Hayford, himself, has oodles of books out, and if you’d like a full list, call or e-mail us. Here are a few books by other authors which we’ve enjoyed lately, and feel compelled to promote:

Receiving the Power: Preparing the Way for the Holy Spirit Brad Long & Doug McMurry These two anointed Presbyterians have given us a balanced and thoughtful book on the power of the Spirit. Drawing on the classic work of R.A.Torrey, this explains the baptism of the Spirit with solid Biblical study. Highly recommended.

The Collapse of the Brass Heaven Brad Long & Doug McMurry If you’ve browsed around our web site much, you’ll know we have a great passion for developing the Christian mind, living radically out of a Christian worldview, and allowing the Scriptures to shape and reshape our fundamental assumptions about life. Here is a book which dramatically combines incisive cultural critique--exposing the secular gods of the age--with transforming Biblical power.

This book calls for breaking with the basic "paradigm" of Western materialistic science and progress and allowing the Spirit to work in every zone of life. Tremendously important for liberals and conservatives, charismatics and those not acquainted with the miraculous; we give this our high endorsement.

Christianity With Power Charles Kraft If any book gets at the development of a Christian worldview which leaves room for the supernatural better than Collapse of the Brass Heavens, mentioned above, it is this one. Kraft is an astute critic of the secularized assumptions operative even in most churches and calls on us to really open ourselves to seeing life the way the Bible does. Highly, highly recommended.

God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict Gregory Boyd In over 400 pages, Boyd draws a careful picture of the Biblical drama between good and evil. This is not a simple guide to spiritual warfare, but a mature Scriptural study. For the serious student.

Servant Warfare and Conspiracy of Kindness Steve Sjogren Both of these books get practical, showing that the most powerful way to defeat the demonic is through servanthood and kindness. What a ministry has developed at the Ohio Vineyard Church which puts these principles into practice. Charismatics delving into the mysteries of spiritual warfare would surely benefit from these thoughtful and Biblical books. And for those who are a bit fearful of exploring this sort of ministry, this shows that it is not all weird stuff like from the movies: Satan is defeated and the Kingdom advanced through tender acts of service and mercy. Amen!!

Empowered Evangelicals: Bringing Together the Best of the Evangelical and Charismatic Worlds Rich Nathan and Ken Wilson Hardly a better book has come out of the Vineyard charismatic movement in recent years. Especially for those rightly concerned about the peculiar theology that pervades much of Pentecostalism, these guys call for a brilliant cooperation and joining of the best of the two traditions. Yesss!!

Whether you call yourself charismatic or not, we’d love to send this sort of solid stuff out regularly--the Kingdom needs folks to be reading this caliber of literature (as opposed to some of what comes across the tele-evangelists airwaves.) Call or e-mail us today! Do you have favorites that have blessed you immensely with solid doctrine and cultural relevance? Let us know via e-mail...we need to know what to promote and what to avoid.

Leanne Payne is an author that has been helpful to many thoughtful folks looking for classic Christian doctrine, counseling insight and Spirit-driven empowerment. Please consider her books Restoring the Christian Soul, which is on overcoming barriers to completion in Christ through what she calls healing prayer. Her earlier book on the healing power of a prayer walk with Christ is The Healing Presence: Curing the Soul Through Union With Christ. Both are well-worth studying carefully. (She also has a book on the role of the Holy Spirit in C.S. Lewis’ fiction entitled Real Presence which is a delight!)

Our store stocks dozens of books on developing a healing ministry and we are happy to report that many of our customers are from denominations that are not known for their emphasis on such things. Presbyterians, The United Church of Christ, United Methodists and Lutherans all have renewed efforts in healing and wholeness and some of the good insights of charismatics are being modified and applied in mainline churches. Wherever you find yourself, if this is an area to which you are drawn, know that we are here to assist you. We have lots of books and a bit of experience which we would love to share. Call or e-mail us whenever you’d like.

Francis McNutt is one of the leaders in healing work these days and his book, Healing is a classic! (We carry it in both versions, the Catholic, original and the revised non-liturgical edition.) Recent books for beginners in this area include a very practical one by a British chaplain, Roy Lawrence, called The Practice of Christian Healing: A Guide for Beginners.

We stock books as diverse as Karen Michaelson’s Healing Community (published by the WCC) to those by Benny Hinn; The Linn brothers’ handbooks on inner healing out of their Catholic tradition to "third wave" work by the likes of John White, Peter Wagner and Chuck Kraft. For those who know the healing ministry of George Bartow, we have his helpful manual. UCC scholars Robert Webber and Tilda Norberg’s Stretch Out Your Hand will be reprinted by Upper Room in January 1999 and we look forward to carrying and recommending that again. Whatever your tradition on level of interest, we’ve got something for everyone.

Perhaps as a gentle warning to those who maybe see spiritual warfare a bit too clearly and who seem to hold a nearly silly Perritti-esque view of the world, let us recommend Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare by David Powlison. Powlison, from Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, does not rule out the role of the demonic nor does he shy away from the extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit. Still, he worries that some seem to have a mode of ministry that is uniquely focused on the occult, the extraordinary and the miraculous. Worrying that this verges on superstition and ultimately trivializes the work of evil in the world, he calls for a balanced and multi-faceted approach to ministry and helps us get at authentic, Biblical transformation. We highly recommend this for discussion and edification.

Lastly, for those interested in Biblical scholarship from a charismatic author, may we suggest anything written by the spectacular exegete and scholar, Gordon Fee. His work on the writing about the Spirit in the Pauline literature is stunning and his exploration of Paul's view of community is quite compelling. Call us for God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul, published by Hendrickson. It is solid Biblical scholarship to inform our views of the Spirit.