sin is but he will also help you to block out the remembrance of the consequences of your sin. Therefore, it is important for us to understand how memory works and how you can utilize it to draw closer to the Lord.

Now, for the past two services we have began to look at the sense of memory from the viewpoint of the scriptures and we have thus far established three principals that are essential in order to establish a memory that is good, and quick to recall. For what good is a memory that takes a long-long time to recall. We first of all read from ...

Þ [Deut 4:9] Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; And so we see here that God is calling for His people to be diligent concerning their walk, and in order to be diligent, He tells them they must never forget. So we began to look at memory, and it’s effect upon our lives. And we see also here that to keep from forgetting, God commanded us to use the method of teaching others, because if we are to teach others, then we must learn ourselves, and when you teach, you must not just repeat what you hear, but you must know and understand what you hear so that you can bring it across to your children in a way which is clear to them. That is why Home schooling is so important, because it not only forces the parents to relearn the material, but they must learn in such a manner, that they are able to re-teach it to their children. It keeps the parents sharp and on their toes as well as giving the children a better grasp of the material themselves. Anyway, we see here a technique for memory that God is giving to the people and that is that of teaching others. Again in verse 23 He said, ...

Þ 4:23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, [or] the likeness of any [thing], which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. Again we see that God is telling the people that memory plays a very important role in the continuity of the believers walk. He seems to be suggesting here that forgetfulness will allow other things to creep into our walk even to the point of becoming a god to us which is an object of worship. And if we are to have no other Gods then any other object of worship becomes a false god in our lives. And that could be your job, or your car, or your own innermost being, your own self, as Paul told us in [Phillipians 3] when he said, their god is in their inner most being, whose glory is in their shame because they mind earthly things. In other words, Paul was letting us know that people who focus on the cares of this life more than they focus on the Word of the Lord, are actually following another god, in which they have become their own god.

So we are constantly warned by the One and True God to be ever so diligent and careful in our approach to Him and our walk with Him, and if we walk in the same Light that He is walking in, then we have fellowship with Him.

Þ 4:31 (For the LORD thy God [is] a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. In other words, God is Faithful to His Word, and we should be faithful in return. But as we stated last week, in order to be faithful, we can not be forgetful. Because you can not be faithful to something that you have forgotten about. Therefore, remembrance is a very important part of faithfulness. Jesus, although He was tempted in every point, He never fell from Grace. Why? Because He had full remembrance of Who He was and what Glory He shared with God before the foundations of the world

Þ .6:12 [Then] beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. When the people had wandered for 40 years, they began to think of the garlic’s and the leaks but they had forgotten that they had also been in bondage. And so God is warning them to never forget that they were in bondage and had not been a free people while they were in Egypt. They had been in bondage to others down there.

Þ 8:11 Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Now, as we brought out last week, a poor memory is not something that just happens. It must be made that way, for God has promised us a sound mind. [2 Tim 1:7] (read) Therefore, something has to happen to cause our memories to fade.

There has to be something that starts the process of deterioration of the memory. Brother Branham told us in this Message in PP. 21 “The whole human race is rotten. Well, if them physical beings of our body is tearing down like that from eating hybrid foods, tensions, that rotten it, does not that also rot the brain cell? Then we can see how women can get on the street naked. We can see how they can speed through the streets at a hundred and twenty miles an hour, all these things. It's come to a place where the whole nation, the whole world, not only this nation, but everywhere, mentally gone.”

Therefore memory loss is not just attributable to the rotting of the brain from the foods that we eat, but to the stresses and tensions that we place upon it as well. To show you the effect of tension on your memory, I would like to ask you the following question. “How many have ever taken a test and because of the tension you seem to forget the answers even though you know that you know them?”

Tonight by the Grace of God, we will show you some ways or techniques that God speaks of through His Word which will help us to remember things better. And remember, we are not just looking at this subject to help us with a memory problem, but first and foremost, we are looking at this subject because we have a need to be more mindful of the things of God in order to walk in the light and as brother Branham said, “We live by every word that proceeds... Not just a word now and then, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That's what the saints should live by.” And if we do not remember what Words have proceeded out from the mouth of God then how can we live by them.

In [II Peter 3:1-2] we read, This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in [both] which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That (for the purpose that, or my intention for writing this second epistle is so that ) ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior: Therefore, one way in which we stir up our minds is to call to remembrance the Words of the Lord. So we see memory then can and is used by God to stir us up. If the Word of God revealed brings stimulation from the revelation, then to bring these same words to our mind again by way of the channel of our memory, then the same effect it had the first time it should have each and every time it is brought forth to our memory. So that is one reason why God uses memory, and one reason why we should want our memory to flow properly without hindrance.

Secondly, we see that Peter said he would stimulate our minds by way of memory by the things that He wrote. Now, I mentioned before that we write notes and then we hardly use them, and sometimes in the way we take notes we actually miss out on more that if we did not take them. Now this is all true. But it has been proven by science and God’s Word that we remember what we see 80% more than what we hear.

Therefore, I find also that a written remembrance is a very important means of bringing to our mind those things which are in our memory. I remember when I was in a school play back in the ninth grade, I could not remember a few lines that I had. Now, I had many lines in this musical, “H.M.S. Pinafore”, as I was the Captain of the Pinafore, but there were a few lines in particular that I could not remember for the life of me. Therefore I wrote the first word of each line that I couldn’t remember on the inside one of my fingers. Then when the play progressed to that part where I was to speak that particular line, I would hold my hand out as a gesture and take a quick glance at my finger. Instantly I remembered the entire line and every thing proceeded as it was planned. The word that I wrote was INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

Now, this may seem strange to you that someone would need to jog their memory like that, but often one little word will bring forth a fountain of thoughts from our memory, because that is the way our memory was made. Even God Himself has written a book of remembrance and writes on His hand the names of His Kids. [Malachi 3:16-18] (read)

[E-93 What Visions are] brother Branham said, We pray, Father, that You'll save every one that lifted their hand and fill them this night, with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, giving them the blessed seal of the promise of God, that they shall never perish, but will always be in Thy memory and written in the palms of Your hands and in the Lamb's Book of Life. These blessings, Father, we ask in Christ's Name. Amen.

[53 In His Presence 62-0909E] If we have confessed that that we have been in His Presence, and we have confessed our sins, they are blotted out the book of His memory. There's nobody but God could do that. Now, you can do anything to me; I'll forgive you, but I'll remember it. If I'd do anything to you, you'd forgive me, but you'll remember it. But God can forgive and forget it. Think of that, "Don't even remember it." Amen. That makes me feel good. When it's not even remembered anymore, nothing can do it but God. Nothing but God can do that. He said He would blot it out of His book of memory. I can't do it; you can't do it, because we've only got these little finite senses. But He's infinite God; He can absolutely forget that it ever was done. Amen.

Therefore, if God must blot it out of His Book of Memory then we should do the same. Now, brother Branham said, God can completely forget it as though it never happened, but we can not do that. But he never said that we could not reduce the memory to the place that it does not influence us any longer, and that is what I want to focus on now for the rest of this service tonight.

We already talked about controlling memory through a process called selective memory. In other words, we brought out how that in the computer world we find that the more information we are processing the slower the computer memory seems to work. Until finally your computer gets so full that it seems to take forever to recall what you are looking for. Now the human mind, the human memory works no differently from your computer. It stores memory like a file and if that file is not set up in an orderly fashion, then the information you have in store will actually become a burden to the recall process. It is just that simple.

Proverbs 3:1-2 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. 3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: (In Other words, if you don’t want to forget them) then bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. & [Proverbs 7:2-3] read.

Again in [Deuteronomy 6:6-9] & [Deuteronomy 11:18-28] (read) Notice all of the visual reminder we should have set before us. God knows that we need visual stimuli in order to remember. And the visual stimuli is used to bring us into the blessings and to avoid the cursings.

And in [Proverbs 16:3] we read, Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.

[Hebrews 8:10 & 10:16] Notice how even God Himself is subject to His own laws, and since He wants His own kids blessed and not cursed, He has come down and He is the One who is writing His Word in visual ways to remind His kids of His great promises of life and Blessings.

Use demonstration.... two files, one person. Have them find a certain piece of information in a simply orderly file that has had everything non essential purged. Now have them try to find the same information in a file that has not been purged. Therefore, as we brought our last Sunday, the first and foremost principle in having a memory that will benefit us is to re-establish order in our mind. [Psalm 50:23]

Now in order to do this you must have the second principle that we must have operating in our lives if we are to re-quicken our memories, and that is priorities. You see without priorities, you can not have an order. Therefore, we must know what is first and second etc. Because without setting priorities it does not matter what order you have, because no matter what order you have it won’t work without setting a priority level. If the Word of God is not a priority in your life you surely will not remember when service is. A must come before B and B before C, and on and on it goes. Therefore, as brother Branham said, how can I teach you algebra if you don’t even know your ABC’s. Remember the old saying, “every thing has a place and everything in it’s place”. And your Mind acts like a sort of file cabinet for you. And if everything we have in our mind has been stored in a methodical orderly manner, then retrieval of the memory is quite easy. So priority has a lot to do with what can recall and what we can not recall.

If something is very important to you, you’ll keep it in a place that you’ll always remember, and if it is not meaningful to you, you will have a tendency to misplace it or forget it until after you needed it. And so the Lord tells us in His admonition of Deuteronomy that self pride is also a factor in our forgetting His Word.

The third tool or principal in developing our memory is one God Himself uses and that is selective memory to improve your memory because even God Himself uses this technique with us. [Isaiah 43:25] I, [even] I, [am] he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. And did you know that God has given us a way to clear out from our own memories those things which are non essential in our walk with Him. [2 Cor 10:5] [Philippians 3:13] 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, [Hebrews 6:1-2] Therefore, memory is a very important and vital sense that God has placed within our spirit and it is so important to us that our very life and peace of mind depends upon having a good functioning memory. Therefore, memory, and having a sound mind, is critical if we are to live a full and complete life. [Is 26:3] Paul tells us in [Philippians 4:8-9] that we should only think on certain things. Heb 12:11, let us lay aside everything which so easily besets us. And what sort of stuff is that? [Heb 11: 15] If the people had kept a way of remembering the things they left, surely the memory itself would give them a means of re-entering back into those things. [Heb 5:14, exercise the senses. 2 Peter 2:14 and notice that these who are cursed children exercise their own heart or understanding with covetous practices] Page 80 pp 1 The Breach63-0317E Like the wife, here not long ago we went over here to the super market, and I said, "We found a strange thing: a lady had on a dress," and it was so strange. See? They--they... Nearly all of them don't wear dresses. You see? And somehow they're forgetful; they go out without them. So then we... They're willfully forgetful.

Now, since we have already mentioned that our minds are like a file cabinet and in order to recall what we want, we must have an order to the way we think, how we think and what we think therefore we should not be haphazard in our thinking process. For the Scripture tells us to be careful how we hear [Luke 8:18]and what we hear [Mark 4:24]. Then we must have an order to the way we store that information, and an order to the way we recall what has been stored.

[300 Unveiling of God ] The Pillar of Fire appearing visibly among us, identifying that the Message is right, like He did at Mount Sinai... Remember, before the true message come forth, Moses preached, and he led them out of Egypt, but there before the real commandments was laid down (the seals was brought in), God come down before the people and proved that Moses was sent from Him (Is that right?) in a Pillar of Fire, that Moses said he had seen in a bush and talked to Him. Oh, in this last days to see that same Pillar of Fire right among us, speaking the same Word, not only that, but interpreting It by making It manifest and proving that It's the Truth. So the people has not one way to disbelieve, lest they just willfully want to, and then, "He that sins willfully after having a knowledge of the Truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin."

The mind thinks in pictures. Pictures are remembered, abstracts are forgotten.

· Chain linking: picture one thing in your mind, then other. Vivid picture, smells, sounds, feelings. The body can not tell the difference between that which is real and that which is imagined.

· years ago people had better memories because they exercised their minds more. They read and in the reading they pictured what was written.

· Tell a story and have the people close their eyes and image what is being said. Make the story have about four things happen in it, and then repeat the story and have the people follow along in their mind and see if they can not only keep up with what is being said, but actually even move quicker from the scene tot he next.

· memory: sometimes you forget something and hours later it comes back into your thinking. Did you forget it ? NO, the problem is you misfiled it. Can you imagine having a file folder that was just anything thrown in at random. If I gave one person a file that is in order and another person one that is scattered. then who will find what they are looking for first? The One who’s file is in order.

· Priority is a very important characteristic needed for memory. How important is that thing we are filing? If it is the highest priority, we place it in a special file in our mind.

· Selective memory is one which even God Himself does and we should do as well. But our selective memory should be done according to the right priority.

· Repentance is a change of the mind, a willingness to change and this is very important if we are to bring our memory into control.

· Technique and motivation are two very important things that are needed and we must have a balance between these two.

· note taking is ineffective for helping your memory, because it actually helps you to forget. If you would walk on just one leg, with a crutch for quite a while, then your other leg will weaken. The muscle weakens, and if a muscle is not exercised it becomes weakened.

· Also we very seldom re-read our notes, and when we concentrate on what we are writing, we are missing out on what else is being said. It is virtually impossible to listen and write at the same time.

· Pegging : Peg or hook, whatever we leave on the peg or hook, when we go back we know that it is there. a Mail box is where we store mail, a refrigerator is where we store milk, etc. we need to store in mental places. use 10 pegs, 10 places in our body parts. 1toes, 2knees, 3(thigh) musctle, 4rear, 5love handles, 6shoulders, 7collar 8face 9top of head point, 10ceiling notice the order up the body.

· a place to put the information,... the information to be placed in a vivid picture...mental glue called action....association is action, something you know and basic association is :something you don’t know and place them together logically. pegging uses action to take the two things and pegs together

· three things to do in the pegging process. 1) when you peg something create an image in your mind bigger than life, something that will stand out 2) animate the pictures 3) make the action hard not passive (lots of movement 4) include lots of emotion with the action.

· RECALL first of all we must ask ourselves the right questions, for when we ask ourselves the right question, we open up the right file doors.

· First question we always ask is what is my peg.

· second question is what was my action

· when you see the action you also see the item

· When you want to recall you go to the right file or peg, the body list: first peg, second peg, etc. a vivid picture with action and emotion brings forth recall.

· the act of applying the technique engages your memory. the technique and act of engaging, that brings recall.

· Your conscious mind does not think of the actions, it just does it. trust your memory.

· when you are driving and want to remember directions, you must picture in your mind the Texaco station, or the BP station, then when going left or right we must have an image for L=Leaves or R=rat.