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Book Title: The Trading Floors

Author: Judy Coventry

The book, The Trading Floors, by Judy Coventry, puts into light the fact that this world is a trading floor. God our Father and Lucifer the serpent of old are the main drivers of that trade. God represents light and the devil darkness. As Christians in our walk of faith with Jesus, we are the children of light and in everything we do we must use righteous ways of obtaining things. The writer proffers that if we use the devil’s tools in our trade, we are bound to fail. The tools of trade used by God’s people are righteousness, truth, compassion, trust, love, amongst others.

The Trading Floors is one book that you every Christian should read as it explicitly reveals how you are tempted to trade with the devil. It teaches you how to watch what comes out of your mouth and what your ears and eyes hear and see,respectively, as they are the gates the devil wants to manipulate and control.

Christians today are lured into sinning through spreading rumours within the church, lust, judging others and slackening in prayer. The central theme of the book is that we must trade carefully lest we sell our birth right to sin like Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of meat. Don’t look at your present circumstance and justify that as a reason for you to sin. Think of a single mother who ends up engaging in multi-partner relationships with so-called “sugar daddies” and her justification is that she has to feed and take care of her family. Should that really be so?

Through this book, Judy Coventry teaches us that the devil is very calculative and always thrives on maximising your inclination to sinning.

You do not need to be stuck in your present or past hurts and troubles, but you need to faithfully wait unto the Lord even as your life go through challenging seasons.

The Trading Floors clearly brings out the fact that we are constantly engaging in trade on the gates, with the Lord and the devil being constantly involved in a battle for supremacy, territorial integrity and sovereignty. The one who controls the gate ultimately gets control over the whole city.

So on a more physical way as humans we also have gates that we must jealously guard and protect. These gates on our bodies include, our eyes, ears,noses and mouth –these are critical on the trading floor.

These openings are physical but the devil also uses them for his personal gain, that is, when we lie, smoke cigarettes,sniff toxics like glue, and when we see pornographic sites or videos. Having done these sinful things, we are trading and the devil is always the one to gain at our expense.

Judy Coventry’s conviction is so powerful yet very convincing that though the king of darkness, sin is always enticing and persuading us to fall.

The blood of Jesus, the blood of sacrifice, is available and ready to cleanse us. Only we need to accept Him as our Lord and Saviour.

Coventry also touches on the need for Christians to have altars where they create their own holy grounds to connect with God. So one may ask,‘Can we only connect with God on an altar?’

The answer is that God is omnipresent; but one needs to have a sacred place where they create an intimate relationship with Him.

This is particularly not a new ideology and it even exists in the African tradition, where people go ‘pachikuva’ with offerings to connect with ancestors.

Satan knows that Heaven is a land of plenty and he does not want anyone to go there because he was cast out of it. Imagine this: Heaven must be very good that the devil, even though he was cast down, is still selfish not to want anyone there.

All he is saying is, ‘I am not there,and so who else is worthy going there?’

Be very careful! Some of us are stuck in churches where we no longer feel the presence of the Lord because we fear being condemned by our relatives or friends.

But Coventry, through this book, challenges you to do what is of God not what is good to people. Go to a place where you can intimately connect with the Holy Spirit! Don’t trade your desire to be in the presence of the Lord for loyalty to family or friends.

Child of God, you need to begin to trade wisely on your floors. Do not trade with the devil’s currency.

The word of God tells us that the devil always manifests himself as the angel of light; so it is vital that every time you are faced with a decision to make, do not rush. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the way to go and to give you the right currency to trade with. — Celebration Ministries International