The Oil That Allows the Armor To Work Together

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(Excerpted from Cheryl Gnagey's book, Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 8)

"Last, but certainly not least, are our prayers and petitions at all times--times of success, failure, ease, and attack.  By praying ahead of time, we are more alert to the attacks the enemy will bring against us.   By praying, we are able to put all the rest of the armor to work for our victory over the sin in our lives.  Do you see how interconnected the armor and constant prayer are?  Prayers and petitions to God are the oil in the oil can that the rusted Tin Man so desperately needed to move effectively in his 'body armor.'  Without the oil, he was destined to be immoveable forever!

With no desire to drive out the gods in our lives, we stand no chance of overcoming them.  When we have no desire to drive out the evil in us, we tend to walk in evil, leaving the sin in our hearts for the enemy to use against us over and over.  If we want to win spiritual victories, we must make the conscious decision to apply (put on) and implement (use) the every piece of the  armor of which Paul speaks.  It's not a gift that we receive that works all by itself!  The full armor of God becomes a useless protection and weapon to us when we allow our gods to keep us from fully following after God and all of His ways.  Laziness in our spiritual walk, including our prayer life,  not only renders the armor useless, but it also renders the armor-bearing soldier useless as well."

Unarmed And Surrounded By The Enemy

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We all have gods and sins in our lives that we are commanded to overcome.  It is a spiritual battle to do so.  Is your armor uncomfortable because you do not know how to put to proper use?  Do you carry your "sword of truth" but have no idea how to wield it against your enemy, Satan?  Read on friends!

"POINT #2:  We must be fully armed when we cross into that place in our journey called the Promised Land, into the Holy of Holies where our gods will be dispossessed.  We must be prepared for this battle, and we must know what God's battle plan is.

Had Israel crossed the Jordan without any weapons, they would have most assuredly been annihilated.  The people who had been living in Canaan would certainly have banded together against an unarmed foe, and the defeat would have been a crushing blow to God's chosen people.  Without a battle plan, there would have been no organization, and therefore, no victory for God's people.   The same is going to be true for us if we attempt to just 'go in' and destroy every god, idol, attitude, or sin in our hearts that is contrary to God and His purposes.  Without weapons and a battle plan, we will surely fall to an enemy who does not want his territory encroached upon!

God has given us the perfect plan of attack when it comes to our spiritual battles, and the armor and weapons that He has chosen for us are perfect as well.  As our Commander-In-Chief, He has set us up to be victorious, if we will but utilize what He has already given us.  The problem is that we seldom choose to enter into this kind of battle, and when we do, our armor seems cumbersome to us because we have not been trained for this kind of war.  We are usually unarmed and unprepared because we have not even attended spiritual 'boot camp,' so we are ill-equipped for the battle with the forces of darkness."

(Quoted from Chapter 8, "Fully Following God's Commands" found in Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory)