On Saturday (October 16, 2010) a group of eight men from Calvary Temple traveled to Trinity Life Center in Lutherville Maryland and attended “The Ride of Your Life “ Men’s Conference. The first session, “Revving It Up” was presented by Greg Surralt. Greg used the You Tube video, “The Battle At Kruger” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM as a basis for his teaching. The video shows a young weaker for his teaching. The video shows a young weaker water buffalo being attacked by lions and how the bigger buffalo come to its resue and chase the lions off. Christians must keep an eye out for the lion (Satan) who is always looking for someone to devour.
Lions kill by strangling. The devil lives to hunt and the Battle of Faith is fought in the brain. The devil wants to destroy and embarrass you and the One you serve. A famous quote from Benjamin Franklin says, “It takes many deeds to build a reputation, but only one bad one to destroy it.” The enemy also plants guilt – ridden thoughts—doubting and discouraging thoughts in our brains. Discouragement is a hazard of ministry.
Greg gave several Leadership Lessons based on “The Battle at Kruger”
Lesson #1 – “Always Stay With the Herd” – A lone buffalo is no match for a lion but a lion is no match for a herd of buffalo! Several hazards can separate us from the herd.
A. IMMATURITY – 1 Timothy 5:22
B. OFFENSES – Proverbs 18:19
C. BUSIENESS –
D. SHAME – Genesis 3:9 – 10
Lesson #2 – “When you are up to your neck with lions and crocodiles you need the big buffaloes to bail you out.” 1 Peter 5:1 – 3
How do big buffaloes serve?
- Willingly – You must be willing to follow God’s Call When there is danger we need to run toward the fire.
- Humbly – 1 Peter 5:5 – God
Lesson #3 – “It’s not over until the fat buffalo sings.” It’s never too late to resist! I Peter 5:7 God loves to mess up a good funeral. He turns death to resurrection. There is a time when the whole herd must stop and defeat the enemy. That time is now!
Lesson #2 – “When you are up to your neck with lions and crocodiles you need the big buffaloes to bail you out.” I Peter 5: 1-3
The second session at Saturday’s “The Ride of Your Life” Men’s Conference held at Trinity Life Center in Lutherville, Maryland was presented by Alton Garrison. Brother Garrison is a concert pianist and treated his audience to a creative and stirring rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Brother Garrison presented a wonderfully anointed message entitled, “Holy Thunder”.
The message was about spiritual warfare, Opening scriptures included II Cor. 10:3 and Titus 1:15. Your mind is a terrific trophy and Satan is fighting for possession of it. Why is the human mind so important? As a man thinketh, so is he. The human mind is where most spiritual warfare takes place. The Bible says “Love the Lord your God with all of your mind. If the will of a person and his imagination come into conflict—imagination usually wins.
Satan’s battle for Christian minds is continuous. Satan blinds the minds of the unsaved (II Cor. 4:4) and corrupts the minds of the saved. How does Satan corrupt the minds of the saints of God? He enters our minds through unguarded doors. The unguarded doors are:
THE PERVERSE MIND – Unconfessed and harbored sin is an open door for sin. Ephesians 4:23 says “…neither give place to the Devil.” Unconfessed sin gives Satan a stronghold in our minds.
PASSIVE MIND – A passive mind is one that is in neutral. (Proverbs 4:23)
Always guard your mind. Guard what comes in your mind. Garbage in –garbage out. As a man thinketh, so is he. Philippians 4:8 says, “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, think on these things.
POLLUTED MIND – A polluted mind is one with addictions. We become addicted when something controls us.
The goal is to have the Holy Spirit in complete and full control of our minds. Living in the Spirit should happen on a daily basis. What you think about is what you are. What we think about is a choice. What we dwell on is a choice. Our thought life needs protection. Our thought life can be controlled.
Tips for a healthy thought life:
#1 – Confess to God that your thought life is not what it should be. Lust is not only sexual in nature, it is any thought that we cherish, entertain, and hold onto. Everyone can tell if they are lusting, by asking the question, “if I did what I thought, it would be sin.” We will always be tempted. Temptation becomes sin when we dwell on it and yield to it.
#2 – Recognize the results of an impure thought life. (Psalms 23:7)
#3 – Starve yourself of bad influences. Run from whatever triggers your impure thoughts. Flee from immorality. Run from people who are bad influences. (Proverbs 6:27) Places need to be avoided. Media (internet sites, chat rooms, magazines, books, DVD’s and movies that evoke impure thoughts) needs to be avoided.
#4 – Study the Bible (Psalms 119:11) Start a personal spiritual growth plan. Spiritual help can be obtained at www.discipleship.ag.org <https://www.discipleship.ag.
#5 – Become accountable – seek out a person you can trust to ask you the difficult questions. It is always best to offer necessary information before it is required of you.
#6 – Bring your spouse into the loop. In the course of the ministry you will be tested by family problems. Don’t complain about what is happening at home, fix it, instead. And as a man, don’t ever share any personal secrets with another woman!
#7 – Remember your children and watch out for their spiritual welfare. Weakness in a parent often opens a child’s door for weakness.
There are three mighty spiritual weapons to combat the unguarded doors in our mind:
#1 – For the Perverse Mind – the antidote is REPENTANCE. The prayer of repentance is always answered! Confession leads to victory and deliverance.
#2 – For the Passive Mind – put up a guard rail—resist the devil. James 4:7 tells us to resist the devil and he will flee from us. We have to do this every day because the he keeps coming back.
#3 – For the Polluted Mind – renewal. Renewal is a supernatural “out of the box” activity that can only be engineered by the Holy Spirit. Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
Ephesians 4 :22-24 says, “You took off your former way of life, the old man that is corrupted by deceitful desires; you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; you put on the new man, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.”
There are three ways to help control our thought life:
THOUGHT STOPPAGE
THOUGHT SWITCHING
THOUGHT SUBSTITUTION – take the old thought and replace it with a good one or spiritual one.