Fire Dove
Navigating the Spiritual Minefield: Unity, Idolatry, and Jezebel Spirits in the Church
Ever wrestled with the concept of unity in the church and how it influences spiritual warfare? Today, we're unraveling this critical subject, drawing inspiration from 1 Corinthians 10, and the call for perfect unity in thoughts and actions within the church. We're hitting the hard questions head-on, discussing the importance of open communication, transparency, and confessing sins. We also consider how unity can be a double-edged sword - both beneficial and toxic.
Shifting gears, we dive (metaphorically, of course) into the spirit of religion and its manifestations in judgmental attitudes, legalism, spiritual pride, and resistance to change. No stone is left unturned as we chart the dangers of Jezebel spirits, highlighting the perils of idolatry and manipulation through the story of Jezebel. The consequences of unrepentant sin, the need for strong moral leadership, and the imperative to distinguish between true and false prophets are also examined. Join us for a thought-provoking exploration of these spiritual concepts, emphasizing the power of humility, compassion, and steadfast faithfulness to God.
Ever wrestled with the concept of unity in the church and how it influences spiritual warfare? Today, we're unraveling this critical subject, drawing inspiration from 1 Corinthians 10, and the call for perfect unity in thoughts and actions within the church. We're hitting the hard questions head-on, discussing the importance of open communication, transparency, and confessing sins. We also consider how unity can be a double-edged sword - both beneficial and toxic.
Shifting gears, we dive (metaphorically, of course) into the spirit of religion and its manifestations in judgmental attitudes, legalism, spiritual pride, and resistance to change. No stone is left unturned as we chart the dangers of Jezebel spirits, highlighting the perils of idolatry and manipulation through the story of Jezebel. The consequences of unrepentant sin, the need for strong moral leadership, and the imperative to distinguish between true and false prophets are also examined. Join us for a thought-provoking exploration of these spiritual concepts, emphasizing the power of humility, compassion, and steadfast faithfulness to God.
Well, hello. This is Logan, another episode of Fire Dove, and in today's episode we're going to talk about a couple different things that maybe you haven't considered. When it comes to spiritual warfare, the first thing I want to talk about today is unity in the church. Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Where should we go with that? You'll see how this all connects very soon, I promise. Alright, let's get into it.
Speaker 0:So in 1 Corinthians 10, it says I appeal to you, brother and sister, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no division among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. That sounds like good church. I mean, that's exactly where you want to go right, especially when it happens in different phases of a church. Right, when you're starting out, there's going to be challenges, of course, but when a church has been there for a long time and it's generationally got different families and different dynamics that have been there for many, many years, unity might actually show itself in a different way. One of the ways that maybe you'll see that at first is a lack of communication. Having a lack of communication within the church can cause massive issues. Right, we've all seen that, in whatever type of workplace it is that we operate, that having a lack of communication just breaks down everything in its efficiency. And you know we should be perfectly united in mind and thought.
Speaker 0:But what does that really look like? If you look in James, it talks about how we're supposed to willingly confess our sins to one another. Does your church do that? Because there aren't very many that do that. Are you able to be transparent to such a degree? Because, when it comes to things like deliverance, there is nothing more raw than people confessing their deepest, darkest sins and desires, and history. That is where the rubber meets the road. For sure, because I will tell you, you will never, ever experience deliverance If you can't openly share in confidence the type of things that have to be said and confessed, whether it's confessing unforgiveness for your parents or someone that's hurt you, or something that you may not even remember, that happened as a child, or even past, that, your generational curses. Those things come into play where things have been committed that you didn't even do. But God honors it when you confess or break curses that are over you. And so having communication is really important when it comes to spiritual warfare.
Speaker 0:And what does that look like? Well, you need to have a. If your church has a lack of direction, you'll probably see at the same time a lack of communication. If you're just kind of existing and you're running through the motions and things aren't really happening, if there aren't, if the community isn't being met and there isn't any real challenges going on in your church besides just dumb squabbles, then, yeah, a lack of direction is certainly an evident trait. Then you have a lack of expectations. What are your expectations? Do you go to church so that you can meet in the building with other people that look and talk like you? You run through a checklist, you listen to three songs, you listen to a sermon, they do two songs and then you have an altar call and then you go home. Because if you're just doing that, then you might need to look it harder. I'm not saying those are bad things, but I am going to say that if you're just going through the motions, especially if you're doing it to just appease someone else, then are you truly worshiping and growing and understanding to how to be more Christ-like in your life, because that really does matter. What are your expectations for yourself? What are your expectations for your leaders at the church? Why are they challenging you? Or are they staying in a comfortable place? Because I used to think that unity was a really good thing when it came to the church. But unity can also be a very toxic thing, and the reason it can be really toxic is because if you're not willing to be uncomfortable, if you're not willing to grow and maybe look at Scripture in a new way that is completely theologically sound but not something you've been taught, then you're not going to grow.
Speaker 0:And I was reading a book. I finally got around to reading Wild at Heart and I know I'm like 20 years behind when it comes to this book, but it was. It was a good read and I'm almost done with it. One of the things that you know, if you look at a spiritual warfare aspect that we focus on this channel, it says in the book one of his friends, brennan Manning, says whatever is denied cannot be healed. Think about that and apply that to deliverance.
Speaker 0:If you are fighting people and you just want to shake them and you're like, hey, I know you're hurting, I know life is tough, I know you've come to the doctor a million times and they can't figure out what's wrong with you. Now hear me, we need doctors, we need medicine, we need counseling, we need all the support in the world we can possibly get, and they all compliment each other. But there is a time where there may be something that needs to be taken care of spiritually and because of that we need to acknowledge that, yes, there is a need for deliverance in the church and it's like the way I put it. It's like it's like someone is high on methamphetamines and you're shaking them and you're telling them I love you so much, can't you see? You just need to go to rehab, you need to get clean, and of course, they're not listening. Deliverance is is a lot like that.
Speaker 0:The spiritual warfare part of the church is small and it has kind of a weird personality to it because we talk very lightly about oh yeah, I casted this demon out the other day like that's not a normal sentence to most people. It's the matrix, right, and everybody wants to stay in the matrix and pretend like it's not real. If spiritual warfare isn't real, then I don't have to deal with it and unfortunately that is a major lie of the enemy and just thinking. You know this book is focused on masculinity as a whole, but true masculinity is spiritual, was another quote that I really thought was great in this book, because true strength is is a man or woman that will draw close and just surrender to God and just really truly confess all the things that are going on in their heart and their mind and then having the courage to say it in front of their peers or other believers and talk about how great Jesus is. Every testimony should point to Jesus, not yourself. I did this, I did that, and you don't have to get into gruesome detail. You can just say I used to struggle with sinning against myself by at last of my eyes. People know what that means. You don't have to talk about what exactly it was. That was your preference and the thing that I really like to take away from this book.
Speaker 0:The best quote I found in this book was let people feel the weight of who you are and let them deal with it. That is gold, and the reason that is gold is because there are too many churches out there and too many believers who are too soft. They skip over the hard verses or the uncomfortable topics that are clearly there for a purpose in scripture, and they avoid conflict. They'd rather have unity. They'd rather not shake the boat and everybody be comfortable because they've grown accustomed to a certain lifestyle.
Speaker 0:And at that point, if you are a pastor or a leader and you are more concerned about unity instead of falling what God has for you, you become a politician, you are no longer a pastor, you're going through the motions, you're just giving everybody a puppy and wanting world peace and unfortunately, that's just not really what the life of Christ has called for. It just isn't. And I think one of the the problems is there's too many gummy bears out there. It's another pastor like he likes. He's too many gummy bear Christians out there. They're soft, right, they're squishy. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love gummy bears. I like, um, the aldeens or whatever they are, the white packaging when they're all like a circle. Those are them. But anyways, enough about me.
Speaker 0:So what does this look like? You know? So you have a lack of focus on God and his truth when it comes to having to see unity. You have sin issues that aren't being dealt with. You have people that have a lack of prayer, a lack of relationship with God as a whole, and I think God will remove his hand in certain situations from churches that aren't pursuing him in the right way, and it's interesting to see how they tend to shun the people that have a more challenging relationship with God, whatever they're calling maybe it's. It's kind of interesting to see how that works and in my own experience I've had that because your church is it's not a club and it's not a business. So stop running it like one.
Speaker 0:A healthy church is one that is, you know, starts out small, has really core people, and then other people, and they're growing spiritually and you're not just worried about numbers, that's just the easy part. No vital Christianity is possible unless at least three aspects of it are developed. These three are the inner life of devotion, the outer life of service, intellectual life, irrationality. And that's Elton Trueblood, and that's a great quote because it just shows you there's many facets to come when it comes to growing spiritually, and you will certainly experience spiritual warfare as you continue to grow, and you got to be a threat, right, like you got to be a threat.
Speaker 0:So one of the things that I wanted to talk about aside from that, is when it comes to looking at different spirits and as we get further into our episodes, we'll talk about different spirits, and I'm going to talk about a few of them today, but one of the most challenging spirits is the spirit of religion. Now, people commonly use it metaphorically, but there is a real spirit that operates in religion and that's being under the law, being completely trying to earn your way to heaven by your works. Right, your works should be an extension of your love for God, but they shouldn't ever be something that points to you and directly says this is the reason I get to go to heaven, because that's not how it works. Right, it's a form of legalism. It's a rigid adherence to religious rules. Just being religious right we use the word religious often religiously washes his hands or something, without understanding grace and love and having a relationship with God. If you're a legalist, that's what it looks like.
Speaker 0:A spirit of religion tends to be extremely judgmental. Are you judgmental Like? Ask yourself are you judgmental, are you racist or do you not like a certain demographic of people from their age or other types of bias that come out? Is that really showing God's love? Because it's critical and it's the condemning attitude that causes you to have barriers and real strongholds that have to be taken down when it comes to religious beliefs, practices and traditions.
Speaker 0:When you're in seminary, like, one of the things that's really important is you learn this idea of what you call a bullet doctrine. Would you take a bullet for that? Is it worth arguing over to the death? Because if it's not, then you know it's more important that the gospel is being proclaimed and one of the things that would come up to that, that the key tenets of the faith orthodox faith, as in the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus Christ for many people would be the inerrancy of the Bible. Those are all what I would call a bullet doctrine that is completely inspired, right, and so if you have something that's you know, you've added it or whatever.
Speaker 0:That's exactly what the Pharisees did, and I don't really want to overuse the word Pharisees. There are Pharisees alive and well today, with people that think that they're being righteous before God and he's going to be like no, I never knew you. If you're self-righteous, that's really what being a Pharisee is, it's. Do you feel a sense of superiority or importance because of your achievements, your knowledge, your just the extra things you do to suffer in this life? It'll show itself in ways that you don't have a lack of humility or compassion for others, that you're disconnected from the people that you were meant to serve. That is a self-righteous attitude and we can all fall into that at different points, but if that is a consistent thing, then you definitely need to repent of that, and so those are parts of the spirit of religion.
Speaker 0:Then you see, kind of in a congregational sense, if you have fear based faith, an excessive focus on strict obedience, like you're going to lose your salvation every single day because you did. The one time you looked at something and, oh, I don't know, maybe I'm not saved anymore. That can be a form of legalism in its way, because it God didn't give you a spirit of fear, right, he gave you the fruits of the spirit of peace and love and joy. Those are what you should be looking for. However, the other side of the pendulum of that would be spiritual pride, and it's having an inflated sense of spiritual superiority.
Speaker 0:Talk about how great you are with your religious accomplishments or your positions in a community, whether you're in a position of leadership, and that's really all you want to talk about. One of the things to consider is, like, what is the first things that you start saying to people and you meet them for the first time Hi, my name is Logan and I blah, blah, blah. What is it that you start using to put up who everyone needs to see who you are Okay, like. Consider that, because there may be a spirit behind that. It could be spiritual pride or it could be a fear. You know I have been suffering for so long and you know I know God's working in my life, but the whole thing is like I would go live in a shack tomorrow, like you can. You can humble brag just as much.
Speaker 0:Now, the one that I have been focusing on the most right here when it comes to a spirit of religion resistance to change, if I cannot footstomp that enough, if you are reluctant to consider new ideas or interpretations that are like practices that are outside of your tradition or teaching and yet they can be completely outlined in scripture and they're plainly there in the text. I mean I know I'm preaching to the choir. Right here when it comes to spiritual warfare and deliverance ministries, because what Aheadic it is to try and explain to people. You know Jesus went around and one third of his ministry was healing and Casting out demons and he told us to be just like him. People don't receive that and it. And you're like, how do you not see this one? Like You're just Completely taken off guard because it's hard to understand why people don't see it, and yet it's there, but a resistance to change all. We've always done it this way.
Speaker 0:That is a spirit of Religion and it is very strong in the church. The Western church today is very strong when it comes to a spirit of religion. It's a literal spirit that you need to cast out and confess. If you have a lack of love and compassion, if you don't have genuine godly agape, love and empathy towards others, you might have a spirit of religion. How does that look? Well, if you give people things or you always expect something in return, that is going to be another symptom of a spirit of religion. Dare, I say, if you're worried only about external appearances, consider that you might be Falling into a spirit of religion, because if you're worried about that above all things, that's not a humble heart, that's not being meek and it's definitely a sign of it. It can be associated with just generally being religious to a set of principles or your convictions, but a spirit of religion is definitely something that is very strong and it makes it very hard to to preach freedom to people that are are suffering and and you just want to talk to them and love them and show them and yet they just don't want to take it. Do that. You can't force that. There's not a whole lot of scripture where people are actually delivered spiritually without their own permission, and I think of Paul and in the Oracle when he casted out the little girl like. That is the only time I can remember someone being delivered from a spiritual demonic stronghold Without them consciously trying to pursue God and Jesus, particularly when it comes to a spirit of religion.
Speaker 0:One of the things that I most often see and has been cast out of a number of people in Recent deliverance ministry is the spirit of Jezebel. Jezebel is an interesting person. If you go in scripture and you go in first Kings in chapter 17 is when Elijah shows up, and it's definitely one of the most interesting parts of scripture for me in this season of my life. Jezebel, she was a queen and she's the wife to King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel during the 9th century Before Christ, though she was a literal human being, and so when I am being used as a vessel and Jesus is delivering people Through ministry. When I'm responding to it, one of the things that happens is Jezebel tends to come up and she has a very distinct Characteristics of how she looks, how she acts, all these things and they are very similar to what you see in the historic, historic Jezebel.
Speaker 0:She's known for promoting worship to Baal and to Asheroth, so Pagan gods. She always Opposes Jehovah, yahweh, god of Israel, the God of the Bible. She's dogmatically against him and because of that, but because of her influence right, you always see Politicians versus prophets. You can have all the money and be completely removed from reality and at the same time Don't have the anointing, you don't have the spirit behind you. You can have none of the money, none of the none of the worldly Gains, but you have the anointing. You have God's Direction and works that he's prepared for you to do. And sometimes it's really confusing in this world to See how that plays out, to see how you are Misunderstood and attacked and different things. But I will take following the Lord and being spirit-led any day over the comfortable life that's detached from what God has truly Put before me, and I'm not just saying that to say that I'm saying that I have experienced that and my own life.
Speaker 0:What is it that that drives you? Well in Jezebel's sense? Her actions? They lead to the corruption of Israel and its practices. She persecutes prophets who oppose her. They shut down all the sources and worship of God and they point to all the false gods. Think of bail. Bail is bull. God is why you have a bowl in front of the stock market, a bull market. So don't think that like, oh, they used to do that and we don't do that anymore. No, bail is still alive and well and still worshipped by people all the time. And she, you know, she steals a vineyard that she wants, their husband wants. She has a guy murdered for it.
Speaker 0:Jezebel's reigning character is that she is idolatrous. She loves herself, she is very vain, she's a huge manipulator and she has a ruthless pursuit of power. And remember, she is all about worship. She's a very spiritual person, but that doesn't mean that it's done in the right way. There are plenty of people who are influenced by the spirit of Jezebel in the church today and you will find those people all over. And what do they do? They want to have attention on them, they want power and they will manipulate things behind the scenes and they'll do different stuff that go around people and the spirit of Jezebel is very often generational and it can be a major strongman when it comes to casting out of people. She tends to scream as she's coming out. Before that she ends up mocking you and laughing at you and just trash talking you like nobody's business when you're dealing with that spirit talking through someone.
Speaker 0:Now remember that the spirit of Jezebel Jesus rebukes in the Book of Revelation and it says, for tall reading the spirit of Jezebel that doesn't mean the literal woman who was alive in the ninth century is influencing people now. But remember it's like a spirit is a person without a body. It is a person with memories and certain characteristics in ways. So you have lots of Jezebel spirits that have taken on this persona and it's a very high ranking demon and it can be a pain in the butt to get out if you haven't been walking with God or there's a lot of things that usually has to do with lust and sex and it has to do with a lot of things that a woman might use for manipulation. Now remember, just because I said a woman might use, a man can certainly have a Jezebel spirit. Just as much as a woman can have a Jezebel spirit. You can deal with an Ahab spirit which is just being super passive and whiny and manipulative in its own way, and you know, in scripture it talks about how the two become one flesh. So this was the queen. So Ahab is just as much a problem today. To be unable to stand up for what is right and just keeping comfortable unity. That is an Ahab spirit is a weak leader, and so that is just as big of a problem, because that is the type of leader that doesn't allow change. So, in the deliverance ministry terms, though, the spirit of Jezebel is something that she's a seductive spirit and she operates through individuals to exert dominance and promote ungodly agendas.
Speaker 0:Spirit of Jezebel is responsible for breaking apart numerous marriages through adultery, through all kinds of things, all costs. It doesn't matter to the spirit. It wants to kill, still and destroy, just like Satan. The way this spirit attacks it usually attacks spiritual leaders. It tries to come against healthy relationships, even if you're not married, but if you're in a healthy relationship that's honoring God, it ends up trying to supersede that and become the focus. It wants to undermine the authority of God, and it's associated with the kinds of personality traits and characteristics like I was saying, like pride, rebellion, deceit, witchcraft and sexual immorality. You're dealing with rebellion, remember, rebellion is the same as witchcraft and so being rebellious before the eyes of the Lord is just as bad as any of these other things. And when you're dealing with a Jezebel spirit, she usually sacrifices a lot of the other spirits first before she shows herself. But I can tell you that I certainly had enough of them come out that I'm like, yep, here we go again, and it's fine because it's you know, know, your enemy right.
Speaker 0:Jezebel, through how we see her in scripture and how we see spirits mimicking her personality, serves as a cautionary tale against idolatry in our own life, compromising in the abuse of power, because those characteristics tend to be where she goes after. If you are not or it really, if you are not influential in the church, you can still have it, but you will try to who's you know, undermine the authorities in ways to gain attention and things, and that's idolatry, right, putting attention on you. Her story highlights the importance of faithfulness to God and the dangers of allowing worldly influences to corrupt one of our own spiritual lives, and Jezebel's actions show the destructive consequences of manipulating behavior and the harm it can cause to individuals and communities. If you have more than one Jezebel spirit operating in your church, I guarantee you it is generational and it's either connected with the money or the face of the ministry, because it loves to be spiritual, it loves attention. You need to know that. You need to have strong moral leadership and discernment and understand how to use discernment to distinguish between a true and a false prophet. We know that from her end, that we see in scripture.
Speaker 0:Her downfall serves as a reminder that God's justice and the consequences of unrepentant sin will always come under the wrath of God. So just consider that, so the spirit of religion, the spirit of Jezebel, and remember that through manipulation, unity may not be a good thing. It can be and it certainly should be a goal in a godly way, but not in the way that it is shown in too many churches today, when they simply just refuse to change and be challenged and if God is moving too fast for them, they just kick everybody out that wants to respond to that, because that's not comfortable. God doesn't do things in a comfortable manner for us. Consider this pray through this, test everything that I said with scripture and the word, and I will see you guys in the next episode.