I heard the statement when I was a youth pastor from one teen boy that he didn’t want to follow God full on because that made him a better target for the devil.  Honestly I didn’t exactly know what to say. I wish I’d been able to give him a list of the top 6 spiritual warfare books I’ve read, but maybe he wouldn’t have read them anyway?

Proverbs 4:18 says that the path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn shining ever brighter til the full light of day, so why do so many Christians feel like they are always getting attacked by the devil?

It should have been a good cause for me to go search out an answer, dig my roots deeper.  I knew I should have had an answer . . . but I didn’t, not until storm after storm hit us and my house wasn’t weathering too good.  I knew I needed a better foundation in what I believed so that I could truly overcome as I knew we are called to do, and yet I see so many not . . . so what was the secret?

We can read a Scripture verse and know it, but it’s ‘knowing’ it that sets us free. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.  Part of knowing it is writing it, meditating on it, seeing a full picture in Scripture of our authority in Christ.  It’s part of the reason I’m a firm believer in Scripture Writing.

Think: Write: Speak

We can build positive strongholds in our lives by rewiring our brains, or as the Bible puts it, renewing our minds, and when we know how much authority we have, the devil has to flee from us, it’s not this confusing tug of war, where we know that we theoretically have the authority but we aren’t seeing the circumstances line up with that.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, so the more we hear Scripture taught that shows us our authority, and the victory we have in Christ, the quicker the devil backs off, cause he knows that we know our authority and that he will get whooped.

And remember the Word of God is living and active, we aren’t just telling ourselves to believe something, this Word has substance.    Hebrews 4:12

Now thanks be unto God who always causes us to triumph in Christ.  2 Corinthians 2:14

In the Roman times there was a parade and the generals would bring back the conquered king, they would strip him naked, cut his toes off so he couldn’t run, cut his thumbs off so he couldn’t hold a sword and parade him so that the people could see he had been conquered and would no longer be afraid of him anymore.

This is what Paul was describing in 2 Corinthians 2:14.

Those five words, always causes us to triumph, in Greek is just one word: thriambeuō  (Strong’s G2358) and is only used one other time in  Colossians 2:15 where it says,  ‘having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them publicly triumphing over them in it.’

This story is a transcript of the Charis Daily Live Bible Study with Cindy Pearsons titled We Always Triumph in Christ, and is well worth listening to.  I have listened to it nearly ten times.

With this story in mind, I want to share with you the top 6  Spiritual Warfare books I have read that focus on this victory we have in Christ.

I read a couple of fascinating stories in a few Andrew Wommack books,  The Believer’s Authority and The Power of the Imagination.

The first is of a woman in the States who was married to a Satanist who abused both her and her children, kept them locked up and caused things to levitate around the house. Somehow the woman managed to find Andrew and asked his advice as to whether she should get a divorce.  I believe he said she probably had reasonable grounds for one, however if she was willing to learn her identity in Christ, that her husband would lose his power over her.  She chose to do that and steadfastly began listening to teaching on her identity in Christ and her husband lost his demonic powers and ran out of the house.  She prayed for him for several years and one night he came back as a man who had given his life to God and been completely set free.

The second was about a young lady who came to him for prayer who had been dedicated to her families gods in Africa, but she had come across to America to attend the Charis Bible College that he had founded.

The demons didn’t like it and were causing her physical harm at night while she slept.  She came to Andrew asking for prayer but he said, ‘No, if you continue learning who you are in Christ then you will understand your authority and they will have to leave you, and never bother you again.’   And that’s exactly what happened.

I tell you these stories because the Bible says, That we overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies Revelation 12:11

And that’s exactly what happened when I read that testimony, I overcame.

See I had been quite sick from toxic mold poisoning which had led to major food allergies to the point where I was allergic to all but 4 foods.  and had been told that there must be some generational bondage or some sin of my fore fathers that was keeping me sick.  But it didn’t seem to matter how much I repented of it on their behalf, a popular teaching in some Christian circles, I never quite managed to get better.  I was utterly confused.

I read that testimony and was instantly healed and able to start eating bread , dairy and raw fruit and veg again which had been the biggest culprit in making my lips and throat tingle and swell.  6 months later after continuing to consume God’s Word on healing I was able to eat peanuts again without a reaction.

God said a few things to me over a period of 6 months.

Fill your mind with My Truth – I decided if it wasn’t simple than I wasn’t going to listen to it.  I wrote out large portions of straight Scripture while also listening to people who didn’t complicate the Gospel.  God heals, God delivers and He still does it today.  People like Joseph Prince, Andrew Wommack, Kenneth Hagin,  Todd White and Margaret Court.

(Remember faith comes by hearing.  So I made sure I was hearing the Word as much as possible whilst homeschooling two children.  I basically got up at 5, listened to a sermon for an hour or two.  Sorted out breakfast for everyone, cleaned up, did our school work, ate lunch and let them watch tv for a little while.  Listened to more Scripture or wrote it out.  Had outside time, walking, swings, trampoline, playing ball, whilst listening to Scripture or healing testimonies.  Dinner.  Bed for them, writing more Scripture for me.)

Quickly Release the Synergis – I had a dream one night where I was reading through prophetic words by Lana Vawser and Nate Johnston, both whom originated from our home church, Glory City Church, and complaining to God that I hadn’t seen many of the words come to pass and I got this feeling that I need to read the words they had written and as I did, speak out, I agree with the words of the prophets.

I feel asleep and had a dream where I was very sick and being wheeled in a wheelchair towards a hospital bed.  The nurse came in and attaching me to an IV said, ‘Quickly release the synergis’.  Then I woke up.

I looked up the word synergis, or synergism which means when two medicines work together to create a super boost.  I wasn’t exactly sure what this meant to begin with, but I kept listening to good preaching of the Gospel and healing testimonies.  A few months later the next piece of the puzzle came.

What Does it Look Like to Rewrite this from Victory – I had been writing a letter to my husband’s cousin and very mildly complaining about my health issues, when suddenly that phrase popped into my head.   I scrunched up the letter and rewrote it much more positively, but actually that wasn’t what God was saying.  He wanted me to picture my day as it would look like when I could drive places further than 15 mins away because I didn’t have diarhea, insomnia and food allergies.  He wanted me to picture myself being pregnant again, what seemed like a huge miracle after a miscarriage that I had nearly died from.

It is no good filling yourself full of God’s truth about healing and victory if you are still imagining yourself sick and defeated. 

Andrew Wommack’s book The Power of Imagination later confirmed this to me, as did Margaret Court’s book, Train Your Brain, where she talked about how she had gotten caught up in confusing Christian teaching that had led to her feeling trapped and sick.  When she started listening to the straight Gospel of God healing and what Jesus accomplished at the cross, she started to see victory over mental health issues and her torn heart valve.  She would meditate on healing Scriptures while also imagining herself healed and had a picture of a healthy heart valve on her desk.

In her book Margaret Court also talks about how we can create positive strongholds in our mind by rewiring them with Scripture, and Joseph Prince also shares a lot about how to renew our minds and build Biblical strongholds as well.

Joseph Prince’s book The Power of Right Believing – 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt and Addiction is chock full of Scriptures and examples of how what we believe about God and ourselves in relation to Him will absolutely frame the results we see.

He shared a story of a chaplain who was sent to work with the worst inmates of a mental home.  They were nonverbal and not responding to anything, simply locked in a room together.  He didn’t know where to start and God told him just to sing Jesus Loves Me over and over for weeks.  Eventually all but a couple of members of the room were completely healed and were released into normal society.

Joseph Prince has seen so many people set free from fear and anxiety by learning to receive God’s love towards them, which fits beautifully with the Scripture,

Perfect love casts out fear.  1 John 4:18

You have the victory – This was another piece of the puzzle that God spoke to me one day when I was sitting in the library stacking colourful magnetic bricks with Miss 3 while Miss 6 was having an art lesson at the other end of the street.

We know this in theory, but sometimes we have to look at what that actually means to start really meditating on it and knowing it, and you’ll remember that near the beginning of this blog post I shared the Scripture that says God always causes us to triumph, along with a visual picture of exactly what that victory looks like and how defeated Satan actually is.  We need to reinforce that in our minds.

As you eat the promises of God, they become part of you and begin to manifest –  as we continually listen to stories of God healing, we begin to see healing, as we hear stories of God bringing freedom to people, it builds us up in our faith and authority and we see results when we pray for people.

 

The fifth book I want to recommend is Supernatural Freedom by Katherine Ruonala.

This book really lays out for us our identity in Christ and how we are called to live, the freedom we have in Christ and who we are in Him.

I remember her telling the story of when she was younger and telling God she wanted to be involved in intercession, really just a fancy word for praying over places and situations, but that she didn’t know which demons to bind, and God said to her, just focus on Jesus and the victory He’s won.

Honestly that has served her well.  She had a desire as a young woman to see the blind see and the deaf hear, and every other ailment healed and so she would hire out VCRs and cassette tapes from the library on people like John G Lake, Smith Wigglesworth and Kathryn Kuhlman who really knew their authority in Christ, and then she would imagine herself also praying over people and seeing similar miracles.

This is using our imagination in a godly way because we are ALL called to go into the world and make disciples, heal the sick and cast out demons, but we MUST know who we are by studying the Word of God.  Andrew Wommack also talks about using our imagination in this way in the book that I recommended above.

Many people around Katherine Ruonala didn’t believe that she would see these things as she struggled with insecurity and post partum depression where she wouldn’t leave the house as a young mum, but she was tenacious in learning her identity in Christ by immersing herself in the Word and testimonies of those who already understood these truths.

 

And the sixth book I want to recommend is Psalm 91 by Peggy Joyce Ruth

Peggy has stories of how God’s Word set her free as she began meditating on it from severe mental illness which had included shock treatments to try and cure her.

She studied every verse in Psalm 91 and what exactly God was promising to her; protection from disease, disaster, accidents, traps of the enemy etc, and each chapter focuses on one verse with an easy to read, power packed, devotional and then at the end of the book she has many testimonies of people that she has taught to use God’s Word like a literal shield.

I was privileged to interview her, right here on this blog a few years ago, and she also has an amazing podcast on Spotify.

I hope I have given you some good resources to build your faith, by continuing to look at Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith.

I have been completely healed of toxic mold poisoning and severe food allergies, and recently had my third supernatural childbirth.

If you are looking for testimonies to build up your faith in the area of healing or deliverance, one of the best resources I found were the Healing Journeys videos on Andrew Wommacks website.  There are testimonies of people who have been healed of Lyme’s disease, all manner of stomach issues, allergies, autism, brain injuries, fibra mialgia, multiple sclerosis, cancers, drug overdoses, self harming, alcoholism and many other things.