Baptist City Blog

When I was training to get my pilot’s license, the instructor constantly taught us in the ground school how to recover from a spin. He said that you only had a few hundred feet to recover, so responding correctly was a life or death situation in most cases. We were taught when the plane went into a spin to let go of the yoke, push the opposite rudder pedal of the direction of the spin, push in full throttle, and then pull up. I honestly thought I would never need that advice.

One day, I was practicing maneuvers to better my skills. I was flying solo, which means I was the only one in the plane. While practicing turning stalls, the plane went into a full spin. Immediately, I did what I was trained to do during ground school: I let go of the yoke, applied the opposite rudder pedal of the direction of the spin, pushed in full throttle, and pulled the plane back up into level flight. Though the spin caused my blood to flow a bit more, the recovery from the spin was accomplished by following the instructions I had been taught.

When Jehoshaphat saw the great armies of the Ammonites and Moabites coming to war against Judah, he must have felt like he was in a spin. The verse above truly shows that he knew it was out of his hands. Jehoshaphat could only trust in God to fight this battle, and that trust proved to be the key to winning the battle. When you find yourself in a spiritual spin, the steps Jehoshaphat took will help you to recover.

If you are going to recover from a spiritual spin, you must first acknowledge your inability and God’s ability. Jehoshaphat said, “…we have no might against this great company…” The worst thing to do when you are in a spiritual spin is to continue to use your wisdom when God’s wisdom is the only thing that will pull you out of the spin. Friend, stop relying on what you know and start depending on what God knows.

Second, you must take your hands off the controls of your life if you are going to recover from the spiritual spin. Jehoshaphat continued, “…neither know we what to do…” You are going to make your spiritual spin worse the more you try to recover on your own. There must come a time when you take your hands off and say, “Neither know I what to do.” The longer you attempt to do things yourself, the worse your spin will become. Christian, you are going to have to trust the LORD if you want to recover.

Third, you must keep your eyes on the LORD if you want to recover from your spiritual spin. Jehoshaphat said, “…our eyes are upon thee.” All he could do was rely on the One Who had the power to pull him out of his situation. When you find yourself in a spiritual spin, you better get alone with God in prayer and place your eyes on Him. God has the power to pull you out of your spiritual spin. He knows what caused your spiritual spin, and He knows how to counteract what caused it.

You will never recover from your spiritual spin until you take your hands off the controls of your life and trust God to pull you out of it. It is a hopeless feeling to be in a spiritual spin, but the LORD can help you if you place your eyes on Him.