A conclusion saturated with absolute finality positioned as a portal opening up for the investigation regarding “The Christian in Complete Armour”:The outcome of the Battle rests on God’s performance, not on your skill or strength.William Gurnall
This persevering is a hard work! Taking up the cross daily, praying always, watching night and day and never laying aside our armour to induldge ourselves, sends many sorrowful away from Christ. Yet this is your calling: to make the Christian faith your daily work, without vacation from the one end of the year to the other.-William Gurnall
If you intend to bear up courageously against the opposition on your march to heaven, your principles must be well fixed.W. Gurnall
Head knowledge of the things of Christ is not enough; this following of Christ is primarily a matter of the heart. If your heart is not fixed in its purpose, your principles, as good as they may be, will hang loose and be of no more use in the battle than an ill-strung bow.W. Gurnall
God deserves the best service you can give Him in your generation, so start letting His divine attributes manifest themselves in your life now.-William Gurnall
"Christian, look whenever thou comest forth to public duty, that thou hast a call. It is obedience to be ready to answer when God calls thee forth, but it is pride to run before God speaks."The whole armour of GodWilliam Gurnall 1617-1679
Whether you like it or not, you must go into the ring with Satan. He has not only a general malice against the army of saints, but a particular spite against every single child of God. As our Lord delights to have private communion with His saint, so the devil delights to challenge the Christian when he gets him alone. The whole issue of your spiritual destiny is personal and particular. You give Satan a dangerous advantage if you see his wrath and fury bent in general against the saints, and not against you specifically: Satan hates me; Satan accuses me; Satan tempts me.-William Gurnall
You can, if you will, take this fact as a source of great joy: Satan has no power where your eternal happiness lies! What do you have of value that is not in heaven? Christ is there, and if you love Him, your heart is there also.-William Gurnall
Your work and your faith must go off the stage together.This is your calling: to make the Christian life your daily work.William Gurnall
To put on the armour of God is to appropriate His power in a most personal way. It involves first and foremost a change of heart.W. Gurnall
Every recruit in Christ’s army should be properly fitted with armour. The first question that comes to mind is, What is this armour?We are told, ‘Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ – Rom. 13:14.I speak now of the ‘girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness,’ and so forth. We are instructed to ‘put on the new man’ (Eph 4:24), who is made up of all the graces. The point is this: to be without Christ and His graces is to be without armour.W. Gurnall
Christian, take special care not to trust in the armour of God, but of the God of the armour. All your weapons only ‘mighty through God’ (2 Cor. 10:49.The ark was the means of Israel’s safety, but when the people began to glory in it instead of God Himself, it hastened their overthrow.Just so duties and ordinances, gifts and graces, are heavens for the soul’s defense; but they must be kept in their proper place.W. Gurnall
Find out for yourself whether you are devoted to heavenly or earthly things. You cannot pursue both. Earthly things are like trash, which not only does not nourish, but takes away the appetite from that which would. Heavenly things have no appeal for one corrupted by such trash. Only when you come to the end of yourself, like the prodigal, will you make the judgement that heavenly things are better.-William Gurnall
If God's grace in you is sickly, you will find little joy in life, present or future. A person with a chronic illness gets no pleasure from anything he does. His food is tasteless; he sleeps fitfully; he has no energy to work or play. If the image of Christ in you has faded, you are chronically ill. You will not taste the sweetness of the promise, nor enjoy any rest in Him. You will limp painfully to every duty, wondering whether you have strength enough to see it through. All the while, your disconsolate heart will be crying out at the heavy load you make it carry.-William Gurnall
It is not armour as armour but as armour of God that makes the soul impregnable. Is prayer armour? Are faith, hope, and righteousness? Only if they are of God’s design and by his appointment.That which is born of God overcomes the world, a faith born of God, a hope born of God. But the spurious, adulterous brood of self-seeking duties and graces with which some Christians gird themselves, having sprouted from mortal seed, cannot be divine.Look closely at the label to see whether the armour you wear is the workmanship of God or not. There are many imitations on the market nowadays.W. Gurnall
Grace – here I mean those divine attributes infused into your human spirit by the Holy Spirit – is a living creature. It is not a souvenir of your salvation, which you my tuck away in some obscure closet of your soul. No, grace will show itself. It will walk with you wherever you go. It will buy with you and sell for you, and have a hand in all your enterprises. It will encourage you when you are sincere and faithful for God and it will complain and chide when you are otherwise.W. Gurnall
Does he hear the truth in a powerful sermon? Satan will sit alongside him in the pew and whisper nonsense to distract him. He may ask his plans for dinner, or what is on the docket for tommorow. And if the sermon gets too hot, the devil will dull his senses and get him to doze until the service is over.-William Gurnall
But the devil never becomes dispirited, nor does he tire of doing mischief to the souls of men. He has not stood still for a moment since he first began to walk to and fro in the earth (Job 1:7). Indeed, God Himself must bind him hand and foot to stop his feverish activities.-William Gurnall
Every duty in the Christian's whole course of walking with god is lined with many difficulties which shoot at him through the hedges on his march toward heaven. He must fight the enemy for every inch of ground along the way. Only those noble-spirited souls who dare taken heaven by force are fit for this calling.-William Gurnall
God expects you to meet every trial, every temptation, leaning on His arm.-William Gurnall
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