Sunday, February 14, 2010

Let's keep Looking....

Let's look at the differences between Elijah and Jezebel:

* Elijah demands repentance * Jezebel hates repentance
*Elijah demands righteousness * Jezebel opposes righteousness
* Elijah speaks freedom * Jezebel desires control
* Elijah demands humility * Jezebel appeals to pride
* Elijah speaks God's ways * Jezebel uses deceit & systems of witchcraft

As prayer people, we need to aware of these differences, so that we can respond accordingly, when we see the wrong responses rising up in us, or in the prayer meetings we participate in. I've seen Jezebel operate in a prayer meeting, and let me tell you - it's not pretty! Two groups of intercessors came together to pray over their pastor. Each group had different prayer styles. When someone from 'one group' would pray, the others would listen, but with a critical ear. Remember that Jezebel fears true intercessory prayer because it knows that if we are praying without our own agendas, we will be praying God's thoughts and purposes. Nothing shuts Jezebel down faster! In this case, because each group was already suspicious of each other, and probably had unresolved offenses with each, their agenda was not to pray God's thoughts and purpose - their agenda was to protect the pastor from the other group. That meeting ended up in a public scene that caused embarrassment to the pastor AND wounding to a couple of wonderful intercessors. Plus their disunity allowed that pastor to be completely taken out within a year or so, as the intercessors spent more time fighting each other, than they did praying protection over their pastor from a Jezebel assignment that was being launched against him! By the time they recognized Jezebel's hand in what was happening - it was too late! A good man was take from his church and his city, and the rift between the intercessors increased until they were scattered to many different churches.

The one group was discerning that something was 'off' in the second group. The mistake was not their discernment. Their mistake was not asking God how to pray - what was His mind for this meeting. They immediately ( and not without cause), went into battle mode and as result, they were wounded and lost ground with the pastor! Why? Well, Proverbs tells us not to go to war without counsel or strategy. The enemy loves to reveal enough of himself and his position, to get intercessors to panic and come out swinging - without a plan! We've lost enough good intercessors who have such a heart and desire to pray, but haven't yet learned 'timing is everything'. While the enemy is jumping up and down, yelling 'Here I am" - we need to be quick to remember that it's not up to us to go charging into battle, without first having the battle plan from the Commander and Chief! The enemy is always willing to sacrifice a demon or two, if it means int eh long run, he can destroy a prayer group, or take out an intercessor!

The days of charging off without a plan, are fast coming to an end! We need to find the Generals of Prayer in our cities again. Look for the Captains in our churches! Find the leaders among us! We need to learn again how to work as a team, as a fight group! And when we do...we'll start taking back the ground we've lost in some areas...

Remember not every fighting group is huge! Look to the military for our examples. There are large platoons, but there are also small elite 'hit' squads that go in behind enemy territory and wreak havoc, as well as prepare the way for the larger troop to attack. We need to allow God to train us again and assign us our 'unit'! We need to make sure we are not allowing a Jezebel spirit to make us fight, what hasn't been assigned to us, or fight out of pride and jealousy!

Some common characteristics of Jezebel are:
Pushiness - this is someone who pushes their way into arenas of power in the church or prayer group
* Sowing seeds of discord - they'll come and divide what had previously been a cohesive prayer movement in a church
* Hate - for those that question them, it always becomes personal 'You're attacking me..'..
* Intimidation
* Distortion - they twist words...so it's really important to never meet one-on-one with someone under the influence of Jezebel or have phone conversations that aren't monitored

When Jezebel loses control, love and devotion can quickly turn to hate and destruction. Also they will constantly work at undermining legitimate relationship or authority, and put itself in the position of authority with a pastor or leader.

Remember...a Jezebel spirit fears true prayer - true intercession - because it is praying God's agenda and stirs people to repentance and godliness! (A definite death blow to it's power and influence!)

Saturday, February 6, 2010

More on Jezebel

It has always been interesting to me, that Elijah, after seeing such an amazing miracle and the manifestation of God's power....runs for his life from one woman! We know of course that woman was Jezebel. I King.19:3-4 Tells of Elijah's run for his life.



So....He has seen God move in an unbelievable display of power...and one woman threatens him..and he runs! What's with that??



One of the greatest effectiveness ( if you want to call it that) of the Jezebel spirit is it's ability to threaten and intimidate. Jezebel then..and now...loves to project a sense of power, that they do not have. Again, it's based on fear and intimidation. This spirit loves to cloud the minds of those it's seeking to dominate.



Some examples of how we might 'hear/recognize' that spirit in today's situations: " If you don't do this, we'll have to withhold our tithe."..." Submit to me, or you won't have any spiritual covering." .........." If you don't stop ( or listen to me...or do what I say...) that I'll make sure that no one ever...supports you again." ...." I'll sue this company/church/ you...until you either go out of business or leave."



These are all a use of illegitimate power and authority. This doesn't mean a person shouldn't stand up for themselves, but it should b done through the proper channels. Manipulating, intimidating and dominating another human being are blatant uses of control and illegitimate authority.



Elijah was temporarily influenced by fear - even tho he'd just seen God move - and that fear resulted in discouragement and despair and opened him to being influenced by Jezebel's projected ( and exaggerated) power. " I am have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left." I Kings 19:10



We can see from this, that the spirit of intimidation was so strong and that it projected to his mind that there was not a single person left who was devoted to God. Ever had a similar 'extreme' reaction or response to the trial you were going thru?? Suddenly you go from 'standing strong' to...' I'm just going to quit. Nothing I've ever done has made a difference."...or .." Everyone is against me." When in reality there are one or two...but seriously...'everyone':? No!

Not true. You are in the grip of the intimidating power of Jezebel!



This spirit wants you to feel abandoned, to surrender to hopelessness. It's desire is to paralyze the prophetic flow of God. And it will.......if you surrender to it.



The first step to surrendering is to fall into agreement with fear...and from there you go into 'self pity'. Self pity is a clearly conscious resignation and surrender to the victim mentality. ( There is a GREAT teaching out called, "Overcoming a Victim Spirit" - if you haven't heard it - get it! It's really well done.) When you see yourself as a victim, you literally enter into agreement with Jezebel and some say you are actually entering into sin with her, because you are no longer resisting her.



Remember, the Jezebel spirit has no regard for godly authority. This spirit is in complete contrast to the will of God. This spirit wants to BE God. In a person...this manifests as, wanting to be in charge, in control. This is the person in a church who believes that they'd do a better job as the leader of the committee they're on...or the elders/deacon board they're on..or even, as the leader/pastor of the church. They work at removing godly authority with the conscious desire to put themselves in that position.



The Jezebel spirit has no conscience. Those under her control have hardened their hearts and their consciences have become seared. Their 'will' is king...and they are supreme!



The saddest part for me, is the way Jezebel destroy the fruitfulness of others. Ahab, acting like a spoiled child, wanted a vineyard for his own selfish convenience. He had an innocent man . Naboth's fruitfulness ended because of that act! Naboth could not give up the inheritance of his fathers to the king. The Jezebel spirit desires that righteous people forsake their convictions and inheritances, so that IT can do it's religious work!



As a church, we need to 'know our enemy'. Even the Generals of this world, who wage warfare study the tactics' of the one they are going to battle against. The church has often turned a blind eye to how Jezebel works, and we've done that by having her use our own desire to 'get along'...or be 'submitted'...or 'to keep the peace'..in our churches. While those are good things, we also need to know when TO FIGHT!



More on that....soon!~

Monday, February 1, 2010

What Is Jezebel??

We know that the term "Jezebel' is in actuality the name of the wicked Queen Jezebel, who was the wife of King Ahab, in the Old Testament. Ahab's marriage to Jezebel led to the worship of Baal becoming widespread among God's people. She exercised control because of that, as well as the other tactics she used to exert both illegitimate and 'wicked' control over people, her name has become synonymous with the spirit of control.


Jezebel is a product of the flesh that opens the door to an evil spirit. It operates through a person in the form of manipulation, domineering or intimidating tactics. It is NOT restricted to women - a mistake I believe has cost many a church or church leader! You must recognize the spirit, not just the gender! Some people believe ti operates more prevalently in women because of the nature of it's origin, but there is no question that it function just as proficiently through men.

When it's functioning in women, the Jezebel spirit seems to serve as Satan's answer to a male -dominating world - giving false protection in a world where a women seems to never get her rights nor has the protective love of a father or husband. Out of lack of love, she may rebel against the whole 'unloving system' and end up becoming just like it. The one who felt 'controlled' now becomes the 'controller'. - the ' oppressed 'becomes the 'oppressor'.

Whether male or female, controllers are almost always motivated by insecurity.

One of the biggest ways Jezebel deceives us, is by doing religious things or being a religious person. The original Queen Jezebel converted her husband to follow Baal. ( Remember Ahab married her against God's command.)

The name Jezebel means ' without dwelling or habitation'. That's her true nature. She is independent; lives with no one. Her name can also mean; unmarried or uncommitted. It literally means she's not committed to any one's will except her own self-will. One book says that a 'true explanation of Jezebel can be clearly described as the worship of self-will'. Wow!

The clear battle with the Jezebel spirit is over people! That spirit desire to control and rule the people of God. Often you will see the 'power struggle' between a person with a Jezebel spirit and the true leader - the Jezebel spirit wants the leadership or control of the decisions that are made. To describe her agenda, you'd probably have to say that a person under the influence of a Jezebel spirit exalts position over character.

While Jezebel is religious, she will try to wield false power against the true prophetic flow from God. She hates the prophets and all prophetic ministry. What and see what an unleashed spirit of Jezebel spirit can do in a church that was once flowing or growing in the prophetic gifts and anointing. After a period of time, if Jezebel is not recognized and dealt with, there will be no true prophets or functioning prophetic gifts in that church. It will be either shut down...or controlled by the one functioning under the influence.

Specifically, she hates repentance, humility and intercessory prayer, because they destroy her strongholds of stubbornness and pride.

Aware of the Warfare..

It seems these days, that intercessors are in two camps: the ones that are either totally obsessed with the demonic and spend more time in prayer talking to demons and the enemy, than they do to God.

Or the ones that are on the other extreme, are completely oblivious to the warfare at all. I suppose there is probably another camp: the ones that are aware of it...but are terrified of it!

I like to think I've been trained by my prayer mentors to be a good balance of both! I'm very aware of the spiritual realm, but chose to spend most of my time in prayer, talking TO God, telling him where the battle is...and calling Him down into it. At the same time, when He gives me the 'OK' to directly address the enemy, I will and do! But I must know my authority when I'm doing that, or you can be the enemy will just laugh!

Knowing our enemy, is also a tactic of good warfare! Even the generals of old knew that if you wanted to wage a battle, make sure to know everything you could about your enemy. So.....I thought I might spend a bit of time writing about a couple of different 'spirits' that we come up against when doing Intercession.

Over the next few weeks....I'll be writing about confronting the Jezebel Spirit, as well as the Religious Spirit. I know there are ALOT more that I could write on..but at this point I'll just focus on those two for now. I'm also working on a study, for those that might be interested, on the different temperaments in prayer. Anything that help us prayer better, pray sharper - I'm all for!

So...stay tuned for some info on Jezebel int eh next few days...