Kimberly Oden

I remember the first day I sat in Mrs. Barbara's Spiritual Warfare class. The revelations fell like a downpour, and I left that evening equipped with a teaching I didn't even know I needed.

I thought I had fully forgiven. But her breakdown of strongholds—and specifically the principality of bitterness and how it builds, tier by tier—stopped me in my tracks. It gains its entrance into our lives through unforgiveness. Resentment then builds on that foundation and eventually leads to retaliation. Retaliation to anger. Anger to hatred. Hatred to violence. And lastly—to murder.

My jaw dropped when I realized what I'd actually been carrying. Each one a link. Each one armor for a stronghold I never meant to build.

What she gave me was far more than knowledge or information. It was Divine insight that sharpened my spiritual eyesight.

I saw the structure behind the emotions. I saw the enemy hiding behind the faces I had been blaming. But best of all—I saw Christ, already victorious over every single attempt of the enemy.

Mrs. Barbara's class doesn't just instruct and equip the student—it dismantles the lies of the enemy. And then it hands you back the keys to the Kingdom.

What I didn't know walking into her class was that it would open my eyes to a freedom I had been missing—and ultimately prompt me to write a book the Lord had been waiting to birth through me. From Chains to Change would not exist without what He taught me in that room.

If you are ready to stop replaying the highlight reel of every wound and start walking in real freedom, I encourage you to run, not walk, to her next class. Your future will be markedly different for it.

— Kimberly Oden Author, From Chains to Change