Every one of these marine demons is vicious and goes straight for the kill, with brutal tactics. Their goal is to cut us off from the LORD, our source of life and strength. That’s why they often target our prayer life or the bonds between fellow Christians in our Christian community.
Hello Readers, hope all’s well. Today I present another Christian book review for The Christian Book Corner.
Today’s book deals with the topic of demonology and Spiritual warfare. The book is The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Water Spirits by Jennifer LeClaire.
The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Water Spirits is an excellent overview on marine demons. These are a stealthy and deadly variety of demon spirits making war on believers. You may not have heard of marine demons, because they’re not well-known. But hopefully that will change soon.
So what are marine demons? Let’s take a look at what we can learn in The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Water Spirits.
What’s in the Book
The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Water Spirits sets out to be the authoritative overview of the topic of marine demons. It starts out with an overview of marine demons. What are they, where and how they operate, where they come from, what their tactics are, and so on. LeClaire points out that marine demons aren’t well-known in mainstream Spiritual warfare. Marine demons operate most strongly in areas around bodies of water—regions with oceans, rivers, lakes, and so on.
It’s good then that Defeating Water Spirits opens with a nice overview of marine demons. Most Christians don’t know about these demons. That lack of knowledge makes water spirits (marine demons) deadlier, because their attacks go unnoticed. Christians under attack by marine demons often mistakenly suspect the work of another, more well-known demon (such as Jezebel, etc.). And it goes without saying we can’t stop an attack when we suspect the wrong foe.
We have to know our enemy to defeat our enemy. The lack of knowledge about marine demons makes their attacks more powerful than they need to be. And it’s doubly dangerous because the tactics of most marine demons are stealthy. Most of these marine demons are ambush predators. They lie in wait, watching for the perfect opportunity to catch their target unaware. Think of predators like crocodiles and pythons.
LeClaire compares marine demons to jellyfish and their poisonous stings. Very few jellyfish in the world are poisonous enough to kill us outright. But if the jellyfish keeps stinging us over and over again, that would be deadly. In the same way, the attacks of marine demons can be fatal too. If we don’t get away or stop the stings, they’ll ruin relationships, our health, or blessings that God wants to give us. To stop the attacks we need to discern them first, which is so hard to do if we lack the knowledge of our opponents.
Let’s pray this lack of knowledge about marine demons changes in the very near future. Let’s pray more Christians learn about marine demons and their tactics. We’ll all be better protected as a Christian community when more Christians gain this knowledge. Defeating Water Spirits is one book which can greatly contribute to that.
After this overview or “intro to” marine demons, the rest of the book deals with specific water spirits. Each demon gets two chapters devoted to it. The first chapter gives an overview of the demon. It describes a spirit’s operations, introduces Scripture relevant to it, and describes the symptoms of its attack. The second chapter is dedicated to fighting the demon. It discusses what strategies to use against it, and how to defend against and stop its attacks. It ends with a prayer for battling that demon which you can use as part of your warfare when needed.
The marine demons given this detailed, two-chapter examination are:
- Python spirit
- Leviathan
- Squid and Octopus spirit
- Rahab
- Merfolk/Dagon spirit
- Behemoth
The Python spirit, Leviathan, and Behemoth are probably the most well-known demons from this list. For me, the most surprising demons were the squid/octopus spirit, Rahab, and the merfolk/Dagon spirit. I wasn’t aware of these demons at all. And this ignorance is dangerous, because each of these demons is so deadly.
The squid/octopus spirit is a spirit of mind control. It’s a stealthy corrupter spirit that turns our thoughts away from Christ and toward sin. Once our minds turn to sin, it’s not long at all before we follow-up with sinful actions. The Rahab spirit is a spirit of strife, seeking to persecute and harass us and create division. The Dagon spirit is one of idolatry. It seeks to seduce us into worshiping it instead of the LORD. Dagon seeks to put itself on the pedestal in our life where only the LORD belongs.
Defeating Water Spirits is one of the few places where we can learn about these lesser-known (for now) water demons. I appreciate the two-chapters-per-demon approach the author takes, because it’s a good format for going into detail. And yet, this strength is also the weakness of the book. How’s that? Allow me to explain.
Don’t Charge in Unprepared
I don’t write the criticism section of my book reviews out of pettiness. I don’t read a book with the intent of looking for things to criticize. I start each book with an open mind (and an enjoyable feeling of anticipation, because I like reading). I say this now because my criticism for Defeating Water Spirits may sound petty, but please hear me out.
Each demon mentioned in this book gets two chapters dedicated to it. So once you read those two chapters, are you ready to fight?
If you read the two chapters on Leviathan, and then charge into battle with it thinking you’re ready, you’re going to get your butt kicked. I’m serious. And it will be a butt-kicking you’ll never forget for the rest of your life.
Each demon mentioned in Defeating Water Spirits is a powerful opponent. And Leviathan and Behemoth deserve special notice for their strength and power. Leviathan is a principality, a high-ranking demon. Leviathan has command over other demons. The battle against Leviathan is brutal, long, and exhausting. It’s no coincidence God says in Job 41:8 that it’s a battle you’ll never forget.
(8) If you lay a hand on it,you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
Job 41:8 (NIV)
The battle against Leviathan is not to be taken lightly, and it’s not meant to be done alone. There’s a lot of preparation we should do, if we intend to fight this principality (as a team, of course). For one thing, we need to study Job 41 in-depth, more in-depth than the study we see in Defeating Water Spirits. Like I said, if any reader takes the two chapters from this book and goes to fight Leviathan, they’re going to get their butts kicked—painfully.
So that’s my criticism of Defeating Water Spirits. It gives great overviews of the demons, but isn’t enough on its own for fighting principalities like Leviathan. For lesser-known demons like the squid spirit this is one of the only sources of information we have right now. But entire books have been dedicated to Leviathan and Python, and rightfully so. We need to be fully prepared before going into battle with those powerful demons.
This book should be the starting point of our research on these demons, but our reading should not end here. If we only read the two chapters we find in this book and fight powerful demons like Leviathan, we’re going to get stomped.
To the author’s credit, she definitely makes it clear in the Behemoth chapters that Behemoth is not to be tackled alone. If any section of the book conveys a sense of “you’re going to need more than what’s written here if you plan to fight this,” then it’s the section on Behemoth. But Leviathan and Python should be handled the same way.
Having said that, if someone does get stomped in battle with a principality, the LORD will help them get up again. It may even be a part of the LORD’s plan, to teach them not to recklessly charge into battle thinking they know what to do. God is always with us and working for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). He may allow us to suffer a crushing defeat now, so that we understand the strength of our foes and win an overwhelming victory through Him later.
But that still doesn’t mean that I want to see anybody get stomped in their Spiritual warfare with a demon. Which is why I offer this one criticism of the book. I’d prefer that Christians be spared that painful experience, if possible. I hope that no one reads Defeating Water Spirits and immediately charges into reckless battle with these spirits.
The Final Word
The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Water Spirits is a great book on a topic there isn’t much information on. Marine demons aren’t well-known to the Christian community, and their attacks often get mistaken for the work of other demons. Even if a Christian community discerns the work of a marine demon, there aren’t many books on the subject we can learn from. And this is a dangerous situation.
Every one of these marine demons is vicious and goes straight for the kill, with brutal tactics. Their goal is to cut us off from the LORD, our source of life and strength. That’s why they often target our prayer life or the bonds between fellow Christians in our Christian community. The Christian community needs to be aware of these stealthy foes, and wake up to the seriousness of their threat.
That’s why Defeating Water Spirits is such a useful book. Although it may not give us all the info we need to tackle powerful principalities like Leviathan, it does give an excellent, understandable, and easy-to-read overview of marine demons. To see what I mean just look at the topics covered in the book:
- What are marine demons? Where do they come from?
- How do they operate? What are their attacks like?
- How do we fight them?
- Detailed info on seven marine demons, with two chapters per demon
I really like the two-chapters-per-demon format, but my conscience demands I raise the caveat about being better prepared before battling Leviathan and so on. But I still recommend this book no matter what, because this is a subject Christians need to know about.
Most Christians are unaware of marine demons. And this lack of knowledge can be deadly. Remember the warning about jellyfish and their stings. Let’s read what the author says about it:
Marine demons are like venomous jellyfish. […] The attack can sting your soul or body. If you don’t discern the attack quickly enough and sustain multiple stings, it could kill relationships, steal your peace of mind or health, and destroy opportunities God has planned for you.
Jennifer LeClaire, The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Water Spirits, Page 30
Beware marine demons! Though we need not fear because we fight together with Jesus Christ from a place of victory, we can’t be victorious in a battle if we don’t know we’re under attack! So we need to discern the stealthy attacks of marine demons, and understand the threat they pose. That’s why I recommend The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Water Spirits. We need every last piece of knowledge on marine demons we can get, and every bit of Wisdom on them is precious. Though it can’t prepare us all the way, the book gives an excellent overview of the topic and some specific demons. The Wisdom and discernment of the Holy Spirit will take us the rest of the way.
The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Water Spirits
by Jennifer LeClaire. Destiny Image Publishers, 2018.
Buy The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Water Spirits on Amazon (This is an affiliate link. I receive a small commission if you buy through this link.)
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