Day 8: Contending with Hindering spirits of the Church
The goal of our prayer today is not to bring out all these spirits but to shine the light on some for the sake of time.
1. The spirit of Religion and Manipulation. This has taken different forms such as pride, selfishness and self centeredness, control etc.
It is very visible today that the church has shifted from the truth and only focused on prophesies, prosperity and seed sowing to get instant riches. In as much as these are biblical, these have been taken out of context and minds of believers not grounded in the word of God have been manipulated to agree with such teachings and ideology.
A good question is asked here: who has bewitched you? Did you receive the Spirit by works? How foolish has the church become. We got born again by the spirit of the Lord and have been taken over by the spirit of religion- traditions of men- man made stuff.
We must pray that the light of Christ will shine over the darkness that has covered our eyes of understanding. Ephesians 4:18 “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”
James 1: 26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.”
We must pray against the religious spirit of gossip and slander. You find people that have no biblical knowledge but quote scriptures to back up their wickedness; gossiping and slandering ministers of the gospel, friends and families.
2. The spirit of Jezebel and seduction
The spirit of Jezebel is an embodiment of different forms of evil.This spirit intimidates people to get what it wants. This was the spirit that brought Baal worship to Israel, intimated and killed Prophets, attempted to kill Elijah ( (I Kings 18:19–19:3).
seized Naboth’s land (1 Kings 21)
Pray that God gives us spirit eyes to descend this evil and run.
The spirit of wickedness: 1 Kings 21:25 “There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife.”
The spirit of idolatry 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?”
1 Kings 16: 31 “He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.”
The church of God had brought calamity to itself because of the marriage with the world that does worship God, but serve Baal and worship him. Pray against this kind evil. The church must divorce the evil woman call Jezebel. The church must burn downs her altars of Baal. Call for the fire of God.
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 spirit is the spirit of false prophets, lies, and manipulation It works hand in hand with religion. It’s a spirit seduction into sexual immorality.The church must pray. Pray for revelation and understanding of this spirit in the church. Pray that the fire of God visit his church and burn down this evil.
Ephesians 5:3 “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.”
We must declare war against this spirit that is destroying the true altars of worship.
The spirit that brings fear and death: 1 Kings 19:1-3 “1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” 3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there.”
But the Only solution is to bring Jezebel to her grave-death. “He who lives by the sword dies by the sword”Mathew 26:52. 1Kings 19:15-17 “15 The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu.”
2 Kings 9:30-33 “30 Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup, arranged her hair and looked out of a window. 31 As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, “Have you come in peace, you Zimri, you murderer of your master?” 32 He looked up at the window and called out, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked down at him. 33 “Throw her down!” Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.”
2Kings 10: 11 “So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.”
Jehu was anointed by Elijah with the mission to kill Jezebel and the entire household of Ahab. The Lord Jesus has given to the church power and authority over every power of the devil- what have we done with it? The church must arise in the anointing just like Jehu and bring to death every element of Jezebel. Pray for this anointing in Jesus name.
The spirit of Jezebel brings fear and retaliation. We must ask God’s guidance when we are betrayed. 1 Peter 2:23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”
Although today there is worship of an idol, the church today still have things held dear before God. We must put them to death. Colossians 3:5 “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
The practice of idolatry is similar to rebellion and arrogance that God views as rejection of his command. What has God ask you to do? Repent from any form of this evil. 1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.”
Micah 2:1 “Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.”
Declare the judgement of God upon any form of evil planted at night time against the church, families, nations, ministers of the gospel.
Romans 10:1-3 “1 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”
Pray for true repentance and revelation of the understanding of the word of God in the church. Pray that the church will be zealous for knowledge of God rather then a “man of God or woman of God”
Romans 1:18-20 “18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
We must know that God’s wrath will not spare any form of unrepentance. We must all come clear before God. Pray and ask Hod for mercy on the servants of God who have wondered away from the truth gospel and are now preaching man made stuff and the devil’s anointing.
Luke 2:36-37 “36 There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.”
To defeat these spirits, the church must come to the understanding of prayers that saturate the altar of the Lord day and night. The devil will not find expression in such places. Pray that the ministry of prayer will be restored in the church.
Isaiah 29:13 “The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”
John 4:23-24 “23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spiritand in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Pray that the church will repent from lip worship and worship the Lord in spirit and truth for that is what God desire.