The church has a long and storied history of being influenced and torn apart by the spirit of Jezebel. Now, when I say that, I do not mean the soul of the departed woman from ancient times. No. She is dead and gone.
I am, however, referring to the evil spirit (or rather the class/rank of demons) that inspired her actions. It is alive and well, manipulating the whims and wills of unsuspecting people with its malicious machinations.
It is the most subtle of Lucifer’s legions, and as this spirit is attracted to authority, it is most predominant in those who hold positions of power.
In the church, pastors and parishioners often assume that Jezebel’s influence comes from outside its walls, but they are sadly mistaken. They also assume that Christians cannot be possessed by an evil spirit, but they would be wrong about that as well.
Mind you, a demon cannot inhabit a Christian, but they can most assuredly be manipulated by one. And that is the most prevalent form of possession.
For clarification, think of it like this: this website is my possession. I do not inhabit it, but I have complete control over it. I possess it from without, not from within.
So too is the spirit of Jezebel with believers. She acts as a puppeteer, and those whom she controls are her marionettes. She does not inhabit her human hordes. She’s too proud to ever wear the flesh of man. No; she picks at the fabric of a person’s life through the weaknesses in their spiritual armor. When it becomes threadbare, she plucks and pulls on those threads to her heart’s content.
If she does it well, her new puppet never realizes it has happened and they deny the discernment of those who can clearly see her influence.
To use an example of how subtle her methods are, let me relay the following scenario:
I know of a pastor whom everyone held in high regard. He quickly became active in the local community, reaching out to as many as he could, as often as he could. For all intents and purposes, everything seemed fine.
Then the need to control people began rearing its ugly head.
He became very demanding of the volunteers; dictating how and when they should do this and that, even going so far as to suggest how they could adjust their personal schedules to accommodate his terms. He would casually thank them for their work, then in the same breath, directly criticize some minute detail. Always leaving them with a zero-sum result.
Once they were sufficiently submissive, he turned his eye to the parishioners and noticed that a number of them were talking instead of engaging in worship. Some would just sit and listen; others were milling about not paying attention as large groups of diverse people are often wont to do. For some reason this triggered him, so he looked for ways to remedy “the problem.”
One day he determined that the music wasn’t loud enough in those areas of the sanctuary since “people were able to have a conversation without raising their voice” (especially when the worship team performed a quiet song), so he asked the sound booth to increase the volume, which they did. This continued for several weeks and even required the repositioning of speakers to cover those “quieter” areas.
A few more weeks went by, and people were starting to complain about how loud it was. Parishioners were exiting the sanctuary because they were uncomfortable. Others chose to stay home and watch the livestream instead.
The sound technicians and a few elders asked him to reduce the volume, but he always rebuffed their pleas and explained away their concerns. Finally, after fielding complaints from dozens of people for a couple of weeks, the senior sound tech put his foot down and with the approval of an elder, set a max limit of 85 decibels (they were running 98db) and the pastor was insistent that it be raised again.
Having decades of experience discerning such matters, the sound tech called out a controlling spirit of Jezebel in the pastor which then precipitated a rather heated exchange after service in the presence of a deacon, and the technician was summarily dismissed and barred from attending any church functions.
Now, this pastor just wants people to engage in worship. A noble enough desire, but the way he went about encouraging that was wrong. God doesn’t force us to do anything against our will, so why did a well-respected pastor turn to such manipulative means?
The technician was right. The pastor was outwardly possessed by a spirit of Jezebel. How she went about gaining influence in his life isn’t for anyone to say, and speculating as to such would only be an exercise in futility.
We have given others way too much authority over our lives. Partly because we are unsure of what to say or do (because Catholicism dominated Christendom for centuries by teaching that only clergy could interpret scripture and talk to/hear from God), and partly because we just don’t want to be responsible for our own lives.
Now, I am not suggesting that we become a flock of individuals. No. We need to rely upon each other for support. That being said, we absolutely must take personal responsibility for our own relationship with the Fater, Son, and Holy Spirit, our growth as a Christian, discernment of spirits, and discretion in our thoughts, words, and deeds as if we were.
Because when the time comes to face the judgement seat of Christ, we stand alone.
Will He acknowledge that He knew us? Will the things we think we have accomplished in His name survive the refiner’s fire, or will they burn away like chafe?
Help others discern and cut those ties to the spirit of Jezebel in their lives and allow them to reciprocate for you.
None of us are immune to her influence.
We must be diligent.
Together.
Paul Jason Wilhelm 