Book Reviews: The Spiritual Realm

Understanding Your Worst Enemy

The author presents a relatively short book full of practical, valuable insight from his experience in ministry and scriptural research. In text that’s easy to read, he describes Satan’s origin, why he fell from his position at God’s throne and why he now has his own kingdom. The majority of the book, however, explains how we can recognize what Satan is doing and how we can respond appropriately, including how to deal with demonic spirits.

The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible

This outstanding book reveals truths from the original biblical text about the spiritual realm, written by a renown expert in Semitic languages. It’s fascinating reading and I highlighted paragraphs on most of the pages. It helped me understand more about the spiritual kingdoms, the conflict between them, how that affects our daily lives and other important topics I hadn’t even suspected. The book is a valuable resource for a serious student of the Bible.

Indestructible: Fight Your Spiritual Battles from the Winning Side

The author is renown for his ability to see and be effective in the spiritual realm, and this book provides an essential foundation for us to do the same. More importantly, however, this book helps us understand the nature and tactics of our spiritual enemy, Satan, and how to overcome him. This is practical and invaluable teaching for every Christian. It’s important to understand Satan and his demons, but from God’s perspective, which Healy provides.

The author identifies common tactics the enemy uses against us, how to know when he’s using those tactics, and how to defeat them. Healy stresses our best preparation for dealing with the enemy is becoming familiar with God, his nature and ways. The second half of the book explains keys to becoming indestructible and operating from the winning side.

The author’s stated goal is to help us build lives the enemy can’t touch. We are the light of the world because we present God’s glory in a dark world, and darkness is simply the absence of light, not its equal.

Judgment of the Nephilim

The author clearly did extensive research on the topic and documented his findings well. I highlighted many paragraphs because his insights are worth pondering. His explanations are very plausible, though I don’t agree with all of his conclusions; of course, I haven’t studied the topic as much as he has. Definitely a worthwhile read and a great basis for further study.

Profound Good: See God Through the Lens of His Love

This is even better than the author’s previous book, “The Veil: An Invitation to the Unseen Realm.” He states clearly that the purpose of seeing the spiritual realm is to improve our relationship with God by seeing his nature, what he’s doing and what he intends more clearly. In the process, we love him more purely and serve him more effectively. The author’s descriptions of his experiences were very insightful and some were entertaining. It makes you want to see.

Secrets of the Seer: 10 Keys to Activating Seer Encounters

This is an excellent resource for developing one’s ability to sense the spiritual realm. With very practical suggestions and lots of personal experiences, the author describes key insights that would benefit any Christian, not just seers. An important point in the book is the purpose of all such experiences: getting to know God better and becoming more intimate with him. I highly recommend this book.

The Veil: An Invitation to the Unseen Realm

This is very different than other resources on seers, due to the author’s candid descriptions of his experiences and struggles. In that sense, it was refreshing and encouraging. There were a few statements that concerned me, but otherwise I believe the book is compatible with scripture and a good complement to other books on the subject of seeing in the spiritual realm.

Unmasking the Devil: Strategies to Defeat Eternity’s Greatest Enemy

Ramirez was a Satan-worshiper for 25 years and became a warlock and demonic high priest before being transformed by the power of God. He definitely was an insider in the dark kingdom and now exposes the devil’s strategies and limitations. The author reveals specific spirits dominating world cultures, neighborhoods, families and individuals. He shows how we give evil spirits authority to influence us, gain greater power over us and ultimately control us. He identifies common practices that expose us to the enemy’s activities in our lives and nine critical areas we Christians must be aware of to gain our spiritual freedom, including how to use our spiritual authority effectively.

Angel Armies: Releasing the Warriors of Heaven

This is a great biblical presentation about the nature and activities of angels. The author draws truths from scripture that most of us overlook or simply don’t understand. He explains the angels’ involvement in our lives to perform God’s will and provide us with indispensable help, even when we don’t realize it. His description of how our words and actions determine what our “invisible allies” can do for us is enlightening. I definitely recommend the book. It’s well-researched and easy to read.

Encountering Angels: Real-Life Experiences of Heavenly Intervention

Jerame Nelson; Rating: 4

The author presents some very interesting firsthand experiences with angels in his ministry and daily life. The book is an eye-opener about angelic involvement in our lives, including everyday activities, serving others and fulfilling one’s life purpose. Especially helpful are insights to how our attitudes, actions and proper use of our spiritual authority affect angels’ work in our behalf and how we can determine whether we’ve actually encountered one of these magnificent beings. I haven’t had extensive firsthand experience as the author has and I can’t find biblical confirmation for some of his assertions, so the book may deserve five stars but I only gave it four.

Needless Casualties of War

John Paul Jackson consistently makes spiritual matters understandable for the rest of us and “Needless Casualties of War” is an excellent example. While the overall topic is spiritual warfare, the principles the author describes are relevant to all believers, not just intercessors and others who actively engage in spiritual conflict. The key is realizing that our spiritual authority is relevant to our domain, not universal. “Needless Casualties” is an important read for any Christian who wants to know more about the spiritual realm.

School of the Spirit: Operating Powerfully in the Spirit Realm

This book contains important insights that can help a Christian work more effectively with the Holy Spirit. It begins by describing human structure — the human spirit, soul and body — then explains why it’s essential to build up one’s spirit and how to do that. It shows why it’s important to use spiritual authority correctly, to speak and pray in tongues, to recognize the ways God leads us and how to use prophecy correctly. The book is relatively short and easy to read and presents the material well, which makes it a great asset for anyone who wants to live a spiritual life.

Sharpen Your Discernment: Because When Life Looks Grey It’s Really Black and White

I like to highlight important points in the books I read and a few are so full of important points they have highlights on most of the pages. Sharpen Your Discernment is one of those books. This one statement summarizes the book’s scope: “To go forward in the strength of God, you must discern the character differences between the Spirit of God, godly angels, demon power, human motivation, and spiritual mixtures.” The author expertly develops these points in separate chapters then explains how we can sharpen our discernment and why we sometimes fail to discern accurately. The book is full of spiritual wisdom we desperately need today.

School of the Supernatural: Live the Supernatural Life That God Created You to Live

While most Christians remain focused on everyday natural life on earth, author Ryan Wyatt insists that authentic Christianity is inherently supernatural. “When Jesus came to the earth in human flesh, He came to be an exact prototype of what is possible for every born-again believer…. As believers, we are a new breed in the earth.” On that foundation, the author presents keys to becoming effective in the supernatural. He explains how to develop essential skills, such as recognizing God’s voice and seeing what he shows us, and how to align ourselves with him. The next step involves developing our spirits so we can sense what’s happening in the spiritual realm. The author skillfully guides the reader through key steps to living in the supernatural.

Beyond the Ancient Door: Free to Move About the Heavens

James Durham describes an important protocol for entering God’s presence that not only honors him, it radically changes our attitude and prepares us to interact with the Almighty, the one and only true God. This protocol celebrates who God is and what he has done to reconcile us to himself and redeem every part of our life and nature through his Son, Jesus.

The author describes some of his experiences in Heaven and creates an appetite in the reader that can’t be satisfied with anything less. He then explains how to prepare oneself and actually enter the spiritual realm. He also explains very clearly why godly character is essential for anyone pursuing spiritual experiences.

The author explains that God clearly wants all of his people to visit the Third Heaven, but not just as an exciting experience. God uses those visits to train and commission us for greater spiritual responsibility on earth, so the question is whether we’re willing to obey the Lord regardless of how challenging the assignment may be.

I’ve read several books about intentionally preparing oneself and seeking visits to Heaven, and each offers a different perspective and insights. This book is among the best I’ve read. I’d give it more stars if I could.

Keys to Open Heaven

The author gives practical steps to effective Christian living, which are appropriate for all believers and I’m certain are beneficial to many readers. Having read “Beyond the Ancient Door” by this author, however, I eagerly anticipated a follow-up and was very disappointed.

Gazing Into Glory: Every Believer’s Birthright to Walk in the Supernatural

The author explains how God wants to interact with us and allow us to experience his glory through dreams, visions and face-to-face encounters. These are all available as a birthright for every born-again believer.

God gave us imagination and it’s a major key to such experiences, so it’s essential that we purify our thoughts and imagination. Our imagination enables our mind to “see” the spiritual realm and what’s coming from our spirit. As the author states, “The bridge between the soul and the spirit, between the natural and supernatural, is a sanctified imagination.” We need to honor our imagination and understand its language, which consists primarily of images. Properly using our imagination is a key to exercising our faith. Imagination enables us to “see” beyond our current situations, to visualize the reality of what God said, is doing or about to do.

This book is among the best I’ve read about intentionally preparing oneself for experiencing the spiritual realm. I very highly recommend it.

Spirit, Soul & Body

Some of what the author states is good, but I strongly disagree with some of his key points.

Angels at Your Service: Releasing the Power of Heaven’s Host

This should be read with caution, because it sometimes twists scripture to conform to the author’s topic.

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