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No Small Snakes: A Journey Into Spiritual Warfare
Are You Ready for Battle? As a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Nigeria, a much-younger Gordon Dalbey scoffed at an illiterate laborer's account of dark spirits that had invaded his house. The man looked the highly educated American squarely in the eye. "There are no small snakes," he declared. Even as the smallest poisonous snake can easily kill the largest and strongest man, to discount dark spiritual forces is not only arrogant, but dangerous. No Small Snakes relates Dalbey's upending journey from scoffer to spiritual warrior, from arrogance to bold humility. Both spiritual memoir and soldier's manual, this book will challenge you to face the spiritual battle at hand today and prepare you to win it – in your heart and in the world.
- GenresReligion
368 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 12, 2014
Stunning.
I would really have liked to have found this book a few years back when I was writing about name covenants in God's Poetry The Identity and Destiny Encoded in Your Name and God's Panoply The Armour of God and the Kiss of Heaven. Although there is nothing here about such covenants, they are implicit throughout the book and inform the background of Dalbey's stories. This book would certainly have helped my thinking progress a good deal faster.
I loved the insight about why small children can master the six-syllable names of dinosaurs while they are still lisping over so much else. The story woven in and out of the text about the author's constant difficulties with people calling him 'Roger' has profound resonances with the rest of the book.
His thoughts on peace are really excellent. Worth the read, just for the priceless insights here. It has long been a concern of mine that Christians happily accept astonishing heights of violence in fiction but ruthlessly excise sex and swearing. He quotes Elie Wiesel: 'When men go to war, God is their first victim.' And he points out the words of Paul of Tarsus: 'Jesus is our peace.'
I won't risk trivialising his complex arguments here but just admit I am indebted to his concise thoughts.
The summary about spiritual warfare at the back is also tremendously useful.
I would really have liked to have found this book a few years back when I was writing about name covenants in God's Poetry The Identity and Destiny Encoded in Your Name and God's Panoply The Armour of God and the Kiss of Heaven. Although there is nothing here about such covenants, they are implicit throughout the book and inform the background of Dalbey's stories. This book would certainly have helped my thinking progress a good deal faster.
I loved the insight about why small children can master the six-syllable names of dinosaurs while they are still lisping over so much else. The story woven in and out of the text about the author's constant difficulties with people calling him 'Roger' has profound resonances with the rest of the book.
His thoughts on peace are really excellent. Worth the read, just for the priceless insights here. It has long been a concern of mine that Christians happily accept astonishing heights of violence in fiction but ruthlessly excise sex and swearing. He quotes Elie Wiesel: 'When men go to war, God is their first victim.' And he points out the words of Paul of Tarsus: 'Jesus is our peace.'
I won't risk trivialising his complex arguments here but just admit I am indebted to his concise thoughts.
The summary about spiritual warfare at the back is also tremendously useful.
October 26, 2010
I am amazed at the spiritual awakening this man has had, as it so closely mirrors what God is doing in my life. This book is a fresh reminder that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Yet though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. Excellent book!
October 2, 2009
funny how I didn't 'get' this guy when I first picked up the book, but, he now makes good sense...
May 29, 2012
Wow, this is a great book to help you start to understand how we are in a spiritual battle and spiritual warfare is real. I really got a lot out of this book and I highly recommend reading it!
September 3, 2023
"Granted, all this talk about Satan, demons, rituals, and such is foreign to our materialistic way of thinking. We don't like to believe anything is real unless we can touch, see, feel, or otherwise control it. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, however, we live in a spiritual world as well as a physical world, and the two are very much a part of each other. What happens in the spirit realm affects us." (327) - Gordon Dalbey
This is one of those books that had some chapters I really enjoyed and others not as much. As a Continuationist I was delighted to hear of his move out of cessationism and into what I would consider a more Biblical expression of our faith. I also enjoyed many of his stories in ministry when it comes to deliverance. However, as a Reformed believer, I disagreed with some of his doctrinal positions. And a couple of his theories about how one can open oneself up to demonic oppression left me feeling a bit dubious. Some of them I agreed with but a couple were over the top, IMHO.
Another quote -
"Unfortunately, like so many other clergy, I was not taught spiritual reality in seminary. But what was once unfortunate is today tragic in its consequences. Ignorance of a thief's presence only gives the thief freedom to steal."(327)
This is one of those books that had some chapters I really enjoyed and others not as much. As a Continuationist I was delighted to hear of his move out of cessationism and into what I would consider a more Biblical expression of our faith. I also enjoyed many of his stories in ministry when it comes to deliverance. However, as a Reformed believer, I disagreed with some of his doctrinal positions. And a couple of his theories about how one can open oneself up to demonic oppression left me feeling a bit dubious. Some of them I agreed with but a couple were over the top, IMHO.
Another quote -
"Unfortunately, like so many other clergy, I was not taught spiritual reality in seminary. But what was once unfortunate is today tragic in its consequences. Ignorance of a thief's presence only gives the thief freedom to steal."(327)
January 4, 2013
Great book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews