I am a voracious reader and as such, love to share my list of life-transforming books with others. Words are powerful. They shape and mold thought patterns, spawn new ideas, reform old ones and change lives.
Of course, the BEST book ever, is the one written by Elohim Himself, the Bible. As Yeshua is the Word made flesh, the Bible is indeed alive and active and can only be understood by those who are filled with His Spirit. Second best to this, would be books that help expound the Word of God and apply it to everyday living.
What would the world be without good books? How do I define a good book? That is a very good question and one that must be answered. I define a good book as one which has a biblical worldview, is thought provoking, challenges preconceived ideas and motivates or convicts me to change either a thought or behavior (usually both!) using the Word of God as it's main source of truth.
I am going to give a list of books that are non-fiction as that is the sort I normally read. I do have a list and quite an extensive library of fictional titles, but for the purposes of this blog the ones I am recommending here are those that equip me in some way with my walk with Adonai.
This list will be updated continually! And yes, I have read all of these or have my hands still in them, most in the last year.
But first, a DISCLAIMER: I most likely do not agree 100% with everything in any one of these books. However, I enjoy reading books much like I enjoy a good potluck or oneg fellowship meal. That is, I enjoy taking that which I feel is good and leaving the rest. I hope and pray you read with a similar attitude and use wisdom and discernment!
CHRISTIAN LIVING:
The Normal Christian Life, Watchman Nee This is a wonderful book that mainly uses the book of Romans to describe what the normal life of a believer should look like. Nee draws from his time in China discipling new believers in the faith. A must read!
Intoxicated with Babylon, Steve Gallagher This is one of my all time favorite books as it goes over the history of Babylon and uses that as a springboard to identify that the spirit of Babylon is alive and well and enticing many in the world and sadly in the church, into it's intoxicating hold. We are to live in the world, but not love the world and all it has to offer. It is my belief that we are in the days when the "church" is looking more like the world every day and the lines are getting blurred beyond recognition. This is a WAKE UP call to those who call themselves "Christians" and to "come out of her my people" as Elohim calls us to be separate.
Standing Firm Through the Great Apostasy, Steve Gallagher This is a follow-up to the above and is also a very convicting and life changing book. Do not read this if you want to feel all warm and fuzzy inside and not feel convicted! It is Steve's (as well as my belief) that we are in the days of apostasy but there will be a coming great falling away as well. We must be prepared for this so we can stand firm. This book will help you do just that!
Irresistible to God, Steve Gallagher The Word says that the Lord esteems those who are humble and contrite in heart and tremble at His Word. This book addresses the sin of pride and what true humility is. There are many types of pride described. Those that are humble, Adonai is drawn to them, thus the title. This book will bring you to your knees and cause you to examine your heart. Highly recommended!
Why Revival Tarries, Leonard Ravenhill I cried and wept and prayed throughout this book! If you have a heart for revival or seeing believer's doing what they are called to do to impact the world for Yeshua, then this is a book you need to read. Leonard Ravenhill is one of my most favorite preachers ever. Unfortunately there are few like him and he is with the Lord now, but his words will penetrate your heart as this man gave himself wholeheartedly to Christ and had a passion that few can equal.
Holy Cow, Hope Egan This was a delightful book to read, written by a woman who describes her journey into examining the dietary laws and how they apply to her life today. Very thought provoking and enjoyable! Written with humor and honesty.
Dream Language, James W. and Michal Ann Goll. This is a must read for EVERY believer. Why? We are asleep for 1/3 of the day and the L-rd doesn't stop speaking to us during the night watch. This book discusses the prophetic power of dreams, revelations and the spirit of wisdom with many examples from the author's lives. The back has an index of common dream symbols which can be helpful in interpreting your dreams. Awesome read!
The Essential Guide to Healing: Equipping all Christians to Pray for the Sick, Bill Johnson and Randy Clark. WOW! Written in 2012 and is an incredible, faith building, mind blowing read! LOVE this book. Bill and Randy share their individual journeys and how the Lord brought them to the place of understanding how to pray for the sick. Their insights and journeys are so valuable in understanding how healing prayer works and why some do not get the healing they desire. SO refreshing as they don't just simplify the answer as to a lack of faith being the reason people do not get healed! They give a protocol of interviewing a person who asks for prayer for healing to try to get to the ROOT of the problem as to why they are sick; ranging in reasons from an afflicting spirit, genetics (generational curses), lifestyle, trauma, emotional reasons (psychosomatic with unforgiveness of yourself or others being a huge one). This is important because then we can much more effectively pray for them or ask the Lord for discernment as to why they are ill. Yeshua came and healed ALL that came to Him, there were no exceptions. The message of the Good News was healing of mind, body and spirit! Yeshua came to give life abundantly and we should never say it is His will for us to be sick. It is the enemy of our souls who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Read this book if you want to be better equipped to pray for others who need healing! Must read!
In His Own Image, Art Mathias. This is a wonderful book which explains the connections between body, mind and spirit. There are roots to many diseases that can be traced to negative emotions, unforgiveness, self-hate, etc. The medical establishment is not unaware of this connection and know that about 80% of all disease is psychosomatic. This doesn't mean that you are making your illness up in your head! It means that what is in your mind, what you believe and the emotions you feel have a DIRECT link to your body and soul! We are wonderfully created to live a healthy life by our Creator! He designed our bodies so that when we don't forgive others or ourselves, we suffer bodily. That is why He commands us to love others, forgive and countless other commands, because that is the best for all of us! Pages and pages explain the nitty gritty of our bodies response to stress and negative emotions that will blow you away! The rest of the book details specific diseases and the negative emotions that commonly go with them. A powerful tool for healing is in information like this that can set your free from the emotions that keep you in bondage to illness!!! Great book! There is a follow-up book to this one called Biblical Foundations for Freedom that is on my wish list.
Stories of Supernatural Healing, Sid Roth and Linda Josef, Ph. D. I love faith-building books and there IS POWER in the testimony! When we hear a testimony of healing it produces contagious faith that empowers us to believe for ourselves or pray for someone else who needs a miracle. This is a wonderful book filled with stories of different ways God has manifested healing in the lives of people. Dr. Art Mathias has a chapter in here regarding "Freedom from Toxic Emotions" that you will find familiar based on his books listed above.
ISRAEL:
Praying for Israel's Destiny, James W. Goll This book was eye opening and full of wonderful insights and prayers for Israel. I appreciated him including praying for the descendants of Ishmael as we tend to forget that part of Abraham's seed. While Ishmael wasn't the seed of the promise, we can see they are a numerous people who need the Savior. Full of wonderful prophetic scriptures to remind us to pray for Jerusalem as that is the place written on the palm of His hand AND where He will rule and reign on the earth! Maranatha!
BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW OR RESOURCES FOR TEACHING CHILDREN:
Assumptions That Affect Our Lives, Christian Overman This book was assigned to my teenagers last year in their home school worldview course. I found myself drawn to it and reading bits of it myself. Very good overview of worldview and the assumptions that knowingly, or most likely unknowingly, affect our lives. Valuable resource for any family desiring to teach their children (or themselves) about biblical versus unbiblical worldviews. Highly Recommended!
Homeschooling from a Biblical Worldview, Israel Wayne This is a wonderful book explaining, subject by subject, in a very straightforward intelligent manner, how to educate your children biblically. Ever wonder how subjects such as math or art can be taught with a biblical worldview? This book will answer that question and much more. Great resource for the homeschooling family!
Homeschooling for Eternity, Skeet Savage I reread this book and still do as it reminds me why I am homeschooling in the first place. While academics are important, relationships, hearts, and eternal destiny are much more important. As a single parent, I was also encouraged to keep homeschooling amidst difficulties and challenges as the author herself home-educated 6 children alone through a challenging time herself. Very encouraging book that will help sort your priorities out!
A Heart of Wisdom, Robin Sampson
Our Young Folks' Josephus, William Shepard
A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays, Robin Scarlata and Linda Pierce This is a HUGE book full of activities for the whole family on all the feasts from both a Messianic and orthodox perspective. Over 500 pages with home school resources and unit studies, this book is a great resource for any family celebrating the holy days outlined in Leviticus 23.
With the Children on Sundays, Sylvanus Stall This book along with the following were the main resources I used to write object lessons for children for messages given in our fellowship. This is an old book and recently republished, but the old books are the BEST kind of book! While some of the objects are a bit antiquated, it doesn't take much to use a more updated object or one more relevant to make these lessons work! I am of the opinion that using objects in real life around the house, in the world and in nature are the absolute BEST way to communicate spiritual truths to not only young people, but adults as well. I got MUCH out of this book as well. Highly recommended for devotions/lessons with children or topics for just when you are out in nature!
Little Ten Minutes, Frank T. Bayley, D.D. Ah, I love a good garage sale...especially if they have old books! This gem I found at one such sale and was absolutely thrilled with its contents! This book written in 1903 is a compilation of a pastor's talks with his children, using mainly objects as the lessons. My favorites are The Bottle that Couldn't Be Filled, The Child's Hand in the Vase, The Making of a Pearl, Washing the Wrong Side, and the Iceberg's Secret. Probably out of print, but worth finding!
A Complete Guide to Celebrating Our Messiah in the Festivals, Susan Mortimer. This is somewhat similar to A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays listed above and is almost 700 pages. I had the binding cut and hole punched it to put in a binder for easier copying. It is loaded with pages to help your children or Shabbat school learning the Hebrew Alephbeit and has activities for children for celebrating each feast, Sabbath, New Moon. Each celebration gives a history, recipes, craft ideas (including many templates for making banners, etc), and ways to celebrate. It's my newest favorite!!! Great reproducible pages to help children learn the books of the Bible and much more! For my home school friends, this is a great biblical resource. Susan is the one who wrote the popular home school science books, Considering God's Creation.
PROPHECY:
A Woman Rides the Beast, Dave Hunt As an ex-catholic, I have found this book very interesting. It is a big book full of facts and history, so it is not something you sit down to read all at once. At least for me it wasn't! I am still reading it! I found myself quite amazed at events I never knew took place, especially those related to ecumenical statements made between the catholic and protestant clergy. Astounding really and quite frightening. I won't give the answer away as to who is identified as the woman who rides the beast in Revelation....you'll have to read the book!
The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church, Marvin Rosenthal This is a book that I could NOT put down. As a student of prophecy and one that has recently reached the conclusion that the pretribulational rapture is not scripturally supported, this book was a breath of fresh air. If you don't know who Marvin Rosenthal is, he is the one responsible for The Holy Land Experience in Orlando FL, which I truly loved! I have unfortunately never been to Israel (yet!) but this was close for me. I didn't want to leave, as it just felt like home. Marvin came to the same conclusion about the pretrib rapture and outlines in depth what he means by pre-wrath. It is not pre, mid or post trib and is unique. I found myself seeing many pieces of the prophetic puzzle fitting together quite nicely in this book. This is a must read for students of bible prophecy!
The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn. This is a new book that is on the NY Times best seller list as of recently. I had heard some teaching online from Rabbi Cahn before on this topic, so I was not unaware of his teaching before I read the book. This book is interesting because he wrote it as a novel but the ideas in it are based in Scripture and related to the events of 9/11 and what the Lord has been teaching him regarding America being under judgment. VERY interesting insights and is a must read!!! If you do not know what George Washington has to do with NYC and the prophetic prayer he prayed there at a church at ground zero and what that has to do with anything we are experiencing today, I urge you to read this book! I do have one caveat and that is that in my estimation, it wasn't that well written in terms of a novel. But I love Austen, Gene Stratton Porter and Gaskell, for authors and I rarely read novels unless they are classics. This is a novel, yet it contains truth and information that also reads like a non-fiction book. Just go read the book and understand what Isaiah 9:10 has to do with America today!
HEBREW ROOTS:
Yeshua, A Guide to the Real Jesus and the Original Church, Dr. Ron Moseley I enjoyed this book, but do not agree with all this conclusions. However, there was enough information regarding the early church and what happened in the first 4 centuries that kept me interested. Heretical teachings and how they affected Jew and Gentile and the ekklesia today, is worth understanding. A very scholarly book and definitely worth reading!
Let This Mind Be In You, Bradford Scott If I where to start anywhere and wanted to understand why Hebraic thinking is important, I would start right here and read this book first! Yeshua had a Hebraic mindset and I think if we are to truly have His mindset, we have to stop thinking with a Greek/Hellinistic mindset. Foundational understanding on the Hebrew language and thinking. Essential!
The Principle of the Seed, Bradford Scott Adonai spoke to me in the garden one day last July and I knew I had to get this book! I was NOT disappointed. The principle of the seed and what we see outside our window or in the garden is so central to Biblical Truth. This principle is woven throughout scripture and begins in Eden in a garden. HIGHLY recommended!
The Tares Among the Wheat:Revealing the Restrainer from the Beginning, Bradford Scott As a student of Bible prophecy I was obviously drawn to this title! Much controversy exists on who the restrainer is and this book goes into depth on just that topic. A very interesting read! If you think the Holy Spirit is the restrainer, you will NOT want to read this book (it may be frustrating) unless you want to be challenged in your thinking.
The Tanakh: The Dictionary of the New Testament, Bradford Scott I think this is my favorite of Brad's and one I seem to go back to and reread. I cannot recommend this book enough. It goes over many Hebrew and Greek words and really explains the difference between these two languages. Also, Brad admonishes us to use the Tanakh (Old Testament) as a dictionary when we read the New Testament. He also goes in depth on words we think we know and understand fully because we use them so much, words like salvation, church, repentance, life, truth, faith, etc. In doing so, we see a great DISPARITY between how most modern day Christians define these terms (represented by the Greek language) and how the Word of Elohim defines these terms (represented by the Hebrew language). Very eye opening to say the very least. Something is amiss! Also discusses what it means to be "under the law"(which most people errantly equate with being obedient to the law) and why he keeps the dietary laws and a 7th day Sabbath. A MUST READ!
The Shadow of Heavenly Things: Revealing the Body of Messiah in the Tabernacle, Bradford Scott I love studying the tabernacle and have done studies before, but this book revealed things I hadn't considered before. I absolutely loved this book!
King of the Jews - Resurrecting the Jewish Jesus, D. Thomas Lancaster FABULOUS book and so very, very eye opening! What astounded me the most were the stories of Jewish sages of the day and how similar they were to Yeshua's parables! Yeshua, knowing these stories and knowing that many Jews would already know them as well, used similar stories to speak spiritual truth. If you don't know the stories, you have lost the CONTEXT in which these stories were told and UNDERSTOOD! Knowing this, brought out a totally different understanding of many of His parables which was incredibly EYE OPENING and LIFE CHANGING. Get the book! Really. Tomorrow if possible!
Restoration - Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus, D. Thomas Lancaster If you are wondering what all this returning to Hebrew roots and the Torah is all about, this would be a good start. Lancaster does a nice job of explaining his own personal journey in his discovery that certain valuable things were lost to us since the days of the disciples who followed the Messiah. Highly recommended!
Celebrating Biblical Feasts, Martha Zimmerman This is a nice, small doable book that gives an overview of the Feasts and also ideas for how to celebrate them.
The Incomplete Church: Bridging the Gap Between God's Children, Sid Roth. Jew and Gentile, one in Messiah. Isn't that what Yeshua came to do? Yet we rarely see the reality in our churches and practice. Sid was raised Jewish and became a Messianic believer in adulthood. I agree with him that when Jew and Gentile worship together as one body, there is a supernatural power released that is often missing in many fellowships. Jews have Torah, Christians have Jesus. We are supposed to have BOTH! Messianic believers who worship Yeshua and are saved by faith in Him and also embrace His eternal Word in the Torah have bridged the gap that has too long existed.
SABBATH:
The Sabbath Under Crossfire, Samuele Bacchiocchi Basically, this book addresses some of the controversy over the Sunday/Saturday thing and gives both sides of the story, but is pro 7th day Sabbath.
From Sabbath to Sunday, Samuele Bacchiocchi This is a laymen's version of his doctoral thesis on this subject. Interestingly he studied this as the first protestant at the vatican university. Wild. Very good historical information.
BIBLES OR BIBLE RESOURCES:
Hebrew Word Pictures - How Does the Hebrew Alphabet Reveal Prophetic Truths?, Dr. Frank T. Seekins AMAZING RESOURCE! The original alphabet of the Hebrew language contained word pictures which when put together to form a single word, contain so much spiritual depth and meaning that it will absolutely, I promise, BLOW YOU AWAY! Yahweh is amazing and so is His language.
The Companion Bible KJV This is my newest favorite study Bible as it has E. W. Bulllinger's extensive notes in it! WOW! I have a large print edition because otherwise the notes are too small to read and since they are so packed with Bullinger's insights, I didn't want to have any hindrances to reading them. A great resource!
Complete Jewish Bible, David Stern I like this Bible. The Tanakh is organized as it was in the days of Yeshua. It uses the Hebrew names for all the books and people which give you a truly Jewish/Hebrew feel. Instead of trumpet, it will say "shofar". By doing this, it gets you to think more Hebraically and I really think that helps put these passages in the context in which they were written and the meaning in which was truly intended. GREAT resource!
Hebrew/Greek Key Word Study Bible
Number In Scripture, E. W. Bullinger Numbers are VERY SIGNIFICANT in the Scriptures and this book will help you to understand and discover just that as it explains the usage and meaning of every number mentioned in the Bible. I love this book!!! Highly recommended resource!
Rose Timelines and Maps These are superb resources for yourself and your children.
