A Thief In The Night Film: Patty's Struggle With Ambivalence

How many of you have watched A Thief In The Night series and have been totally frustrated with Patty? She is so ambivalent, that she just can't decide what to do. On one hand, she has her own belief in God, but on the other hand, it's not the type of faith that's needed for salvation. Like many others, she believes there's a God, but it's a God of her own creation. She attends an apostate church, because the message is easy and it doesn't compromise her own personal beliefs or force her to make any serious changes to her life. She can live as she wants, as long as she occasionally attends church and tries her best to live a good life. 

SPOILER ALERT:

When she's confronted by the actual events of the Rapture, she loses her husband, her grandmother, and her closest friend, thus becoming even more torn between having a general "belief" in God and having actual, life altering "faith" in Him. She flip flops back and forth between wanting to believe like her husband, grandmother and friend who disappeared, but then reverts back to the teaching of her apostate pastor, which is in direct conflict with scripture.

Some may ask... Isn't it enough to just believe in God? After all, God says to believe and I'll be saved.

That would greatly depend upon how you define the word "believe." You can believe (have a knowledge) that God exists, but just knowing God exists isn't enough. Even Satan and his demons believe that God exists... they lived in His presence... but that's not enough. 

To begin with, belief is actually a faithful independent trust in God. It's also an act of developing a relationship with Jesus and to depend solely upon His sacrifice on the cross for our salvation. He suffered the full force of God's wrath upon Himself for all of us, and because of that, He's able to offer us the free gift of salvation, through His sacrifice. This isn't just head knowledge. This is the type of belief that results in a deeper relationship with God. It's a belief... a faith... that draws us closer to Him through reading and studying scripture, and by spending time with Him in prayer. To truly believe in God is to submit all aspects of our life to Him and to be proactive in developing a closer, more obedient relationship with Him. (1John. 5:5, James 1:22, Luke 9:23, Romans 10:9-11, 12:1, John 6:47).

REPENT, AND BE FORGIVEN!

BELIEVE, AND BE SAVED!

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A Jezebel Spirit Is Just A Church Tradition

The Jezebel spirit (demon) isn't directly mentioned in the Bible, but you'll often hear Christians using the term in reference to a powerful demon. I can't blame them, because that's what they're being taught in church and through word of mouth.

Queen Jezebel, wife of King Ahab, is described in the Old Testament as someone who persecuted the prophets of God, promoted idol worship, engaged in sexual immorality, and lead God's people astray. The so-called "Jezebel spirit" is associated with traits such as hatred, seduction, calculation, wickedness, and manipulation. This term is used to describe people, mainly women, who demonstrate these manipulative and controlling behaviors within the church. Christians attribute Jezebel's actions to a powerful demonic spirit that possessed her or had some type of control over her, but that's more of a church tradition rather than scriptural truth. Nowhere in the bible is there mention of a specific demonic Jezebel spirit. 

The Jezebel spirit often makes good fodder for many things, like preaching an exciting sermon, making money from book publishing, publicly trying to cast out this non-entity, and/or getting hits, likes, and shares on social media. Christians just love using the phrase, but all it does is give demons undeserved credit for mankind's response to demonic influence. Like the "spirit of python," (<-- Link) this off-base Jezebel teaching cycles around every few years to misinform a new generation of believers, or is passed down by word of mouth from one Christian to another every time someone wants to judge the actions of an individual who is exhibiting such behavior. 

Jezebel was cunning, spiritually controlling, and manipulative and did her best to lead others into sin and to cause division among God's people. She excelled in exhibiting manipulative and controlling behaviors, leading others into moral compromise and false teaching. These behaviors and actions made her feel powerful and brought her joy and personal satisfaction. How many people have we seen in our lifetime who thrive in their own selfish, arrogant, or narcissistic behavior, exhibiting much of the same attributes that were attributed to Jezebel? It's not the evidence of a Jezebel spirit, it's evidence of a life lived in pridefulness and in rebellion against God. Jezebel was an evil woman who openly sinned, encouraged others to openly sin, mocked God, and caused division. Sure, there were demonic influences, but she made the decision to submit to those influences, living to satisfy the sinful desires of her flesh, and, in doing so, suffered the consequences of her actions. 

It's common for Christians to blame demons for their own negative behavior or the behavior or others, but often that's just a cop-out for Christians who are willfully submitting to the desires and weaknesses of the flesh, failing in their own walk with the Lord, or who are finding it difficult to change a behavior, like dealing with issues such as anger, hatred, jealousy, envy, lust, revenge, greed, gluttony, thirst for authority, etc... 

When the term, "Jezebel spirit," is used, many Christians think of it as a demonic entity rather than the personal sinful traits of one woman who God highlighted as an example of living a life in enmity against Him. It's important to view this "Jezebel spirit" as personality traits, sinful behavior, and animosity toward God, instead of what the church has deemed to be powerful demonic possession or influence. Let's not give the enemy any undeserved credit for what he's not responsible in accomplishing. He's a tempter of the flesh... the father of lies... but we are responsible for our own actions, just as Jezebel was responsible for hers. 

So when using the term, "Jezebel spirit," we need to understand that it's not referring to one powerful, demonic spirit, but an example of the constant attack we're under in the spiritual realm to turn us from God. He has given us an example of what can happen if we allow the enemy to completely influence our thoughts and actions, as is what occurred with the evil and sinful behavior of Jezebel. 

I would prefer that the church stop using this term, because in the minds of so many people, it depicts an almost all-powerful spiritual entity who doesn't exist, but it seems so ingrained in the psyche of Christians, that it would be difficult to discourage it's use, because so many people are bound by church tradition and false teaching. The important thing about church tradition is that if it doesn't hold up to scripture, then we need to be willing to let it go.

REPENT, AND BE FORGIVEN!

BELIEVE, AND BE SAVED!

TRIBULATIONHARVEST.NET