Best Christian Books on Spiritual Warfare: 12 Classics to Read Free
If you want one book on spiritual warfare, read J. H. Jowett's The Whole Armour of God. It is a set of short sermons on Ephesians 6, one piece of armour at a time, preached while the First World War was being fought. If you would rather have a story, read John Bunyan's The Holy War, the great allegory of a soul besieged, lost and won back.
The old writers took the devil seriously. They believed he is a real person, a liar and an accuser, and that every Christian is in a fight. But they did not make him the center of attention. They kept pointing past him to Christ, who has already beaten him at the cross. They said the armour of God is not our own strength of character. It is Christ Himself, put on by faith. The weapons are plain ones: truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, the Word of God and prayer. And they warned that the enemy does his worst work on the ordinary ground of daily life, more by trickery than by open attack.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Ephesians 6:11
Here are twelve of the best in TheWay Library, starting with Ephesians 6 and moving out to stories, the Old Testament battles and warnings about the occult.
Start here: the armour of God
1. The Whole Armour of God, by J. H. Jowett
Jowett starts with "the invisible antagonisms," the spiritual powers set against the soul, and then takes the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of hope and the sword of the Spirit. Later sermons cover prayer, watchfulness, enduring hardness and Christ as the unseen Commander on the field. Each sermon opens with one of Jowett's pulpit prayers.
We are to use God's thought about a thing in fighting all other thoughts about that thing.
The Whole Armour of God, chapter 7
Read The Whole Armour of God. See also J. H. Jowett's books.
2. Ephesian Studies, by H. C. G. Moule
Bishop Moule's last long chapter on Ephesians, "The Spiritual Conflict," is one of the finest short treatments of Ephesians 6 in English. He notices that Paul turns to the armour straight after writing about husbands, wives, children and work, because the enemy so often attacks on that quiet, common ground. And he says that, reduced to its essence, the armour is Christ.
It is the life of a camp in the enemy’s territory, to be held till the supreme Commander advances to the eternal relief and triumph.
Ephesian Studies, chapter XVII
Read the chapter on the spiritual conflict in Ephesian Studies.
The battle told as a story
3. The Holy War, by John Bunyan
Bunyan's second great allegory, first published in 1682. The town of Mansoul is taken by Diabolus through its gates, Ear-gate and Eye-gate, and won back by Emmanuel, the son of King Shaddai. Then the story goes on: Mansoul grows careless, backslides and has to be defended again. It pictures the whole Christian life as a war, including the long middle part that many books skip.
Nor must thou think always to live by sense: thou must live upon my word.
The Holy War
Read The Holy War. Christian's fight with Apollyon in The Pilgrim's Progress is the other scene from Bunyan readers remember; see our Pilgrim's Progress summary and who John Bunyan was.
4. Pastor Hsi of North China, by Mrs. Howard Taylor
The true story of Hsi Shengmo, a Confucian scholar and opium addict who was converted and became a pastor in Shansi. The chapter "Conqueror of Demons" tells how Hsi, when his wife was tormented, fasted and prayed and then commanded the evil spirits to leave her in the name of Jesus. A later chapter, "Not Against Flesh and Blood," shows the long, grinding side of the fight. The biography is careful and sober, and it never makes Hsi the hero instead of Christ.
This trouble, whatever it was, came from the great enemy of souls, and must yield to the power of Jesus.
Pastor Hsi of North China, chapter II
Read Pastor Hsi of North China. More stories like it are in our guide to the best missionary biographies.
Prayer as warfare
5. Quiet Talks on Prayer, by S. D. Gordon
Gordon pictures prayer as the deciding factor in a war between God and the enemy, with the earth as the battlefield. Prayer, he says, does not persuade an unwilling God. It claims ground that Christ has already won.
Prayer is insisting upon Jesus' victory, and the retreat of the enemy on each particular spot, and heart and problem concerned.
Quiet Talks on Prayer, chapter 1
Read Quiet Talks on Prayer. Our guide to the best Christian books on prayer has more.
Lessons from Joshua and Job
6. Joshua, and the Land of Promise, by F. B. Meyer
Meyer reads the conquest of Canaan as a picture of the believer entering the victory Christ gives. "The Warrior Christ" is on the Captain of the Lord's host who met Joshua before Jericho. "The Wiles of the Devil" is on the Gibeonites, who won by trickery what no army could win by force.
It is in this way that we are tempted still — more by the wiles of Satan than by his open assaults; more by the deceitfulness of sin than by its declared war.
Joshua, and the Land of Promise, chapter XII
Read Joshua, and the Land of Promise, and see F. B. Meyer's books.
7. The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Joshua, by William Garden Blaikie
A fuller exposition of the same book, chapter by chapter: Jordan, Jericho, Achan's hidden sin and the defeat at Ai, the Gibeonites and Joshua's last appeal. Blaikie draws steady, practical lessons for the Christian's own battles. Read Blaikie on Joshua.
8. The Story of Job, by Jessie Penn-Lewis
Job is the book where we see behind the curtain: Satan's challenge in heaven, and God setting the limits of what the enemy may do. Penn-Lewis follows the book through as God refining His servant and bringing him to the end of himself. Read The Story of Job.
On the Christian's daily conflict
9. Thoughts on the Spiritual Life, by H. C. G. Moule
Short devotional chapters. Read chapter VI, "Conflict and Peace," which sets the believer's real fight beside the peace of God that keeps the heart. Moule warns that the enemy sets his best ambush where the path looks easiest.
It is a deep fact, a far-reaching fact, that just where the path looks most commonplace and easy the enemy of our spiritual life is likely to set his most subtle ambush.
Thoughts on the Spiritual Life, chapter VI
Read Thoughts on the Spiritual Life.
10. The Walk of Faith, in Romaine's Treatises
William Romaine's three treatises on the life, walk and triumph of faith include a long section on the believer's warfare to the end. His answer to every attack is the same: live by faith on Christ. Read Treatises on the Life, Walk and Triumph of Faith.
Who the enemy is, and a warning
11. Earth's Morning, by Horatius Bonar
Bonar's exposition of Genesis 1 to 6 takes in the serpent, the fall and the first promise of the woman's seed who would crush the serpent's head. His long note on Satan gathers what Scripture says of the devil's names, his work and his final binding when the Lord comes. Read Earth's Morning.
12. Spiritism and the Fallen Angels, by James M. Gray
Written in 1920, when grieving families were turning to séances after the war. Gray traces spiritism to fallen angels and follows the subject through Scripture, from Genesis 6 and the Canaanites to the early church and the Epistles. He shows how such teaching sets aside the deity of Christ and His atoning blood. It is a short, sober book for anyone drawn toward the occult.
Satan is the source of Spiritism, and since the Bible is the only place in which we can learn anything reliable about him, we now open its pages for that purpose.
Spiritism and the Fallen Angels, chapter 3
Read Spiritism and the Fallen Angels.
Also worth knowing
E. M. Bounds' Satan: His Personality, Power and Overthrow is a direct study of the devil and the believer's defence, though our copy still has scanning errors. For the inward side of the fight, temptation and indwelling sin, see our guide to the best Christian books on sin and temptation.
Where to begin
Begin with Jowett, a sermon a day, and read Ephesians 6:10 to 18 each time. Then pick up Bunyan's Holy War for the long view. Keep your eyes on the Captain, not the enemy. "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4).