I NEVER PLAN TO GRADUATE FROM THE SCHOOL OF LEARNING (2)

I wish I had learnt earlier in my ministry experience to protect my mind, Ministry has lots of pressures and problems that go with the it, plus the attacks of the enemy, and my own sinful nature. The mind is the battlefield of the soul every battle is one or lost in the mind. We will have sinful thoughts until the day we die, it is what we do with them that is the challenge.
The devil has no new tricks, what he did with Eve in the garden of Eden he does with us, the first point of attack is our mind, if we don’t dealt with it their it moves to our emotions “the fruit looked good to eat”, And then our will comes into play and we yield.
You hear someone is talking about you, so you think and ponder what you have heard (THOUGHTS) your get angry, you EMOTIONS are stirred, and you want to do something about it (WILL). You fantasise about sexual matters (MIND) your body is aroused (EMOTIONS) and you do something about it (WILL). We must catch the thoughts and deal with them the moment they come.
Paul tells us in in 2 Cor.10; 4-5, we must cast down, demolish. Destroy those thoughts.
HOW DO WE DO IT?

1. The blood of Christ is to protect us and cleanse us (remember the blood of the Passover lamb and the protection it gave to God’s people, but we must:

1. Walk in the light of the Word of God and our conscience
2. We must seek to maintain right relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and the blood Christ cleanses and protects us 1 John 1:7 We must obey and claim that protection. The enemy hates the blood of Christ. Every night  just before I go to sleep, I ask the Lord to protect my mind, so I will not have weird or sinful dreams, and I can testify it truly works.

1. Confess the Word of God to the enemy “I am more than a conqueror, I can do all things through Christ, greater is He that is within me. The enemy hates the Word of God.
2. Use our power of attorney (delegated to us as believers and use the name of Jesus against the enemy, James says “Resist the devil (in the Name of Jesus and he must run away”. He hates the name of Jesus.
3. Our prayer language is a weapon of warfare
4. Praise is weapon of warfare
5. Think about the soon return of Jesus 1 John 3:3 everyone who has this hope (of Christ’s soon return purifies (keeps himself) pure
6. Make a covenant with our eyes Job 31:1 God has made us especially men very visual and the things we look at can cause thoughts to develop in our mind. We ask the Lord to help us not to gaze on things that would cause us to sin

These 7 keys above are how we cast down, we must kick out the sinful thoughts before they get to our emotions. When you kicked out the sinful thought, you must immediately fill the space. We find this key Phil. 4:8.
8    We must think and mediate about positive things

1. Think about the Lord’s suffering and death
2. Think about Him seated at the father’s side interceding
3. Think about (visualise His feet, bow low before Him
4. Take a scripture and meditate on it.

After all the years of being a Christian, I cannot relax for a minute, but must keep my armour on especially the Helmet of salvation.
I have had to recognise and accept the fact that life has both positive and negative seasons
I have had to learn to burn bridges from the past, and build bridges to the future, and trust God will work all things for His (and my) good (Rom.8:28) that he is sovereign.
I have had to learn to never let bitterness develop, but let the Lord vindicate in His time.
Zechariah say (13:6 that he was wounded in the house of his friends, (other Christians may hurt us, but we must not let a cancer of bitterness kill our spirit.
I have had to learn to overcome discouragement and not have pity parties, so I had to:
Verify the cause of the discouragement
Don’t deny the problem (even destructive criticism may have 5% truth in it).
Recognise the source of the discouragement
Work through it with the Lord’s help.
I have learnt to know and keep the purpose of the vision of God for my life clear. It must be progressive.
Having a call is not enough, we need to know what God is calling you to do especially in the
present, and as we are obedient He will progressively show us His plan.
In the difficult times we must “Keep the dream alive”.
It was an awesome revelation to get a vision for the Body of Christ, we must be loyal to those the Lord has joined us too. But never be blinkered and see this beautiful thing we call the Body of Christ.
I trust the above will give you much to think about, I trust it is a blessing to you. Please write and tell me, or comment or ask questions please ?