We are told to test or "try" the spirits and are warned not to believe everything we hear/see. (1 John 4:1) to see whether they are of God. Nothing new is under the sun. I learned early on that cities have spirits, also why Paul says the Antichrist spirit is already here (nearly 2000 years ago...)
From the Bible characters, we can judge the types of spirits these real people, really had. Which means, there are people in this life we probably have to overcome. Well, it's the principality we fight not the actual person lol.
Let's dive in!
We can look at the lives of Ahab and Jezebel and see not only how Ahab personified the spirit of rejection but also how rejection and rebellion function within the double-minded personality. Both Ahab and Jezebel lived lives that consisted of the very things God hates.
Ahab, the seventh king of Israel, “did more evil in the sight of the Lord than all who were before him” (1 Kings 16:30). He promoted and participated in Baal and Ashtoreth worship. He allowed sexual rites—homosexuality, bestiality, and every disgraceful perversion—and prostitution in the temple of God. Men and women volunteered to serve as prostitutes.
Ahab is also known for his double-mindedness. He was often found waffling between righteousness and the ungodly ways of Jezebel, his wife, who was the daughter of a heathen king. She pushed him to incorporate her foreign gods and religious practices into Israel’s culture (1 Kings 16:31.) This is one of the reasons God commanded Israel not to take any wives from among the conquered people. They did not have a covenant with God and would not be able to understand how He dealt with them.
Jezebel’s influence led Ahab to forget God. First Kings 14:23 states that the people had earlier built up all kinds of images and places of worship to foreign gods in the groves under the trees. Ahab and Jezebel continued with this practice. There is symbolism that I want to point out so that you will see how these acts revealed that he was being controlled not only by a heathen wife but also by the spirit of rejection.
Strong’s concordance relates the word groves, as it is used in the 1 Kings 14:23, to Ashtoreth and idolatrous temple worship. These “services” were held outside in the groves of trees near the temple, where huge carvings of both male and female sexual organs were displayed and worshipped.
This is lust and perversion, two demonic spirits that are part of the rejection personality—two spirits that Ahab allowed in because of his relationship to these influences because of his own oppression. Jezebel did her part, but the door was opened through rejection.
The dynamic between Ahab and Jezebel provide for us a picture for how double-mindedness works. Ahab portrays the inward manifestation of double-mindedness (rejection). He was fearful and full of lust, insecurity and self-pity. He was envious, pouty and ridden with guilt and shame.
Jezebel is a demonstration of the outward manifestation of double-mindedness (rebellion). She was stubborn, self-willed, selfish, confrontational, controlling, possessive, and full of hatred, resentment, bitterness, witchcraft and idolatry. She also had a murderous spirit. Nothing would stop her from getting what she wanted.
Ahab would pout in rejection, and Jezebel would rise up to retaliate in rebellion. Together they advanced wicked plots in Israel, driving the country to being rejected by God, led into bondage and left in desolated ruins. This is what the rejection and rebellion personalities accomplish when they work together within double-mindedness. They cannot be allowed to link up. In order to be disarmed, they must be separated and then cast out of the double-minded person.
The Jezebel spirit is domineering, manipulative and seductive. It intimidates, threatens, lies and does whatever it takes to accomplish its end.
Rebellion is a wicked personality that needs to be renounced and cast out. We will remain in bondage to it until we see how wicked it is.
The Ahab spirit is lustful, weak, fearful and tolerates wickedness. King Ahab allowed Jezebel to bring in the worship of Baal. His spirit is passive and will not stand up for righteousness. This inward and withdrawn personality is also wicked and needs to be renounced and cast out. God hates rejection just as He hates rebellion.
JEZEBEL SPIRIT-
1. It Causes Control, Manipulation, & Domination (A Form of Witchcraft)
Manipulation, intimidation, and the desire or impulse to control people is a characteristic of Jezebel.
2. It Causes Fear, Flight, and Discouragement
Jezebel is good at causing intimidation in people.
Scripture highlights that she didn’t kill Elijah, she simply sent a messenger to discourage him and make him run in fear of his life.
3. It Seduces and Provokes Sexual Immorality
Revelation says,
…You allow Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality…
Revelation 2:20
4. Teaches false doctrine
5. Loves leadership positions - needs a sense of worth and value
6. For every Jezebel, there's an Ahab - Ahab enabled
7. Unrepentant
8. Talks in confusion
9. Lies
10. Ungrateful/never shows gratitude
11. Talks incessantly/ no control over mouth
12. Uses the element of surprise
13. Sows seeds of discord
14. Commands attention
15. Vengeful
16. Attempts to make you look like you’re the Jezebel
A Jezebel spirit is difficult to pin down. If the person is near to being confronted, he or she will skillfully twist the entire situation, trying to make the innocent person look like the one who is attempting to control. As always, the Jezebel will do anything to look like the one who is right.
17. Gift giving
Gift giving is a form of manipulation a Jezebel uses that always makes you feel obligated to him. It also compromises the victim in speaking direct and confrontive truth. Naturally, not everyone who gives gifts is guilty of control, but gift giving is a tactic used by those who have a need to control.
Ahab Spirit:
- Ahab, son of Omri, the seventh king of Israel, reigned for twenty-two years, from 876 to 854, was one of the strongest and at the same time one of the weakest kings of Israel.
- The life of Ahab shows us principles to avoid. His life is a prime example of what a man should not be. Ahab considered the things of God as being trivial.
The ultimate goal of the Spirit of Ahab is the destruction of God ordained authority and responsibility in the Family and in the Body of Christ, the Church. A spirit of Ahab symbolizes the giving up of authority and the advocating of responsibility.
The Word of God teaches the man is the Head or Authority of the woman, thus the Head or Authority of the home. The Word also teaches the pastor is the Head or Authority of the local church. The Ahab spirit primarily affects men in an attempt to destroy the male and his role of authority and responsibility.
Working together the spirits of Ahab and Jezebel will quietly form a codependent relationship. Both will need to feed off each other in order to accomplish each one’s goals. A pastor who is influenced by an Ahab spirit will need someone influenced by a Jezebel spirit to maintain position and enlarge or entrench a power base.
- King Ahab left the things of God to his wife Jezebel, and as a result, she led him into her pagan religion, instead of him leading her to follow the true and living God. He followed after Baal.
- King Ahab then reestablished relations with Judah, sealing this alliance with the marriage of his daughter, Athaliah, to the crown prince of Judah, King Jehoshaphat’s son, Jehoram.
An individual with an Ahab spirit will often make truces instead of relationships. It be speaks of a mind-set that avoids confrontation and denies fault. Someone with an Ahab spirit would rather make peace at any cost, even if it leads to making an unholy alliance. How can you have a truce with someone who is out to destroy you? It is impossible, but, one with an Ahab spirit will always sacrifice the future good for peace today.
The Ahab spirit causes a man to be wishy-washy and unstable in all his ways. King Ahab was efficient and strong in manipulative and administrative powers. He was weak and vacillating in the face of his powerful wife, Jezebel. He gave his authority, as king, to his wife and even when she abused it, he remained passive, voiding confrontation, and let her have her own way.
The wife receives the Head position of the home because the Ahab husband doesn’t want it, it takes too much energy. Most people do not realize that if a home is out of order God will allow it to come under a curse. Too many fathers, through rebellion and lust, have not lived a godly example to their wife and children. The end result of this neglect opens the door for rebellious spirits to enter the wife and children. Too many men fail to provide spiritual leadership in their homes and then, too often, the spirit of Jezebel surfaces in the wife causing the wife to be forced into headship of the home which is totally demonic. This is a very serious part of the Ahab spirit at work.
The Ahab spirit, rooted in the Destruction of the Family Priesthood, causes a man to forsake his responsibilities as the Head of the household. He will not only refuse to take the spiritual headship, but will not take responsibility for working to make the living for the wife and children. A man is to provide both spiritual and material security for his family. If he cannot or will not, he is in trouble with God. As the spiritual umbrella of protection for his wife and children, he is charged with the demanding role of prophet and priest for them.
What can you do, as a man, to counter this Ahab spirit in you? First of all admit you are a Ahab and that it begins with the Head, the man, it begins with you. Don’t sit back, nothing will change until you move out and take action.
Throw yourself on the mercy of God and say, Jesus, I need you! Deliver me from the curses on me and my family brought about by me allowing the Spirit of Ahab to control me. Deliver me , that I may be a man again, the man you planned for me to be since before the beginning.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment