“Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.” (Proverbs 7:24-27)
“Once upon a time there lived…”
This is the first line of a book manuscript I have written, containing part of my testimony to God…well, actually, the Holy Spirit inspired it…and, quite honestly what God allowed to come forth from there shocked me. He showed me a dirty truth about who I was before I grew in Christ, through writing the book. Not that I hadn’t identified my sin and repented, but the simple act of seeing it in black and white set me on a journey with the Lord like none I could have anticipated. This is one woman who was desperate to be loosed of demons once and for all.
The Harlot spirit that had possessed my soul for at least two decades (if not more) was in constant battle with God. I’d been called to give my life to Christ at a young age, however, life’s circumstances and things that happened throughout my childhood thrust me into a spiritual stronghold not of God (although allowed by God)…
This, my friends, is why it is so easy for me to discern this particular spirit – Jezebel, the Harlot. I once had a very intimate relationship with it. My life was controlled by it and I suffered greatly through it, emotionally and spiritually. This is why the battle for my life had to transpire as it did. God uses me as he does today because he knows I can recognize her. He equips me with all the necessary tools with which to deliver, or at least call people out, of this ungodly thing. Unafraid, I have gone toe to toe in Jesus’ name and He has been victorious, hallelujah!
People do not often realize they are beguiled of something not of this world, when they become enamored with a person or drug. Sometimes, an individual under this spirit have no clue what has a hold on them. It is oh so clever, this one! The Harlot is also dangerous. This spirit seduces people. Do you know why drug addiction is so very hard to overcome? Drugs are witchcraft. A fierce tool of the devil; thus why those whom fall into such addiction tend to be very narcissistic. Lucifer was the original narcissist, therefore injects this poison into his most successful lure!
I will never, ever, forget the Harlot’s role in my past life. She was present from childhood, entering into my life through door point after door point. I’ll be quite frank…I found myself in some terrible predicaments due to this spirit’s presence. My life in Christ has been a work of true submission and obedience in order to be set free from such bondage. People look at how I live my life now and wonder why I feel so compelled to a life of purity and submission to God…well, this is why. I never want to give the Harlot an opportunity to find a crack. It took years of hard spiritual cleansing, with Jesus as my counselor and guide, to become who I am today. (For this I am proud, yet humbled, that God loves me so much He reached down and changed my life forever!)
Realizing the man I had married was deeply possessed by these spirits was a bit frightening after everything I’ve been through. No one will ever know how grateful I am to have stayed strong in Christ throughout, unless they’ve been in my shoes. Witnessing what this demon was doing to him, every single day, crushed me. His treatment of me, because of it, was causing me to put up walls again; walls the Lord and I worked so hard over 7 years to tear down. These spirits tend to recognize one another; they can also attach themselves to you!
I recognized how this man, the man I loved and believe desired to be godly, couldn’t become the man God intended. Why? Because he wouldn’t allow God to heal his hurt, hardened heart. And as the saying goes…hurting people, hurt people. The battle between principalities in my marriage was fierce. I had to be very careful not to fall into the trap being laid by the enemy to pull me down to his level again. It took every ounce of spiritual warfare I could muster to usher the Holy Spirit into my home and stay in His presence, on a daily basis, in order to battle God’s way and not in self-preservation.
I know for certain God had his hand in my life while I was under the influence of this spirit. Thankfully, I was not so far gone that when things finally fell apart, I couldn’t truly let Jesus into my heart to heal the hurts that gave the Harlot, victimization and a few other not-so-choice characters (I wasn’t narcissistic), the ability to influence and control me. Unfortunately, a person possessed with a Lucifer/Jezebel spirit cannot always let go enough to get their lives right with the Lord. Sure, they can proclaim to be saved, yet never relent control of their lives to God. They either cannot, or won’t, understand they are being deceived and how much they need Him. Why, when they already have a god? (Themselves, drugs, control…) In some instances, one is able to relent, yet the pull of the enemy somehow seduces them back in; then sadly, the battle starts all over again.
How did I know I was possessed? I saw it staring back at me in the mirror at times. I felt the internal battle waging between goodness and evil. Over the years I discerned that some areas of my life, and how people (men, especially) reacted to me, were not normal. I was not only seduced, I was a seductress. (I hate this…it makes me sick to my stomach.) How did I overcome it? Only by the blood of Jesus. Only through dying to self and crucifying my flesh, daily, for years! Not too many people I know who proclaim to be Christ followers are willing to do this, instead pleading grace over their reoccurring sin and emotional issues!
I’m sorry but that is not what Jesus insisted of his disciples, no, he said to them all, “If any man will come after me (be his disciple), let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) (Emphasis and notation in parenthesis my own.)
Paul stated in Romans that if people continue in sin, God’s grace would not cover them:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Romans 6:1-6)
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)
Church, I ask: How will people know they are under the influence of something ungodly, such as a Jezebel spirit and how can someone truly be set free, if firstly, people aren’t merely reading but studying their Bible? Secondly, if pastors/elders and those in ministry do not help open the eyes of those being deceived, and impart understanding of the spiritual realm, how then will Jezebel (and other dark entities) ever be extracted from our midst (at church/in the body of Christ)?
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
That was interesting Stacey, sorry for all the suffering! Yes, familiar spirits are attracted to each other, and we can marry someone possessed like us and not know it.I’m so glad you found that peaceful place.
I didn’t see it as suffering, per se, at the time..it was just my life. It wasn’t bad on the outside, only inside where no one could see. Nor do I see it as suffering now, rather God allowing things that He would somehow use in the future. Blessings!