You can be an heirand still liveas if you were penniless.
Little sentences, religious presumptions, and a disarmed accuser often run more of our lives than we admit. This book uncovers what has long been paid, transferred, and opened for you.
Coming 2026
What it is really about
Six words that run your whole life without you ever examining them. The book brings each one into the open, one at a time.
Little Sentences
“That’s just how I am.” The quiet sentences that keep you tired. “I still have to.” “Once things settle.” Never examined, and yet your compass.
The Presumption
What you take for truth is often just an assumption no one ever contradicted. Presumption rules, until you rebut it.
The Accuser
He has no power of his own anymore. He works with yours: your faith, your word, your silence. Disarmed on a certain Friday.
The Receipt
“It is finished” in the original means “paid in full.” The debt is settled. And you keep living like a debtor.
Your Seat
Not earned. Transferred. Yours now. You are already seated where the verdict has long been given, you simply never sat down.
Your Inheritance
Open. Released. For you. The door has stood open for 2000 years, and creation is waiting for you to wake up.
Why this book is different
The title provokes. The book behind it does not, not to shock, but to wake you. So it matters what it is not.
What it is not
- Not a book about trying harder
- Not a moral program
- Not religious self-optimization
- Not a guilt amplifier
- Not an attack on any church or person
What it is
- Exposing the inner strongholds
- Reading in the New Covenant, verse by verse
- Truth instead of presumption
- Inheritance instead of begging
- Standing instead of striving
The series
One book to read, to hear, and to walk through with others. One main book, three companions, the same truth.
The Art of Fooling Yourself
A conversation, not a sermon. Six kitchen-table talks with Thomas, a little test at the end of each chapter, and a going-deeper box that unlocks a word from the original text or the world of law. As paperback and e-book.
Narrated in English
The complete book as an audiobook. Sample below. Also available in German.
Play the sample →For groups
A full quarter, week by week, for home groups with no theological background. With a ritual and printable handouts.
Learn more →For the pulpit
A complete sermon series for churches and group leaders, 30 to 35 minutes each, with a framework and objections from the pew.
See the series →For home groups and the pulpit
The book goes further when people walk it together. Two finished companion works carry the message into the group and onto the pulpit.
Let’s Wake Up · The Home-Group Book
A full quarter, week by week, for home groups and small groups with no theological background. Every session follows the same calm ritual: arrive, hear the core, look it up in Scripture, talk honestly, carry it into daily life, and close with an assurance in the standing of an heir.
- A fixed nine-step flow each week, even for untrained leaders
- A guide for the leader, with an extra pastoral-care box for the week on forgiveness
- Printable handouts: weekly sheets, cut-out cards, a house-rules poster
Becoming Visible · The Sermon Series
A complete sermon series along the arc of the book, for churches and group leaders. Every sermon is fully built: a pulpit aim, the text, three movements, lines for the pulpit, an image for the evening, a clear landing point, and the objections that are sure to come from the pew.
- 8 sermons of 30 to 35 minutes, as a series or standalone
- A finished framework for each sermon, never a blank page
- For seasoned preachers and for a first time in the pulpit
Who this book is for
When you are tired, without quite knowing of what.
When you sense the door has long been open, and you are still sitting inside.
When you can own an inheritance and still live as if the door were shut.
When you have had enough of striving, begging, and never feeling like enough.
The audiobook
Listen in before you decide. The introduction, about six minutes.
Introduction. The whole world is waiting for Jesus. But do you know what has to happen first?
Also in German: Werden wir wach →
Questions people ask us
Is this book theological or motivational
Theological. It is not a motivational book and not self-help. It reads Scripture in the New Covenant, verse by verse, and does not carry you along with slogans but with truth. The wake-up call is real, but it stands on the Word, not on a mood.
Who is it for, and do I have to be a believer
For anyone who senses they are sleeping through an inheritance. You do not have to be a believer to understand it. You only need the willingness to examine your own little sentences.
What is legal language doing in a book about faith
A great deal, and that is the discovery. Terms like presumption, trust, and receipt make visible how the accuser works and why he has stood empty-handed since a certain Friday. You need no legal background.
How is it different from ordinary self-help
Self-help works on you so you achieve more. This book shows you that what you are straining to earn has long been paid and transferred. Not an optimization program, but a change of standing.
Is there an audiobook
Yes. The complete book, narrated in English, 6.5 hours. A sample is above, in English and German.
The author
“I am not attacking anyone. I am clearing the ground.“
(c)mike von oberbauer has spent years writing, composing, and producing around the New Covenant. He reads Scripture in the original and the papers of everyday life word for word, and this book grew out of that double set of lenses. The title provokes not to shock, but because the truth itself is uncomfortable. Published by Inspired Devotion & Music (idm24.com), his own imprint and label.
(c)mike von oberbauer
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The world is not waiting for a better Christianity. It is waiting for you.