Page 111 - Overcoming Addiction

Romans 10:17
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 8:14
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

The Spirit will teach us truth as we are attentive to His voice. He will lead us
in the path of righteousness. We must train our senses to listen to the voice of the
Spirit. It is very easy to allow the temples of our bodies to become so filled with the
thoughts of worldly pursuits that the still, small voice of the Spirit is drowned out.
When Christ drove out the merchants and money changers from the temple,
He was demonstrating a powerful lesson for us. He said, “My Father’s house is to
be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” Our bodies are the
temple of God. We have been created to be houses of prayer where God’s Spirit
communes with our spirit. We too can fill these temples with all the noise of the
world as we set our sights on buying and selling, pleasures and various
entertainments.
The pursuit of the world will keep us from hearing the voice of God. When
this occurs we are putting ourselves at risk from an attack of the enemy. It is as if a
soldier on the battlefield had turned off his combat radio and had tuned in a
station playing the music and news of the world. Becoming so fixated on this noise
the soldier is unable to receive warnings from his commander. We must be
attentive to the written and spoken word of God.
This leads us to the final part of our spiritual weaponry.

Prayer

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit...

Many people do not include this verse along with the section that describes
the spiritual armor of the saint. Yet I see it as being part of the same thought. Who
ever heard of engaging in battle without making some provision for
communication between the battle commander and those under his leadership? In
today’s arena of modern warfare, communication has become one of the most
important parts of the military’s focus. It should also be a priority with the child of
God.
Throughout Scripture, and throughout the recorded history of military
warfare, we see numerous examples of battles gone awry due to the absence of
good communication. Many times the tide of an entire war has turned on this one
issue. Armies have turned back when they feared an approaching foe that was
nowhere around. Others have been destroyed through poor battle execution when
communication was disrupted.
We have seen already in this book that God wants us to look to Him at all
times to discern His will for us. We are to move when He moves, and remain still
when He does not move. Failing to do so, we will make a shipwreck of our lives.