Jezebel’s Rise in the End-Times

We have been in a midnight hour.

With the turnaround of breakthrough against Jezebel, Jon and I believe it’s now time for a midnight awakening, as pictured in Matthew 25. Let’s remember that the context of the passage is a wedding. And it was the bridal party, maybe including God’s end-time reserve of women warriors, that is awakened. It’s time for Esther to arise!

Have you ever noticed the parallels between Jezebel and Esther? They are striking. Both were queens in a foreign land. Jezebel, from the region of Babylon, served as queen of Israel. Esther, from Israel, served as queen of Babylon—or Medo-Persia as the Persian empire had conquered Babylon by this time. Both were given rulership by their husbands, the kings. Both altered the course of their nation through their covenant loyalties in the spirit.

But that’s really where the similarities end.

Jezebel served the vicious principality known as Baal. Through her governmental influence, she seduced God’s chosen people into sexual immorality and idolatry, breaking covenant with the God of Israel. She continually used those under her governmental reign for her own purposes. As you have just read, Jezebel sought to possess Jezreel—a symbol of all Israel—through deceit and murder. God judged her, and she was thrust out of her tower. Jezebel was thrown down in a very dramatic picture story!

Esther, on the other hand, was a Jewish refugee exiled in Babylon approximately one generation after Daniel. Driven by her loyalty to God and her people, she preserved her people from a holocaust. She understood in a profound way that it might even require her life, which I believe is something we are all coming face to face within this season. Revelation 12:11 puts it this way—overcoming by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and not loving our lives unto death.

In Esther’s scenario, this risk was first because she had kept her Jewish identity hidden from the king throughout their marriage. The revelation that Esther was Jewish essentially meant that the king had chosen as his beauty queen an orphaned slave. To make matters worse, there was the Haman plot, very similar to what transpired under Hitler years later, that was being secretly unfolded behind the scenes.

It is important to note here that the plot being planned was the mastermind of Haman’s wife Zeresh. She planned to bring down Mordecai and make sure it was as public as possible in the town square. Again, the storyline of an evil woman behind the scenes plotting and scheming to annihilate the Jews and without even knowing the extent of the plot bring down the queen at the same time. As we all know, in one dramatic moment worthy of the greatest love stories, Esther’s king favored her by extending the scepter to her. Haman ends up publicly hanging on his own noose, and the people were preserved. And Esther was given governmental authority to rule half the kingdom (see Esther 9:29). She received authority to possess!

As we progress into what the Bible refers to as the end times, both the contrast and conflict between the Esthers of God and the Jezebels of the antichrist are prophesied to crescendo. There has been much written about the Jezebel spirit and the political spirit in today’s Christian writing. I believe we have to raise our vision higher and see what is empowering this battle in the heavenlies. Maybe you will be shocked by my answer, but I believe that this end-game conflict of crowns is actually a battle between the queens.

For many years, we have been teaching and celebrating our position as the king. We have matured to see how the priestly ministry needed to embrace the kingly dimension in both identity and calling. I believe that there is one step further we have to go. A hidden truth shown throughout the Bible is that the queen has a very distinct calling. Many know the story of queen Esther, but how many understand the battle strategy that the Lord is raising up in this hour? The strategy is this—dethrone the false queen with the true queen of the Kingdom.

What is the false queen—and how does she operate? For years, I have known that I have a queenly calling on my life. Many in our home group hilariously call my chair the “throne of the queen.” When Jon and I are away ministering, our home group tradition is they send us pictures with them seated in the chair. It is a fun thing we all tease about, but there is a measure of truth to it.

You see, for years when I first got saved, I went through a process with the Lord where the Lord trained me and treated me as royalty to Him. I learned not just about how special I was to Him, but an authority came with the understanding of His love for me. I always knew that He had my back in all situations. He went out of His way to show His love for me, and in many ways, I was spoiled by Him. When I was going through deliverance ministry in the beginning, my mentors would oftentimes comment about how unique my experiences with Jesus seemed to be. He responded to me unlike any other of their ministry appointments.

Let me say at this point I believe this “beauty preparation” was a forerunner calling to train me in the queenly anointing that would be most important for many in the Body of Christ in this end-game, end-time battle. There is nothing more special about me. I have an assignment in the battle of the queens, and knowing how beloved I am is one of the first things He cultivated in me. To be honest, when the season to actually battle came to pass, I struggled with “the honeymoon phase” dwindling. The season of special love was a preparatory season meant to engrain that truth in my spirit, and it would not necessarily carry through so intensively in later years. But I must say that, in preparing to battle with the false queen, intimacy with our Savior is the most important battle gear we can gain. Not many would call it a weapon of war, but I understand in the depths of my being that it is the greatest strategy of all. Our intimacy with Him is where He truly covers us. There is also a joy and fun aspect of serving the Lord that many are missing when they don’t understand this key.