The Jezebel Spirit

Who was Jezebel? The Jezebel of the Old Testament was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. She was married to Ahab, the king of Israel, and she was the nemesis of the prophet Elijah. Jezebel promoted the worship of Baal and Asherah, which were celebrated with ritual murder and lewd sexual acts. She also instigated the slander and murder of Naboth, a righteous man who refused to sell his family's inheritance to Ahab, in order that Ahab could possess the vineyard. Because of her extreme degree of wickedness, Jezebel's name came into use as an epithet for an excessively evil woman.

A reference to another Jezebel is made in the New Testament, in Revelation 2:20 – 26, "Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works. Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations;"

Why would the Anointed Lord Yeshua ascribe this epithet of Jezebel to this person in THYATIRA? Well, first of all, the person whom he was describing was from Tyre, the same city where Jezebel was raised. Her name was Helen, a beautiful–looking, blonde, blue–eyed priestess/prostitute of Succoth–Benoth. She was the consort of SIMON MAGUS, or Simon the Sorcerer, whom we read of in Acts 8:9–24.

Simon the Sorcerer was the leader of the Nicolaitans, spoken of in the book of Revelation. Nicolaus, which means "victorious over people" was one of his titles. Peter the Apostle prophesied to Simon that he would lead many into idolatry and bondage. At first, Simon protested and asked for prayer that this would not occur, but his pride and greed overcame him.

Peter prophesied that Simon would start his own religion and be very successful at it. Simon wanted that position and power, so he started a "universal" church, which amalgamated Judaistic, Christian, and pagan beliefs into one unholy concoction, with which his successors, over the centuries, have managed to inebriate and seduce the kings of Earth through its politics and doctrines. Yeshua said that He hates the Nicolaitans' doctrines and their deeds.

Incidentally, another of Simon Magus's titles was "Peter," the name given to the high priest of the Babylonian Mysteries, who holds the key to their "dark sayings." In other words, the peter knows the real stories behind the myths and symbols of that system of paganism. Peter is also a word for Babylonian stone images, commonly shaped as a phallus. They were sometimes carved from meteorites, considered to be holy objects because they fell from the sky.

When Simon went forth from Samaria, he came to the city of Tyre and noticed a beautiful woman standing on the roof of one of the buildings. She was a priestess of Succoth–Benoth, a Babylonian goddess for whom booths were set up, in which temple prostitutes serviced their customers, and the revenues were turned over for the support of the temple. Simon took Helen for his consort and made up ludicrous fables about her to fit in with his gnostic doctrines, which he was formulating at that time.

So this woman, Helen, who is described as Jezebel, was part of a religious system that encouraged sexual licentiousness, and she possibly participated in secret ritual murder, which is a common practice of the Babylonian Mystery religion. Her home city, her lewdness, blood on her hands, and the promotion of pagan religion are four things that she had in common with the Jezebel of the Old Testament.

And yet, God gave her "space to repent." Why would He allow her continue to live for a while longer, though she was engaged in such wicked practices? Well, God gives everyone a chance to repent, no matter how evil they are. I suspect that Helen was groomed from very early childhood to perform sexually, and possibly subjected to other forms of trauma through various types of violence, which inclined God to want to be more patient with her, to give her time to learn right from wrong, and, hopefully, choose to change sides in the battle between God and satan for her soul.

Simon Magus apparently slithered into the Church through professing to have become a Christian under Philip the Evangelist's ministry, and he could attest that he was baptized. He brought false doctrines with him that appealed to the flesh, and Helen assisted in helping him spread these doctrines.

They were a form of "grace" teaching. The reference to the depths of satan in verse Revelation 2:24 seems to indicate that they taught that the more a person sinned, the more they would experience God's grace of forgiveness. The Bible, however, teaches in Proverbs 28:13, " He who conceals his sins will not succeed; he who confesses AND ABANDONS THEM will gain mercy."

It is good to acknowledge one's sins, rather than try to justify or whitewash them, and to confess them to people whom one can trust, that prayer may be obtained, but it isn't true repentance if we keep going back to the same sin, like a dog to its vomit or a pig to its wallowing in the mire. It's one thing to fall, while trying to fight an addiction, but another thing to keep indulging in it, and expect that God is going to bear with it indefinitely. He says that His patience lasts long, but He also makes it clear that His patience has limits.

If we have an ungodly addiction, we need to find out what is at the root of it and deal with that issue. It probably relates to holding unforgiveness in our heart to someone who wronged us or because of a situation that we did not understand, though there was a redeeming reason for it. Sometimes we are angry at God because He allowed bad stuff to happen to us or to a loved one. Unforgiveness hurts us more than it hurts anyone else.

So, this is the background of the two Jezebels that the Bible mentions, and it describes only this one woman in the New Testament as deserving of that name. And yet, many women in the modern Church are accused of being a "Jezebel." Many of these women do not promote sexual immorality, nor do they participate in or condone ritual murder. Some of them simply have a problem with being somewhat controlling, and many of the accused are dynamic, assertive women who resist the attempts of church leaders who try to control them for their own self–centred purposes.

Who doesn't have a problem with being controlling to some degree? It is a trait of human nature. It is only when it is excessive to such a degree that the person is psychopathic that the epithet is truly merited, but competitive pastors who want to build their own personal kingdom, rather than the Kingdom of God, apply that slander to multitudes of women, and sometimes to men, who oppose their attempts to suppress them from fully exercising their gifts.

I know an assertive woman whom an insecure minister has accused of being a "Jezebel," and has even gone so far as to accuse her of being "a devil with skin on." I don't know how anyone can justify calling another human being "a devil with skin on," as if there was never a chance of redemption for them. This epithet is inappropriate for even the most evil person in the world, as the blood of Jesus can wash away any sin and make a new creation of any person who wants be saved, no matter what they have done.

Some pastors are emotionally healthy, spiritually mature people who have legitimate complaints against controlling people who want to undermine their ministry, or take it over, but even in a case like that, they should refrain from comparing these people to those two women in the Bible who were steeped in occult practices and encouraged sexual immorality. Many of the women, and men, whom they accuse of being Jezebels, are sincere Christians, though they have emotional issues that still need to be resolved.

Jezebels are actually not Christians at all. We are more likely to see them in the political arena, promoting New Age doctrines and advocating for abortion, euthanasia, and other types of legalized homicide, as well as for homosexual marriage and the sexualization of children. It is poetic justice that those who are so rabid for power that they degrade themselves in fiendish ways to obtain it will lose out, but those who stay faithful to the Lord will be given power over the nations.

It seems to me that most of the pastors who accuse others of being a Jezebel have big issues with control themselves, and therefore fit their own description of a Jezebel. Ah, but perhaps there is a difference when the controller is the one who currently occupies the position of authority, as opposed to a controller who is either seeking that position of authority, OR the other person is a level–headed child of God who knows their own calling and, not being fooled or intimidated by the pastor's controlling devices, can think for themselves. People who can see through posturing and theatrics, and make up their own minds about what they ought to do, are seen as a threat to insecure leaders who think that leadership is about domination and having prestige, rather than servanthood and being an example of humility.

Humility does not conflict with assertiveness. True Christian humility doesn't mean that one doesn't know their own worth and, therefore, makes a doormat of themselves. When a leader is humble, they are teachable and can learn from anybody, even from someone who is in a lesser position than themselves. They don't think of themselves as too important to do lowly tasks, and they don't expect people to trust them until they have demonstrated that they can be trusted. Controllers don't seem to understand what true humility is. Some tend to be like Uriah Heep from Charles Dickens' book Nicholas Nickleby, proclaiming that they are an " 'umble servant," whilst looking for ways to take advantage of others.

How serious a mistake is it to label someone as a Jezebel? In most cases, it is an exaggeration and a slander, and the Bible says that he who utters a slander is a fool. Many find themselves in that same position when they condemningly label a fellow Christian as a heretic, when it may simply be a matter of a Christian holding some ideas that are only minor errors, and they might eventually see that they have been mistaken.

So think twice before you label someone as a Jezebel. Even if you're a pastor, you might be guilty of the very thing that you detest in people who are vying for your place or resisting your efforts to make them part of your ego machine. Do you have a controlling spirit? We don't need that in order to make God's Kingdom come, if it is God's Kingdom that we are building and not our own.

Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
[Psalm 119:11]