When it comes to investigating the Fall of Man in Adam, few take the time to consider exactly what it was that 'fell.' Both Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, yet most of our considerations concern Adam alone. We rarely look at Eve. The time is come to take another look at Adam and Eve and truly understand the fall. It is only through this right understanding that we will see the Jezebel spirit for what it really is.
When God created man, He created them both in His image. They were equal, yet different. We see this in the blessing He pronounced over them.
The blessing of God was, "Go forth and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over ... the creatures of the earth." We often read this as one idea. But there are three separate phrases. One is, "Go forth and multiply." The second is "Replenish the earth and subdue it." The third, "And have dominion over... " is the outcome of the fulfilling of the first two. It also describes the appointed roles for Adam and Eve. "Go forth and multiply" refers to Adam. Every soul born into creation has their gender determined by the male. Adam was made in the image of God, to bear the headship of the human race. He is the one responsible to "go forth and multiply," and I believe the fundamental drive of men to that end speaks for itself. It is also the appointed role for all mankind, accepted throughout the ages. Man is the God appointed 'head' whether it be of the marriage, the household, the family, community, or nation. It is the natural, God appointed role for men, not women.
The words, "replenish the earth and subdue it" speak to the role that was given to Eve. Eve came forth from Adam. She was to help him in his role, but her portion was not to rule and reign in equal headship, as the feminist movement would have us believe. Rather, she was created to be more in tune with God, more sensitive to His Spirit, and would help Adam in his headship to restore the knowledge of God to the earth, and subdue the earth, an inference of what they had been made of.
To understand this, we perhaps need to take a look at something that has engendered much debate and confusion within the Body of Christ. There is a theory, called the Gap Theory, which states that there was an indeterminate gap of time that took place between the first two verses of Genesis, which, either through the judgment of God or some unknown factor, caused the earth to be visited with a cataclysmic upheaval that resulted in the earth to become or be made into an indistinguishable ruin, a waste land, a thing of vanity, an empty wilderness.
While this isn't the place to discuss this debate, an honest rendering of the meanings of the words "without form" and "void" (in the Hebrew tohuw and bohuw ) would delcare of themselves that something did indeed happen to the earth that left it in this condition of becoming a ruin. While God painstakingly took this ruined planet and restored it to a place of habitation, we must also acknowledge that this is the stuff we are made of. It is the only explanation for the blessing: "replenish and subdue" and the only explanation that would give meaning to what those words refer to.
The only thing God judges is sin. We know Satan sinned. We do not know when, why, or how, but we do know that he was the 'anointed cherub that covers' (Ezek. 28). I would posit that he was the ruler over the earth, and his pride and vanity either caused God's creation to become so corrupted that He had to judge it, or he caused creatures of God or His angels to become so corrupted, God had to judge them, and the earth they had corrupted.
Does any of this sound familiar, as it is played out in the redemption of mankind? This would be the explanation for why Satan is trying to destroy man and the image of God from this world. He deceived Eve and used her to take Adam down, and be 'reinstalled' as the ruler over the earth. He has used mankind to forestall the advent of Christ, and then used them to destroy Him on the cross. His primary tools are deception and lies, and the rousing up of our fallen natures to exalt ourselves against God.
Now, to get back to Adam and Eve. God appointed Adam to rule over the creatures. God brought Eve forth from Adam, to help replenish the knowledge of God in the land and to subdue those lusts and appetites that had become a part of the stuff they were made of.
Mankind did not fall when Eve sinned, but only when Adam did. It was when Adam chose to obey his wife instead of God, that all mankind fell in him. But when it speaks of all mankind, it didn't include Eve. Eve was not 'in' his loins when Adam fell. She fell of her own accord, through deception, and became a slave to Satan. Adam rebelled against God through a deliberate choice to exercise his will to disobey. Her spirit is still active and at work in us and in the world.
The death of Christ on the cross, in complete obedience to God, His Father, accomplished in full the reconciliation of our Adamic nature to become acceptable to God. Jesus Christ is the 'second Adam.' Acceptance of His propitiation for our sins, reconciles us to God, and we now become willing and desiring to be obedient unto Him. But what about Eve? What about her nature and attributes that are manifestly more inclined to the softer dispositions and the 'intangibles' of life. It fell when whe cose to disbelieve God. So where is her restoration or rather, what is the means of her restoration?
Our Eve nature must likewise be restored to the truth of God.In Christ, we once again acknowledge and honour the Sovereignty of God and that we have sinned against Him. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through baptism and resurrection to new life, we are to be sanctified and separated from this world, from the dominion of Satan and restored to the truth of God, not jsut acceptance of His Sovereignty. I would go so far as to say that without this aspect of the work of salvation, our sanctification, our acknowledgement of God's Sovereignty over us is merely intellectual. We may say, Jesus take the wheel, but it is only so we can unfold the map and tell him how to get where we want to go.
The purpose of the Church, the Body of Christ, is to restore the knowledge of God to the earth. What is not recognized however, is that the sensitivity to spiritual things, and the qualities that were to make women into the representatives of the Holy Spirit likewise fell when Eve sinned. Everything that constituted womanhood likewise fell. Her faith, her expressions of mercy and compassion and love likewise fell. And just as it is with Adam, the old nature must go to the cross and be mortified, just as all of Adam's ambitions and drive for independence, authority and command of his world.
Adam was appointed to sit in the gate. Eve was appointed to raise up the children and manage the household. Our society has now come to turn itself inside out. Men are currently being taught to be the women of the household, while women seek to be the men. And the offspring of both are now totally confused about what gender they are. This is the work of that Jezebel spirit. But I am getting ahead of myself.
What do you understand about the ministry of the Holy Spirit? Why do you believe He was given to us? The Holy Spirit's ministry to us is as our Counsellor, not taking the place of Christ, but as helper untto Him, working out in us what He purchased for us. He is the one given us, to teach us and restore the knowledge of God, of holiness, of righteousness and the things of the kingdom of God to us. He is the one who brings us by the way we know nothing about. (Isa. 42:16)
He is the one who makes effectual all that Christ's death on the cross purchased for us. He doesn't do this by 'adding' to us. He does it by exchange. You give Him the lie, He gives you the truth. You become willing to receive His truth, He will expose the lies. It is where the Spirit of the Lord is, that there is liberty and there is life.
The Jezebel spirit however, will do nothing of the sort. Her interest is to keep you in bondage to the flesh, to your own understandings of how things should be, and she is the one primarily accusing God of being the one of 'letting' all the evil happen in this world, oblivious to the truth that it is her own delusions that are the greater problem. She continuously exalts herself against the work of the Holy Spirit. He brings life, she maintains death.
This isn't a complete study into this Jezebel spirit. My primary purpose is to open your eyes to the reality that she exists and works in every one of us, in women perhaps more than in men, although men are being taken in more and more by her wiles, and that because of our lack of surrender and submission to God, to His will above our own. It is the product of our cross-less, cheap grace Gospel.
The first direct mention of Jezebel is in the story of Ahab. A weak king is constantly being stirred up by his 'strange wife,' the daughter of a strange god. She was not from among the tribes of Israel. She not only stirred Ahab up to the idolatrous and rebellious works that he did, she also had no difficulty in misusing his authority to get him whatever it was he wanted, even if it was not lawful. How often do we in the church today use 'in Jesus's name' unlawfully to either enable or obtain satisfaction for our own desires, if not someone else's.
The only other direct mention of Jezebel is through the Book of Revelations, in the letter to the church of Thyratira. She is said to call herself a prophetess, and her teachings are all contrary to God. His judgment against her is to throw her into a bed of death, along with all those who participate in her delusions with her ... except they repent. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of repentance.
Remember that the role of Eve was to restore the knowledge of God to the land and to subdue the flesh. She was the type and foreshadow of the Holy Spirit. But the Body of Christ continues to cling to its fallen nature, and continues to reject the ministry of the Holy Spirit to make us into a new creature, in truth, and not just in name. We would prefer to hear the sweet, comforting words, "God knows your heart. He knows you love Him," to excuse our failings and shortcomings and sins, rather than the work of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction unto repentance. She is the spirit of worldly repentance that feels sorry for the consequences of the sin, but doesn't really want to stop doing it.
The Church today is dominated by this spirit. Yet in 2 Thessalonians 2 we are told of God that will bring strong delusion against those who have not a love for the truth. This is what the letter in Revelation is referring to. That strong delusion is or might as well be a bed of death, for there will be no light or truth of God in it. It is a bed of death, not life. He states the same in Isaiah 66:3, and it is because we continue to choose our own ways, preferring to settle for a DIY version of holiness that is vested in pride and self-righteousness. We are choosing a covering not of His Spirit (Isa. 30:1).
Hear this word: Our old man is and never will be acceptable to God. That is the message of the cross. Christ's body bore the punishments for our sins. Through Him, and His death on the cross, God has condemned sin in the flesh. The flesh cannot be redeemed. Flesh and blood cannot and will never inherit the kingdom of God. That refers to all the works of the body, including our mercies, our compassions, our love, our efforts at reproducing the likeness of Christ in us. It is only as you permit the Holy Spirit to crucify the flesh, with all its lusts, appetites, desires AND delusions, that we are conformed to the likeness of Christ. And it is only as we abide in that likeness, that we will experience God in our lives.
Christ alone is what is acceptable to God. It is Christ in us that makes us acceptable to God. The reading, study and obedience to the plainly written Word of God is where we start in our faith journey. It should lead us to baptism, to being made dead unto this world, and alive unto Christ, walking in His resurrection life. And then comes the infilling of the Holy Spirit, correcting us, teaching us, leading us through God's refining and purifying fires, so that we become transformed in truth to the likeness of Christ, not just in name, but in truth.
Beware, for we are in a life and death battle. If you do not know this, you have already lost the fight. The fight is for the truth of God, not control of the world or the devil. It is to become a people holy unto God, His priests, wholly submitted to do His will, regardless of the cost, as did Christ. We have to win the battle IN us, before it can be won in the world. I admonish you, I plead with you, seek the truth for yourselves. Do not take what I have said to be your truth. To be blunt, it simply doesn't happen that way. It is what you seek and search our for yourself that becomes your truth. But don't just sit on the sidelines doing nothing.
The job of the Jezebel spirit is to destroy the prophets of God. The spirit of prophecy is the spirit of Jesus Christ. She is out to destroy the life of Christ in you. Quench not the Holy Spirit. He is your only help and hope against her.
I am going to close this article by asking you a question, because the cheap grace teaching and so dead wrong attitudes towards 'spirital warfare' have taught that it is the devil that keeps reminding you of your sins and that you are to rebuke him and ignore him. This lie denies the words of Matthew 5:25, with Hebrews 12:6-10; Romans 8 (the entire chapter) and too many other places in Scripture to mention and merely continues to support and abide in that Jezebel spirit.
Now the question is this: why would Satan keep reminding you of your sins? His desire is to keep you in them, blind to them. He is the one who blinds us to the good news of the Gospel and it isn't just the good news of our redemption in Christ. He also continues to blind us to those things that would constitute a true and living victory over him, his wiles and his delusions. If he can keep you blind to him, then he can use you as his 'fifth column' against the true believers and prophets of Christ in the Church. So why would he bother to keep reminding you of sin, if that is going to lead you to repentance, or to God?
Furthermore, Satan knows that whatever lies and bondage you overcome are what give you the ammunition of truth that you need to set the other captives free. He has a vested interest in keeping you blind, bound, and using you against God and the Holy Spirit.
So please, I pray that you will undertake your own studies, and sincerely seek God's truth in this. The Church needs God's prophets. The Church needs God's ministers, walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, so she can be the beacon of light, hope and truth, where whe lost and dying of this world can find help and hope and not just panaceas of lifeless, impotent prayer to keep them comfortable. The Church was never appointed to be a place of palliative care. She was to be the pillar and ground of truth, manifesting the reality of God in world desperate to believe Him. So choose you this day whom you will serve. Will it be the Holy Spirit unto life and liberty, or will you continue in death to your own destruction?