The Jezebel spirit gained her reputation as an enemy to the prophets of God in the Old Testament era. While dogs devoured the wicked Queen Jezebel, her spirit is alive and well in New Testament times. And this depraved principality has earned another reputation in the last days: enemy of the apostolic. By Jennifer LeClaire

Queen Jezebel is infamous for her antics in the Book of I Kings. The Jezebel spirit is charged with murdering many prophets and cutting off the voice of others that fearfully hid in caves (I Kings 18:4, 13). The Book of Revelation exposes this spirit’s operation in the New Testament age as one that calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce the Lord’s true prophets with lust and idolatry (Revelation 2:20).

The Jezebel spirit’s attack on prophets has a ripple effect on apostles because these two graces are foundational gifts that work together to build the Church (Ephesians 2:20). Prophets say and apostles do. Cutting off or perverting the prophetic voice, then, hinders the manifestation of the glorious church because apostles are most effective when prophets are in watchtowers instead of caves, in local churches instead of in lust, parking lots and street corners.

While the Jezebel spirit has not given up on her mission to cut off the prophetic voice, God’s mouthpieces are no longer ignorant to her devices and this powerful principality is now employing more subtle tactics in effort to corrupt the apostolic reformation. She is using false prophets and false apostles that flow in divination (fortune telling) and merchandising (using spiritual gifts for unjust gain) to discredit God’s true ambassadors.

Paul spoke against false apostles who sought unjust gain, proclaiming: “I’d die before taking your money. I’m giving nobody grounds for lumping me in with those money-grubbing ‘preachers,’ vaunting themselves as something special. They’re a sorry bunch – pseudo-apostles, lying preachers, crooked workers – posing as Christ’s agents but sham to the core” (2 Corinthians 11:12-13 MSG).

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Apostle Paul was no stranger to the operations of false apostles or demonic governments. The Jezebel spirit is likely one of the principalities Paul wrestled against (Ephesians 6) as she attempted to exercise her influence in territories through which he traveled to preach the Gospel. Thyatira was such a territory. Jesus had one thing against the church in Thyatira: it tolerated Jezebel (Revelation 2:20).

Just as true prophets (John the Baptist) make a way for true apostles (Jesus Christ), false prophets make a way for false apostles. Thyatira was the city where a false prophetess made a way for false apostles to merchandise people through soothsaying and attempted to discredit the ministry of true Apostles Paul and Silas.

It was in Thyatira that Paul encountered a damsel possessed with a spirit of divination who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling (Acts 16:16). The “masters” in this verse were governmental officers with natural authority in the jurisdiction just as the apostles were governmental officers with spiritual authority in the jurisdiction. But the thievery of these wicked masters lumps them in with the “sorry bunch” Paul described as pseudo-apostles and crooked workers.

So in Thyatira we see the damsel (false prophetess) making a way for the masters (false apostles) to gain unjust profit (merchandising) through a false ministry gift (divination). We also see this false prophetess attempt to discredit the true apostles because many who heard her utterance may have wrongly believed that Paul and Silas employed the demon-possessed girl to announce their ministry. This may also have led to some witnesses to question what power the duo used to bring forth the miracles in the city. The false apostles (masters) then sought to further damage the reputations of Paul and Silas by publicly beating and jailing them (Acts 16:23).

In Thyatira the false apostles prated against Paul and Silas with malicious words because the Holy Ghost-filled sent-ones put an end to their merchandising schemes.

The spirit of Jezebel is an enemy of the apostolic because she counterfeits true prophetic operations that lead hungry believers to empty their pocketbooks for false spiritual moves that work to discredit the true five-fold ministry gifts the Lord is restoring. But just as mature prophets are rising up with a Jehu conquering spirit to rid their lives of this menacing spirit, mature apostles are combating the false spiritual moves that the Jezebel spirit is orchestrating by refusing to compromise the truth of the Gospel for the sake of unjust gain. Notice how Paul dealt with the damsel in Thyatira. He confronted the spirit of divination and commanded it to come out of her in the name of Jesus (Acts 16:18. This apostolic command refuted any misconception that Paul approved of her soothsaying or that his works were by the power of any spirit other than the Spirit of God.

Ultimately the Jezebel spirit’s fate – and those false prophets and apostles who follow her – is sealed. Jesus promises to throw her on a bed of anguish, bring down pressing distress and severe affliction, and strike her proper followers dead (Revelation 2:22-23 AMP).

Of course, with full knowledge of her impending doom, the spirit of Jezebel will not go down without a fight. So she remains an enemy of the apostolic.