Jesus, Yeshua, Y'shua

John 8:12 - Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

Jesus is not the light of the physical world.  The earth was without form and void and God said "Let there be light."  The sun and the moon are the light of the physical world.

Jesus is the light of the spiritual world.  When Jesus lives inside of us, we become the light of the world.  We are his embassadors here on earth to provide light to a darkened world.

Light draws people.  Being filled with God's light will bring others to the Light of the World, Jesus.

Walk in Light
⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the Spirit^[b]is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), ¹⁰ finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. ¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. ¹³ But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. ¹⁴ Therefore He says:


      “ Awake, you who sleep,
      Arise from the dead,
      And Christ will give you light.”

Satan will not leave you alone to let your ministry or church prosper and grow.  He is going to come against you and come against you in ways you will not expect.  He is not going to show up at the door with a pitchfork and horns.  He is going to send someone with a beautiful smile and sweet words to win your heart. 

 

There is an evil and devious Spirit that is operating in ministries and churches today.  This spirit is rampant in the church amongst the Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches.  What is this spirit? It’s Jezebel!  The Jezebel spirit is a religious spirit of witchcraft that sits in our ministries and churches secretly manipulating, intimidating, domineering, undermining and controlling.  

 

A Jezebel has absolutely no regard for Godly authority and operates in opposition to the will of God with the intent of stopping His plans. For example, when the saints are trusting God for financial provision, the Spirit of Jezebel will SELL RAFFLE TICKETS TO RAISE MONEY FOR THE MINISTRY.  That’s when we stop trusting God and start listening to this spirit.

 

Why am I pointing this out to you?  Because I know that this evil Spirit can be stopped by God fearing men and women.  Jezebel's purpose is to get control of churches and ministries and ultimately bring death to that body.

 

SATAN DOES NOT WANT TO SEE MINISTRIES RISE UP AND PROSPER.  He will send a person with a Jezebel Spirit to befriend the head of the ministry and gain their trust in order to start the deadly destructive process.

 

Ministries and churches will NEVER grow and prosper while harboring a person with a Jezebel spirit.  The Jezebel spirit seeks to destroy anyone in authority, i.e. Pastor, Elder, Prophet of God, Minister, Worship Leader, Prayer Leader, and will take that authority any way she/he can get it.

 

The Jezebel spirit is Lucifer spirit of domination, the anti-Christ spirit. It is the exact opposite of the Holy Spirit, but is definitely not divine. One name for the Holy Spirit is El-Shaddai, which besides God Almighty, is derived from the word Shad which is breast. It is typical of the Holy Spirit to comfort, love, feed, etc. Jezebel is the perversion of that, controlling men like a hateful mother and leading them into perversion. This spirit does not have a mind or a heart that can be changed or convicted of wrongdoing.

 

Jezebel spirits feed off of un-forgiveness and bitterness. These things become fuel for their fire. Un-forgiveness is a magnet that draws the Jezebel spirit. A heart that is full of hurts and wounds is fertile ground for Jezebel to plant her seeds. The process starts out with PRIDE, circles to REBELLION, then DECEPTION (LIES), then PERVERSION. These are four downward steps, like a spiral, that can be recognized.

 

Look for this spirit to target men and women who are embittered against authority, either through neglect, misuse, or abuse of authority. This particular spirit of rebellion manifests itself by attacking the very core of God's creation; the relationship between men and women and the roles they have been assigned by the most High God. This spirit existed before Jezebel was born and is a spirit without gender. Jezebel targets, in particular, those called to the prophetic ministry.

 

The Jezebel spirit forms networks and alliances, all designed to undermine leadership. It's rebellion is often hidden in religious behavior.  Because of its networking nature, when you attack it, you will get hit from an unexpected side, as the signals are sent through the network. Because of its control and manipulation tactics, it is good at hiding upcoming attacks.

 

The Jezebel spirit is found more often in women than men, but not exclusively. The Lucifer spirit of domination is more often found in men (but again not exclusively). It is a fundamentally unclean spirit and its perversion typically has both an idolatry and a sexual component. When you see the deception, the idolatry and the sexual perversion are most likely already present.

 

Because of its need to control, the Jezebel spirit can only operate effectively when 'Ahabs' (weak leaders; i.e. Ministers, Pastors, Bishops) are present. Many leaders today would rather tolerate Jezebel than allow a true prophet of God into their churches, but it was the very prophet of God (Jehu) who destroyed Jezebel. This spirit of Jezebel desire is to paralyze the Prophetic flow of God.

 

Jezebels flourishes hidden, doing damage in Churches where there is a fear of the prophetic ministry. Jezebel hates the prophetic flow of God because the prophetic ministry demands repentance and surrendering of the self-will, cutting away evil with confrontation. She hates the non-compromising voice of a prophet. The prophet brings people back to the cross and back to holiness. Jezebel cannot accomplish her plan with a prophet around. Jezebel hates repentance, prayer, and humility, opposing righteousness and the message of the cross. God waits for someone to stand up to it -- to confront it.

 

Many leaders look at it and say "well, they are working hard in the church." They appear to be supporting leadership, but underneath the mask is a driving force of rebellion and witchcraft. A great weakness of leadership is the fear of confrontation. Leadership just waits and hopes it will go away, or that the person will move to another church. Even if Jezebel stays for a short time, that is all that is needed to plant its evil seeds.

 

God used one of His anointed prophets to bring death to Jezebel. Jehu was a man that was fearless, obedient, and had no mercy for the works of darkness. Jehu, with the direct help from the Eunuchs, destroyed Jezebel. You have to be a EUNUCH to do this. This means, in spiritual terms, self sacrificing, you’re not out for yourself, or you're not looking for a position in the church, or a big ministry or anything else other than building the bride for the glory of Christ, anything otherwise you are vulnerable, and Jezebel has ways to control you, when you don't have the spirit of Eunuchs, there is little you can do.

 

How do you fight the Jezebel spirit?:

• First of all, search your heart;
• Be not hesitant to confront it head-on;
• Pray for exposure, to the light;
• Pray for a Jehu anointing to come over the leaders;
• Remember that Jezebel can only function because of Ahab (weak leaders);
• Be aware of his/her network;
• Be convinced that the Jezebel spirit wants to kill anything that resists its spirit, especially the prophets;
• Don't underestimate its religious nature, it will burn people at the stake 'for the faith';
• It can quote scripture like you wouldn't believe;

Don't be afraid, but search you heart and ask for the Jehu anointing and Jezebel will have to be move.  In the end, at the right time, the dogs will eat (consume) her flesh.

 

Stand up fight Jezebel with the true holiness of the word of God.  You too can be a Jehu for Christ!

Nothing comes to the world fully grown.  All plants start with a seed.  People start as seeds, also grown into babies in the womb an then come into the world needing parents to bring them to adulthood.  Businesses start as ideas.  Huge churches start with one person being called.  Everything that God brings into the world, he brings in small so that the person nurturing and mentoring the seed will grow as the baby, business, career or ministry grows.

Seeds always grow in the dark richness of the soil in which they are planted.  Seeds grow in darkness, because when a seed is planted into the ground, for a season the seed is in darkness before it sends its leaves to the surface in search of light.  Nobody likes the dark period, but it's in the dark period the power is released for you to spring forth.  When the seed is underneath the soil, somthing happens.  You could leave the seed on top of the soil and nothing would ever happen except tht it would be eaten by a bird or other animal.  The seed fares poorly on the top of the ground.  It has to get inside of the soil for it to really take root, and deep inside the soil is a dark, dark place.

Greatness always starts with darkness.  On the way to anything worth doing, there will be times of darkness.  In the Bible these often come in the wilderness.  These are times when your resolve, commitment, maturity and discipline are tested before you can go on to the next period of fruitfulness in your life.  Not even Jesus escaped this.  Before His ministry began, the Bible tells us of his tests in the wilderness with the devil (Luke 4:1-2, 13-15).

After Jesus was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit and God spoke his approval over him (You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased), Jesus was ready to step right into his ministry with power, right?  Wrong.  Instead of being led out to preach, the Spirit of God led Him into the wilderness.  There for 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus prayed and fasted.  We have no record in the scriptures of God ever speaking to Him during this time; in fact, the only person who showed up was the devil!  The Bible tells us that Jesus was tired and hungry and that was when Satan came to try to trip him up.

The wilderness is not a fun place.  It is the place where you wanter looking for the right direction and wonder what is happening with God.  Did you do something to offend Him?  Has he abandoned you?  Or is He just busy with more important people? Did you really hear correctly in the first place?

The wilderness is a place where you are hungry, where you long to see God move in your financial situation for it to straighten out, where you are tired from working long hours and working so hard for such small results.  It is also a place where hearing from God was not as it had been before.  You pray for direction and guidance and it seemed God was ignoring those prayers.  And just as it happened with Jesus after 40 days of praying and fasting and calling on God, the devil was the only one who showed up.

The wilderness was a testing and training place to see if you are ready to handle more power and responsibility from God.

When Jesus' time of testing was over, he returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee, he had new power in his words and his fame spread instantly, God's favor was also upon Him as it never had been before while he was on the earth.  Jesus faithfulness and continued commitment in the wilderness won him access to more of God's miracle working power as he resisted and defeated the devil with the Word of God.

If we can show the same faithfulnews and commitment through our wilderness times, then it will open up new power and authority in our walk as well as accomplish the destiny God has put within us.

Jesus is our pattern. Do we want to walk in more power?  Do we want to know the will of God and speak nothing but what God tells us to say?  Then we need to be in prayer constantly and daily just as Jesus was, and we need to know the Word of God until it oozes out of every pore.  That way, when we are tempted, we respond with God'w Word; when we are in crisis, we respond with God's Word; when we are stressed, we respond with God's Word; and regardless of what happens, the Word of God is the first thing that comes to our minds an to our mouths.

When you are led by the Spriit into the wilderness as Jesus was, then it is a test to prepare you for promotion.  It is a temporary holding place to make sure you can handle the power and responsibility that god is about to release upon your life.  Do you have the commitment and resolve to see it through despite persecution and hardships?  Do you have the discipline not to get caught up with the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, or lusts for other things and keep your priorities straight?  Do you hav ethe maturity to press on with what God has already put in your heart and not waver because you haven't had a "fresh word" from him lately?  Or are you so hungry for God's voice that you will push to hear any voice regardless of whether it agrees with the Bible or not?

We can only pass the wilderness tests if we stick to God's Word and continue to seek intimacy with Him through the entire experience.  If you pass the test, you are ready to be promoted to the next level.

Joseph had a tream from God that he would be a leader in his family.  So when he was told by his father to deliver a essage to his older brothers, he took it as a mandate to supervise and boss them around.  In his arrogance, he did nothing but alienate the very people he was supposed to lead.  What was he missing?  A servant's heart.

Then his brothers sold him into Egypt where God could teach him to be a servant by having him live as a slave.

Moses thought he could make God's calling on his life happen through the strength of his own hand.  Instead of jump starting his destiny, however, he was chased away as a murderer.  So God took him to the backside of the desert where he learned to be a shepherd taking care of someone else's sheep.  Forty years later, once he had a servant's heart, God called him back tohis original destiny of delivering God's people from slavery in Egypt.

Jesus said "For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."  (Mark 10:45)

Do you want God to promote you into your destiny and call others to serve you in it?  Then you need to find another person's destiny that you can serve faithfully and into which you can sow your time, talent, and treasure so that God can build you up into what He needs you to be.  You need to pray for it, speak the Word and truth over it and see it prosper and flourish, whether it is a ministry, a job, your family, or something you are volunteering your time for. And when you do so faithfully, God will notice and call you into what He has wanted to give you since before you were born.  If you are faithful over little, he will promote you into bigger things.

Experiencing the peace of God inside is a guide.  If you start to do something and you feel like you have no peace about that decision - in other words, you feel really uncomfortable about the idea, and you know it is not fear or lack of confidence making you feel apprehensive - then that is probably not a direction that God wants you to go in. 

A lot of believers call that a "check" in the Spirit.  They decide to do something and then wait to see how their heart feels about it.  If they have peace about it, thenit is a go.  If they don't, then it is a no.

Sometimes if we are comfortable where we are and suddenly we start to change and where we were comfortable before, we grow restless.  Everything that had felt so right before starts to feel out of sync.  This means God is changing your heart and in doing so He was reawaking the true destiny He has for us.  God thinks we are now ready for the next level.

Just as there are phases or seasons in our lives as we grow up, there are phases or seasons in realizing our God-given destinies.  If we fail to "pass" the tests of the season we are in, it can keep us from moving on to the next.  We have to realize as the seasons change, so will many other things in our lives.  God gives us a grace to be in the place we are supposed to be, but then the time to be in that place ends, so will the grace.  When it is time for you to move on, the grace will begin to lift and you will become restless.

If we spend all of our time listening to what other people know of God and never spend any time with Him ourselves, do we have much hope of ever really hearing from Him for ourselves?

One of the first keys to developing a relationship with Jesus is getting into His Word.  In the books of the Bible - especially the stories of Jesus and the letters written by Paul and the other apostles - God Himself writes to us, letting usknow what He thinks is important and telling us stories of all those through the years who have been courageous enough to draw close to Him and do His will.  In getting into His Word, it is also good to get into Bible studies and sit under the teaching of others to learn what they know and how it has changed their lives.  God has called us to need each other and learn from each other as fellow believers and we need that constant interaction to make us stronger.

Prayer is a two-way communication.  Not only do we need to spend time talking - but we also need to listen.  We need to do more than present our requests and needs to God; we need to let His requests and needs touch our hearts.  We need to let His passion and energy soak into our hearts.

Then we need to get into His presence.  When His people gather together and lift their voices to Him in praise and worship, that act of worship creates room for Him to come and be with them.

When we are willing to lay aside our own needs and desires for a time to come before God and sing our thanksgiving and praises to Him, it allows Him to fill us afresh with His Spirit, speak to us, and touch our lives.

The closer we draw to Him, the more we learn to recognize His voice, the easier it will be for Him to speak to us directly and go guide us into the abundant life He wants for us.

We can miss the SUPERNATURAL by seeking the SPECTACULAR.  We want a dream or a vision, but all God gives us is an impression, and we end up missing Him not because He is silent, but because we are trying to control the way He speaks to us.

For one thing, while my addiction to cocaine disappeared overnight, other habits I had formed did not.  I was still bound to cigarettes.  My body was still hooked on nicotine even after Jesus miraculously delivered me from cocaine addiction.  I really struggled against lighting up.  In my heart I didn't want to smoke anymore, but there I would be, still smoking regularly, but doing it with tears streaming down my face because I wanted to stop so badly.  I would get so angry about it that I would throw my last pack of cigarettes out the window on the way home, only to rush back out soon after and buy another pack!

HOW DELIVERANCE COMES

As I learned to pray, study and live the Word, and as I worshipped God with my whole heart, gradually I changed on the inside to such an extent that at the end of that time I could finally set that pack of cigarettes down and not pick them up again.  Through my discipline in the Word and prayer, I had formed new spiritual strength inside of me that gave me the self-control to beat nicotine - my spirit had become strong enough to overrule my physical desires.  It was just as miraculous as what had happened to me with drugs, but it took longer to come because there were things I had to do and to believe to be changed.  Yet when I finally did set them down, I kicked them just as much as I had kicked drugs out of my life.