Warfare: Winning the Spiritual Battle by Tony Evans

About the Book:

Where do you need victory?

You feel stuck – or even held back – in your spiritual life. You want more for your life, but every time you reach for more of Jesus, you're knocked down again. Whether it's marital challenges, financial distress, or the recurring pain of old wounds, the Enemy finds a way to keep you discouraged and disabled.

Are you ready to fight back? Step one: Recognize you're on a supernatural battlefield. Step Two: Learn everything you can about this battle – how it began, how it will end, who's fighting, how to fight, and most importantly how to find victory.

Warfare is your introductory guide to spiritual warfare. In it, trusted pastor and teacher Tony Evans will teach you:

1. To identify how spiritual warfare is impacting your soul, family, church, and culture.

2. Who the armies are and what role they play – God, angels, demons, and the devil.

3. How to claim the victory God has already won.

The most dangerous battles you'll ever face are the ones you can't see. Learn to fight and win today.

My Thoughts:

In Warfare: Winning the Spiritual Battle, Dr. Tony Evans tackles the complicated topic of spiritual warfare. Dr. Evans spends substantial time fleshing out the history of spiritual warfare, who is involved in the war, and how to fight the war. He writes so that someone with little or no previous knowledge of spiritual warfare can get a comprehensive view of the subject matter.

In the pages of Warfare, I also found good, practical advice on matters such as: recognizing one's responsibility and power to direct one's thoughts/doubts, reverence for the Lord God, realizing that people/situations are not the real enemy and who the actual enemy is, the necessity of prayer, the danger of elevating things or people above God, and more.

There was one major idea in Warfare that Dr. Evans did not completely convince me about: that all spiritual warfare happens because Satan wants to steal God's glory and God is all about keeping His glory. Dr. Evans explains why he believes this, but I was not convinced. The way it was presented made God seem narcissistic. My personal belief is that spiritual warfare happens because God loves humans and wants a relationship with them while the enemy hates humans and works to prevent that relationship with God. Perhaps I am in the wrong, but I just wasn't convinced in this matter.

It is important to note that Warfare is written from a conservative, evangelical worldview. Those who disagree with said worldview will likely disagree with several things including Dr. Evans' view of the necessity of the wife's submission in marriage.

Personally, I would have liked to have seen Chapter 9 go into further detail about the weapons we can use in this war – commonly known as the Armor of God in Ephesians 6. (Dr. Evans' daughter, Priscilla Shirer, has a fabulous in-depth study on this particular topic if you want to explore more with practical application)

Lastly, I noted that the copyright page shows that Warfare is a condensed version of Tony Evans' book, The Battle is the Lord's, and that part of chapter 1 is excerpted from his book, Kingdom Man. So, just a heads-up that if you have read The Battle is the Lord's, the material might be very similar.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."