Has America Compromised With the Jezebel Spirit? - LANDON SCHOTT CHARISMA NEWS

Demonstrators at a women's march over the weekend. (Gonzo McGrue/Flickr/CC)

Has America Compromised With the Jezebel Spirit?

1/25/2017 LANDON SCHOTT  CHARISMA NEWS

I was traveling across the country on a ministry trip when I saw the recent Women's March begin to dominate the news headlines.

My first reaction was, "This is great!"

It appeared to be women from all over the nation coming together in unity to advance equal treatment and equal pay in the workplace. My wife Heather and I travel and minister together as full-time prophetic evangelists. I love the fact that she and I minister side by side. I always say, "She is fire," because she never holds back and is completely obedient to the Holy Spirit when she ministers.

Truthfully, we've experienced firsthand how some ministries value me (men) ministering over my wife (women). Never has my wife ever once received a larger honorarium than I, and sometimes she doesn't even receive one at all. Heather and I have had many private conversations about how hurtful and dishonoring this has been. My wife is a gift and brings a powerful prophetic ministry to the body of Christ. We've made the decision together to let God bless her, and regardless of this discrimination she receives as a woman, everything she does is unto the Lord. I believe the church shouldn't be light-years behind in this arena, but leading the way.

With that said, I watched as the march went on, and the entire tone seemed to be very militant in nature. Then I saw on the news that a pro-life women's group that wished to march was asked not to.

Then I witnessed celebrities cursing our government and nation, promoting abortion institutions. They carried signs that read, "If Mary (Magdalene) had had an abortion, we wouldn't be in this mess!" I continued to see an anti-God, anti-purity, anti-Christ spirit emerge from the heart of this march. I watched a celebrity curse profanity over our nation and demand the right to have abortions. This wasn't about equal pay; this was about the advancement of an anti-Christ spirit. As I watched, I was grieved, and up in my spirit came, "This is the Jezebel spirit!"

In my book, Jezebel: The Witch Is Back, I write:

One woman brought down the kingdom of Israel. One woman sent the ministers and prophets of God running in fear for their lives. Her name was Jezebel. Jezebel was a seductive prophetess of the false god, Baal. We first hear about this infamous queen in 1 Kings 16:30-31. Jezebel was the daughter of a king-priest of Sidon named Ethbaal. Ethbaal means man of Baal or with him is Baal. He was a high priest of Astarte. This is very important. Astarte was the Canaanite fertility goddess, also called Ishtar. In the Babylonian pantheon, this deity was the daughter of the moon god, Sin, and later the consort of Anu, the deity of heaven. She is usually regarded as the goddess of love and sensual pleasure or fertility. The Assyrians also fostered her identification as the goddess of war. This high priest of Baal, Ethbaal, personally mentored his daughter in the heathen worship of this pagan god of sexuality and spiritual war. This king, who was entirely devoted to Baal, indoctrinated his daughter with the notion that she was an ally of Baal, and her goddess of fertility is not only the giver of life but also the giver of death. He gave her the assignment of bringing death and destruction to all those who oppose Baal. Accordingly, he named her Jeze-Baal, (jĕzˊə, bəl), or Jezebel.

The worship of Baal rejected the holiness set up by Yahweh (God) and encouraged indulgence in every self-pleasing sexual desire as a part of self-worship. Through the worship of Baal came the god Dagon, for Baal was the son of Dagon. Baal, Dagon, Ashtoreth and Molech combined for the erotic acts of perverted heterosexual relations, homosexual activity, violent sexual acts, body piercing (including genitals), body cutting and an infatuation with blood (drinking and draining), prostitution and ceremonial orgies. 

They were also one of the originators of child sacrifice. Sadly, God's children were participating in all this debauchery, and His prophets were being chased off from doing anything about it. With her rebellious, manipulative practices installed in the culture, only a fraction of the Jews who remained still lived their lives in covenant with God. Jezebel and her god, Baal, stood in direct opposition to Yahweh. It was of utmost importance for her to elevate Baal and the worship of him in Israel. Her god didn't have to be the true God; he just had to be an option. The purpose was not for Jezebel's god to answer by fire but to get him on the same stage as the true God. Jezebel will force her way onto the stage, because she wants Baal to be on the same altar as God.

Jesus's words in the New Testament (Revelation 2:20) were, "Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess." In the New Testament, Jesus noted the spirit behind the woman Jezebel. Theirs was toleration of the spirit by the ignorance of it. I believe that the spirit behind the woman, Jezebel, is the very same spirit at work in our nation today. 

This spirit is bringing the same destruction to the political sphere and God's house, the church, through compromise, self-worship, immorality and a removal of the prophetic voice (prophets). We must be spiritually discerning at what is going on in our nation. We can't link good causes with evil spirits. We cannot compromise with a Jezebel spirit. We can't align with it; as Jesus said, "We can't tolerate it!" We need to expose this spirit, confront it and defeat it through prayer and humility.

For more information on the Jezebel Spirit, see my book, Jezebel: The Witch Is Back, or check out another great book on the subject by my friend Jennifer LeClaire, The Spiritual Warrior's Guide to Defeating Jezebel.

Landon Schott and his wife Heather founded The Rev Ministries in 2008 and launched REVtv.com, a 24/7 online youth and young adult network dedicated to turning the heart of a generation to Jesus through Christ-centered media. Landon received his Bachelor of Arts from Trinity Theological Seminary and has authored Jezebel; The Witch Is Back and Gay Awareness: Discovering The Heart of the Father and the Mind of Christ, which was released March 2016. Connect with Landon on Instagram or Twitter @LandonSchott

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What Will It Finally Take to Make America Truly Desperate? - JENNIFER LECLAIRE

What Will It Finally Take to Make America Truly Desperate?

12/2/2014 JENNIFER LECLAIRE  CHARISMA NEWS

(Flickr/Lorraine.)

In the midst of writing a book on revival, I experienced a new kind of spiritual attack. As I put pen to paper about a Great Awakening, reformation and transformation in our nation, the enemy subtly worked to bring what I can only describe as "dryness" to my soul.

To combat this spiritual attack, I entered into worship in a deep way. I had an awareness of my need for God and set out to drink from His fountain until I no longer felt dry but could instead sense rivers of living water flowing from my spirit.  

At first my mind would not become still. I was thinking about a conversation I had with David Ravenhill recently. During our talk, we discussed how America is not yet desperate enough—not yet hungry enough—for a true revival unto another Great Awakening. That reality disturbed my heart, so I asked the Lord to start with me—to show me how the enemy is wreaking havoc on the souls of this generation and to put that desperation in my spirit.

Immediately, I saw pictures of famine, horrific violence in the Middle East and people dying from disease. Next, I looked up and saw a principality hanging over a large city from the second heaven. That principality was in the appearance of a dark cloud. From it came a voice that was commanding demons to execute a wicked agenda that included more famine, violence, immorality and the like.

Wrestling From a Compromised Position

Above that principality, I saw the throne of God. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places, far above all principalities, powers, might and dominion, as well as every name that is named—not only in this age but also in that which is to come (see Eph. 1:20-21). As born-again believers, we are raised up with Christ and seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (see Eph. 2:6).

This is our legal position. Yet I saw clearly during this encounter that we are not wrestling principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness of this age and spiritual hosts of wickedness from this legal position. Indeed, part of the church is literally wrestling against flesh and blood, which is breeding strife—even in the church. The church cannot agree on issues like gay marriage, for example, and we know where strife is, there is confusion and even evil work (see James 3:16).

Another part of the church is engaging in spiritual immorality, as pastor after pastor falls into moral failure even while preaching against it. Part of the church is experiencing a Word famine, in large part because many are not students of the Word. Instead, many depend on man to spoon feed them a biblical motivational message on Sunday mornings, do their praying for them and solve all their problems. Many are wrestling from a compromised position.

What's It Going to Take?

Make no mistake. The war that was raging in the heavens has, at least in some measure, manifested in the natural realm. The only way we can turn this around is to get desperate enough in our own hearts to see the salvation of the souls the enemy has taken captive—in the world and in the church—and enter intercession from a place of victory, recognizing we are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. I hope it doesn't have to get much worse in America to make us desperate, but I am concerned it will.

Even still, desperation alone is not enough. True desperation demands something from us.  As a church, we must deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Christ (see Luke 9:23). We must die to ourselves daily (see 1 Cor. 15:31). We must crucify our flesh and the lusts thereof (see Gal. 5:24). We must stand for the truth even in the face of persecution. Famine is rising, horrific violence in the Middle East is spilling over into our nation. Souls are dying and going to hell every day while we play patty cake in church and argue over who gets to lead prayer.

I pray that the Lord will stir a desperation in your heart to pray—to pray even while no one is watching—and I continue to seek the Lord to stir my heart with a desperation that will drive me to put away anything that gets in the way of my pursuing His perfect will for my life. If we all just did what the Holy Spirit told us to do, we could turn this nation around. We could see a Third Great Awakening that ushers in salvation and reformation unto transformation in the name of Jesus.

Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale and author of several books, including Satan's Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft, and The Spiritual Warrior's Guide to Defeating Jezebel. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed are solely the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Charisma Media.

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