Note: Before reading this article you will want to read “The Importance of Memory” if you have not already. Memory plays a very important role in TPM and it is essential we understand the part it plays in helping us to understand how we came to believe the lie-based core beliefs that we currently believe.

Early Training Mis-information

In the early years of TPM, it was mistakenly believed that the lie-based core belief was contained within “the memory” itself. Because of this improper understanding of memory, we falsely assumed that people had painful memories and that the lies causing them pain would be found in their memory. We sent people on “memory hunts” in an attempt to find the lie we mistakenly assumed was somehow hidden inside the memory. We even used to ask the Lord to take them to their memory, which we now realize was not based upon good theology. Now we realize that the lie causing us our current emotional pain is not contained in a memory somewhere, nor are there are any painful memories –that is, memories that produce or contain pain.

Our total memory is both what we remember to have happened in the life event as well as what we remember having believed about it.  However, having a memory of believing a lie, and currently believing it, are two very different things. Also, this aspect of the memory —the memory of what we believed— does not produce any emotional pain whereas, what we currently believe does.

For example, a person might remember believing that they were worthless. Nevertheless, remembering that they believed this lie at the time of the event and still believing it, is not the same thing. The memory of what we believed holds no emotional influence over us once the experience has occurred. It is our current core belief that we continue to believe, that hampers our walk. What we currently believe is not a memory; it is our present-tense.

Today we understand that the emotional pain we feel when we visit a memory is produced by the current belief we hold and not from the memory itself. This is also the reason we feel what we feel in our present situations. It is what we currently believe that is causing us to feel what we feel and not what is happening in the present.

Our current belief is the lens through which we view our past and how we interpret our present.
Our current belief are like the glasses that we wear through which we interpret the memory. We do the same when we interpret our current situation using the same lie-based glasses. As long as we wear these glasses, we will feel bad when we look at the memory and when we look at the present situation. Our glasses determine our perspective and the emotions we feel. When we remember a memory where bad things occurred, we may indeed feel badly, but it is not because of the memory, but only because of the belief that we currently believe and the lens through which we are viewing the past.

If the memory was indeed the source of our pain, then there would be no hope for freedom, since we can no more change what we remember any more than we can change the past itself. In like fashion, if what was happening in our current situation was indeed the source of what we felt, then we could not feel differently unless the situation changed.

Thankfully, however, it is neither the past or our memory of it that serve as the reason for why we feel what we feel. We feel whatever we believe. The good news is, the Lord can replace our lies with His truth and we will feel what the truth feels like.

Therefore, although our memory serves a very important place in TPM, and it is not the source of our problem. The problem is what we currently believe. Not what we believed that was initially established in the earlier life experience that is now our memory. Our core belief –that which is the source of our emotional pain– is not located in the memory even though we may remember believing this same belief it when we think about the memory. The memory of what we believed is merely information like anything else we remember. However, this same belief became our current and ever-present belief that has traveled along  with us in real time. It is always ready and available to be used to interpret the next life situation.

The memory is where we may gain understanding as to how we came to believe what we believe and therefore, why we feel what we feel. Without the original context (memory) we will come to a wrong conclusion concerning this.

An example of this would be our saying to someone, “You make me so ___________!” This is an example of assuming that what we believe and feel is because of our current situation. So then, memory helps to answer the question, “Why do I feel what I am feeling and how did I come to believe what I believe?”

Our freedom from the lie and it’s emotional pain does not come by our “healing the memory”, but by using the memory to help us to understand how we came to believe what we currently believe and why we feel what we feel. When we have this understanding, we are in the proper position to receive the truth the Spirit has for us.
When this occurs the “eyes of our heart” are opened and the distorted glasses fall off allowing us to see with clarity from His heavenly perspective.