Jezebel & False Prophecy in the Last Days

What is popularly called the “Jezebel spirit” is a form of the religious spirit.

Just as Jezebel was the ambitious and manipulative wife of King Ahab—a weak leader who allowed her to dictate policy in his kingdom—the Jezebel spirit will usually be found supplanting weak leadership. The Jezebel spirit usually gains its dominion by making political alliances and often uses a deceptively humble and submissive demeanor to manipulate. However, once this spirit gains authority, it will usually manifest a strong control spirit and shameless presumption. Despite its name, this spiritual problem is not limited to women.

Jezebel “calls herself a prophetess” (Revelation 2:20). This is often one of the telltale signs of false prophets who are operating in a religious spirit—they are preoccupied with their own recognition. To the degree that self-seeking and the need for recognition abides within us, our ministries will be corrupted.

Those who are easily offended because they are not given an important title or position should never be given that title or given that position! The difference between those motivated by a desire for recognition and those motivated by love for the Lord is the difference between the false prophet and the true prophet. As we read in John 7:17-18, those who seek their own recognition speak out of themselves, but those who are seeking the recognition of the One who sent them are true.

Demanding recognition for herself, the spirit of Jezebel serves as the enemy of the true prophetic ministry. Jezebel was the greatest enemy of one of the Old Covenant’s most powerful prophets, Elijah, whose ministry especially typified preparing the way for the Lord. The Jezebel spirit is one of the most potent forms of the religious spirit, which seeks to keep the Church and the world from being prepared for the return of the Lord.

The Jezebel spirit especially attacks the prophetic ministry because that ministry has an important place in preparing the way for the Lord. That is why John the Baptist was persecuted by a personification of Jezebel, in the wife of Herod. The prophetic ministry is the primary vehicle through which the Lord gives timely, strategic direction to His people. Jezebel knows that removing the true prophets will make the people vulnerable to her false prophets, always resulting in idolatry and spiritual adultery.

When there is a void of hearing the true voice of the Lord, the people will be much more susceptible to the deceptions of the enemy. That is why Jesus called the religious leaders of His day “blind guides” (see Matthew 23:16). These men who knew the messianic prophecies better than anyone else in the world looked into the face of the One who perfectly fulfilled those prophecies and thought He was from Beelzebub.

Jezebel’s prophets of Baal were also given to sacrifice, even to the point of cutting and flailing themselves while seeking the manifestation of their god. A primary strategy of the religious spirit is to get the church devoted to “sacrifice” in a way that perverts the command for us to take up our crosses daily. This perversion will have us putting more faith in our sacrifices than in the Lord’s sacrifice. It will also use sacrifices and offerings to pressure God to manifest Himself. This is a form of the terrible delusion that we can somehow purchase the grace and presence of God with our good works.

The Root of Self-Righteousness

We do not crucify ourselves for the sake of righteousness, purification, spiritual maturity, or to get the Lord to manifest Himself; this is nothing more than conjuring. We are “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). If we “crucify ourselves,” the only result is self-righteousness—which is pride in one of its most base forms. This pride is deceptive, because it gives the appearance of wisdom and righteousness, of which the apostle Paul warned:

Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence (Colossians 2:18-23).

The religious spirit will make us feel good about our spiritual condition so long as it is self-centered and self-seeking. Pride feels good; it can even be exhilarating. But it keeps all of our attention on how well we are doing and on how we stand compared to others—not on the glory of God. Consequently, we put our confidence in discipline and personal sacrifice rather than in the Lord and His sacrifice. Of course, discipline and a commitment to self-sacrifice are essential qualities for every believer to have. It is the motivation behind them that determines whether we are being driven by a religious spirit or by the Holy Spirit. A religious spirit motivates through fear and guilt, or through pride and ambition. The motivation of the Holy Spirit is love for the Son of God. Delighting in self-abasement is a sure symptom of the religious spirit. This does not mean we can neglect to discipline ourselves, fast, or buffet our bodies as Paul did. However, the problem comes when we take a perverse delight in this, rather than delighting in the Son of God.

Deceptive Revelation

Colossians 2:18-19 indicates that a person with a religious spirit will tend to delight in self-abasement and will often be given to worshiping angels or taking improper stands on visions he has seen. A religious spirit wants us to worship anything or anyone but Jesus. The same spirit that is given to worshiping angels will also be prone to excessively exalting people.

We must beware of anyone who unduly exalts angels or men and women of God, or anyone who uses the visions he has received to gain improper influence in the Church. God does not give us revelations so people will respect us more, or to prove our ministries. The fruit of true revelation will be humility, not pride.

Of course, the Scriptures teach that Christians do have prophetic experiences, and we are told in Acts 2:17 that these will increase in the last days. Jesus also warned that in the last days there would be many false prophets (see Matthew 24:11). Prophetic revelation that is truly from God is crucial to the Body of Christ. The enemy knows this well, which is why he will raise up many false prophets. But they can be easily discerned. As Paul warned the Colossians, the danger does not come from those who are having prophetic revelations, but from those who have been inflated by them.

A religious spirit will always feed our fear or pride, whereas genuine spiritual maturity will always lead to increasing humility. This progression of humility is wonderfully demonstrated in the life of Paul the apostle. In his letter to the Galatians, estimated to have been written in A.D. 56, he declared that when he visited the original apostles in Jerusalem, they “…contributed nothing to me” (Galatians 2:6). By this He was declaring that he had as much as they did.

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, written about six years later, he called himself the “least of the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:9). In Ephesians 3:8, written about A.D. 61, he declared himself to be the “the very least of all saints.” When writing to Timothy in approximately A.D. 65, Paul declared himself to be the foremost of all sinners (see 1 Timothy 1:15), adding that he had found mercy. A true revelation of God’s mercy is a great antidote for the religious spirit.

It is clear by these Scriptures that the great apostle was not completely free of pride in the first years of his ministry. Which of us can claim to be free of it? However, we are all hopefully growing in grace and humility.

Young apostles may exude a lot of pride, but they can still be true apostles. The key is in which direction we are heading. Are we being puffed up by our revelations, our commissions, or our accomplishments? Or are we growing in grace and humility?