5785: The Death of Jezebel

Thursday was Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year,
or more Biblically, Yom T’ruah, the feast of Trumpets.

God works through times and seasons,
and if you pay attention,
you discover that like it says in Ecclesiastes,
there is a time to plant and a time to harvest,
there is a time for war, and a time for peace,
there is a time to cast stones
and a time to gather them up again.

We are in the midst of the ten days between
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
In Jewish tradition,
the new year begins with a shofar blast,
the blast of a trumpet.
Then for the next ten days,
we are called to a time of reflection:
to Teshuva--repentance,
to Tsedaka--giving alms,
and Tikkun, repairing the creation.
Judaism teaches that God opens the books in heaven,
and for during this time judges your life.

At the end of these ten days,
on Yom Kippur
Judaism teaches that God decides
if your name will be written in the book of life 
for the next year.
And so, the customary greeting is 
L'Shana Tova "May you be written."

These fall feasts,
as you know,
are not on the Christian Calendar.
These feasts were not fulfilled in Messiah.
These feasts point to the future:
to the return of Jesus, when the trumpet will sound,
and He will return on the earth 
for thousand years,
and then judge all things rightly.
This pattern is in these holidays.
God spoke to me about this season
some time ago,
and it is interesting how over the past few years
these days have begun to appear on the radar
of Christians.

I have learned over the years
that these days are times of open heaven.
It's a time when prayer
and hearing from God is easier.
Usually,
God gives me what I call my "marching orders"
on Rosh Hashanah.
Last year I received a big download
on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
The Lord gave me a new Hebrew name in Israel,
Baruch David--Blessed David.
And last year was all about the promises to 
rebuild David's fallen tent,
and the promises to David and all his descendants.
Honestly,
I am still processing some of that word,
and how it manifests in our mission to 
raise up an army of artists.
Normally,
the words I receive at Rosh Hashanah
"simmer"
inside me for a while,
and then they begin to come to pass
around Advent,
and they begin to fully manifest at Christmas.
This is a clear pattern I have watched for two decades.
God isn't religious,
and the Jewish and Christian feast are all his.
This is part of the annual rhythm with the Lord.

Last year God said that the coming year was a time of war.
And within two weeks
Israel was at war.
And the level of spiritual war I have faced 
since the mid summer
is at a level I truly have not experienced before.
I have felt so much spiritual pressure
that I actually have felt pain in my body from it.

I begin waiting on God for what the new year holds
beginning about a month before Rosh Hashanah.
As I reflected on the Hebrew numbers for this year,
and waited on God,
the overwhelming sense I have had is that
this is the year of the overturning of the government of man,
and the restoration of the government of God.
I made a video for our community that goes into this, and I will link to it in the comments.
God is calling us to open our mouths wide so he can fill them.
This is going to be a year of unbelievable creativity
and a creative move of God in earth.
Trials and difficulties are going to release creative solutions.
Trails and difficulties are also going to release faith.
This is how God builds faith in us,
by giving us a problem.
God's ways are not our ways.
God gives us strength by making us weak.

This Rosh Hashanah was very unusual,
and a bit stressful,
in that I had to fight to find a place for quiet,
and to listen to God.
And even when I did find a quiet place,
I had to fight to hear God.

On the morning of Rosh Hashanah,
I began morning prayer, and there was an unexpected reading.
It was II Kings 9, the death of Jezebel.
Oddly, 
this was the word God gave me for this year
to share with others.

For our prayer team, and those close to us,
you know that we have dealt with an ongoing issue
with people who operate in the Jezebel spirit.
Whatever you tolerate, dominates.
So this is word is a significant shift for Belonging House.

After the death of David,
Solomon introduced the practice of making
alliances with other nations through marriage.
And part of this introduced the foreign gods
of these wives into Israel.
Because of Solomon’s idolatry,
God said he would judge the nation,
but for the sake of the promise to David,
he would preserve a remnant.

Fast forward about two hundred years.
Israel and Judah have been divided.
Israel has openly become polytheistic.
The King of Israel,
Ahab,
married a Phoenician princess
named Jezebel.
This is probably the most evil character
in the Bible.
Jezebel was a pagan priestess,
she led the worship of Baal,
fed 400 prophets of Baal,
killed God's prophets,
stole the inheritance of Naboth,
and because of her witch craft
brought a famine on the nation.

Before his death,
Elijah prophesied her end,
and said she would be eaten by dogs
in the valley of Jezreel.

And so we come to the ninth chapter of II Kings.
Elisha is near the end of his life,
and he gathers the company of prophets together.

Ahaziah
the young king of Judah,
is the grandson of Jezebel.
His mother was the daughter of Ahab,
and Ahaziah as a Baal worshipper.
In other words,
Judah is in a crisis,
and the bloodline of David,
and the promise to David
is under threat.

We are not going to go into depth 
on the Jezebel spirit this week,
other than to say Jezebel
in the Bible
and Jezebel in the church operates
through intimidation,
control and manipulation
in order to gain domination.
This usually works two ways,
either through deceit, and usually through withholding information
in order to be in control,
or through sickness,
using sympathy to maintain control and dominate.

I reflected on this passage for days
before I realized the issue here in 
II Kings is that Jezebel formed
an alliance with Judah through marriage
in order to destroy the promise to David
and remove the possibility of the Messiah ever being born.
So Jezebel is the enemy of the establishment of David’s line,
and the fulfillment of the eternal kingdom.
This is conflict between two kingdoms
the Kingdom of God
and the kingdom of the enemy.

And so Elisha calls a young prophet,
and he says,
"Run,
go anoint Jehu, 
the grandson of Jehoshaphat,
King.
And then get out of there."

And this young prophet does what Elisha commands.

And in the anointing,
Jehu is released into his calling.
Jehu is King over God's people.
Jehu shall strike down the House of Ahab
and he shall avenge on Jezebel the blood of 
God's servants the prophets 
and blood of the servants of God.

Jehu 
drives like a maniac
to kill the two wicked kings of Judah and Israel,
Joram and Ahaziah.

So we need to keep a number of things in mind here.
It has been a long time since Elijah died.
It has been twelve years since Ahab died,
and because of the nature of the court in Ancient Israel,
Jezebel is the most powerful person in both nations,
she is the Gebarah, the Queen Mother.
In a polygamous culture,
the mother or grandmother of the king
is more powerful than the queen.
And so Jezebel is the most powerful person
in both Israel and Judah.
She was on a mission to stop the Messiah
from being born.

As we see so many times in the Bible,
things have to reach their fullness
before something happens,
and then
after what seems like a long wait,
God moves in a suddenly.

And suddenly,
a prophet runs in.
Suddenly Jehu is anointed.
Suddenly the troops recognize who he is.
Suddenly he heads to Jezreel.

And Joram sees
Jehu coming,
and he sends messengers.
And each time Jehu commands the messenger to get behind him
and fall in line.
And the messenger obeys.
Jehu knows who he is
and those around him respond.

And bam,
he kills both kings.

Now remember,
Jezebel is a foreigner.
She is not of the line of David,
and she is an enemy of God.
But she is still the most powerful person in both kingdoms.
Jezebel is a foreign oppressor
a priestess of a foreign god,
on assignment to undermine the purpose of the nation of Israel.
She dresses herself,
and puts on her makeup.
And stands at the window,
intending to intimidate Jehu.
She is accustomed to weak and powerless men who bow down to her.
She taunts Jehu,
but Jehu doesn't engage with Jezebel.
Engagement is toleration.
He ignores her.

He engages with the eunuchs,
probably taken in war,
who were forced to serve her.
And they throw her down.
And according to the word of the Lord,
Jezebel is eaten by dogs.

The word for this new year 
is recompense.
This is going to be a year of repayment.
This is going to be a year of God's government 
being released in the earth.
God is going to move 
in anointing
and a lot of promises that we have been waiting for
are going to be released.
For many in our house,
we have had to deal with ongoing witchcraft attacks.
And the Lord is saying, 
not to engage,
but to pray for the advancement of the Kingdom into 
the lives of those opposing me.
We want disciples,
not to be protected.
And in the arts world in general,
there seems to be an endless
battle with intimidation and control.

God is going to raise up a number of leaders
who have been hidden.
The breath of God is being released right now.
These are people who have been contending against
injustice,
intimidation, and 
witchcraft.
The Lord is releasing Jehus.
And like Jehu
people are going to come and ask
"are you coming to keep
peace with the injustice and the status quo,?"
And these Jehu's are
going to respond:
"hold my beer,
I am on a mission from God
to restore the bloodline of David."
We are going to see the house of David established.
We are going to see the throne of David in the earth.

Jehu is on a mission to put an end to witchcraft intimidation.
Jehu is on a mission to 
restore the true worship
true anointing,
and true mission of God in the earth,
that the Kingdoms of this world
would become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.

Hold on tight,
because this is going to be a very wild year.

A long time ago I had a vision
of a big old theatre.
On the front row 
was a group of famous leaders.
One by one,
they got up from their seats.
And right behind them 
there were a group of people who did all the right stuff
to be groomed to take the front row seats.
And they waited,
and a number of them,
even though they were not on the front row
acted like they were.
And a few tried to climb over the seat 
and get into the front row.

And then an usher came forward,
and he went to the other rows
of the theatre.
Some were in the back,
some were in the third row,
some were in the balcony.
And these were escorted to the front row.
And the folks on the second row were very offended.
Because a lot of these folks didn’t look like they should be on the front row.

We are in for an interesting ride this year.
God is clearing out the ministry system,
but he is also re-positioning
and putting those who have been serving in the low place.
This is going to be a year of creative repayment,
recompense,
and re-order.
It is going to be a year of the creative breath of God.
And the wind blows where it will.