Does the spirit of Jezebel attack Christians? One lady who is regular to church takes part in communion and prays to God at home. But she has marriage issues. She looks fair and beautiful but she is having an affair with one of the believers who is in part-time ministry. Does God deliver from the Jezebel spirit?
Scripture does not mention the “Jezebel spirit,” so in order to answer your question we have to know what Scripture DOES SAY about this woman. We will see that she was a very wicked woman who influenced the children of Israel to worship a false god that led to sexual perversion.
We first learn of her in 1st Kings 16:30 & 32, “Now Ahab…took as wife Jezebel the daughter Ethbaal king of the Sidonians; and HE WENT AND SERVED BAAL AND WORSHIPPED HIM.” Jezebel was an IDOLATER and wholly given over to the worship of Baal, one of the worst false gods invented by sinful man. Baal worship involved SEXUAL IMMORALITY and she led her husband Ahab and all of Israel to worship Baal. 1st Kings 21:25 declares, “But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the LORD, because JEZEBEL HIS WIFE STIRRED HIM UP.” This in turn led to MURDERING the true prophets of God. We read of this in 1st Kings 18:4, “Jezebel MASSACRED the prophets of the LORD.” In 1st Kings 19:2 we see her boldly DEFYING GOD, “Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.’”
We could say that Jezebel was the foremost CULT LEADER in the worship of Baal and it is tragic that Ahab and the Israelites were willing to follow her in her idolatry, which, again, involved sexual perversion. Because her name lives in infamy, very few people have named their daughter Jezebel. Yet we do read of another Jezebel in the Lord’s address to the church of Thyatira in Revelation 2:20, “Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow THAT WOMAN JEZEBEL, who calls herself a prophetess, TO TEACH AND SEDUCE MY SERVANTS TO COMMIT SEXUAL IMMORALITY AND EATING THINGS SACRIFICED TO IDOLS.” Like Jezebel of old, there was a woman in this church who was allowed to take the place of a prophet who then led God’s people into immorality and idolatry. How sad and tragic! I believe that we can say that “the spirit of Jezebel” (in both cases) was that of 1) worshipping false gods; 2) committing sexual immorality; 3) defying God; and 4) taking the place of a teacher and leading others to follow her in her wickedness.
Your example of the lady who attends your church is guilty of at least two of these things, for she is involved in sexual immorality and has influenced another member to do the same. Yet she falls short of the “spirit of Jezebel” in that she has not assumed a place of TEACHER and thus she is not actively or literally teaching others to do the same (though her EXAMPLE could lead others down the path of immorality). I will say this though, if her affair is known by all in the church she should be put under church discipline for her immorality. We see a clear case of this in 1st Corinthians 5:1, 4-5, 13: “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you…In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together…with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh…put away from yourselves the evil person.” This would be God’s way of “delivering believers from evil persons.”
Let me end by saying IF the “spirit of Jezebel” ever does make its way into a local church; that is, if a woman takes a public place as a TEACHER and the church allows her to, the church needs to humble themselves and acknowledge that she has taken a place that Scripture condemns. 1st Timothy 2:11-12 is crystal-clear on this point: “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I DO NOT PERMIT A WOMAN TO TEACH OR TO HAVE AUTHORITY OVER A MAN, but to be in silence.” I’m not implying that every woman who assumes the place of a teacher in a local church will teach others to commit sexual immorality or worship false gods, but the “spirit of Jezebel” begins with a woman desiring to be a teach and the church allowing her to do this feeds that desire. We saw in Revelation 2:20 that the first thing the Lord Jesus condemned was that the church “allowed that woman…to teach.” Had they remained faithful to Scripture they never would have allowed her to take that place and thus they never would have been led astray by false teaching. (411.3) (DO)