Dealing with Memory This message is part of the Dealing With Series. How do we as Christians deal with memories of the past, (good or bad)? What is a memory? The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge of past events, or ideas, which are past. A distinction is made between memory and recollection. Memory retains past ideas without any, or with little effort; recollection implies an effort to recall ideas that are past.
Is it an affliction at times? Yes. So then, what is an affliction? 1. A condition of pain, suffering, or distress, burden.
2. A cause of pain, suffering, or distress. Inflected forms: af·flict·ed, af·flict·ing, af·flicts
To inflict grievous physical or mental suffering on, Middle English afflighten, from afflight, disturbed, frightened, from Latin afflictum, to cast down, to strike afflict, agonize, rack, torment, torture These verbs mean to bring great harm or suffering to someone: tortured by painful memories. Heb 10:32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
1Co 4:17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.
1Ti 4:6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
2Pe 1:15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
John 11:35 Jesus wept.
To the unsaved, memories are primarily, recollections of past sins that were pleasurable and badges of conquests, the jobs that you beat others out of, the sexual encounter that went your way, the money you acquired by the loss of others, ect. But to the saved they are pricks to the soul and spirit. Many are hurtful and bring harm to the spirit of the individual. Heb 10:32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; the word afflictions here represents, not physical only, but of mental anguish. The past of a Christian always bring to each a separate set of problems. Other Christians bring many of those problems on, Yes, I said other Christians, bringing up your past. Many of your friends that are still in the world will always bring up you’re past trying to get you to revert to the way you once were. They don’t understand what you have and wish only to have you back the way they remember you. Many times I’ve noticed, that people that are miserable with their life, wish to have everyone else just as miserable as they are, so they bring up your past to remind you of your faults. When this happens, the old memories start flowing, as a river, not to refreshen you but to drown you in you’re past faults. The types of memories depend upon the individual. Satan knows your past and will use the most painful to cause you loss of sleep, loss of concentration and confusion in your daily walk with God. Do you have, Bad dreams, nightmares, dreams that once brought you pleasure that you thought were gone, are you happily married and still have recollections of lost loves of your youth? Do you sometimes have doubts about the choices that you made in the past? If you said yes to any of these, these are the things that the Bible says are fights of afflictions. After ye were illuminated, most of your memories never affected you until after you were saved, true of false? There are good memories and bad. The good memories are those of departed loved ones, happy times as a child, accomplishments you’ve attained, ect. These are no burden to you and Satan will not bother with them. The ones he uses are those that we have discussed before. Do all men have memories? Yes, even Jesus had memories of past events, not as the Son of God only, but also as the Son of Man. John 11:35 Jesus wept. The shortest verse in scripture but one that reveals a lot. Why did Jesus cry? His friend Lazarus had died, when Jesus was confronted with the reality of the passing, sometimes memories are invoked by the, confrontation of reality in this life. The memories Jesus had, of his friend, came flooding back to him and he wept. These were good memories. Now how can I say this about Jesus and memory? Remember that Jesus had prior knowledge of the death of Lazarus and the scripture doesn’t state that Jesus cried after telling the disciples that Lazarus had died. The actual burden never came upon Jesus until after the memories came to Him, until after He came, face to face, with the reality of death itself of a loved one. Think of this for a moment and you will understand. What makes us cry when a loved one passes away? Not only the actual death itself but the memories of them and the knowledge that there will be no more contact with them. An end to future good times and bad, an end to plans, hopes and dreams of better times ahead, a parting of spirits never to reunite in this life. Of all the funerals that I have attended, the main subject upon everyone’s mind was, memories. But what about the bad memories that cause torment? These are not of God. God does not bring torment to His children, so we have to look at the source of this burden. Satan and his demons (aka) evil spirits are the source. How then do we deal with this? Different means are and can be used in relieving torment. Recognition, Revitalization and Rebuking.
1. Recognition. Recognizing a good memory from a bad one. Knowing weather a memory is from God or Satan, otherwise as the scripture states, discerning of spirits [1Co 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits;], those that are of God and those that are of Satan. This is one of the spiritual gifts. Once we recognize that the spirit we are dealing with is from Satan then we know how to contend with it.
2.Revitalization. Renewing your faith in God. Faith plays an important part in dealing with the past and its memories. Knowing that God no longer remembers your past nor does He remember your sins of the past. Many may disagree at this next point but I want to bring it forward for discussion. If a memory of a past sin haunts you and brings you torment, many people try to ask God to help you with it. But, remember, that when God forgave you of your sins, He forgave you of all not just some. So when you bring up a past sin to God, He has no memory of it. The Father has no idea what you are speaking of. Psa 103:12, As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Reference; Psa_50:1, Psa_113:3; Isa_45:6 Isa_43:25; Jer_31:34, Jer_50:20; Mic_7:18; Heb_10:2; 1Jo_1:7
3. Rebuking. Tit 2:15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. What is to rebuke? In Scripture, chastisement; punishment; affliction for the purpose of restraint and correction. Ezek 5.
To check or restrain. We must restrain or check these spirits that bring upon us bad memories. How you may ask? First by recognizing the spirit and calling it out by name. Each spirit of Satan has a name, such as, spirit of; evil, Legion (many), heartache, sickness (various), unclean thoughts, depression, anxiety, nightmares, lust, greed, hate, bondage, confrontation, ECT.
In the following verse, the Lord calls the spirit out by name.
The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Zec 3. Isa 17.
Act 19:15-16 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?
And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
Rom 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;
Rom 8:26 Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities: So you can see thru these examples, that we must take control of these spirits, rebuking them and restraining them from using our memories from harming us. Our memories are just fragments of our past, some of them are of failures in life and others are accomplishments, we have to discern which and control them. God has given us power over all the enemy, and we must learn to use it effectively. Remember you can’t change the past, and even if you could ask yourself, “ would I want to? “ Sometimes the things you want are not necessarily the things that you need. Ars.
