Due to some situations our church has been facing as of late, we were advised to read John Bevere’s book Breaking Intimidation: Say “No” without feeling guilty, be secure without the approval of man (Charisma House, 1995, 2006).
Many of my blog readers will probably think this sort of stuff is absolute silliness but ah well, let them. Bevere’s book Breaking Intimidation is a really important book for many pastors and leaders to read. While most often used in the context of ministry one can easily apply the concept to nearly any and every other situation from intimidation in the workplace, the home, the school or the community. This issue applies to all people as well because the spirit of intimidation is just that, a spirit and not a attitude or a disposition. It is a spirit, therefore, even those with strong personalties and strong spiritual lives can be faced with or succumb to a spirit of intimidation, and a controlling spirit is not among only those with strong personalities, it can come from more quiet people too. It is also not limited to men or women. It does not take much – one can easily unwittingly submit to a spirit of intimidation without realizing it. In my case, I was both unwittingly and somewhat aware of my giving into it. The person I am dealing comes across as pretty intimidating and it takes a bit of effort for me to stand up to it. Really, I need the Holy Spirit to help me deal with it. What happens is when we do give into a spirit of intimidation is we loose (0r give up) our spiritual authority given to us in Christ (cf. Ephesians 1) and the gifts within us become dormant and we are not able to be free or hear from the Lord in our relationship with him (also that spirit then takes our authority and begins to use it agianst us). To overcome intimidation we have recognize what is going on and then repent for giving in, submit to the Lord and then pray against the intimidation, thenit will begin to break. Reading this book will help you learn what the spirit of intimidation is (not unlike a jezebel spirit - it’s a controlloing spirit that does not want to be the leader but wants to control the leader and manipulate him or her so as to assert it own will and keep the leader from doing what God wants him or her to do), how to identify it, and how to break free of its grip on your heart and life. Get it and begin your new life of spiritual freedom today! Seriously.
I can’t stand John Bevere and the way he uses scripture bugs me to no end. However he does write on some important topics like this one on intimidation and the topic of “Bait of Satan”. I don’t care for his “Under Cover” book at all. Michael Brown takes it on in his “Revolution in the Church” book.
Hope this book helps you out.
Bryan L
Well, this is the first I have read of him and while I appreciate the topic and think it is important. I do admit I have to be really careful reading John Bevere books – the cause me to become really negative and hard on myself (he’s pretty hard hitting in a lot of respects) – and that is not good. But, like you said he does write on important topics such as breaking intimidation and I agree the more educated one is in the Scriptures, the harder it is to read him or other authors like him because of how they tend to use or mis-use scripture to make their points – I did have to put some things aside to read it and appreciated the help I was needing to indentify and deal with a spirit of intimidation.
I’ll have to check out the Michael Brown book – I just recently read his book Our Hands are Stained with Blood and am still trying to process what I think of it (e.g., he has a more dispensational eschatology and I don’t, etc). He’s a good writer though.
This book is incredible. John Bevere is one of the true prophets of the day. The prophets in the Bible brought messages that seemed harsh at times but it was God’s will. John speaks the truth of the word of God which may be offensive to some. In fact, Jesus said it would be offensive. Look at how he spoke to the pharisees. He even said don’t think I came to bring peace but I came with a sword. In America we are so used to hearing messages that tickle our ears when someone preaches the Word of God unwatered down we reject it instead of examining our lives and seeing where change is needed.