Fire On Your Head

This is the second article from Edwin and Sophia Christiaan on the spirit of Jezebel.  It is entitled; Committing Adultery with Jezebel, and answers some questions from the first article. It is a topical teaching with a view of helping those whom have specifically dealt with the spirit of Jezebel. It shows scriptural ways to overcome entanglements one may have had with this spirit. I posted them because it is a good and clear perspective on the matter. I usually do not post teachings or teach  on subjects such as this, however when I met the Christiaans and heard their first hand experiences in dealing with the Jezebel Spirit, I felt that many would  benefit from it. Visit their website at http://instituteoflove.net. Don’t forget to read the other articles on the Jezebel spirit.

The consequences of committing adultery with Jezebel

It has never been God’s intention for those who have a personal love relationship with Him, which in reality means to be married to Jesus Christ, to live in defeat, lacking the financial means for living and giving, to always battle with sickness, or die prematurely. On the contrary, God’s desire and prayer for us is that we may prosper in all things and be in health, just as our souls prosper.. See 3. John 2 NKJV

Jesus the Bridegroom, showed us how much He loved us by giving His life for us and washing us from all sin. Now, He is looking forward to come back for a glorious church, His Bride, and that is us, living free from sin and evil attachments or as the Bible describes it, “without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish.” See Ephesians 5:26-27 NLT

But for some reason something has driven a wedge between us and Jesus in our marriage with Him, causing us to struggle, feeling spiritually isolated from God, feeling guilty and fearful, resulting in us becoming ineffective as Christians for God’s Kingdom. We lost the ability to walk in God’s power, unconditional love, and having a sound and not confused mind. That “something” that has come between us and God, is what I call: “The sin of committing spiritual adultery”, where we knowingly or unknowingly have allowed someone or something to become more important to us than our husband, Jesus, which is the same thing as having an idol.

In the natural world, the definition of adultery is referred to as extramarital sex, infidelity, or voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and another person who is not his or her spouse.

In the spiritual realm, it means we have entered into an extramarital affair with somebody other than God, and we are now reaping the consequences of its curse.

Listen! The LORD is not too weak to save you, and he is not becoming deaf. He can hear you when you call. But there is a problem — your sins have cut you off from God. Isaiah 59:1-2 NLT. In other words, because we have committed the sin of adultery, it has literally broken and fractured our marriage relationship with God.

Much of the source of our sins is rooted in the Jezebel Spirit, whose clear purpose is to seduce us and lead us away from God by having us commit spiritual adultery with her. The Spirit of Jezebel is a rebellious spirit that is born out of witchcraft.

Those who are “infected” with the Jezebel Spirit are evil, and practice evil. Their character traits are well described and categorized in the secular world who classify these people as Narcissists or Psychopaths for whom there is no healing treatment or cure.

Two Types of Jezebel Personality
There are two types of Jezebel personalities: The high-profile type who is loud and vocal and is the one who wears the pants in the family. And then there is the low-profile type who is generally soft-spoken, giving the illusion of being motherly, protective, and even very submissive. The latter type is the most dangerous, as this is the most difficult to discern. She relies heavily on manipulation and is very subtle and crafty.

Although the Spirit of Jezebel is genderless, it is usually women who possess it because of its seductive sexual nature.

Here is a list of the characteristics of the evil Jezebel Spirit:
She is proud, likes self-worship, is arrogant and power hungry. She seeks recognition and affirmation. Her identity is based on her performance rather than having her value in Jesus Christ.

She often succeeds well in the pursuit of her goals, and in this process she hinders others in learning to operate in the gifts and talents God gave them, because she jumps in before anyone else can.

She never wants to be accountable, but instead she is resentful and tries to attack and intimidate those who are trying to make her accountable.

She is seductive. She uses any type of seduction available, to manipulate her way to gaining control and power, flirtation being one of them. She uses a spiritual seduction which operates on both men and women. Although Jezebel usually dislikes women, she will seduce women in position of authority, or wives of those in authority. Jezebel always seeks to be the efficient executive assistant at the side of a powerful businessman or church leader. Men are almost always blind to her seduction as she flatters them with her attention.

She is bitter and often openly envious of others. For instance, she jealously stands in the way of others receiving attention or recognition, applause, and a position of power.

She murmurs and complains to get her way..

She is not easily satisfied no matter what people do to appease her.

She clearly lacks in humility. She is unrepentant, stubborn, and will never admit any wrong doing.

She schemes and plots to get what she wants.

Here is a good example of how the Bible breaks down this evil behavior of scheming and plotting to obtain what we want:

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it the whole army of evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous for what others have, and you can’t possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it. And even when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong — you want only what will give you pleasure. James 4:1-3 NLT

She is controlling and very manipulative.

She is selfish.

She is critical of others.

She is bossy, and rebels against authority that seeks to replace her.

She is a back-stabber and craftily uses lies to discredit others.

She is emotionally cold.

She will never give you her approval.

She puts impossible, high expectations on others.

She is unable to acknowledge the pain she causes others.

She is usually very calculated but acts innocent.

She only gives conditional love.

She hates the true prophets of God and seeks to persecute and destroy them.

She belittles men and emasculates those who allow her to dominate and get her will. She HATES men of authority who discerns her spirit.

She is delusional and likes to give herself prominent name titles.

If you have experienced these things, it is likely that you have encountered the Spirit of Jezebel. This spirit can work through friends, relatives, work colleagues, as well as believers in the church. The truth of the matter is that we all are susceptible to some of these behaviors. That is why it is important to note that just because a person exhibits one or more of these characteristics, it doesn’t automatically make that person a Jezebel. We need to have the Spirit of Discernment to be able to identify this spirit, as Jesus exposed this evil spirit in the church of Thyatira, saying to them:

I know all the things you do — your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things. But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman — that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet — to lead my servants astray. She is encouraging them to worship idols, eat food offered to idols, and commit sexual sin. Revelation 2:19-20 NLT

It is interesting to see here, that Jezebel makes this seemingly good church, who is allowing her, believe that she speaks on behalf of God, because she has proclaimed herself to be a prophetess. Therefore, it has become relatively easy for Jezebel to teach the church whatever she wants them to hear and believe, and in doing so, craftily removing the people’s focus on Jesus onto herself. Jezebel causes them to worship, support, defend, and idolize her and her so-called ‘deeper truths’ teachings, like we hear many preaching nowadays. These are teachings that only focus on how you can get wealthy and get stuff for your own pleasure. In other words, Jezebel makes the church gratify itself by having them eat food offered to idols (idol food=false teachings), and because of that they commit adultery with her. But Jesus calls these false teachings, The Depth’s of Satan. See Revelation 2:24 NLT

I gave her time to repent, but she would not turn away from her immorality. Therefore, I will throw her upon a sickbed, and she will suffer greatly with all who commit adultery with her, unless they turn away from all their evil deeds. I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person. And I will give to each of you whatever you deserve. Revelation 2:21-23 NLT

The consequences of committing adultery with Jezebel are very serious. We will suffer hugely emotionally, physically, financially, and even to the point of death. But what you can see in the above scripture is that God mercifully provides time and opportunity for repentance from the sin of indulging in this Jezebel deception.

Those who are infected and infested with the Spirit of Jezebel stubbornly do not want to repent from their evil deeds. But those who commit adultery with Jezebel are often more open to want to turn away from their sins.

In order to regain the blessings of breakthrough of God upon our lives we need to first of all repent and then fully turn away from ALL evil deeds, which means breaking with ALL ties connecting us to the Spirit of Jezebel, emotionally and physically.

The Spirit of Jezebel is very wicked and is determined to retaliate on anybody who wants to escape her deadly claws. Therefore, it will send demons of intimidation, fear, and discouragement to try to get you back into the relationship with her and getting under her control.

This is the prescription that God gives us in order for us to be healed and set free from the wounds caused by committing adultery with Jezebel, to restore our marriage relationship with Jesus:

So humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, you hypocrites. Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor. James 4:7-10 NLT

JESUS CHRIST SAYS:

To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, I will give authority over all the nations. Revelation 2:26 NLT

Copyright©2009 Sophia & Edwin Christiaan

To read parts 1 & 2 click here.

This is the conclusion of the first article on the Spirit of Jezebel by Edwin and Sophia Christiaan, entitled Knowing Jezebel. I will post the second article in part 3. I encourage you to check out their website: http://instituteoflove.net for more information. They are awesome believers with a unique ministry and anointing to accurately reveal to the body of Christ the schemes of the enemy, particularly the spirit of Jezebel.

Fighting Jezebel

In order to fight Jezebel you have to first come to her level of competition. This means, you have to be as strong and fierce as she is. The Spirit of Jezebel is a very overwhelming and overbearing spirit that gives the Jezebelite an arrogant and self confident flare and attitude, making her believe she is invincible. She believes with all her might that she is the victim of every seemingly injustice committed against her up through her life, and she is fully convinced that anyone who doesn’t buck to her authority, is against her, plotting her downfall. In many cases, the Jezebelite has been the victim of sexual abuse in her childhood, and carries a huge grudge against men, and people in general. They demand “silk-glove” treatment. So, in order to combat her, you need to first be completely convinced in your belief about what you are dealing with.

First of all, you have to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are in fact dealing with the spirit of Jezebel in that person. If you doubt your position, Jezebel will for sure chew you out. She is strong, manipulative, and very powerful in her witchcraft. She immediately knows it if you are insecure and afraid. Like a predator, her instinct will tell her about the level of your strength and authority. If you are not strong, you will be eaten for breakfast.

Second of all, you have to be prepared to fight. Fighting could involve relentless letter writing, phone calls, and open communication with spiritual leaders to let her know, that you know what she is up to, and that you are telling the world! What Jezebel fears and hates the most, is when they are exposed. They are usually able to easily seduce and deceive people, so when you expose them, it hits them like a train. They lose their power and get knocked out of their path. In this momentum you can work. That is the time to keep pounding to expose her, because she is weary, and has been taken off guard.

This is where the level of competition is so important. If you are not strongly convinced that you are fighting the spirit of Jezebel, you will not use your tools efficiently. Remember how strongly she is convinced, and match that!

There are some controversial points to the fight against Jezebel that every believer should be aware of: When it comes to Jezebel, you can forget about praying for her to come to truth and repentance. You will be wasting your precious time. Also, you must never sympathize with her. You must be 100% against her, and stop having hopes for her recovery and well-being! She is not your sister or brother in the Lord. She is living in the strength of demonic soul power, absolutely sold out to doing evil, and completely out of the will of God and obedience to God. She is her own master, and ultimately she serves Satan. Yes, you are dealing with a human being behind the Jezebel spirit, but don’t be weak. This is a pure spiritual battle. You might ask: “Isn’t she just a poor deceived person herself?” Yes, she is deceived, but don’t you also be deceived to have any weakness for this person. If you love the person, cut soul ties immediately, and surrender her completely to God, for Him to determine her destiny. Remember again the book of Revelation where God gives her time to repent, but she refuses to do so. Do not try to save her, or you will go down with her. You need to alienate yourself completely, and have no patience and tolerance for her actions.

All these seemingly controversial points for a typical Christian mindset need to be dealt with before you are ready to fight Jezebel. Anything less than these attitudes will cause you to doubt, and fall prey to her. Remember she is ready to devour you, using all kinds of evil, such as confusion, guilt, accusation, and intimidation, among many other things. Don’t set out to confront her, and then pull back in the middle of it. She will bite you, and make sure you never gather the courage to combat her again. Her stings are so toxic, they can drive you to a breaking point, even causing you to commit suicide. So do not underestimate what you are dealing with.

Also, do not mock her or hint to her. Do not use sarcasm or irony. Do not let her drag you into an argument, but stay in the Spirit when talking to her. Combating, is not antagonizing or challenging or provoking the spirit in a cynical way, but rather staying on top of her, continuing to expose her unbiblical behavior!

Never tell her any personal things, what you are going through, how you are feeling, or where you are with the Lord. She will suck your information in, and use it against you, by twisting and turning your words, making you feel guilty or defeated, especially in your walk with God. For instance she will say that you are not praying or fasting enough. When she accuses you, do not stay silent and prayerful. Instead, rebottle everything she says! Be stronger than her. Although she claims to be spiritual and a woman of God, don’t believe her. (Note how she never passes on the glory to Jesus, has a hard time worshiping, and doesn’t share about her personal love for Jesus in genuine love and humility!)

Treat her as someone who lives in disobedience. Do not be lenient towards her, thinking she will submit to the Word of God like you do! She is not a real believer; she is an idol-worshipper, and a great deceiver. If you seek to live a God-fearing life, you have nothing in common with her. She is like King Herod who told the wise men to let him know when they found baby-Jesus, so he could come and worship too. It sounded real, but he only said it so he could find out where Jesus was so he could kill Him.

When dealing with Jezebel you have to be able to believe the worst of the worst and never be naive. You must know that you cannot trust Jezebel for a word she is saying. In fact, if she says one thing, make it a habit to automatically believe the opposite. Never make the mistake of believing she has any good intentions. See, the wise men looking for baby-Jesus, the newborn King and Savior, heard from the Lord what to do. Otherwise they would have succumbed to Herod’s evil intentions, without ever understanding and discerning them.

Pray, and ask the Lord whether you should fast in your battle against Jezebel. Pray to God to help you expose the darkness, but do not pray for Jezebel. You need to focus all your energy on staying on top of your game, and not giving up!

Giving up is a major threat to your success in battling Jezebel! She will wear and tear on your life, and seem like she will never give in. She will exhaust you on every level, until all you want to do is quit! No, she will not give in out of herself, but if you stay strong in the Lord, He will make her give in. Usually the battle is long and may take years, but with the right steps to understand your position, you can make it!

Many Jezebels use magic – a kind of witchcraft that doesn’t necessarily involve voodoo dolls and animal sacrifices and those kind of things. As the Bible says, she leads the people astray with false teachings. In other words, her magic comes from distorting the things of God: The Word of God, the Spirit of God, prophecies, prayers, healings, miracles, fasting — anything God has given His people to use for worshiping and glorifying God, and living holy lives. That is Jezebels main domain! For instance, she will not always put needles in dolls, but she will lay hands on you, asking if she can pray for you. Then, she will proceed to speak a false soul-powered prophecy over you, making you focus on a counterfeit spirit of “God” which is not God, but actually the debts of Satan! She sows doubt into your life, so you start looking for answers in the wrong places, and ultimately causes your life to run off track.

Also, be aware that many Jezebel’s have a demon-empowered telepathic ability! This ability usually works with people they have managed to entice and create a soul tie with! For instance, you may be praying to get out of the darkness and confusion you suddenly find yourself in, and she will be calling you, or she will appear in your thoughts, telling you what to do. Whenever you seek to find God, she will interrupt you by telepathically speaking to your mind, letting you know she is watching you, so you feel trapped and guilty. She is everywhere, demanding your attention. If she gets your attention, she gets your “worship”.

How to recognize those who are being oppressed by Jezebel

Wherever Edwin and I go we see Jezebel Spirits manifesting the same ways in different people. It’s almost comical how alike they are. The same goes for Jezebel’s “victims”; they also talk the same talk no matter where in the world they are. To give you an idea of how a Jezebel victim talks, we will give you some sentences we hear often so you can judge for yourself whether you, or someone you know, has been drinking from Jezebel’s poison and eaten the fruits of her false teachings.

Jezebel victims always tend to defend her! They feel responsible to come up for her to let everyone know that she “really is a good person”, and that she “really has a good heart and only wants the right things”. They say, “she does a lot of good to people”, and, “you just have to understand her personality”, or, “she doesn’t have any bad intentions at all”.

What she is actually doing is making her own feeling, opinions, and needs more important than God. The righteous living in God is pushed aside to accommodate her personal perception on the way she sees life. When she lives in fear, controls people, and don’t admit any wrong doing, “it’s okay”, because “nobody’s perfect”, and “we have to understand where she’s coming from and what she has to battle in her life”. Slowly she lifts the focus off of God and Jesus and onto herself, making her struggles and shortcomings “understandable” and something we all should sympathize with, instead of suggesting that she should change and repent from wrong and ungodly attitudes.

Although the “victims”, as I call it, do not realize or admit that they are afraid of her, you can easily tell how much they actually fear approaching her with anything she doesn’t like to hear. They will say to you, “Oh, please don’t say anything bad to her. Don’t make her upset, or else she will get angry”. In other words, they are fearing her reaction and the possible punishment and repercussion they might suffer after trying to speak into her life. They have all tried in the past, and failed miserably at reaching her. Now, they try the approach of being patient and understanding. But no matter their attempts to live in peace, she is never satisfied with them, or what they have to offer. They try to give her everything she wants, whether it be money, things, acknowledgement, encouragement – anything she is demanding. But no matter their efforts, she will continue to be bitter and hateful to them, be discontent, demand change, demand perfection, throw fits, and demand whatever she WANTS!

After living with Jezebel for many years, they start becoming weary and disillusioned. They start believing that they really are a failure, as she has been pointing out so clearly, and that they are the one to blame for it all. The Jezebel Spirit loves to make them suffer internally, digging themselves more and more into the pit of defeat for every day that goes by. The more they try to please her, the more of a sucker they are. And the more she despises them for it. It’s like the Devil when he comes to tempt us to fall into sin, and when we finally fall he heaps condemnation on us to make us believe there is no way out for us, although Jesus is willing to forgive any sin. That is the way he traps us in defeat, and Jezebel uses the same mechanism.

Intercession

Be careful who you pray with. Realize that Jezebel’s grows stronger in their abilities to manipulate, control, and dominate over the years. Some are more seasoned than others, and you will find Jezebels of all levels in churches. Do not intercede with someone who bosses you around, telling you when to pray, and what to pray. Do not pray with someone who stops you to correct your praying by telling you that you are doing it all wrong, and then points out someone else to continue in your place. Do not let her manipulate her way in between you and your other intercessor friends, whom you are in spiritual agreement with, and one with in the Spirit of God, causing a division to come between you, ultimately destroying the prayer group! Do not allow her “take-over” spirit to set the agenda, by running her own mini-ministry inside your prayer group. She will take excess time to read the Word, pray for people un-encouraged, sing or play music way too long, and practice healing and praying as if she is the main minister. It can be difficult to discern the spirits sometimes, but ask the Holy Spirit to expose it. If she starts to run the show, speak up in God’s authority! Tell her how you do things according to the order and authority of God’s given directions in the Word of God. Do not be afraid of a confrontation, or try to keep the peace with her. If she doesn’t submit, ask her to leave! Do not be lenient with this spirit, as you understand how wicked it is, and how it will drag you and the church down.

Watch out when she starts isolating other prayer partners, spending extra alone time with them. She will often move outside of the building and start leading the group outside, bedazzling them with “wise teachings” and create soul ties with them. Jezebel works fast and ruthlessly. She goes after the weak one’s, and even “buys” them by giving gifts or trips or money, all to get a foot in the door.

Copyright©2008 Sophia & Edwin Christiaan

To read parts 1 & 3 click here.

This article entitled Knowing Jezebel is a good teaching and perspective on the spirit of Jezebel and will encompass parts 1 and 2. The authors: Edwin and Sophia Christiaan are ministers out of California, in whom our fellowship recently spent some time with. I encourage you to check out their website: http://instituteoflove.net for more information on them. They are awesome believers with a unique ministry and anointing to accurately reveal to the body of Christ the schemes of the enemy, particularly the spirit of Jezebel.

As the “End Times” are coming closer, we believe the secular, as well as the Christian world, is experiencing a worldwide cleansing. Everywhere sin is being exposed like never before, and God is giving His people divine wisdom to deal with the exposures in His mercy and grace, leading people to God’s heart and destiny for their lives, instead of condemning them and leaving them for the world to devour. May the Lord Jesus Christ guide and direct us. As the Bride of Christ is becoming whiter, we are also seeing an uprising of the counterfeit spirituality, the seducing spirit of Jezebel, working more actively than ever to kill, steal, and destroy.

While some Christians are ignorant and even skeptical of the spirit of Jezebel, many Christians have become educated in some facets of what this spirit of Jezebel is all about. Even so, we many times get this question when we teach on this subject: “I know I must fight the spirit of Jezebel in the Spirit and not in the flesh, but what exactly does that mean for me in real life? How should I behave around people in my family, my work place, my church etc. who have the spirit of Jezebel?” Many say things like: ”I just don’t understand why this is happening to me? Why are they doing this to me? I have tried to stand strong and pray but my energy is zapped, and I’m about to give up. Will I ever win over this spirit?”

From Edwin’s and my experience in battling Jezebel practically our entire lives, we want to share some of our personal experiences in how to practically deal with Jezebel – what to do and what to avoid. This encouragement is especially meant to be for those who feel God is telling them to combat the Jezebel Spirit they are facing in their lives. We do realize that not everybody is meant to enter into combat but rather feel led by God to stand back and not confront. This study is also for all the victims of this vicious Spirit of Jezebel, who doesn’t know what they are dealing with – yet! We pray they will be enlightened and filled with Godly discernment to discover any assignment on their lives.

But first a little background on the spirit of Jezebel:

I know all the things you do — your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things. But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman — that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet — to lead my servants astray. She is encouraging them to worship idols, eat food offered to idols, and commit sexual sin. I gave her time to repent, but she would not turn away from her immorality. Therefore, I will throw her upon a sickbed, and she will suffer greatly with all who commit adultery with her, unless they turn away from all their evil deeds. I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person. And I will give to each of you whatever you deserve. But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’ as they call them — depths of Satan, really). I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come. Rev 2:19-25 NLT

Jesus is calling Jezebel a false teacher that leads His servants astray, someone who encouragebelievers to worship idols, eat food offered to idols, and commit sexual sin. (Note that this encouragement can also come in a subtle form, such as an entrapment for you to fall.) You can find Jezebel in any level of society. She can be in your family, your school, work place, church — virtually anywhere. She is a woman who claims to have religious zeal and she calls herself a prophet, and likes to mingle in with the influential people especially in church. This type of person is especially dangerous because it will deceive people to believe she is one of them, and thereby gain their confidence in order to start teaching them “deeper truths” that twist the original Word of God. Some people get so bedazzled by her deep “wisdom” and somehow become addicted to mystifying the Word of God, making it cryptic and withheld to only the “chosen” or “special” one’s who are able to understand these truths, that are actually myths. Jezebel’s specialty is to ensnare and convince people to follow her teaching’s that will lead them to rebellion against God. In their naïveté, people fall for her charm, and give in to idol worship in their lives, just like King Ahab did when he married Jezebel.

And as though it were not enough to live like Jeroboam, he married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and he began to worship Baal. 1. Kings 16:31 NLT

No one else so completely sold himself to what was evil in the LORD’s sight as did Ahab, for his wife, Jezebel, influenced him. He was especially guilty because he worshiped idols just as the Amorites had done — the people whom the LORD had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.

1. Kings 21:25-26 NLT

The Old Testament’s Queen Jezebel of Israel was a worshipper of Baal, a despicable god who required even human sacrifices, and she encouraged and led others to do the same. This way, she steered the people of Israel onto a path of disobedience toward their true God, and brought evil and destruction into the land. She was able to do this, because of the influence she gained over her husband.

One of the Jezebel spirit’s biggest goals is to kill the true prophets of God. An example of this was the prophet Elijah, who, after challenging and killing more than 400 of Queen Jezebel’s false Baal prophets, ran out in the desert in panic, after receiving a letter from Jezebel, swearing that she would retaliate and kill him. He was so intimidated by it that he wanted to lay down and die. But Jezebel’s predictions were false, as this spirit’s many prophesies usually are, and Elijah did not die. God’s plan is higher and more powerful than Jezebel’s curses.

Jezebel’s character traits

Let us take a deeper look at the character traits that goes along with the spirit of Jezebel, because it is much more than what meets the eye, and can be extremely difficult to discern for the untrained eye. There are certain characteristics that always seem to follow these women (and men), and we have mapped some of them for you, so you will be able to recognize them in your family, job, school or church, or anywhere else you go. You can only spot the Jezebel spirit when you understand her personality traits, so let’s spend some time under her skin.

The very first, and probably most outstanding quality of a person with a Jezebel Spirit, is their undeniable, ever-present need to always be right! They are not humble people who seek the input of others, but have an unquenchable desire to “win” over you in everything. The worldly term for the spirit of Jezebel is ‘malignant narcissism’ for which there is no cure. Some traits of narcissism include: excessive self-love; firm conviction that he or she is better, smarter, or more talented than other people; becomes irritated when other people don’t automatically do what he or she wants them to do; thinks most criticisms of him or her are motivated by jealousy; regards anything short of worship to be rejection; often complains of being mistreated or misunderstood; has fantasies of doing something great or being famous, and often expects to be treated as if these fantasies had already come true.

The second thing, highest on our list, is the “chameleon” Spirit she possesses that allows her to appear a certain way, but not actually be that way. She will adapt to her surroundings to seem like a loving, charming, and even peaceful person, all the while trying to get a hold of your soul. She will appear to blend in, and suddenly, out of nowhere, stick her tongue out, and swallow you up, by verbally attacking you. The Jezebel spirit is born out of witchcraft and is designed to destroy the host (which is the body it lives in), the spouse, children, family, relationships, marriages, the church, the prophets of God, and the body of Christ in general, in every crafty and subtle way possible.

The third aspect is her use of seduction, deception, and manipulation to control your mind, your actions, and your destiny. She wants to see how far she can involve herself into your life, how far you are willing to allow her to go.

Jezebel’s usually come in two categories; the active, and the passive. Or as is has been said; the high-profile, and the low-profile. The high-profile, active Jezebel is the woman who is the leader of the home, including everyone in it. She is the one who “wears the pants” in the marriage/family, the overbearing, bossy, in-control, in charge, dominating woman, who is outspoken, bold, and militaristic. The low-profile, passive Jezebel is the woman who controls the husband and family “behind the scenes”. She has a meek exterior, and no one would guess that she has the family in a head-lock, quietly controlling, manipulating, and destroying people’s lives. She is soft-spoken, seeming submissive and nice on the outside, and only the closest family knows the truth about who she really is.

Jezebel hates children, especially her own, but it takes great discernment to discover it. Women with the Jezebel Spirit tend to treat their children cold and distant, rarely showing tears or emotion. She likes to make sure they don’t get any sympathy, because she hates weakness. She doesn’t show much love or affection – genuine hugs, smiles, and affirmation are a rare gift. Usually, her children are merely treated as pawns in her game of control and achievement of power. She uses conditional love to ensure her children’s subordination. In this way, they will always strive for her attention and approval, and she will glory in it, only for her own self-gratification.

Jezebel will often mix religious terms and phrases to appear godly, but her life doesn’t produce godliness. Following her life and example will lead to rebellion, darkness, anger, and strife.

You will many times find a Jezebel woman involved in various types of teaching activities. Not only in religious settings, but also places such as schools and various types of counseling. The reason for this is their need to be an influence to people. The spirit within them drives them to want to reproduce themselves and their teachings to other people. They like to be highly involved in people’s personal lives, getting up close and intimate, making people confide in them. Then she becomes important, needed, and wanted, just the way she likes it. Satan places them specifically in teaching positions so they will impart a distorted and untrue message to people, and thereby cause more spiritual and mental darkness to come upon their lives. People may be in a bad condition when they come to her, but they leave worse off than they came.

She is a master of the “blaming game”, and is extremely clever in gaining sympathy for herself by producing convincing arguments for her case, usually portraying herself as fair in her assessments. She will twist and turn information to better fit her, even if it involves lying and crying, anything to make you be the responsible or guilty one.

Jezebel does not truly forgive people who offend her. She keeps track of all past offenses, and she uses them to her advantage when she sees the need for manipulation. Her love is always conditional, making you know of the things that please her, so if you do not comply, she will reject you.

The Spirit of Jezebel also produces sexual imbalance and perversion in the children. We have seen many examples of rebellion and extreme dark and obscure behavior in children and teenagers of mothers who possess the Jezebel Spirit. The family around them doesn’t seem to understand why the children choose rebellion instead of becoming “normal” like everyone else, not knowing that it is actually not always a choice of conviction, but rather a direct influence by the distorting spirit of Jezebel operating in the family. The control the children are under causes them not to develop as strong, individual, healthy human beings, but causes perversion and confusion, and sexual immorality. Children of Jezebel’s can also fall in the exact opposite category, being overly well-behaved, submissive, pleasing, passive, and shy of conflict. They can be recognized by their fear, lack of ambition and self-esteem, many times rather wanting to take the blame for everything upon themselves, instead of searching for justice.

Confusion and peace

A Jezebel spirit will never admit any fault or wrong-doing. If you plan to confront the Jezebelite with something, you can be totally clear about your problems, and your list of concerns, and yet come out on the other end, totally convinced that you were the only one at fault. The mighty dark cloud of confusion that surrounds the Spirit of Jezebel makes you give up, and give in to her demands without proper reason. You don’t even know what hit you, you just don’t have the strength to fight her, and you may even feel a sense of relief for achieving peace with her, not realizing the prize you are paying is compromising for the sake of peace.

The spirit of Jezebel brings about a tremendously powerful confusion that can make you doubt everything you stand for. After your first few confrontations, you learn to stay away from coming even remotely close to suggesting correction. You find out, that you are not strong enough to stand up against it, and start becoming passive. This kind of passivity is what King Ahab suffered from, when he looked the other way, instead of confronting the wrong his wife, Queen Jezebel was doing:

When Jezebel heard the news, she said to Ahab, “You know the vineyard Naboth wouldn’t sell you? Well, you can have it now! He’s dead!” So Ahab immediately went down to the vineyard to claim it.” 1. Kings 21:15-16 NLT

Because of King Ahab’s passive negligence of Queen Jezebel’s wicked actions, we have the term “Spirit of Ahab” which is the “perfect” counterpart to Jezebel. He wants to remain innocent, but is anything but innocent in the eyes of God. In fact the Bible says Ahab was an evil man, possessing the same persecuting spirit as his wife, as he mocked the prophet Elijah and called him intimidating names: “So it’s you, is it — Israel’s troublemaker?” Ahab asked when he saw him (Elijah). 1. Kings 18:17 NLT. Jezebel is calling Jehu names, mocking him and comparing him to another murderer:“When Jehu entered the gate of the palace, she (Jezebel) shouted at him, “Have you come in peace, you murderer? You are just like Zimri, who murdered his master!” 2. Kings 9:31 NLT

Remember, Ahab’s passivity cost him everything. The Bible says he sold himself to evil. In other words, it’s not only through “old-fashion” Satan worship we can sell our souls, but also, when we sell our souls to worship another human being, who will drag us into a life away from God.

No one else so completely sold himself to what was evil in the LORD’s sight as did Ahab, for his wife, Jezebel, influenced him. 1. Kings 21:25 NLT

No peace around Jezebel

I believe, we have to understand, that dealing with the Jezebel spirit, will never be peaceful! One has to give, and that is certainly not going to be Jezebel if she has her way. A Jezebelite doesn’t respect anyone, and certainly not someone of lesser authority than herself. She will never humble herself and help find a way to make things work. Things have to be her way, or no way at all. King Jehu, the warrior, knew that there is no achieving peace, no compromise that can be made with Jezebel, only a violent counter-action can stop her:

“King Joram demanded, “Do you come in peace, Jehu?” Jehu replied, “How can there be peace as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother, Jezebel, are all around us?” 2. Kings 9:22 NLT

Copyright©2008 Sophia & Edwin Christiaan

To read parts 2 & 3 Click here.

Do we have any right to believe everyone who gets saved will automatically get healed when they are saved?  Does God make a distinction between healing the inner man versus healing the outer man?

Faith needs to be built up in the hearts of the hearers. Faith can only be had where the will of God is known. That is why it is necessary to know God’s will, revealed in the Scriptures. That is why this entry will not cover everything there is to cover on this subject, but I will tackle other things in a few more entries after this one including one on aging and death, and another on the believer’s authority. I write these entries with the assumption in mind that many of you have already heard me say certain things, and I hope to only build on things I’ve already written–I strongly encourage newer readers or anyone struggling with the idea that it IS God’s will to heal all, to read this outline of Scriptures first before proceeding. And meditate on Scriptures to bring your faith to a certainty as to what God’s will on the matter is, or else this stuff in the coming entries will just be a bunch of theological opinions to you, and I doubt you’d benefit from it.

I’ve heard once that Kenneth Hagin said in later years of his ministry, he was seeing far less dramatic healings than in his earlier years of ministry. He believed this was the result of teaching only one night and taking less time on the subject before praying for people, as opposed to the days when he’d spend no less than three weeks in the same place teaching on it and building believers up on this subject. So even if and when I am being redundant, it’s for the specific purpose of hoping to make things clear and understandable. And the reason I’ve chosen to post these entries in the order I will, is to build upon things first, and say ‘this’, before I get to ‘that’. Comments are welcome, but don’t be disappointed if I don’t respond, but just continue to post the entries I’ve prepared. I’ve written these when I had some spare time, and will continue posting them a few days apart until I start traveling later this month, so it should wind up providing some stuff to go over.

When we think of Jesus as ‘Savior’, we think in spiritual terms and don’t give much thought to what else that also implies. When someone is drowning, and asked to be saved, they mean they want to be saved from drowning. In the West, we’ve made salvation exclusively spiritual. “Saved” has become some kind of term that guarantees people a way into heaven no matter how they live.

The Greek word “Sozo” means: to save; to preserve from harm; to keep; to rescue

When Peter was sinking into the waters, he cried out “Lord save me.” It was a physical rescue from danger he sought, and he received it. Luke 7:50 records Jesus forgiving the sins of a woman who lived an adulterous life, and says “your faith has sozo-ed you.” In Luke 8:48, Jesus heals the woman with the issue of blood, and tells her “your faith has sozo-ed you.” Sin and sickness are both forms of death, and Jesus delivers and saves from both. The same way one woman’s faith forgave her of her sins, the other woman’s faith healed her of her issue of blood. In Luke 8:50, Jesus tells Jairus, to not fear but only believe, and his daughter will be made well (sozo). This turned out to be a dead-raising, not a healing, so to speak, but the same concept is applied and the same word is used.

Jesus is the Savior, and He encompassed all these things in the Gospel accounts. The Gospel distinguishes in the New Testament, but it doesn’t ever separate healing and saving. See the prayer of faith in James 5 for example.

When Jesus told his disciples to go heal the sick, and cast out demons, and preach the Gospel, do you really think that was just for a special period, and now after the New Testament was written, preaching the Gospel of salvation in Christ would no longer include those things that it did in the Gospel accounts? Why wouldn’t it?

Jesus saves. Yes, correct. However, He saves people from what they need to be saved from. Asking if healing is apart of salvation is like asking if reconciliation is part of forgiveness or if redemption is a part of salvation. Of course they are, and you can’t have one without the other. Redemption has everything to do with restoration. It would not be restoration, if we were not restored. This cannot, by definition only apply to having sins forgiven, but being restored as well—spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically, everything there is to be restored.

The instant one of us repents, and gets saved (I have phrased it repeatedly in this blog as “getting right with God” which I mean to say the same thing as saved), we have become born from above, and children of God. It is therefore a legitimate question to ask, “If I have been born from above, and my sins are forgiven, then how come I haven’t been healed yet?” Click here for some insight on why not all are healed, and here for some insight on how to position ourselves to receive healing.

Let’s look carefully at one of the key texts used by most to teach that healing is provided for in the atonement, and clarify some sacred cows and misunderstandings.

Isaiah 53:9 – the idea that Jesus’ body was whipped for our sicknesses, and that His blood was spilled for our sins—as if they are two separate things, with two separate goals is a false interpretation of the passage, one reason being it makes an artificial distinction between the two aspects of redemption, one from sicknesses and the other from sins.

Most Bible translations get away from the fact that in the Hebrew, Isaiah 53:4 talks of Jesus bearing our sins and our pains. The Hebrew word used here for “griefs” in most translations, comes from the root word for maladies and diseases (“choliy”, H 2483).

For blogging purposes, let’s compare two widely held views about this that are held in Evangelical circles.

View a) is that Matthew made his own translation when he brought out the differentiation of “diseases” from iniquities, to make his point in chapter 8:17 of his own writing.
View b) shows 1 Peter 2:24 to say this gives a picture of Jesus’ earthly ministry, but then He was nailed to the cross and died for our sins, but this verse has nothing to do with physical healing, therefore we have no reason to believe for healing through the atonement.

Problem: Matthew is quoting this in reference to the healing ministry of Jesus–the context of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law. If Isaiah 53 was not talking about or including healing being in the atonement, Matthew wouldn’t have made this reference the way he did and say Jesus was fulfilling that passage [by healing]. View a) says Jesus did both, and fulfilled that passage, view b) says ‘yes of course’ Jesus did fulfill this stuff by His earthly ministry but that was only applicable up until He died on the cross and now it’s only spiritual healing we receive from His atonement.

Problem: Isaiah 53 is not either/or with physical & spiritual healing, but both/and. The passage describes both/and, therefore our interpretation of it cannot be either/or. When it says in this passage “we esteemed Him stricken” who is the ‘we’ in that sentence? If it applies to us, the New Testament believers, then when did we ever believe He was suffering for his own sins? This then has to be referring to the cross, and not Jesus’ earthly ministry alone. Since, the “we” Isaiah would be writing to was his own people, Israel, then we need to take that into account that all those involved in handing Jesus over to be crucified were the Jews, the people the Messiah came to save, and this then properly identifies who is the ‘we’ in Isaiah 53:9. So it would therefore be talking about the work on the cross, not exclusively His earthly ministry.

Possible Problem: Now in light of the above, if this applies to the cross, then how could Matthew quote it about Jesus’ earthly ministry if Jesus hadn’t been to the cross yet up to that point, if this passage in Isaiah is talking about his death?

Well, when Jesus has come down from heaven, and identifies with man, what does He do? He sees oppression, He ‘frees’ the captives; He sees sick people, He heals them; He sees people demon-possessed, He sets people free from demonic captivity. He entered into the sufferings of the people. He made people whole, and forgave them.

And He became a sin offering for us. And Matthew was writing in retrospect, significant time after Jesus’ death.

Check back for a follow up post, but in the meantime if you’d like to look into this further, check out some other examples of the way sozo is used interchangably to mean healing and saving in the New Testament here.

I’m just chilling in North Carolina at the time of writing this. I’ve mentioned previously that I’m here for a missions conference and an alumni reunion for the Bible school I attended. The theme for the reunion event was Restoration. For the last few weeks God has done a work in my heart and removed some things/issues in my life, and days before I left Holland I could tell the difference, but I was still looking forward to what God would do in my life as a result of going to the conference.

I can count on my hand how many times in my life the Lord has given me potent dreams that were penned by Him. This week, I have had one every single night. Sometimes more than one per night. I don’t mean ones where we don’t remember them later, but the ones so strong you can’t forget. Sometimes dreams are just simply your own spirit conjuring up images of things on your mind or heart and putting them before you in a dream. Other times it’s the devil trying to throw you off, other times the Lord does speak to you through your dreams as one of the many ways He communicates with your spirit. Other times, it’s just your own flesh (mind and emotions). For example, if you are infatuated with a member of the opposite gender, and keep having dreams about them, it probably isn’t God or the devil speaking to you, but your own desires manifesting in dream form, just for clarification.

But I’ve had these dreams every night that are ripe with symbolism. One in particular sticks out, and I think it benefits anyone who wants to hear my thoughts–you wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t, right?

So the other night, I had this dream that I was back in Holland, with a bunch of Christians, as well as Pyter Boomsma on some kind of tour boat going through one of the canals characteristic of the Netherlands. It was not clear to me where it was. This girl was put on a seat in the back, and started shaking and convulsing, frothing at the mouth, eyes rolling around back in her head and just shaking and manifesting a demon, or many. I mean, in the dream, this girl was messed up! I started to look around to see the reactions of the other Christians around me, and they all had an attitude that this girl was far gone and nothing could be done for her. Others present had tried doing things and praying things for her release from these demons, to no avail, and were now looking at me and Pyter as naïve young arrogant men for thinking we could. Our youthful zeal about setting this woman free was repulsive even to those around us who had seen no fruit from their own labors.

So Pyter and I began praying in the Spirit; we were commanding and rebuking spirits in her and seeing her react violently to it, and then calming down somewhat moments later. But we had a battle ahead of us and spent considerable time praying for her and doing warfare over her soul and spirit. All the while, the Christians around us are shouting and yelling things to discourage us, and saying we’ll never accomplish anything, or that they’ve tried this and it didn’t work, who do we think we are if they couldn’t do it, and stuff like that.

We ignored them.

As a side note, I’ve already been around enough years in my short lived life as a Christian to know the biggest obstacles to doing great exploits for God are other Christians in your life who don’t want to believe for big things themselves. When you meet people like that in your life, bless them, but ignore them. They will always try to put out your fire as a result of their discouragement and failures or lack of ambitions for their own life. Cling to those who’ve gone before you with success.

We were laboring in prayer and warfare and just praying in the Spirit for a while (in the dream), and we were seeing gradual result, one thing going to normal after another in this girl. Then finally, I was almost tired and ready to give up, the words of the other people on the boat really getting to me and causing me discouragement. I tell Pyter I’ve done my best, and that God is happy with our effort. He looks at me and gets this determined look on his face and says “but she’s not free”. He insists on trying one more thing; he proceeds to stand straight and closes his eyes and speaks a word of knowledge about something in this woman’s life, and rebukes a specific demonic spirit by name, and immediately she calms down and sits still in her right mind.

After all that time, there was something specific to deal with that if we had paid attention to the Lord’s prompting, we could have dealt with it head on in the first place and saved ourselves all the bother we spent in prayer. When the rest of those Christians on this boat with us realized what happened, many of them started to applaud and cheer us on, encouraging us with words like “we knew you could do it, we had faith in you, good job” which was the opposite—they had been trying to discourage us from trying! But now that we succeeded in this girl’s life where they had failed, they were happy for us.

The night after this dream, I went to the healing team ministry’s meeting at some FIRE students’ house. As the students go out to malls and streets looking for people to pray over for healing, they meet first for some prayer, worship and practical teaching. This week a sister shared about operating in the prophetic and with words of knowledge and told how sometimes God gives dreams and then you go find people in real life who fit the description. For example, she shared about having a dream or something about a purple jacket, and going out witnessing and meeting a woman wearing a purple jacket in the middle of summer. After asking her about why she was wearing it the woman told her she had some condition, and she felt cold, even in this heat, so this sister and her friends prayed for her and she was totally free and healed and other obvious symptoms of her illness disappeared right away. She shared such examples like that about what the Lord could do with our dreams.

So obviously this stirred me up to wonder if Pyter (who was there) and I might possibly run into someone who met the conditions of my dream. I shared it with him, and it encouraged him and we both desired to see something like this in real life. I’d love to tell you we did, but it didn’t happen. In fact, I didn’t hear of any testimonies of radical healing. The only person I got to talk with, was from ordering a slice of pizza in the food court and sitting next to a man who looked dejected. People having their hands in their face usually gives me that impression, eh. The Lord prompted me to ask him questions about his job, and after telling me his travels keep him from his family, I offered to pray for him, which he declined but listened to me as I shared about the love of God. That may not sound like an amazing testimony to share about healing, but Lord knows what kind of seeds may have been planted in his life as a result of some complete stranger sitting down with him in a mall and listening to him for a moment.

Getting back on topic with this dream; I’ve been seeking God and asking him about this dream, and if there was anything relevant about it other than making a point to me and giving me understanding about something, and he reminded me of how discouraged I’ve gotten listening to other people raining on my parade dissuading me from doing great big things for God.

Friends, when you decide to step out and do something for God, I’m telling you, Christians will be the ones to try to stop you. That’s not the whole point of this dream of course, but it sticks out in my mind how we had the tenacity of faith to go for it when everyone else in the dream said we couldn’t, then when we did what everyone else couldn’t, their minds were changed.

Don’t be surprised if you see the same reaction in those around you when you step out and change history in your own world.

The main purpose of this entry is to stir the believing reader up into understanding that if we wait until we are perfect before doing anything for God– then we would never do anything at all. Everybody knows the mistakes the disciples made: Peter rejecting Jesus but how different He was after the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost. Everybody knows how the disciples all deserted Him in his final hours; everybody knows the issues of pride they had, but I think we need a reminder in order to realize these were all ordinary young guys, just average revolutionaries, and God used them mightily despite terribly obvious and pathetic character flaws probably few reading this may actually struggle with.

I’d like you to go away from this entry and read carefully and study Luke chapters 9-10 for yourself. But in the meantime, let’s look at some selections and let me show you my observations and some questions to provoke thought. One thing is for certain; I’m sick of hearing people say “well look at all the things wrong with the disciples, and God still used them.” Most people who say this ignore or just don’t pay attention to the fact that the disciples actually did something we don’t commonly do—heal the sick, and cast out devils, as detailed in the following selections of Scriptures.

Luke 9:1-6, 10a
And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases,
and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.
And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.
And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart.
And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”
And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
On their return the apostles told him all that they had done.

• Did they have authority and power given to them?
• In this passage, did they go and fail to heal anybody?

Luke 9:12-17
Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.”
But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish–unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.”
For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
And they did so, and had them all sit down.
And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets
of broken pieces.

• What was the disciples’ original idea to do before this miracle happened?
• Do you think Jesus wanted them/expected them to be the ones who provided the food/miracle?
• Do you think that Jesus would have been as visibly involved if the disciples didn’t shrink back from this opportunity to put their trust in Him and demonstrate His provision?

Luke 9:32-36
Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.
And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”–not knowing what he said.
As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.
And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”
And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

• What dumb thing do you notice the disciples did here in this passage (hint, none of the other Gospels document this detail)? They fell asleep!

Luke 9:38-42
And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.
And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth; and shatters him, and will hardly leave him.
And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”
Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”
While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.

• Did the man from the crowd merely ask the disciples to heal his son?
• What did Jesus say before he healed the boy? Do you think this was directed at the disciples? If so, does this indicate He was tolerating a lot with them up until this point already?
• Weren’t they given authority already at the beginning of this chapter to do this very task? So then what was the reason or one of the reasons they were unable to see this deliverance? (You might need to read the parallel in Matthew 17:14-21 for more straightforward of an answer).

Luke 9:46-48
An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.
But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side
and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”

• Why was this not the greatest time to be arguing about who was the greatest? Because they failed to heal a boy just moments earlier!
• The word for argument, “dialogismos” literally means a “reasoned discourse.” I wonder what this conversation would have looked like! Right after being unable to heal a boy with authority they had already been given, they are found arguing and debating who was the greatest!
• The account in Matthew has this argument taking place before the epileptic boy was brought to them. Either way, we see they clearly had issues of pride.

Luke 9:49-50
John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.”
But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.”

• Is casting out demons the same thing as giving food to homeless people or something ‘nice’ like that? Does this require power FROM God?
• How arrogant and elitist is that mentality that tries to stop others from doing good works unto the Lord because they’re not one of us?
• We see one of the apostles trying to stop other people from doing the good works of the Lord—casting out demons is not the same thing as merely witnessing or handing out food to the poor! This is done with authority, you can’t just cast demons out of someone with your own good intentions (see the seven sons of Sceva in Acts 19:11-19). And, last time I read, just few moments earlier they failed to cast a spirit out of a boy, and now John is trying to stop someone else from doing it!

Luke 9:53-55
But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.
And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
But he turned and rebuked them.

• What exactly did the disciples offer to do for Jesus?
• Did they ask Jesus to do it, or did they indicate they would do it themselves? If so, would they have been able to offer to call fire down from heaven if they did not have authority to do so?
• Does it seem odd to you that James and John had faith to wipe a people out, but either they, the other disciples, or all of them neglected to be able to heal the epileptic boy and do something GOOD for the cause of Christ?

Luke 10:1-2, 9
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

• What do you notice about this passage?
• Were the apostles doing anything that the Lord couldn’t empower others to do?
• Could the Lord have been trying to do something about the disciples’ pride and arrogance, that He chose this point to be when He’d empower others to do the very things the twelve had already been doing?
• Does it seem to you that it was only the original twelve disciples that were healing the sick? Then why do so many teach and preach that miracles ceased when the last apostle died, when they weren’t the only ones doing these things!?
• Could it be that Jesus anointed these 72 others with this power, because as stated, the harvest is plentiful but there are not enough workers?
• Could Jesus be taking this to the “next level”?

Luke 10:17-20
The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”
And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

• It clearly worked.  No question about it.

Some questions to consider:

• Have you ever messed up? Has the Lord still used you?
• Have you ever neglected to do something the Lord has told you to do?
• Have you ever fallen asleep in the presence of the Lord, or when you should have been praying?
• Have you ever said anything stupid in the presence of God?
• Have you ever prayed for someone and they didn’t get healed even though they begged you to heal them? What about praying for someone that didn’t get healed right away, but someone else prayed for, or laid hands on them and they got healed, like Jesus did here?
• Have you ever argued with people, through words or just behavior, that you think you’re the greatest in God’s kingdom (or at least carried yourself like you’re more spiritual than others)?
• Have you ever tried to stop others from doing things for God because they’re not a part of your group, church, denomination, circle, etc..?
• Have you ever offered to kill someone else for Jesus because they wouldn’t listen to Him?

If you have done anything these disciples have done wrong, then congratulations! You are just as capable of being used by God as they were!

If we’re going to study the things they did wrong and compare ourselves to them and think they were more immature or worse off than we are, then we need to make sure we’re doing the least of what they did; which includes things like healing the sick, casting out demons, standing up and boldly proclaiming the Gospel from the ‘upper room to the multitudes’ and so forth.

Anyway, this is a blog friendly version of my notes I prepared for the Bible study tonight at De Fakkel. I hope I encourage and challenge you to step out in faith, knowing that you’re a work in progress, and sometimes it’s through ministering for the Lord that your character issues are dealt with.

Tot ziens!

If sickness and disease is the will of God…

…then why was there none in his original creation, and why is there none when he restores the earth?

…then why did Jesus bear our sicknesses and carry our infirmities on the cross?

…then why did God give doctors the knowledge they have in order to help combat it?

…then hospitals are houses of rebellion rather than houses of mercy, and doctors are agents of rebellion trying to get you out of God’s will, so why go?

…then why did God give the human body an immune system to help combat sickness and disease?

…then why did Jesus, who was the will of God in the flesh, heal ALL who came to Him, and never made one person sick?

…then by healing the sick, Jesus was in rebellion against God, and therefore in sin and could not have died as our substitute on the cross

…then why does the Word of God say Jesus went about doing GOOD, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil?

…then why is there no sickness in heaven where God’s will is carried out in perfection?

…then why does the Word of God say that He “forgives ALL our iniquities and heals ALL our diseases” instead of He heals only some of our disease or makes us sick?

…and if it’s for His glory, then why not get sicker where He can be more glorified?

…then why does James tell us to call on the elders of the church and be anointed with oil and the prayer of faith will heal the sick (as opposed to I guess telling them to submit to God and let Him teach them something by their sickness)?

…then why in Mark 16 did Jesus commission believers to lay hands on the sick and have them recover and not get sicker (so God could I guess be more glorified)?

When Jesus was casting out devils the Jewish leaders said He does it by satan. Jesus said a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. If God is allowing the sickness on you and then healing you, His kingdom is divided and cannot stand.