The following is a warning for all orthodox Christians of the need to be aware of the workings of the Jezabel spirit among us. The Jezebel Spirit seeks to infiltrate and destroy individuals and churches. The biblical woman, Jezabel, was a controller, a man hater, and an enemy of God's prophets. The same spirit that infiltrated the first Jezebel, is still at work today. Usually a woman, today's Jezebel will claim false authority and gather easy-to-manipulate men around her to do her bidding. Her goal is to control individuals and churches. If she cannot, she sets out to destroy them. The following will shed some light on her tactics and demonic subterfuge.
[Source: An edited on-line article via several authors]
There are basically six characteristics of controlling people and organizations whose source is a Jezebel spirit. While these characteristics of the Jezebel spirit remain constant, as noted in the Bible, the symptoms and manifestations of the Jezebel spirit are constantly changing.
The purpose of this article is to identify the Jezebel spirit as it continues to attempt different ways to get control of and abuse the people of God.
First, the Jezebel spirit has a huge ego and wants to meet its desire and need for power. The Jezebel spirit does this by assuming false authority by any means possible. With this false authority the Jezebel spirit not only fulfills its need for power, but also gets tremendous ego satisfaction as it continually maneuvers for a high position on any hierarchical totem pole — either real or imaginary.
Second, the Jezebel spirit will continue and continue and continue to proclaim their authority. The Jezebel spirit has to do this because it has no real authority. So they have to continue to remind others that they have Godly authority. Usually their group claims they have been granted a mandate [read: commission] by God Himself in some specialized area and that because of this others must obey their commands. Look for this insistence upon having authority granted by God with the claim that because of this others must become their followers. To make things easier for themselves, these Jezebel spirits will usually mark off some area of “specialized ministry” so they can focus on it. This way, they don’t have to have a broad understanding of the Bible, God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. After all, they are “specialists” who hear from where you don’t hear, so they are in charge of that area of “speciality.” This is really simply a variation of the Jezebel spirit claiming false authority.
Third, the Jezebel spirit is quick to attribute any “problems” others point out to them as being caused by the person who brought it up. Remember, the Jezebel spirit “leader” claims to hear from God in their area of self-proclaimed “speciality” of God and you don’t. So, regardless of what the Bible says about something, they have “special revelations” from God and so they are the ones who will decide what’s a problem and what’s not a problem, and what’s right and what’s wrong. Again, a variation of the “false authority” theme.
Fourth, if you attempt to remain loyal to Christ and His teachings, instead of the Jezebel spirit leaders teachings, you will be made the object of their wrath. You will be openly scorned, ridiculed and embarrassed. If you then say that you will leave their organization, or do so, there will be follow up by the Jezebel spirit leader and followers with overtones of impending doom for you because you are unteachable. And so, the false authority theme continues to develop.
Fifth, you will soon realize that the Jezebel spirit and/or their organization operates in an atmosphere of secrecy. Since they have an exclusive hotline to God, usually in their “specialized area of ministry,” they have exclusive knowledge that you don’t. You are to simply follow their leading and must not question their exclusive “truths.” The Jezebel spirit will constantly be springing surprises upon their followers in any and all areas you can think of. Because of their secrecy and their “surprise techniques” you and the other followers will be kept in a constant state of suspense, always aware that things can change at any moment in time, without any indication of such. The Jezebel spirit cannot afford to be honest, because that would jeopardize their false claim to authority. They cannot openly declare their policies, because the Jezebel spirit has only one policy — control through power over others. If they should somehow become transparent in their manipulations and intimidating tactics, then they will claim you have created a “problem” and will treat you as described in the third characteristic discussed in a paragraph above. The Jezebel spirit will conceal those things from public view and knowledge which they feel would prevent them from exercising their hard won false authority. That is to say that the Jezebel spirit will continue to display those things which others know is wrong and will continue to conceal those things which others know is right — by biblical standards.
Sixth, the Jezebel spirit will purposefully exclude the total counsel of God as stated throughout the Bible. The technique of taking scriptural verses out of context and stringing them together to create false doctrine is a speciality of the Jezebel spirit. In this way the Jezebel spirit can continue to claim they have an exclusive hotline to God on their particularly selected and segmented “area of speciality.” The subject of the prophetic ministry, prophets and prophecy is one of their favorites. If the people who follow the Jezebel spirit can be persuaded that they are hearing the words of a prophet, they will be much more inclined to accept the controlling tactics of Jezebel.
Controlling tactics and techniques
A. Approval, appreciation, acceptance and recognition are a basic desire of every human being. Controlling spirits of Jezebel are more than willing to accommodate that desire and will verbally praise you publicly and privately. The Jezebel spirit will appear to be a loving and gracious person, oozing and dripping with flattery on those occasions when it best serves their purposes. They will woo and win you over to their “cause” by their insincere flattery — if you let them.
B. The Jezebel spirit is skilled at prophesying great things about you which you attribute to the Holy Spirit endorsing your (sometimes repressed or hidden) personal desires to be an authoritarian leader. Having toyed with the idea of perhaps eventually becoming a great leader and servant for God this type of false prophecy is very heady, exhilarating, influential and motivating. This is really an extension of all that false verbal praise and flattery.
C. You will be contacted again and again to meet with them or their organization in a variety of settings. Unwarranted statements of God having given them responsibility to train and develop you into a great leader will be conveyed to you in different ways. This “God given responsibility” will quickly translate into “God given authority” over you. Without continuing to add members to their little personal cult the Jezebel spirit would soon lose its sphere of influence.
D. Your own personal illusion of your free will is maintained as they lead you into jumping through hoops and over hurdles of their own making. This is best accomplished in a group setting, but is also effective in private meetings. Their praise and flattery will lead you to respond to remarks and questions about their authority in a positive way. You will be seen by others as a fervent promoter of their authority because you really believe it to be so. The controlling Jezebel spirits derive false authority from those who don’t see through this manipulative ploy. Having planted the idea in your head that you will become another Moses (or equivalent) for God, the Jezebel spirit will continue to attempt to assert their false authority over you in what they consider to be clever, non-intrusive, subtle techniques. With some degree of discerning of spirits on your part, that subtlety becomes as loud as a jackhammer in action.
E. Eventually they will use the verbal praise and flattery they built you up with as a reference point to measure your expected performance. You will now be found to be lacking in some or all areas of such performance. This is another aspect of the praise and flattery, the purpose of which is to manipulate and intimidate you by expressing the disappointment that the Jezebel spirit now feels in you having disappointed God by your failure to conduct yourself as an up and coming powerful religious leader. The purpose of this semantical nonsense is to motivate you to do only what they tell you to do. The controlling spirits of Jezebel are experts in giving and withholding flattery to continue to exercise their false authority over you.
F. You will begin to notice that there are “unspoken rules” which are constantly changing. Knowing that you will be labeled as “the problem” if you ask any questions you subconsciously adjust your thinking to keep in step with that of your “leader.” After all, you have to learn to think, say and do things just like they do because they are recipients of a Godly “hotline” of “specialized information” from God. The Jezebel spirit knows the power of human ego and continues to feed your ego the food it needs to become self-centered in focusing on having the “spiritual authority” you think you need to be the great leader that you think that God wants you to be. This is analogous to building castles in the sand.
G. Their walk won’t match their talk. Contradictory statements will be made that sound like they violently oppose what they are, in fact, doing. They try extremely hard to paint a beautiful verbal picture of their ugly behavior so that you will keep on thinking how much you are in control of your own destiny, not them. Controlling spirits of Jezebel are very clever in continuing to make you think that you are a free thinking, independent person who is in control of their own lives. In fact, you are under the worst kind of bondage of one human to another. This is another way the Jezebel spirit converts you into thinking that you, too, have spiritual authority, which, of course, is really false authority.
H. Your own desire to maintain the illusion of your approval, appreciation, acceptance and recognition created by the Jezebel spirit will motivate you to continue your affiliation with the Jezebel spirit. It’s difficult to accept the fact that you have been lied to, and manipulated and intimidated by a controlling person or organization. Even though you know deep down inside that you’ve been used and abused, you are still confused and afraid of having to leave that exclusive and special group of persons who at one time lavished so much praise upon you, with flattering words. You just don’t want to leave and be alone and insignificant again. The controlling Jezebel spirit knows that your desire to preserve your own illusions of fulfillment of your hopes and desires will override your logical analysis of their controlling Jezebel spirit tactics. Logic is a motivator, but the Jezebel spirit knows that emotions are much more powerful and will override logic. They also know that enthusiasm on their part reinforces your emotions beyond anything else they can do. Enthusiastic, emotional pleas and statements, with some logic interwoven here and there will convince you beyond the shadow of a doubt that you must stay with their group...
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