Perceiving, recalling, and storing doctrine; John 16:4-5.

Title: Perceiving, recalling, and storing doctrine; John 16:4-5.

 

John 16:1 "These things I have spoken to you [chapter 13-15], that you may be kept from stumbling.

 

John 16:2 "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.

 

John 16:3 "And these things they will do [future], because they have not known the Father, or Me.

 

We now see in verse 4 how BD prepares the believer for such traumatic experiences as religious persecution.

 

But the disciples are not prepared for what is about to happen. Christ has explained it, but they could not shake their preconceived notion that Christ was going to usher in the kingdom. Yet the plan is not put on pause because of their negative volition. The program of God keeps going right on and that is with or without you.

 

John 16:4 "But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

 

“when their hour comes” refers to the time of the attack. All the while the enemy is preparing and hoping that you are distracted with anticipating a false attack. Don’t anticipate anything. Don’t live in the near future. Listen to doctrine day in and day out so that you can investigate every matter when the time comes and know its truth.

 

D-day example

 

 “But these things I have spoken to you” - BD always prepares the believer for whatever adversity is about to come.

 

We don’t know what the stumbling blocks are and we don’t know what the attacks or adversities will be, but we don’t have to. The doctrines of the word of God prepares us for all of them.

 

The believer has got to be hearing the doctrine and paying attention and concentrating since he has to remember it when the time is ripe for application of it.

 

What did you have for dinner last night? What did you have for dinner two nights ago, three, etc? You can most likely recall what you had a few nights ago, but it will take a while. You will mentally retrace your steps and while you are doing that you are forming synaptic pathways.

 

A person must create, store, and recall their memories. Each memory is a connection of nerve cells that creates a neural highway. Repetition strengthens this highway.

 

This is known scientifically only in a very general way. The brain is far too complex for science to know all the details, but what is known can help one to understand how his memories and thinking work in a very general way. L. Ron Hubbard has developed a pseudoscience out of this from which Scientology was developed. Religion that works on the ignorant and emotional always has some truth mixed with lies. And, it does meet with some success since it’s not just believers who can rewire these pathways, but imagine how much greater the success of God the Holy Spirit.

 

brain cells

 

Nerve cells in your brain connect with other cells at a point called a synapse. Electricity jumps across the synapse causing the release of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. One brain cell can make thousands of connections like this giving a typical brain about 100 trillion synapses. These connections are not set and in fact they change all the time. [this gives an astronomical number of combinations that memories can be imprinted on.] However if one cell keeps sending a signal to another then that connection gets stronger and stronger.

 

When you learned to ride a bike you practiced with training wheels. Each time you attempted to balance a pathway was created, but this pathway was changing as you learned. It used many different parts of the brain; hearing, sight, equilibrium, touch, and finally put it all together in a network of neurons that could be called the strand that rides a bike. But as you rode more you learned how to avoid a car that came too close, you hit sand and slipped, you hit the brakes too hard and went over the handle bars. The strand that rides a bike gets updated all the time. As you imprint this strand you recall down the same strand. I hear the sound of an approaching car, I see upcoming sand, I’m going fast downhill and I’m going to use the back brakes, and you do all this, it seems, without even thinking, but you are thinking. The pathway or strand has become so strong that it’s instinctive.

 

Put that all together with the repetition of doctrine as well as the repetition of application.

 

Phil 4:9

The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace [prosperity of soul] shall be with you.

 

This shows us the value of repetition of doctrine, but it also shows us how repeated bad thoughts and bad behavior can be so difficult to change.

 

The overnight changes that believers often want are just lazy quick fixes. Prayer for God to change things is legitimate as long as you understand His timing. With doctrine and the filling of the Holy Spirit the changes will take place, but the believer must ask himself that when he is about to marry volition with lust and commit sin, is he really thinking doctrine and believing that doctrine?

 

Doctrine makes changes when we put our faith in the doctrine. This is why confession is so important. You are admitting that you didn’t apply doctrine to whatever the circumstance was.

 

Sin is damaging to the believer, though unavoidable. Chain sinning in the area of weakness is completely avoidable through the power system [BD + FHS] of the PPOG.

 

However, doctrine will make the issue of sin in the areas of personal weakness understandable to the believer and more doctrine will motivate more application and more understanding behind the truth of that weakness so that at some point the believer will start truly saying no to it. I do not mean sinlessness in any area, but I do mean breaking of the old pattern of chain sinning in that area.

 

ROM 12:2

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed [passive - BD does it] by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

 

It is interesting to note here that the Greek word for mind is nous, which can refer to the brain as the neural network of electrical connections, and the word for renewing means renovation or to make young. Do doctrine and the Spirit rewire the brain? I’m convinced that they do when the volition mixes them with faith in the command center of the soul.

 

A weakness is just that, it will always be there, but it is conquered through the volition of the believer to put his faith in another pathway other than OSN weakness.

 

Remember the weak believer in Corinth who had not yet undone his tendency to a lifestyle in the phallic cult temples.

 

HEB 12:1

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance [rebound], and the sin [OSN] which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance [breaking the chains of chain sinning in the area of weakness] the race that is set before us,

 

Satan is very aware of this phenomena and works to wire the brain in such a way that promotes OSN control of the soul rather than Spirit control of the soul so that the believer operates in the flesh and not the divine nature.

 

The deception is that there is true happiness in the weakness or strength of the sin nature which causes doubt concerning God’s plan for sharing His happiness with the believer.

 

There is also the fiction that the spiritual life consists of changed behavior alone and so human psychology is taught from the pulpits.

 

It is true that certain forms of psychology, scientology, and eastern mysticism, etc. will have a positive effect on certain people who throw themselves into it, but this in no way makes a person spiritual.

 

God desires to transform our lifestyles as a result of the supernatural function of His Word and His Spirit so that He may pour His happiness into us. Do not be deceived into thinking that the spiritual life is designed to change your behavior.

 

Behavioral changes are a result of mountains of doctrines that are mixed with faith and applied. It is a benefit of the spiritual life and never the cause.

 

What often happens to doctrinal believers is that a time comes when a certain behavior causes personal suffering under the law of volitional responsibility and because they over focus on the behavior they start to leave grace and begin to think that the whole purpose of the CWL is their behavior. The purpose is to glorify Jesus Christ and the Father who sent Him through the power of His word and the filling of the Spirit.

 

We shall repeat:

GAL 5:16

 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

 

Forget the flesh and desire to walk by the power of God the HS.

 

Although not scientifically known, I believe that the soul is the master controller of all this brain activity. And when the Holy Spirit fills the soul you in fact have God making and changing neural pathways or wheel tracks.

 

How much things change depends on how much doctrine is believed or metabolized. A brand new believer can easily be filled with the Spirit but he doesn’t know much doctrine and so his pathways are not changed, yet.

 

Before salvation we set up millions and millions of pathways that are memories that are so set that they influence behavior. When you believed in Christ these were not undone. It now takes the Spirit, the Word, and your volition to form new wheel tracks that influence divine good instead of sin and evil.

 

There are three ways that we can store memories. First in the sensory stage, then in short term memory, and then for some things long term memory.

 

The sensory stage lasts only a fraction of a second. A sound, a pattern that you saw, or a smell may just last a moment after the instance and then it’s gone. After that sensory flicker the event may go into short term memory where it will last for 20 - 30 seconds. This is the common occurrence of someone telling you a phone number and you get down the first three numbers and have to ask again, or introducing you to someone and forgetting their name in 20 seconds. Information that is constantly repeated and reused will go to long term memory where it will last indefinitely and the amount of information that can be stored is unlimited. Of course things like intensity or shock value or impact or previous knowledge about similar things will all help to store a memory in long term.

 

Distraction during the storing process will hinder the recall of the information. You put your phone down somewhere and you wanted to remember where you put it but suddenly a person asks you and important question and the distraction hindered the storing process.

 

Be careful of distractions when you are perceiving doctrine and when you are applying doctrine for these will hinder neural creation [perception] and recall.

 

This is like reading a book and reading the same paragraph over and over again and not remembering anything.

 

It’s interesting to try and remember something that you know is in that long term memory somewhere and you can’t right now, but later you remember. Trying hard to remember actually hinders the recall of what has been encoded. You must be relaxed and have the information repeated over and over again. Where did I park my car, where are my keys, etc. are not senior moments, we all have them, it’s just that seniors have cause to worry about them and so they remember that they can’t sometimes remember and a 20 year old doesn’t even notice.

 

Application of doctrine can only occur when there is an absence of MAS’s. Confession, FHS, and faith “rest” are always needed.

 

As you age the synaptic connections can deteriorate. The part of the brain, hippocampus, and a major part of the brain for memory loses 5% of its cells ever decade for a total of 20 % loss by the time you’re 80. That’s everyone’s brain. You don’t have Alzheimer’s. Some studies show that continued brain stimulation can help slow down this process. Hearing doctrine keeps you young.