““30 Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. 31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. 32 He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.”
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Everyone has a name, but not every name is good. It is very important that we understand the meaning of our names. Names can misrepresent and misdirect one’s destiny. In most cultures, parents give their children the names of family members, like the names of grandparents, to honor them as well as for other reasons. Most Christian families are particular about what names they give their children. Most people research the meaning of names and how those who were given those names lived their lives.
The name Jezebel is not an unfamiliar name. Many people, especially Christians, know this name and its meaning to some degree. Today, we will look at this name, the spirits behind it, and how one can be destroyed by this spirit. We will look at some bible verses and locate the spirits behind Jezebel. However, for the sake of time, this topic will not be fully covered.
Spirit of Idolatry: this is the head of all the other spirits.
In 1 Kings 16:30-33 quoted above, Ahab, the king of Israel, is married to Jezebel who came from a background of idol (Baal) worship. Ahab was not straightforward either, so it was easy for him to get an unbelieving wife. The God is Israel is the true God and every other is false. Ahab had to satisfy his idol-worshiping wife, and of course, he built an altar for Baal worship in the temple, thereby introducing idol worship in Israel. What an insult to the highest King. This was the wickedness that Ahab introduced in Israel with his wife.
1 Kings 18:18b: “ You have abandoned the Lord’s Commands and have followed the Baals.”
Baal - represents strength, fertility, lust for power and sexual pleasure.
Lust for Sexual pleasure is sinful before God.
2. The spirit of sexual immorality, lies, falsehood, manipulation, and seduction. If Baal worship has to do with immorality, then you can imagine what happens with you are around such a spirit if you don’t have the spirit of Christ. This spirit of Jezebel is the spirit that always targets church ministers, young people, singles, and married people by seducing them into sexual immorality of different types and eating on the tables of idol worship.
Revelation 2:20: “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.”
2 Peter 2: 2-3: “2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teacher among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. “
3. The spirit of Jezebel is the spirit of wickedness, pride, arrogance, selfishness, self-centeredness, control, entitlement, witchcraft, sorcery, abduction, exploitation, etc
1 Kings 21:8- 14 “8 So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city. 9 And she wrote in the letters, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people. 10 And set two worthless men opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out and stone him to death.” 11 And the men of his city, the elders and the leaders who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them. As it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, 12 they proclaimed a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people. 13 And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones. 14 Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned; he is dead.”
4. The spirit of Jezebel is a killer. When this spirit enters a place, the head is of the church; families are threatened and killed, marriages are antagonized, and dreams, visions, and destinies are threatened. The church must arise, descend, and deal with them by resisting their entrance into the church.
1 Kings 18:4: “And when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.”
5. The spirit of Jezebel creates an atmosphere of disarray, no peace, and witchcraft.
2 Kings 9:22 “When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?”How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”
6. The spirit of Jezebel intimidates, threatens, and creates fear.
1 Kings 19: 1-3 “1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.”
Prayer Points: Dealing with the spirits of Jezebel.
The church must engage every section of the church in teaching and studying the word of God by Revelation. The Word of God is the powerful weapon against anything that intends to challenge the integrity of God’s word. The revelation of scripture is very valid as mere quotation amounts to nothing. We must know the Word by revelation. The word is living, active, able to penetrate any territory. I know someone will say the church is already doing this, but I tell you the truth, we have more activities than dwelling in the word. Teaching the true word equips the church to identify and run away from these spirits.
Hebrew 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
2 Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
Deuteronomy 11:19 “You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
2. The church must be Filled with the Holy Spirit and power. The Apostles were able to challenge obstacles to their spiritual journeys because they waited in the upper room until they were filled. Sunday to Sunday church will not do it. The church needs some organized and uninterrupted time, not crowded with all these manmade activities in the presence of the Lord, to be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We must pray that the church will wake up to this realization. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is essential as it fortifies other areas in the church, for example, discernment, testing other spirits, and rejecting them as soon as one senses something strange.
Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Isaiah 11:2: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”
1 John 2:27: “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.”
John 16:13: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
3. Teaching truth and being filled/guided by the Holy Spirit empowers the church to walk in the understanding of God’s word and thus make informed decisions.
Psalm 32:8: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”
4. Pray for the grace to keep God’s commands.
John 14:21: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 “12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?”
5. Raise an Altar of Consistent Ministry of Prayer.
Mathew 21:13: “It is written,” he said to them, “’My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Leviticus 6:12: “ The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it.”
Romans 12:1: “Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
The church has made prayer to belong to some called “intercessors.” Prayer belongs to the whole church. The Church must arise and teach what prayer is and the need for it in these times. Prayer must be intentional and continuous.
6. The church must arise and ask God for the anointing of Jehu that kills Jezebel.
The spirits of Jezebel have no room for repentance not easy for such arrogance, pride, and control to repent) for God had already cursed it. Therefore, the church must be careful not to fall prey. The only way to deal with such spirits is death. We must ask for grace to exposed and throw it out into the fire of God.
2 Kings 9:6-10: “6 Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the young prophet poured the oil on Jehu’s head and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘I am anointing you to be the new king over the Lord’s people, Israel. 7 You must destroy the family of Ahab your king. In this way I will punish Jezebel for the deaths of my servants, the prophets, and the deaths of all the Lord’s servants who were murdered. 8 So all Ahab’s family will die. I will not let any male child in Ahab’s family live. It doesn’t matter if that male child is a slave or a free person in Israel. 9 I will make Ahab’s family like the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the family of Baasha son of Ahijah. 10 The dogs will eat Jezebel in the area of Jezreel, and she will not be buried.’”
2Kings 9: 33: “He said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down. And some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her.”
7. The Church must also arise in the anointing of Elijah and deal with the false Prophets who have been manipulating and deceiving the church. We have to resist them and expose them in every way possible.
1 Kings 18:19: “Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table.”
Micah 5:12: “And I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes.”
Revelation 21:8: “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Isaiah 5:20-21: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!”
8. Repentance and mercy.
Revelation 2:20: “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.”
This was the message to the church in Thyatira.
9. Pray for the integrity of our Christian faith.
Titus 2:7-8 “7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”