Tuesday, September 20, 2016

The Value of Prayer

Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.

– John Bunyan –
The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.

– Samuel Chadwick – 

Spirit of Jezebel

The ruling spirits which are working to destroy the Body of Christ from within are Jezebel and Delilah. Recognizing them is vital to your spiritual safety - and to mounting an effective and appropriate spiritual response.

There are 18 identifying characteristics of the Jezebel spirit:

1. The Jezebel spirit attacks church members with fear - causing members of Christ's Body to become immobilized and unable to function as they should. The Jezebel spirit also attacks ministers and spiritual leaders with fear.

2. The person with the Jezebel spirit will often attack leaders discrediting them and disrespecting the anointing of God upon their lives. This can ruin the leader's influence and ability to serve God effectively. First the Jezebel spirit kills the anointing of God upon the person - and then it destroys the person.

3. Those operating under the Jezebel spirit are self-willed. Only their will is done - not God's. It is always about achieving THEIR agenda.

4. The person with the Jezebel spirit is a master chameleon. He or she is very good at giving the appearance of repentance and righteousness - even using convincing tears!

5. Jezebels need to be praised, elevated and noticed. They seek to be the center of attention.

6. Jezebels exert a possessive “love” that is destructive and controlling, cutting out all other relationships in their victim’s life -and isolating their prey (who is often a spiritual leader).

7. They are loyal - until you disagree with them. Then they are vengeful and NEVER forgive.

8. They do all you ask of them, so long as it goes along with their own plans.

9. Jezebels plant seeds of discord in others that lead to conflict in the homes, friendships, and fellowships of God’s people.

10. They select easily manipulated “Ahab-like” people to be their “minions” - carrying out their plans.

11. They use, manipulate, and control others to accomplish their purposes; but they ultimately work alone.

12. Jezebels do not listen to anyone else. They do not respect anyone in leadership. This may not be visible at the beginning – as they work to secure their own position prior to letting this rebellion show.

13. Jezebels are very religious. They will often attend every prayer meeting, sing every song, and will appear as the most committed and sincere Christian. This puts people off of their guard. Christians can often sense that something is “off” about the Jezebel infiltrator, but they will disregard their spiritual antennae signals, because the “Christian” act put on by the Jezebel is so convincing.

14. Jezebels seek position in order to better control, discredit, and destroy the Body of Christ into which they have infiltrated.

15. Jezebels are not committed to anyone.

16. Jezebels seek affirmation and significance.

17. Jezebels illegitimately claim authority (“I'm anointed - show me your authority and anointing!”)

18. Correction brings full-blown rebellion from the Jezebel.