Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Fantasy/YA

Series: The Delusion, Book 1

Highly Recommended!

This novel is a powerful illustration of spiritual warfare, with a simultaneously engaging story.

Suicide has become an epidemic at Masonville High School. High school senior, Owen Edmonds has a strange encounter that allows him to see creepy creatures preying on his friends and family—binding them with shackles and chains, and manipulating their thoughts. Warning people about the unseen evil he sees makes things worse. Owen also encounters a girl who is different. While everyone else is in bondage, she is glowing. What does she have that the others are missing? And why aren’t the angelic beings that Owen also sees not always able to intervene? Owen searches for truth, while also becoming more engaged in the mystery and physical obstacles that surround him, and the impending threat which darkness is planning for his high school.

This is one of the best YA novels I’ve read. It addresses relevant struggles, while illuminating the very real spiritual battle behind the physical experience of depression and other negative thought patterns. There is freedom in knowing what we are fighting against, and receiving the truth in Jesus that brings life.

The writing is aimed at middle and high school students, and are books I would like my own kids to read. My only critique is that the end comes pretty abruptly, with much more to be addressed. I look forward to the other books in the series.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Tyndale.

 

Genre: Christian Living/Spiritual Warfare

Recommended.

This devotional guide to spiritual warfare is engaging and approachable. Separated into 30 short chapters, Kristine McGuire shares openly and candidly from her apostate experience as a practicing witch. Now a born-again believer, she outlines the basics of the spiritual battle, the armor of God from Ephesians 6, several of the most common battlefields (e.g. suffering, fear, and anger), and how to relate to God and the supernatural within our identity in Him.

McGuire writes in the style of oral language, which makes the grammar a bit “creative” at times, and I admit to having been slightly distracted by this. However, her sweet and honest tone make her words come to life as if she were presenting live to a friend, and some readers may even find this style more engaging and relatable.

Having experienced the occult myself, I also think she could have gone into more detail regarding the nature of the spiritual battle as it overlaps with the physical realm—but maybe this would be better in another separate book.

Finally, the reflection questions at the end of each chapter are particularly good, and would make an excellent outline for a discussion based study group.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Chosen Books.

Genre: Spiritual Growth/Spiritual Warfare

Highly Recommended.

Spirit Wars is one of the best books I’ve read in awhile. It is short and simple, but I was deeply impacted by Kris Vallotton’s encouragement, personal stories, the way he presents the truth of the gospel, and his insight into the supernatural realm.

Early on in the book, he uses the metaphor of a haunted house to show how many Christians are deceived into believing they are in a war with their flesh. As Christians, we know that ghosts of past residents do not haunt houses—rather, ghosts are demons that sometimes pose as real or deceased people, and those demons are the ones doing the haunting. Likewise, when we believe we are struggling against our sinful flesh, it cannot actually be our flesh if we’ve repented and become a born-again believer in Jesus. Our sinful nature died on the cross with Jesus and we were resurrected with Him, so any current struggle is no longer with the dead self, but with demons who try to impersonate our former state. Our flesh is weak, but it is no longer corrupt. I found this metaphor so powerful that it’s been easier than ever for me to take every thought captive and live in uninterrupted freedom.

I also loved the way Kris describes our triune being (soul, spirit, body). A few years ago I was diagnosed with a chronic illness, and have spent so much energy on my body (eating, sleeping, exercising) that I hadn’t considered that focusing my attention away from my body might be just what I need. For the last couple weeks, I’ve made it my priority to laugh more, find fun things to do, and to be a bit looser with dealing with my body (still being mindful of good health, of course). It’s been going great! Kris’s situation and stories are completely different from my experience, and yet his stories and teaching triggered me to think outside the box so that I could better hear what the Holy Spirit was guiding me to do. I appreciate how his writing is so conversational and easy to relate to—despite the differences in our circumstances.

There are other books that deal more thoroughly with deliverance/sozo ministry (I particularly recommend the author Neil T. Anderson, as many of his books encouraged me after my own deliverance experience), but Spirit Wars is special in that it’s clear, concise, and accessible, without lacking in depth or impact. I think every Christian could benefit from reading this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House.

I haven’t seen much of the spiritual realm.  Not comparatively.  I have occasionally seen demons and paranormal activity; I dabbled in the occult and experienced a great deal of power, then I was “delivered” (we could say exorcised), and experienced the even greater power of the Lord, multiple miracles, et cetera, et cetera.  But I do not see most things most of the time—not in that realm.

But this is the point:

Most people do not see the spiritual realm, but it nonetheless exists.  And if Christians DID see it… well, I think they would live quite differently (in fact, I think everyone would).

We wouldn’t, after all, allow poisonous snakes and deadly spiders to infiltrate our homes.  Not if we could see them.  Not if we were sober.  We would get shovels and bug spray and hire an exterminator—anything to get rid of the problem.  And yet, many of us DO have such in our homes, and sometimes in our bodies.  We live in a way that is detestable to the Lord.  We do things and watch things and listen to things and think about things that we don’t even realize are destroying us; we don’t realize our actions are attracting the enemy and beginning a cycle of temptation, lust, sin and death (James 1).  Worse is feeling oppression and conviction and making excuses to deal with it later.

If only we could see what we were up against.  If only we understood what weapons we as Christians have against the powers of darkness.

For the follower of Jesus there really are no excuses.  It’s a question of who and what we Love.

This is a guest post by my husband, Ben.

Recommended. C.S. Lewis’ classic radio presentation made best-selling book is now available through Focus on the Family in a chilling audio dramatization!

The Screwtape Letters is true classic.  Having never read the book, I found this to be a powerful listening experience.  It has really changed the way I think about the demonic realm!  While I’ve been familar with spiritual warfare for awhile now and am aware of some of the ways the devil schemes against us, this book brought my awareness to a whole new level.  The book is fictional and should be treated as such, but it’s possible that reality isn’t too different.  It has certainly given me something to think about.

Perhaps the most important thing that can be learned from this book is that the demonic realm has no friends.  Those who think Hell will be a party among friends will be sadly disappointed.

In this audio rendition the actors and background music really brought this to life.  The only downside was the bonus musical soundtrack.  The lyrics were superficial at best, definitely not matching up to the depth and brilliance of C.S. Lewis’ work.

For more information on this product, check out: http://www.screwtape.com.