Recommended Books

Set Free: God’s Relentless Pursuit of a Tormented Mind

Faye Williams

This woman is a former client of mine. I had the privilege of being a part of her restoration story. She has bravely shared her journey in writing, and I know it will bless you, encourage you, and challenge you to allow God’s love to pursue YOU as Faye did … until you are FREE.

If You Want To Walk On Water, You’ve Got To Get Out Of The Boat

John Ortberg

John Ortberg is both profound, and funny. You will enjoy this read, and learn – a lot!

He says, “You’re one step away from the adventure of your life!”

“I believe there is something – Someone – inside us who tells us THERE IS MORE to life than sitting in the boat. YOU were made for more than merely avoiding risk. There is something inside you that wants to walk on the water – to leave the comfort of routine existence and abandon yourself to the high adventure of following God.”

“There’s just one requirement;
If you want to walk on water… you’ve got to get out of the boat!”

The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything

Stephen M.R. Covey

Trust issues affect everyone.

Covey’s brilliant book speaks to “The Economics of Trust: The serious practical impact of trust… whether Self Trust; Relationship Trust; Organizational Trust; Market Trust; or Societal Trust.”

Says Covey: “Trust always affects two outcomes – speed and cost. When trust goes up, speed will also go up, and costs will go down. When trust goes down, speed will also go down, and costs will go up. It’s that simple, that real, and that predictable.”

“Everything moves at the speed of TRUST. In every situation, nothing is as fast as the speed of trust.”

An excellent book for Kingdom Entrepreneurs, and anyone else’s personal growth!

Bending Time: Accessing Heavenly Realities For Abundant Living

Dan McCollam

A ‘timely’ book! This is not just another ‘time management’ book.
Dan McCullam says, “There are important differences between time management and time bending.” ‘Time bending’ explores the journey beyond time management – to increasing the quantity and quality of time you have. ‘Time bending’ increases productivity and the ability to get more done in less time. Bending time is about the practical applications of making more time to do the things we love and to spend more time with the people we love.

Aren’t you intrigued?

The Love Awakening: Living Immersed In The Supernatural Love Of God

Leif Hetland

This is THE KEY to fulfilling your divine destiny: You were created to love and be loved supernaturally, not as a concept or theology, but as a living experience – THE VERY LOVE OF GOD – visibly manifested through YOU.

Leif Hetland, recognized as ‘an ambassador of the Father’s love,’ imparts his own supernatural Baptism of Love that breaks off shame, affirms identity, and reveals the unconditional love the of Father God. This book will take you on a pathway… to Being Loved, Becoming Love, and Bearing Love…to a world so in need of real LOVE.

Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives

Wayne Muller

Did you know that the Chinese pictograph for the word “busy” is composed of two characters: “heart” and “killing?” The frantic pace that is too often our life-style, creates an emotional violence we were not made for.

In this, my most favorite book on the topic of REST, Wayne Muller declares: “Once people feel nourished and refreshed, they cannot help but be kind; just so, the world aches for the generosity of a well-rested people.”

Your world is aching for YOU to be restored to genuine rest and reconnection. You’ll want this book on your shelf for always – to help you remember how to enter and live from “The Sacred Rhythm of Rest.”

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

Peter & Geri Scazzero

Something is missing. Sadly, many of us have been taught the importance of spiritual development, while leaving out the reality of our deep need for emotional health and development.

In this gut-honest book, Scazzero outlines his journey and the tell-tale signs of an emotionally unhealthy spirituality. Though he was a pastor, he learned the hard way: you can’t be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. His spiritual revolution reached so far beneath the surface that he and his church were utterly transformed. You will be too!

Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive

John Eldredge

Life is a journey, from where you are – to FULLY ALIVE.
Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” That’s the offer of Christianity—to make you whole, set you free, bring you fully alive. Have you noticed that few people seem to have found it? Have you?

I’ll always remember the day in my life that I asked the Lord, “How come I’ve loved You since I was a little girl, and I know that I don’t know what ‘abundant life’ really is?” From that moment on, it became my main quest. This book by John Eldredge — reveals the secret of finding a full life, identifying the fierce battle over your heart, and embracing all that God has for YOU. It helped me find the pathway – toward FULLY ALIVE!

There IS so much MORE. Do you want it too?

A Guidebook to Waking the Dead

John Eldredge

The goal? Bring dead hearts back to life.

Enhance your transformation by utilizing Eldredge’s accompanying workbook to ‘Waking the Dead.’ This guidebook is useful for contemplating and journaling your own journey, and also for group study of this transformative material. You will be led to deep and life-changing answers to three key questions: Why is the heart so important? Can we really trust our hearts? And how do ordinary people live from the heart?

Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome: A Step By Step Guide To Discovery And Recovery

Wayne Kritsberg

A complete self-help program for adult children of alcoholics – and all the other ‘isms’.

Did you know that ‘the dysfunctional family,’ though understood through the study of alcoholic homes, has a much broader definition? Understanding the ‘rules’ and ‘roles’ of a dysfunctional home, no matter what malfunction caused the dis-ease, can bring deep understanding and transformation to our hearts.

In this authoritative book, Wayne Kritsberg shows how to recognize—and remedy—the long-term effects of the dysfunctional family – alcoholic or otherwise. His proven techniques, based on extensive clinical experience, offer real help and real hope for adult children of alcoholics (or dysfunctional families) —and those they love.

Discover Your God-Given Gifts

Don & Katie Fortune

Highly recommend for every families’ library!

In their brilliant book, Don & Katie Fortune explain the difference between Manifestation Gifts, Ministry Gifts, and Motivational Gifts.

Understanding your own motivational gifts is an essential way to bring clarity to not only who you are, but how God made you to operate, as part of His Body in the earth.

Hope For The Flowers

Trina Paulus

This is a tale of a caterpillar who (like us) has trouble BECOMING what he really is. A tale partly about life, partly about revolution and lots about HOPE. For adults and others (including caterpillars who can read).

When The Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction For Life’s Sacred Questions

Sue Monk Kidd

Sue Monk Kidd, bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees, shares the passionate and moving tale of her own spiritual crisis: When life seemed to have lost meaning and her longing for a hasty escape from the pain yielded to a discipline of ACTIVE WAITING.

Full of wisdom, poise, and grace, Kidd’s words will encourage us along our spiritual journey, TOWARD BECOMING WHO WE TRULY ARE.

Family Ties That Bind: A Self-help guide to change through Family of Origin therapy

Ronald W. Richardson

Life in the family of origin is a tremendously powerful experience for everyone, and the impact of that experience is not restricted to childhood. The views we develop there, about ourselves, others and the world stay with us throughout life.

At some point most of us leave our families physically, but we rarely leave them emotionally. Until we do, we will continue to re-enact (or re-act against) the dynamics of our original family in any new family we establish.

We can’t be free of our early experiences by denying their significance or ignoring them. Thus, there is a journey of transformation for us all to walk out – and this book is a gem, that can serve as a map to help us along the way.

Living From The Heart Jesus Gave You

James Friesen, E James Wilder, Anne Bierling, Rick Koepcke, and Maribeth Poole.

I HIGHLY recommend this book, for everyone serious about the Journey of Transformation that leads to WHOLENESS, through every age and stage of life.

Much more than a child-rearing book, ‘The Life Model’ laid out in this book has been used widely in ministries of counseling, recovery, pastoral care, prayer ministry, deliverance, inner healing, body life and health.

Missions have adopted the Life Model for restoring hurt missionary children. Almost every major ministry dealing with trauma and abuse in the USA uses the Life Model as part of their teaching. This new version now includes study questions at the end of each chapter.

Today’s Passion Translation

Brian & Candice Simmons

Encounter the Heart of God.

The Passion Translation Bible unlocks the passion of God’s heart and expresses his fiery love—merging emotion and life-changing truth. This translation is known for expressing biblical truths in captivating and emotional terms, meeting the human heart on the spiritual level.

It includes in-depth footnotes with insightful study notes, commentary, word studies, cross references, and alternate translations.

If you are hungry for God, The Passion Translation will help you encounter His heart and know Him more intimately. It will help you fall in love with God all over again.

Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart. Psalm 5:3 (TPT).

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name

Sally Lloyd-Jones

Children’s Bible

The Jesus Storybook Bible invites children to join in the greatest of all adventures, to discover for themselves that Jesus is at the center of God’s great story of salvation–and at the center of their own story too!

There Were Two Trees in the Garden (Divine Destiny)

Rick Joyner

This book explains soooo much!

The tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life represent the basic conflict between the powers of darkness and the Kingdom of God. This book is a study of the fundamental differences between these two trees, and how they still affect our lives today.

With each passing day, it becomes more crucial for us to understand the battle that is raging for the heart and soul of every human being. If you are resolved to stand for the truth and to confront the darkness of our time, you will be helped by this book.

Blessing Your Spirit: With the Blessings of Your Father and the Names of God

Arthur A. Burk & Sylvia Gunter

Arthur and Sylvia give us an incredible 40-day pathway for calling our ‘spirit-man’ to it’s rightful place, and blessing and strengthening it with truth and life!

To read these prayers /declaration, out loud, one day at a time, for yourself and your loved ones, is an incredible tool for spiritual breakthrough!

The Living Sword: Letting the Holy Spirit Interpret God’s Word

Harold Eberle

This book really influenced me. I LOVE the scriptures… but they are not my own sword, to be interpreted or used as I want. The Holy Spirit is the inspired author, moving the pen of each individual writer; The Word is the Spirit’s Sword to wield, to interpret, to teach to the open, hungry hearts of it’s readers.

Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading

Eugene H. Peterson

This is a book about how to read the scriptures.

After 50 years as both pastor and professor, Peterson, author of The Message Bible, says: “How we read the Bible is as important as that we read it.” He insists that Spirit-sourced writing – requires Spirit-led reading.

Eugene’s hope is that we will “discover the Bible as it was intended, as if for the first time,” by encouraging: “Reading that enters our souls as food enters our stomachs, spreads through our blood and becomes part of us.”

Ten Lies The Church Tells Women: How the Bible Has Been Misused to Keep Women in Spiritual Bondage

J Lee Grady

Grady boldly proclaims the gospel was never intended to restrain women from pursuing God or prevent them from fulfilling their divine destiny. He makes a thorough list of the main scripture texts that have been used to restrict and dishonor women; and unpackages them with Wisdom and Understanding, revealing Gods’ true heart for womankind.

BONDING: Relationships in the Image of God

Donald Joy

The need for intimacy with others was built into the fabric of our being by the Creator. Donald Joy explains the twelve steps of bonding which occur naturally in human relationships. This book explores the formation of relationships, issues surrounding dating and marriage, and the prevention of inappropriate bonds.
Personally, I LOVE this brilliant book!

Please Understand Me: Character & Temperament Types

David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates

Using the well-loved Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as it’s basis, this is a foundational book in self-understanding and appreciating the differences in others.

Take the test, share it with others you care about, and read on… to discover more about successful mating, child-rearing, and leading by coming to understand and prize other’s differences, rather than seeking to change them into a copy of yourself.

The Supernatural Power Of Forgiveness

Kris & Jason Vallotton

An excellent book on how to process pain.

This read covers much more than the essential element of forgiveness, when facing the loss of betrayal in human relationships. It is a book about processing your pain all the way to freedom. Jason shares his own revelatory process, after a heart-wrenching divorce. Kris (Jason’s dad) shares how the whole family found their eventual way to peace and wholeness.

Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve

Lewis B. Smedes

In this, one of my favorite books on God’s greatest key to freedom, Lewis Smedes defines forgiveness as a healing miracle. He shares four helpful stages in the process of forgiveness: We Hurt, We Hate, We Heal, and We Come Together – maybe. My favorite chapter is #5. Some Nice Things Forgiving Is NOT, and he dares to cover the topic: ‘Forgiving God’ in chapter 10. If you’re struggling, as humans do, to find your way to freedom after unjust suffering – this book will help!

The Importance of Forgiveness

John Arnott

This short booklet is an absolute GEM. I’ve recommended it to more people than perhaps any other book on the topic of forgiveness.

Why is this book so helpful? Because, here’s a truth we often miss: When we are sinned against – we usually sin in response! In our heart, we judge and dishonor the one who sinned against us. In the process of healing from hurts we don’t deserve, if we do not understand ‘our part,’ we will not be completely free from our pain!

John Arnott and his wife, Carol, clearly explain these two steps to total freedom: How to deal with BOTH our unforgiveness and our judgment – toward those who’ve wronged us.

Good Grief

Granger E. Westberg 

An easy read that is extremely helpful.

This is my most highly recommended little book on the basics of the grieving process. It is clear, concise which is very helpful during a time of grieving. Granger expands our understanding of how we grieve and what we grieve beyond loss via death of a loved one.

A Grace Disguised: How the soul grows through loss

Gerald L. Sittser 

A fantastic book for those who are grieving.

Gerald shares his own painful process through ‘catastrophic loss’ in a way that is relevant and revolutionary for any deep loss we must navigate in life. The book is available with application questions at the end of each chapter, making it an excellent book to work through personally or process with others in a small group setting.

The Grief Recovery Handbook

John W. James & Russell Friedman

I highly recommend this book for learning to process your own life’s losses.

These seasoned authors widen the lens to our entire lives losses, big and small, and help us understand the myths we’ve been taught that have not been helpful in navigating our grief. Definitely a how to manual that will help you work through your own stuck places with grieving losses, new and old, in your life.

Loving Our Kids On Purpose

Danny Silk

This book brings the principles of the Kingdom of God and revival into our strategy as parents.

2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us that “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.”

Most parenting approaches train children to learn to accept being controlled, by well meaning adults. However, children are meant to gain independence from their parents, so must be taught how to control themselves, rather than be controlled.

This book will teach parents to train their children to manage their freedoms and protect their important relationships through real heart to heart connection.

Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child

John Gottman, PH.D

We all know that in a plane, parents are always instructed, in case of emergency, to put their own masks on before helping their child.

In this brilliant book, John Gottman addresses ’the heart of healthy parenting:’ We must become ‘emotionally intelligent,’ in order to guide our children to understanding and regulating their own emotional world.

Kids Who Carry Our Pain

Dr. Robert Hemfelt and Dr. Paul Warren

An instructive, practical and worthy read!

This book leads the way for parents who want to break generational cycles for their children, by learning to own their own pain.

Dr.s Hemfelt and Warren help us understand that what is not ‘owned and dealt with’ by parents, is left hanging in the atmosphere of our homes, and will be picked up and carried by our children… and on to the NEXT generation.

Giving The Love That Heals

Harville Hendrix, Ph.D and Helen Hunt, M.A., M.L.A

Chock full of insightful brilliance!

How can parents with their own unhealed wounds love their children well? ESPECIALLY during the ages and stages of their own deepest life’s struggles? Harville’s two-fold answer is: 1) By becoming well-informed about the needs of every developmental stage, and 2) By becoming consciously aware of how their own needs in that developmental stage went unmet.

This book is a guide to re-parenting the parent, as the parent parents the child – so the parent is healed, by giving the love to their child, that they themselves needed, at every stage.

Discover Your Children’s Gifts

Don & Katie Fortune

This is a handbook for every parent, that will guide them in identifying and developing their children’s Motivational Gifts.

In workbook format, Don & Katie reveal what the Biblical gifts, revealed in Romans 12, look like in your child’s God-given make-up and personality. Understanding your children’s motivations, will go a long way in helping you parent each one, to live from the authentic heart Jesus gave them!