BATTLE READY - Mike Mayhugh - 3 Free Print Books, 3 Free Ebooks

Dear Readers, I’ve known Mike Mayhugh for decades. When he was in his late teens, he and my older daughter dated for a while. His family and our family are long-time friends, and both his mother and I hoped they would get married. There has been a lot of water under the bridge in the decades since, but my opinion of Mike hasn’t changed. He’s a wonderful family man who loves the Lord. I’m thrilled to introduce you to his book. And here’s a bonus, he’s going to give away 3 print books and 3 ebooks on this blog interview.

Welcome, Mike. What would you like for our readers to know about you personally?

I find it rather funny that I have a Master of Divinity degree from Southern Methodist University. Who can truly Master the Divine? I have a piece of paper that says I did?! It should have been called a Striving to be perfected in Love like the Divine Master degree. I also have a degree in Christian Ministries from Asbury University. I am glad this pastoring calling worked out, because otherwise, all I can do with my two degrees is deliver pizza.

I also have a passion to keep pastors who have been mobbed from leaving ministry.

I love your heart for other pastors, Mike. Tell us about your family.

I have a beautiful wife who is a cancer survivor. She underwent a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. She is a mighty warrior and the inspiration for my book. She is in ministry with me and is the Christian Education Director at the church where I pastor. I have two adorable daughters. One who is finishing up her student teaching and is applying for a High School Biology teaching position in the Austin area where she also wants to open up a knick-knack shop. Mikala has finished up her sophomore year and is doing a yearlong internship at Walt Disney World working in attractions.

Cool. Have you written other nonfiction books?

This is my first book ever to write and was written out of my passion to stop the destructive bullying and mobbing that is escalating in our society today.

Do you have any other books in the works right now?

Yes, Hell Is for Real Memoirs of what was intended for evil, God used for good.

Can’t wait to read that one, too. What kinds of hobbies and leisure activities do you enjoy?

I love visiting amusement parks, riding the rides and seeing the shows. My favorite park is the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World! My draw to this hobby came from my first job as a teenager working at Six Flags Over Texas in my hometown of Arlington, Texas.

Why did you write the featured book?

The world is under spiritual attack and many of us are not aware of it. The use of intimidation, bullying, and mobbing are escalating in our schools, workplace, and our churches. Clergy are leaving the ministry in droves, and there is an exodus of laity who are leaving toxic churches, and people are not participating in events where abusive people are present. The disruption of church meetings and the destruction of people’s lives by toxic people trying to get their way by coerced manipulation and the spreading of misinformation to control how others view the victim is getting out of hand. This is Evil! This is a Spiritual Battle that needs to be fought!

 Unfortunately, most clergy and people avoid conflict, and since these antagonistic people have never been confronted with their wrongdoing, they become psychologically abusive to individuals and institutions. When peace at all cost is more important than justice, we create the monsters that are in our midst that destroy our churches, schools, sporting events, workplaces and people’s lives.

I wrote this book to expose this demonic behavior, to help victims find healing, and to embolden the reader to be proactive in spiritual warfare.

What do you want the reader to take away from the book?

I want people to know that the Christian answer to demonic opposition is not confusion or retreat but firm resistance in faith. I want the reader to engage in the struggle against hostile spiritual forces with confident faith and trust in God. The reader needs to also be aware that personality disorders are on the rise in our world. The Church has become a safe place for these folks to practice their bad behavior without consequences or recourse because we do not lovingly care enough to confront and take action to remove the unrepentant abusive person from our churches. We don’t do it because we think it is unchristian. I want people to know that if we continue to allow the bullying, mobbing, and manipulation to continue that it is an unchristian approach to resolving our differences. I want this book to empower the reader to be able to confront, expose, and deal with this bad behavior.

This is why I invested my time, money, and resources to tell this story. Please, let us break this sick cycle of abuse and lovingly confront and make a pact to engage in spiritual warfare.

Is there anything you’d like to tell my readers about you or your book?

I pray this book will help those who have been deeply wounded by psychological abusive attacks recover, heal, thrive, and survive! I also believe this book will help people realize that on one hand, there was suffering, but on the other hand, God, out of that suffering, can bring a blessing that could not have come any other way. I believe this book is a result of suffering in my life that allows me to be a blessing to others overcoming their pain.

Please give us the first page or two from the book.

INTRODUCTION

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places”. –The Apostle Paul (Ephesians 6:12 NIV)

“Evil is not to be traced back to the individual but to the collective behavior of humanity.” --Reinhold Niebuhr

Do you know you are in a spiritual battle with evil every day? Do you know that the battles that wage around us are not only a part of our individual lives but also our corporate lives in the body of Christ?

  

These battles are a part of our journey, our destiny and our calling in doing God’s work. Let me just say, you can deny your purpose and the war that rages around you, but that does not mean that it is not happening. To acknowledge that spiritual warfare is around us and to engage in that war is a part of our Christian walk, life, testimony, inheritance and narrative. This war is fought on different fronts, with fluctuating degrees, and forces. We may not win all the battles, but we know, by the grace of God, we will win the war.

All battles are woven into the tapestry of our lives that eventually make up the big picture that God desires for us but that we, many times, cannot see in the here and the now. It is like a child looking through a knothole in a fence at the circus parade going through town. He sees the acrobats, and their crazy routines in the parade that make him laugh. He sees the bearded women and is amazed. He sees the lions and he is all of a sudden afraid. He sees an elephant, and he is astonished at its size. Then he is totally freaked out by the clowns with their painted faces. If we were to sit up in the tree by the fence, we could see the beginning, the middle, and the end of the parade. The spiritual world we live in is like that boy looking at that parade from the knothole. Life is all about perspective. Only God can see the big picture, but it is our responsibility to be aware of what is around us and trust that God has the best plans for our life.

We must believe that God knows the desires of our hearts including the desires that we do not even know. That is why it is imperative that we not only know that we are in a spiritual war but we need to be willing to fight. We need to develop some tactics to maneuver in this world to be battle ready. The spiritual world is real. The battle is being fought. The question is, do you want to engage in the warfare or live a life in denial of the war waging around you? To engage is the difference between being a victim of our circumstances or living victorious lives.

Jesus told us in Matthew 28:18 that, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” (NLT) As believers who trust in God, we have this confidence that we are free for joyful service to the Lord because the war has been won. We have victory in Jesus and grace saves us through faith in Jesus as God’s Son. So my prayer is that this book will empower you to choose not to be a victim but to be victorious because the battle is ours!

1 LIVING IN THE HERE AND THE NOW

“In this life, we have to make many choices. Some are crucial, and some are not. Many of our choices are between good and evil. The choices we make, however, determine to a large extent our happiness or our unhappiness, because we have to live with the consequences of our  choices.” --James E. Faust

How we choose to live our lives is important. We can take the easy road and live in denial of the spiritual world around us and pretend it does not exist. The other day, I was at IHOP eating some of my favorite pancakes. The delicious harvest and grain pancakes make my stomach happy! To my right and across from me, there was this cute little girl sitting at a table and, for some reason, she was enamored with me. I guess I just look goofy or something. I remembered one of my  daughters’ favorite games to play when they were little was “Peek A Boo!” So, I took a napkin and unfolded it and held it before my face. Now to the toddler, I mysteriously disappeared and when I pulled it down and said “Peek A Boo”, I suddenly re-appeared. For a child’s mindset, this appeared to be magic. Every time I disappeared she was quiet and when I re-appeared she squealed with joy. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Paul’s analogy in 1 Corinthians 13:11, where he says “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (NKJV) We are at a time where we must all grow up and cease to play “Peek A Boo” with the spiritual world that surrounds us. We may try to mysteriously make spiritual warfare disappear, but it is there all the same. Here are some scriptures that unpack what this spiritual world looks like. So let us fold up the napkin and face the reality of the spiritual world in which we live.

I would like to have you read the following scriptures and then answer some questions about what these scriptures are teaching us. Read the following and let us discover the truth that God’s wisdom reveals.

• Nehemiah 9:6: “You alone are the LORD. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you.” (NLT)

• Luke 2:13-15: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” (ESV)

• Ephesians 6:12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (NIV)

• Colossians 1:15-16: “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He had existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.” (NLT)

• Hebrews 11:3: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (ESV)

What do we specifically learn about angels from these scriptures?

Who is it that is besieging us?

Who are we combating?

How does Paul describe the “invisible world”?

Who gives us the perfect image of the invisible God?

Where on the Internet can the readers find you?

My wife and I have a website Mayhughbeblessed.com where we sell our books Battle Ready, Hold Tight and her CD Anchor of My Soul. It is also a site where you can book Lisa for an event or sign up with me for “Life Coaching” that is limited only to those Clergy under attack.

Thank you, Mike, or sharing this book with us.

Readers, leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book or ebook. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

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