Deliver Us From Evil, Part 12
May 17, 2019
We have talked on numerous occasions in the past about the
Spirit of Jezebel, and how that spirit has invaded the body of Christ. The common misconception is that refers
strictly to women who aree afflicted by this
spirit. Not so! I have personally seen more men afflicted by
this spirit than I have women.
Let
me start off today with a prophecy that John gives in Revelation 2 to the
Ekklesia in Thyatira:
Revelation 2:20-24:
“Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a
prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to
eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I
gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast
her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation,
except they repent of their deeds.
And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches
shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give
unto every one of you according to your works.
But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as
have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they
speak; I will put upon you none other burden.”
Pretty
strong, isn’t it?
Obviously,
the Lord wasn’t saying that Jezebel – the wife of King Ahab and daughter of
Ethbaal, the Amorite king – was still alive and operating in Thyatira nearly a
thousand years after her death. He was
referring to that spirit that emulated her, actually that wicked, evil spirit
that ruled Jezebel and contaminated the life of Israel in ways that ultimately
led the nation into captivity.
Let’s
take a look at some of the characteristics of Jezebel in John’s prophecy – the
characteristics of this spirit – and how it was contaminating the body of
Christ even then, in or around 96 AD.
1. “She
calleth herself a prophetess.”
Hmmmmm.…. OK. False prophet (ess) and false prophecy. False prophecy is the epitome of witchcraft
because it seeks to promote the false prophet(ess) and manipulate outcomes for
those who receive the prophecy.
2. “to
teach and seduce my servants…”
Right. This spirit poses as a
seductive teacher, promoting doctrines and teachings that lead the people of
God astray.
3. “to
commit fornication.” This seduction is
both spiritual and sexual. We’ll get
into that in more detail shortly.
4. “and
to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”
Uhh Huhh. Idolatry: the worship
or reverence of things, or individuals, or entities other than the Lord
Himself: the prioritizing of doctrines over a relationship with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Just wait. It gets worse.
5. “I
gave her space to repent of her fornication.”
So Jezebel (or those individuals contaminated with that spirit) are
actively committing fornication. That
doesn’t mean they are necessarily running around, having promiscuous sexual
relations, although they well may.
6. “and
she repented not.” So those afflicted
with this spirit generally tend to be unrepentant. They have no remorse over their sin, can’t
see that what they are doing is sin, and refuse to repent when faced with
exposure of their sin.
7. “Behold,
I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great
tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.” So it’s more than just fornication: it is
adultery, too. We’ll get into this more,
too, as this discussion proceeds.
8. “And
I will kill all her children with death.”
Strange phrase, isn’t it? If one
gets killed, they are dead are they not?
How do you kill someone with death?
This is an interesting Hebrew metaphor occurring in the Greek text. In this case, the Lord is talking about more
than physical death: He is talking about an eternal death and separation from
all possibility of redemption or future relationship with Him.
If
there is any hallmark of the spirit of Jezebel, or some particular
characteristic that sums up and describes its overall purpose, it would be
“usurper.” The primary objective of the
spirit of Jezebel is to usurp the operational authority of the Lord Jesus
Christ in those who are anointed and appointed by the Holy Spirit to minister,
to present itself as THE voice of the Lord instead, and to take control of the
leadership of God’s people.
See
that word, “control”? It goes with
manipulation. It’s called witchcraft. That’s what we’ve been talking about for
these past weeks. So what is witchcraft,
really? Black magic? Hocus-pocus? Magical incantations? Spells?
Whenever
you use the word, witchcraft, people automatically associate it with magic,
incantations, casting of spells, etc.
And that, folks, is exactly how Satan wants you to see witchcraft! The Enemy wants you to focus on the
superstitious aspects of witchcraft, the mythological and fantastical images of
an old hag stirring a cauldron of some evil brew. He doesn't want you to see witchcraft for
what it really is: the deliberate manipulation of people through deception,
mis-direction, creating suspicion of others and -- more specifically --
creating dissension among God's people by promoting false teachings which
question just how far our relationship with the Lord stretches.
This
is where the first description (She calleth herself a
prophetess)
plays such a major role within the Body of Christ today. For centuries, God's people have been plagued
with folks who've succumbed to this spirit, and I daresay that more men are
contaminated with the spirit of Jezebel than women.
Let's
talk for a minute about the role of the prophet(ess). This word is derived from the original Greek,
prophetes, which is a conjunction of two
other words meaning: to proclaim, or to put forth the thoughts or expressions
[of God]. The more common
interpretation of the Greek term is to describe one who speaks forth under
specific inspiration -- one who is a "forth teller."
That
can describe one who foretells future events (and that is probably the most
common perception of a prophet), but is more accurately referring to one who
speaks forth under divine inspiration, "telling forth" that which
Holy Spirit is speaking about or addressing under certain circumstances and in
certain situations. Foretelling the
future is certainly a part of being a prophet.
All
too often, however, the spirit of divination is what masks itself as the spirit
of prophecy. The spirit of divination is
the demonic counterpart for the spirit of prophecy. Divination is that which takes place when an
individual is "inspired" with thoughts and pictures of unfolding
events, either by the use of astrology, Ouija boards, palm reading, seeing
images in a crystal ball and a myriad of other means. The catch is that the spirit of divination
often has a particle of accuracy in some facts, enough of which leads to
deception -- both for the "diviner" and for the intended target of
the divination.
Again,
the spirit of divination will at times utilize Scripture verses out of context
and in the wrong situation in order to lead men and women astray. You may ask how that could be possible, or
how people could fall prey to such deception.
The real truth is that when people do not live in a place of intimacy
with the Lord Jesus Christ, when they do not continually live in a place of
daily, moment-by-moment communication with the Lord where they hear His voice,
they become susceptible to deception.
Once
a person hears and KNOWS the voice of God, any other voice and any
communication which comes out of a wrong spirit simply lacks the authority, the
peace, the love and the power of God. Many
years ago (and I've shared this before) when I had my first trip to Heaven and
had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Abraham, he said to me (in
response to a question), "Once you've heard the voice of God, there is no
other voice!" That is absolutely
true!
No
matter how much Satan tries to counterfeit the voice of God through the spirit
of Jezebel, no matter how much effort is made to seem like the authoritative
voice of God in what seems like a prophetic word, if that word comes from a
spirit of divination, the difference between that voice and the voice of God is
unmistakable. No demon, no voice of an
evil spirit can match the supreme authority that rests in God's voice. Any voice which speaks without the peace that
passes all understanding -- especially if correction is being brought -- comes
out of a spirit of divination operating through and in cooperation with a
spirit of Jezebel.
When
I hear the Lord speak to me, I don't have to sit and try to figure out whether
I'm actually hearing Him, or whether I'm being led down the primrose path by a
lying spirit. The voice of Father God
has supreme authority in it, along with agape
love, and even in the midst of correction and reproof there is a peace that
defies explanation.
We have touched on the fact that this
spirit perverts sex, sexual relationships and male-female roles. Jezebel was the incarnation of the presiding
spirit of the Amorites. Beyond the fact
that the dominant spirit in their midst was The Fear of Evil, they had adopted
the perversions of their Canaanite brethren.
Let's not forget that the curse which came upon Canaan as the firstborn
son of Ham the son of Noah was a direct result of Ham's perversion and the
homosexual act he committed on his father while Noah was passed out from his
wine.
Sexual perversion of every conceivable act
and type were hallmarks of each of the seven nations that inhabited the land of
Canaan, and it was one of the reasons why God commanded Israel NEVER to cohabit
the land with them, not to compromise with them in any way and not to get
sucked into the worship of their pantheon of gods. Sexual perversion (sex between men and
animals, women and animals, homosexual acts and lesbian activity, just as an
example) was elevated by many of the nations as a mode of worship to Baal and
Astarte (or Ashtaroth).
The Amorites took it to another level and
Jezebel played it to the hilt. Men and
women were forced into sexual slavery as "cult prostitutes" for the
priests and priestesses, and it became their duty to perform and provide
satisfaction to the priests and priestesses as an act of worship to the gods.
Jezebel used these practices to entice men
and women in Israel. Just like her
Canaanite cousins, she ordained homosexual priests and lesbian priestesses as
Israel's "holy ones." Here's
the issue! She was facilitated and
enabled by Ahab. As an Israelite, Ahab
knew better. He knew God's commands to
Israel. He couldn't have been more
familiar with God's command:
"There shall be no cult prostitute [lesbian]
of the daughters of
Consider what the Scripture says of Ahab: "And
Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the
LORD above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a
light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal
king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in
the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did
more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel
that were before him.
How's
that for a testimony against him? Now
you see how Jezebel was enabled in Israel with her abominations. There is a particular phrase in this passage
which says a whole lot: "And Ahab made a grove." This is a poor translation from the Hebrew
"asherah." While this word can be translated as
"image" it is representative of a place of worship with life-size
idols, altars and (somewhat) secluded sites hidden among leafy trees for their
"worship." Since the
"worship" of these idols of Ashtaroth and Baal required every kind of
perverse sexual activity, Ahab was specifically enabling Jezebel to promote
these abominations in the land.
History
makes very clear that Jezebel and those of her ilk sacrificed the lives of
young boys and young girls, forcing them into temple sex until their lives were
spent and they were discarded and (frequently) put to death when they no longer
satisfied their masters. The flourishing
sex trade we see today is a direct product of Baal worship, or the worship of
the ancient gods. The fact that we see
so many priests being tried for sexual molestation of young boys is a
continuing carryover of the spirit of Jezebel.
It is
a sick, sick fact that this has been far more prevalent than anyone has any
idea. Next week, I want to talk a bit
about the sexual perversion that has invaded the body of Christ, and the evil
that it represents.
As
we wrap up today's Coffee Break, following is an excerpt of a recent prophetic
word delivered by Dutch Sheets, a brother with a profound accuracy in his
prophetic utterances, and one whom I first met and came to deeply appreciate a
good 30 years ago. This word is relevant
to what I've been sharing on the spirit of Jezebel.
"Opposition, both from the Church and the world, will increase as we break out of normal. Religious spirits will insist on maintaining old structures and systems, and the kingdom of darkness will react aggressively to the spirit of revival. Don't be alarmed at this. Stay the course and resist the demonic pressure!"
In case you are missing out on real fellowship in an environment
of Ekklesia, our Sunday worship gatherings are available by conference call –
usually at about 10:30AM Pacific. That
conference number is (712)
770-4160, and the access code
is 308640#. We are
now making these gatherings available on video using ZOOM. If you wish to participate by video on ZOOM, our
login ID is 835-926-513. If you miss the
live voice-only call, you can dial (712) 770-4169, enter the same access code and listen in later. The video call, of course, is not recorded –
not yet, anyway.
Blessings
on you!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76504
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