Spiritual Maneuver

Principles of War: Maneuver

Maneuver is the movement of forces in relation to the enemy to gain positional advantage. Effective?maneuver?keeps the enemy off-balance and protects the force.?

It is used to exploit successes, to preserve freedom of action and to reduce vulnerability. It continually poses new problems for the enemy by rendering his actions ineffective, eventually leading to defeat.?

At all levels of war, successful application of maneuver requires agility of thought, plans, operations and organizations. It requires designating and then shifting points of main effort and the considered application of the principles of mass and economy of force.?

Inspirational Insight

Preparing for Spiritual Combat, by Bruce A. Carlson, does a great job explaining how we, as Christians, can use spiritual maneuvers.

It’s critical that we develop basic spiritual maneuvers that allow us to successfully navigate the pitfalls of life and become spiritually self-reliant.

As a young fighter pilot, I learned a series of basic fighter maneuvers — like the barrel-roll attack, Immelmann turn and high-speed yo-yo.?

These maneuvers, when used individually or in combination with each other, allowed me to employ the F-4 Phantom jet effectively in dangerous situations, to attack more lethally or to defend more successfully.?

Pilots who learned, practiced and perfected these maneuvers always did better in actual combat, helping them save resources and lives.

I once investigated an airplane accident where a young lieutenant was trying to practice the basic fighter maneuver called a pop-up attack.?

The plan called for him to approach the target at low level and high speed, acquire the target, then pull up abruptly and, at the appropriate altitude, roll over and attack the target at a 20-degree dive angle — for more effective weapons effects.

This particular lieutenant tunneled his vision solely on the target, not paying attention to anything else, and suddenly he found himself in the clouds.?

But if you’re in the clouds and your only reference is the ground, then you’ve lost the ability to effectively continue the attack.

Instead of discontinuing the attack and executing the appropriate escape maneuver as he’d been trained, the young pilot thought, “Well, I remember where the target is, so I’m going to keep going.”?

Because he’d had no real reference, he’d flown too high. So when he rolled over, he exited the clouds at a steep 45-degree angle and was flying much too fast to avoid hitting the ground.?

Realizing his mistake, he immediately pulled the ejection handle, just prior to the airplane impacting the ground.?Because he failed to perform a single basic maneuver, he lost a valuable combat aircraft and came within about a half second of losing his life.

In a similar way, it’s critical that we develop basic spiritual maneuvers that allow us to successfully navigate the pitfalls of life and become spiritually self-reliant.?

Like the fighter pilots in training, when we learn, practice and become proficient in the skills of the gospel, we will be able to stand strong — sometimes alone if we have to — in times of mortal spiritual combat.?

There are a number of basic gospel maneuvers that we need to learn in order to become self-reliant in times of spiritual combat, like obeying the commandments, making the Sabbath day a delight, heeding the words of living prophets and many more.

• Regularly Reading the Scriptures?— Reading the scriptures on a regular basis is how we become familiar not only with their terminology and language but also with our heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We don’t come to know someone we’re not familiar with. By familiarizing ourselves with God and His word, we become more receptive to His message.?
• Studying the Scriptures?— Studying is one step further than reading. When we deeply study the scriptures, we not only have the influence of the Holy Ghost with us, but we also allow Him to direct our minds toward the things that He wants us to learn.
• Praying Meaningfully?— Developing patterns of prayer is important throughout life. When an unexpected crisis arrives, if we’ve developed the skill of meaningful prayer, then we’ll be able to withstand those times more easily. Each day we should work to have kneeling, unrehearsed and meaningful prayers where we spend time listening and contemplating what we want to talk with God about before and after we say it.
• Pondering?— When we ponder what we’ve learned from our Scripture study and prayer, we invite Jesus Christ into our hearts and our minds, allowing Him to help us change our attitudes and also for the Holy Ghost to sanctify us.?

Reading, studying, praying and pondering are all forms of Spiritual Maneuver.