I have only been reading this man's blogging, or daily comments, for the
last couple of weeks.  I have liked several things I have read.  No, I can't
say I agree with everything he says and I make no judgement on what he has
written in these next two messages.  I think it is worth reading and knowing
something about.  I have seen what he is describing at work in a church I
pastored so I know it is no joke.  You can believe whatever you wish in what
he says but it does make for interesting reading.  Logging on to his
archives, you might discover a lot of interest background relating to this
man's life and all the Lord has taken him through.  I have done some
formatting and I also removed most of the blank lines to make it better for
the list serve to process but the text is in no way formatted perfectly.


ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: JEZEBEL & WITCHCRAFT

Well, Another Good Morning to Y'all!
This is going to be a spectacular day!  That's right - the absolutely,
bar none, no-holds-barred best day of your life!  Get ready!
I know this will absolutely shock you, but I'm enjoying one of those
"vitamins" I like so much.  Now don't go jumping on my case for buying
them.  I didn't.  Surprise, Surprise!  Della bought them.  Guess she
figured I needed a little "nourishment" for my Coffee Breaks.
Hehehehehe.....
Besides, I AM losing weight.  I've dropped more than 12 pounds over the
past three weeks.  Remember that change of diet I told you about?  Meat,
vegetables & fruit?  That's it.  Mostly, anyway.  We really have cut out
the great majority of all pastries, pastas, breads and starchy foods.
I get to have a piece of bread once in awhile - maybe a slice of toast
with my eggs in the morning.  The best breakfast in the world is steak
and eggs.  High protein!  It gives you energy like there's no tomorrow!
I do get to have either a slice of toast, or a rolled-up tortilla with
my eggs and steak, but that's usually where we draw the line on breads.
'Nuff of that.  Bought some Dark-Roasted Ethiopian coffee yesterday.
Has a nice rich taste to it.  It is a bit different flavor from my usual
Columbian, but it's nice.  I like it.  Coffee's made, my cup is poured,
and you better get yours before I drink it all up <grin>.
Yesterday, I stirred up a bit of a hornet's nest when I started talking
about Jezebel and witchcraft operating in the body of Christ.  A few
folks got mad at me (can't figure that one out, can we?) and decided
they didn't want to subscribe to my Coffee Breaks any longer.  Think
maybe I touched a nerve somewhere?
Well, let me start off with a prophecy that John gives in Revelation 2
to the Ekklesia in Thyatira: "Notwithstanding I have a few things
against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth
herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit
fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.  And I gave her
space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.   Behold, I
will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into
great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.  And I will kill
her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he
which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of
you according to your works.  But unto you I say, and unto the rest in
Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known
the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other
burden."  (Revelation 2:20-24)
Pretty strong, isn't it?
Obviously, the Lord wasn't saying that Jezebel - the wife of King Ahab
and daughter of Ethbaal, the Amorite king - was still alive and
operating in Thyatira nearly a thousand years after her death.  He was
referring to that spirit that emulated her, actually that wicked, evil
spirit that ruled Jezebel and contaminated the life of Israel in ways
that ultimately led the nation into captivity.
Let's take a look at some of the characteristics of Jezebel in John's
prophecy - the characteristics of this spirit - and how it was
contaminating the body of Christ even then, in or around 96 AD.
1. "She calleth herself a prophetess."   Hmmmmm...  OK.  False prophet
(ess) and false prophecy.
2. "to teach and seduce my servants."  Right.  This spirit poses as a
seductive teacher, promoting doctrines and teachings that lead the
people of God astray.
3. "to commit fornication."  This seduction is both spiritual and
sexual.  We'll get into that in more detail shortly.
4. "and to eat things sacrificed unto idols."  Uhh Huhh.  Idolatry: the
worship or reverence of things, or individuals, or entities other than
the Lord Himself: the prioritizing of doctrines over a relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ.  Just wait.  It gets worse.
5. "I gave her space to repent of her fornication."  So Jezebel (or
those individuals contaminated with that spirit) are actively committing
fornication.  That doesn't mean they are necessarily running around,
having promiscuous sexual relations, although they well may.
6. "and she repented not."  So those afflicted with this spirit
generally tend to be unrepentant.  They have no remorse over their sin,
can't see that what they are doing is sin, and refuse to repent when
faced with exposure of their sin.
7. "Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery
with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds."  So
it's more than just fornication: it is adultery, too.  We'll get into
this more, too, as this discussion proceeds.
8. "And I will kill all her children with death."  Strange phrase, isn't
it?  If one gets killed, they are dead are they not?  How do you kill
someone with death?  This is an interesting Hebrew metaphor occurring in
the Greek text.  In this case, the Lord is talking about more than
physical death: He is talking about an eternal death and separation from
all possibility of redemption or future relationship with Him.
If there is any hallmark of the spirit of Jezebel, or some particular
characteristic that sums up and describes its overall purpose, it would
be "usurper."  The primary objective of the spirit of Jezebel is to
usurp the operational authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in those who
are anointed and appointed by the Holy Spirit to minister, to present
itself as THE voice of the Lord instead, and to take control of the
leadership of God's people.
See that word, "control"?  It goes with manipulation.  It's called
witchcraft.
If you want, go back and look at I Kings 21.  There we see the unfolding
of an event that typified Jezebel, and the spirit in control of her.
King Ahab (Jezebel's husband) sees a vineyard he decides he needs and
wants.  He makes an offer to Naboth, who has inherited this vineyard
from his father, and his fathers before him.  Naboth, of course, wants
to keep the vineyard in his family.  It's a producer, and it represents
the family's business and source of revenue, as well as generations of a
family's blood, sweat and tears.
Naboth refuses to sell the vineyard to the king - at any price.  Ahab
begins to pout and throws himself a hissy fit.  Jezebel sees him in a
blue funk and says to him, "What's your problem?"  Ahab cries on Jezzy's
shoulder, and Jezzy says, "No problem.  I can fix this.  I'll personally
give you Naboth's vineyard."
Now Jezebel commences to do something that is one of the primary tactics
of that spirit in control of her, and epitomizes the manner in which it
still works today.  She goes hunting for two men of political repute and
standing in the area - men who are easily corruptible and easily swayed
by Jezebel's position as Queen - and gets them to conspire with her
against Naboth.
First things first.  Set up Naboth.  Let's call a public feast, let's
send out letters of invitation to a celebration, and let's honor a "Man
of the Year" shall we?  Piece of cake.  Guess who the "Man of the Year"
is?  You got it!
Think Naboth has any clue that he's being set up, that his pride is
going to be his downfall?  Nope.  Neither do the overwhelming majority
of Christians who fall into this same trap.  They become the willing
pawns of the spirit of Jezebel once their pride has been appealed to,
and they think they're being "honored."
Honor?  Some honor!  Sure enough, Naboth shows up for his "honoring",
and right in the middle of the celebration, these two so-called "men of
standing" (men of Belial: wicked, worthless, evil and ungodly) stand up
and accuse Naboth of treasonous activity - namely, blaspheming God, AND
(Horror of Horrors!) King Ahab.
There was no trial, no opportunity for Naboth to confront his accusers,
and no one who stood up for him.  This is something I've always found
interesting about the spirit of Jezebel: its ability to intimidate even
those who might under ordinary circumstances speak out on behalf of the
righteous when falsely accused.  Despite the fact that Jezebel wasn't
even an Israelite; despite the fact that Naboth had lived and spent his
whole life there in Jezreel where the folks knew him, knew his family,
and undoubtedly had been recipients of assistance and favors from Naboth
and his family, not one single person stood up in his defense against
two spokesmen whose accusations were completely fabricated out of whole
cloth.
And this is the norm for folks when they've been intimidated by the
spirit of Jezebel.  Fear of Death and the Fear of Man seal their lips
shut.  They stand by, keeping silence, and allow the fabrications of
lying spirits to come against men and women of God.  When judgment based
on those lies is executed against the righteous, their silence is all
the more sealed, and the spirit of Jezebel gets away with murder.
That's exactly what happened with Naboth.  Not one single person stood
up in his defense.  Folks who knew him as a righteous man, who knew that
Naboth would rather die than blaspheme God or the king, stood by,
capitulating to the spirit in Jezebel allowing him to be taken out of
the town and stoned to death.
With Naboth dead and unable to defend himself or his lands, Jezebel
seized his vineyard and proudly walked in to Ahab and handed him title
to those lands he had coveted.  Thus the spirit of Jezebel is also liar,
thief, murderer, and willing conspirator to those who capitulate to its
usurpation.
The obvious companion spirit to the spirit of Jezebel is what I have
come to call "the spirit of Ahab."  Jezebel couldn't have gotten away
with such treachery had she not had Ahab to support and permit her
activities.  The spirit of Ahab, therefore, is a spirit of capitulation
in the midst of Jezebel's usurpation.  In a modern sense and
application, I have seen the spirit of Ahab operating in folks who were
submissive or capitulative to a spirit of Jezebel, and rather than allow
folks to defend the falsely accused, they move heaven and earth to see
that the would-be defenders are moved somewhere else, or have no
opportunity to speak out.
I want to break down for you each of the eight descriptive pictures or
characteristics of the spirit of Jezebel, but I think I'll wait on that
until tomorrow, and share with you an incident or two in which I have
stood up to the spirit of Jezebel.
It was 1966.  I was in Barrow, Alaska, working with Dwain McKenzie and
sharing with him in ministry.  Dwain was the pastor of the church I had
helped my father build a little more than a decade earlier.  I was the
Youth Pastor.  Because this was a missionary endeavor, my livelihood
didn't come from a salary or weekly paycheck from the church.  I was
working for a branch of Alaska National Bank.
Dwain and his family decided to take a vacation trip to California.  He
wanted to spend some time with his dad and mom and help his folks out
with some needs, so he arranged for the Alaska Missions District (of the
church denomination) to provide an interim missionary during his
vacation.
The missions' superintendent picked a likely young couple to fill in for
Dwain, and they arrived in Barrow in the spring of 1966.  Hervel was the
young minister's name, and his vim and vigor obviously impressed the
Alaska Missions leaders.
This was, to the best of my recollection, Hervel's first real pastorate,
and he was gung ho to show everyone what a good job he could do.  One
problem.  He had never really undergone any period of discipline and
preparation for taking on what was at that time one of the
denomination's largest churches in Alaska.
Once in Barrow, and once in the driver's seat as the senior pastor,
Hervel decided he didn't want to let go of the position and the supposed
prestige that came with it.  He began to scheme and connive and try to
figure out how he could have Dwain ousted and remain on as the permanent
senior pastor.
Are you with me so far?  Do you see the situation ripe for the spirit of
Jezebel?  Right.
Hervel opened the door wide for that spirit, and it rushed in where
angels fear to tread.  Before you know it, he had filed a formal
complaint with the District Missions office alleging that Dwain had
mismanaged the church's finances, and that Dwain was misappropriating
church funds for his own use.
As it turned out, my position at the bank allowed me to see every single
expenditure of the church, as well as Dwain's personal accounts.  When I
first heard of the allegation, anger rose up in me at Dwain's accuser.
However, I decided to hold my peace and personally (and surreptitiously)
audit the finances of the church, as well as Dwain's personal finances
from my place at the bank.  It wasn't my place to do it, and my actions
were certainly unauthorized by either the church, or the denomination,
or the bank's management (at least at first).  The bank manager was a
personal friend, and I explained to him the accusations being made,
telling him (after I was already part way through the audit) that I was
certain the accusations were fraudulent - that I wanted to either prove
or disprove them.  He agreed, and we went to work on it.
As I had suspected, the accusations were completely unfounded.  I
readied my documentary evidence to present to the District
Superintendent, whom I knew would shortly be coming to Barrow to check
things out.  Without letting Hervel know that I had evidence
contradicting his allegations, I confronted him and asked him if he
would kindly show me his proof.
He refused, telling me it was none of my business and saying that he was
taking it up with the church board.  Not being a member of the church
board, I had no standing and no way to compel them to allow me into the
board meetings in Dwain's defense.
I bided my time until the District Superintendent came to Barrow.  When
I had my first chance to speak with him privately, I told him that the
accusations against Dwain were completely spurious, and that I could
produce documentary proof that the church finances had been handled in a
completely above-board manner, and that I could account for every
supposed mis-spent dime.  To my astonishment, he refused to hear me.
The District Superintendent was easily twice my age if not close to
three-times.  I had known him since I was a young whippersnapper, and
his refusal to hear any evidence from me in Dwain's support was both
baffling and angering.  My frustration overflowed in that moment, and I
let him know that Hervel was deliberately conspiring against Dwain in
order to take the church away.  My language was unequivocal.  Hervel was
a crook, he was a cheat and a liar, and there was no integrity in him.
The DS shushed me up and told me "simmer down," that he would look into
things and deal accordingly.  I didn't think there was any reason not to
believe him, and I let it go.  He still refused my offer to provide him
with the documentary evidence, however.
It wasn't more than a couple of days later when I received a phone call
from the bank president asking me if I would like to train to take the
management of the Kotzebue branch.  He said I would have to move to Nome
and train at the branch there.  It was an enticing offer.  I was not a
happy camper working with a pastor whose greed and connivance to take
control of a church through political maneuvering made me want to throw
up.  As far as I was concerned, this man had no concern whatever for the
Gospel, nor for the things of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was simply a
self-serving political operative using the Gospel for personal gain.
While I was still mulling over the offer to come to Nome and train for
the management of the Kotzebue branch of the bank, I received a phone
call from Paul Bills who was pastoring the church in Nome my father had
built and pioneered.  Paul, of course, had been a friend of our family
for many years.  He had filled in for Dad when we had taken a family
vacation, and in fact, took over the church in Barrow when we moved on
to build churches in Wainwright and Point Hope, preceding Dwain as
Barrow's pastor.
"I'm told that the bank has made you an offer to come to Nome.  I'm
calling you to see if I can talk you into taking the position.  I need
your help here in the church in Nome."
Wow!  That was the clincher.  I called the bank president back and told
him I would take the position.  But first I talked to the DS again to
make sure he was going to get to the bottom of the issue in Barrow
before I agreed to leave.  He assured me that no decisions would be made
without Dwain having the opportunity to defend himself.
It didn't dawn on me that I had been royally set up.  My move to Nome
was orchestrated by folks with a whole lot more political pull than I
imagined, and the objective was to get me out of the way so I wouldn't
prevent Dwain from being politically assassinated.
As soon as I was gone from Barrow, a fake trial was held before the
church board.  Dwain was found guilty in absentia.  He never had an
opportunity to present evidence that would have cleared him.  He was
contacted while in California and advised to get back to Barrow to pack
up his personal belongings, and told that he was through as a pastor in
Alaska.
Tomorrow, I'll share with you the end of the story to show you how the
Lord vindicated Dwain, and how both the DS and Hervel suffered Jezebel's
fate.
I'm an Extremist!  I'm extreme enough to believe God can do ANYTHING -
for me -- AND for you.
Blessings on you!
Regner A. Capener
R & DC MINISTRIES
Ekklesia House
RR-15, Box 6180
Mission, TX 78574-9589
(956) 583-5355
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Where there is pain, there is belief.  Real Truth is painless.
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