Jezebel oppression
Some families seem to be dominated by a matriarch or patriarch who tries to “rule” over their family through the use of human wisdom or emotional manipulation in order to persuade others to go along with their choices. The person can come across as attention-seeking, manipulative, controlling, judgmental, proud, or volatile. Such descriptions may point to the operation of a Jezebel spirit in a family, which uses vulnerable people to bully God’s children into submission through fear, guilt, and accusation.
(See Chinese versions: 简体中文 > 耶洗别压制之灵 | 繁體中文 > 耶洗別壓制之靈)
Romans 12:9 ESV Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Revelation 2:20 ESV But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel…
See Overcoming the spirit of Jezebel and the testimony, Jesus frees banker from the work of a Jezebel spirit.
A prayer against the work of the Jezebel spirit in the family
“Dear Heavenly Father,
I praise You for my life and for lovingly creating every person so uniquely.
Today, I lift my family up to you in prayer. I confess I have been grieved, taken aback, confused, and upset by the consistent miscommunications, infighting, defensiveness, blaming, and disunity I have witnessed. We all love one another dearly but something just keeps tearing us apart! All this is not the work of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of peace and unity.
Ephesians 4:1-2 ESV … walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
I confess there are those who, out of fear, past hurt, misunderstandings, or retaliation, try to guilt-trip, pressurize, and/or control others in our family and gain power through the use of forceful words and emotions. Some of us even say we know Jesus, yet we don’t seem to demonstrate the fruit of God’s Spirit. I confess our family’s attitudes resemble those of Satan, who is called the accuser (Revelation 12:10), rather than Jesus Christ, who is gentle at heart and humble in spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23 ESV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
I feel so drained by what’s going on around me. Our home is not a place of peace or unity. I feel like I need to tip-toe around our relationships so as not to cause another “eruption.”
I live in constant dread. Father, I come to you, feeling weary and burdened. I need Your comfort, healing, and restoration for my soul. Please renew my spirit and fill me with Your peace and hope.
Matthew 11:28-30 ESV Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Psalm 119:76 ESV Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant.
Thank you for opening my eyes to the work of the Jezebel amongst us; who is the spirit of control, manipulation, domination, and warfare. We have been unaware of this spiritual oppression and I am grateful for the work of Jesus Christ on the cross to overcome all the power of such an enemy.
Ephesians 6:12 ESV For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Luke 10:17-20 ESV The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
At the same time, I also repent for following the ways of my family patterns. I too have fallen for the temptation from Satan to judge, condemn, justify, control, or retaliate against my family members. I repent for following my fleshly reactions and personal desires, rather than submitting to Your will and the Holy Spirit. Please forgive me.
Galatians 5:16-24 ESV But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Thank you that You watch over every conversation and thought, and You are aware of how upset I have been. Thank you that You are always ready to comfort me when I confess all that has happened in my family. Thank you that You never forsake me, even if it feels as if my family has “thrown me under the bus.” At times, I have felt misunderstood, pressurised, manipulated, and rejected.
2 Corinthians 1:3 ESV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
Psalm 27:10 ESV For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.
Holy Spirit, please remove the fiery darts in my heart. I confess each and every occasion where I have felt wrongfully accused. I now see that these accusations are from the enemy who captures the spiritually weak to do his will.
Ephesians 6:16 ESV In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
2 Timothy 2:24-26 ESV And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
My identity has never been tied to what other fallen human beings say, but what my Creator says about me. I forgive (name family member) for saying and implying (name the accusation/s) for she/he does not know what she/he is doing. I bless her/him with good health, peace, joy, hope, and love.
Luke 23:34 ESV And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do…
Thank you, Father God, for the power You have given us through Your Son, Jesus Christ. He has defeated and disarmed all my enemies so that I may have total power to pray and take down all strongholds in Jesus’ name. Show me how to take up my armour of God every day, so that I may stand in this battle for my family’s hearts and not be overcome.
Colossians 2:14-15,20 NLT He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world…
Ephesians 6:10-11 ESV Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I silence the inner accusing voice of the Jezebel spirit in me and (please name all family members affected) and bind your work today. I forbid you to come against my family by the authority given to me by Jesus Christ, my Saviour, Lord and Friend. He is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and He has defeated, disarmed, and shamed you. In Jesus’ name, I command you to leave me and not return. Holy Spirit, please come and renew me daily.
Where the Jezebel spirit has gained a foothold in my family because of past hurts and idol worship, I ask my Father in heaven to please bring healing, reconciliation, and repentance to this family.
2 Corinthians 5:16,18-21 NLT So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! … God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Father, please help restore the marriages in our family to Your order, where wives respect their husbands and husbands take their rightful place as heads of the family. May we all obey You only and not try to lord over each other.
1 Peter 3:1-2,4 ESV Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct… let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.
Ephesians 5:23 ESV For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
1 Peter 3:7 ESV Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
Father in Heaven, I will not give up praying for our household, because this would be exactly what the enemy wants – that I give up hope and submit to him in defeat. I will not fall back into the “slavery” to my broken family dynamics.
Romans 8:14-15 ESV For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Father God, I thank you that You are patient and compassionate, far more so than I am. Thank you that You sent Jesus to set us free. I humble myself before You and seek to follow Your ways and Your wisdom. I humbly ask for an outpouring of Your love, peace, hope, and patience inside me. Please open my eyes to see my family members as You see them – fearful, hurting, weary, oppressed, and in great need of Your perfect love and redemption.
Luke 4:14,18 ESV And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
Thank you that Your mercies are new every morning and I can pray for my family every day.
In Jesus’ name, amen.”