Latest / Millennial Mustard Seed / S5 158. ROOR - Anatomy Of A Prayer Part Four

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S5 158. ROOR - Anatomy Of A Prayer Part Four · Millennial Mustard Seed

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  To understand spiritual warfare, we need to understand what we
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  are fighting against. Scripture reveals that at the
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  present time, Satan's headquarters are in the
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  heavenlies or second heaven. Paul gives us a clear picture of
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  this in his letter to the Ephesians.
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  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
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  principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness
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  of this world, against spiritual wickedness.
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  In I places, the King James Version, while quite familiar,
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  does not give us the most accurate translation.
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  Let's break this verse down into a more literal understanding.
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  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
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  principalities, against powers. In Ephesians and other passages,
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  the words principalities and powers are often joined closely
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  together. The word principalities derived
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  directly from the Greek word for ruler.
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  The word power, is the word for authority.
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  So to say that our wrestling match as believers is not
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  against flesh and blood, not against human beings, but
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  against rulerships in the realms of their authority.
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  It is also against rulers of the darkness of this world.
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  A more literal wording of this would be against the world
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  rulers of the present darkness. The darkness of this present age
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  has a world headquarters from which it is ruled.
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  The headquarters is the mid heaven and the ruler is Satan.
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  In Ephesians 22, Satan is called the Prince of the power of the
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  air. He is then the ruler of the
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  realm of authority that is defined by the air.
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  Many people picture Satan living down in the bowels of the earth.
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  He's not there. He's in the heavenlies.
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  Obviously he is not in the heaven that is God's dwelling.
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  He was cast down from that, but neither is he on earth.
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  Revelation 12/9 tells us that a time is coming when he will be
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  cast down out of the heavenlies onto earth.
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  Then it says he is going to make all the trouble he can in the
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  short time that is left to him. But in the meanwhile, up to the
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  fulfillment of that passage in Revelation 12, his headquarters
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  are in the mid heaven. We also wrestle against
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  spiritual wickedness in high places.
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  The King James wording high places here is completely
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  misleading. The same Greek word is used
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  numerous times in Ephesians, and in each of these places it is
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  correctly translated heavenly. Now let's view our more literal
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  translation of Ephesians 612. Our wrestling match is not
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  against flesh and blood, but against rulerships and the
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  realms of their authority, against the world rulers of the
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  present darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness
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  in the heavenly. This is our spiritual conflict
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  in the book of Daniel. The Bible gives us a vivid
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  picture of this battle in progress.
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  Let's turn there. Daniel, taken from Israel to
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  Babylon as a youth, remained a fervent student of the
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  literature of his people. As such, he was aware that the
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  prophetic timeline of the Babylonian captivity was coming
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  to a close in the first year of his reign.
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  I Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years
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  specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the
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  prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the
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  desolations of Jerusalem. Daniel began to pray for this
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  approaching eventuality with the time of fasting.
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  In those days I Daniel, was mourning 3 full weeks.
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  I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came to my mouth, nor
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  did I anoint myself at all till three whole weeks were
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  fulfilled. Daniel saw what God had
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  committed himself to do and responded with this attitude.
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  God, I'm in this with you. Count me in.
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  I'll give myself to prayer and fasting as I never have done
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  before until I see the fulfillment of your promise and
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  experience. We will explore the theme of
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  fasting as a powerful component to our prayers, particularly as
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  regards to the church in the last days.
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  For now, we note that fasting is a kind of spiritual mourning.
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  Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.
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  Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
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  Let me note that we must be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit
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  about this. We should not try to mourn when
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  the Holy Spirit is comforting us, and we should not try to
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  work up excitement and thrill when the Holy Spirit is calling
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  us to mourning. Daniel spent 21 days mourning,
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  praying, and waiting upon God. He did not fast completely, but
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  he abstained from all except the most basic forms of food and
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  drink. At the end of three weeks, the
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  Archangel Gabriel was sent to Daniel with revelation of God's
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  purpose for Israel in the last days.
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  The rest of chapter 10 and the next two chapters of Daniel
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  describe the advent of the Angel, his appearance, and the
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  revelation that he brought. For our purposes of
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  understanding spiritual warfare, let's look at the timeline of
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  the angels appearing. Then he said to me, Do not fear
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  Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to
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  understand and to humble yourself before your God, your
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  words were heard, and I have come because of your words.
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  Daniel's prayer was heard the first day that he started to
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  pray, but the Angel did not arrive till three weeks later.
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  What happened in the meanwhile? The next verse tells us this.
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  But the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days.
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  And behold, Michael, one of the chief Princess, came to help me,
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  for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.
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  When the Archangel Gabriel spoke about the Prince of the Kingdom
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  of Persia, he was not talking about a human being, he was
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  talking about one of the dark angels in the mid heaven.
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  Gabriel started on his journey the first day that Daniel
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  started to pray. Angelic warfare in the
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  heavenlies withheld his arrival. The good holy angels were
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  opposed and resisted by Satan's angels, the angels of darkness.
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  But notice it was Daniel's prayer on earth that got the
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  Archangel through. Do you see how important our
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  prayers are? The Archangel depended on Daniel
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  and his prayer to get through. Notice also that the initiative
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  is with earth, not heaven. Daniel started the whole thing
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  moving. And I venture to say in certain
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  respects this remains true today.
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  We are not waiting for God, God is waiting for us.
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  When we move, heaven will move. Then we'll come conflict and our
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  prayers on earth will settle it. We who are believers and know
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  how to pray are much more important than most of us have
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  the faintest idea. This is the basic picture of
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  spiritual conflict as it is unfolded in Scripture.
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  When the Angel left Daniel, he gave this further insight.
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  And now I must return to fight with the Prince of Persia.
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  And when I have gone forth, indeed the Prince of Greece will
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  come. The Prince of Persia was a
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  satanic Angel that dominated the Kingdom of Persia.
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  This was of particular importance to Daniel because
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  Persia was ruling over God's people, Israel.
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  When the Persian Empire was defeated, the Empire of Greece
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  followed. Behind the empire of Greece was
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  another Satanic Angel called the Prince of Greece.
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  This shows us that Earth's empires have their counterpart
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  in Satan's empire. In other words, Satan seeks to
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  control the empires of Earth through its rulers in order to
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  make its leaders and governments instruments of his will.
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  We must pray against this. The decisive factor in this
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  Great War with Satan is just one thing.
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  Praying believers. We are the ones who tip the
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  scale for victory on God's side, on earth, in our dominion.
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  This is an astonishing fact, but Scripture makes it clear that
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  this is so. Our prayers are not unimportant.
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  They are not secondary. They are the decisive issue in
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  the entire spiritual conflict. True believers are the most
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  powerful weapon. This is why God removes the
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  tares from the wheat and why there is a great falling away.
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  The true believers prayers will be in concentrate form.
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  This is also why the true believers are haunted down and
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  murdered. Welcome to revelation.
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  If we are involved in spiritual warfare against a spiritual
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  enemy, it is obvious that we must have spiritual weapons.
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  Carnal weapons are of no use whatever for spiritual warfare.
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  You're not going to get God a demon with a GAT.
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  You can't blast a fallen messenger with infrared homing
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  missiles built by Stark Enterprises.
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  This is what Paul said. For though we walk in the flesh,
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  we do not war according to the flesh.
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  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in
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  God for pulling down strongholds.
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  Strongholds are the altars built to worship the demonic realm and
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  the fallen messengers in whatever terminology they are
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  representing themselves as such, but not limited to the Egyptian
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  Sumerian, the Greek, Canaanite, Roman norischogs and demagogues.
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  These altars hosted human and animal sacrifices, blood
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  drinking, sex, magic and rituals, all designed to break
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  down the veil and allow entities behind the veil to roam freely
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  in our domain. Whose business is it to pull
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  them down? Ours.
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  And we have been given the weapons, the weapons of our
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  warfare, cast down arguments at every high thing that exalts
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  itself against the knowledge of God.
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  The great high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of
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  God is Satan's Kingdom in the heavenlies.
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  We have been given the weapons to cast Satan's Kingdom down.
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  We are the ones who are going to do it.
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  The weapons have been placed in our hands rather than the hands
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  of the angels, though the angels have their weapons.