Deborah: The Ultimate Jezebel-Preventative, Part I
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Often when we speak of the Spirit of Jezebel in spiritual warfare and how to effectively deal with this spirit, we speak of the Spirit of Elijah, raised up to counter and replace this proud, witchy spirit in the earth. We speak of Jehu who was not swayed by her seductive wiles, but defied her harlotries and caused her to be thrown down to her death, and eventually killing all of her children with her (Revelation 2:22-23). We speak of Elisha or Elijah who is to come who finishes what the first Elijah started. And we do well to do so, yet those are abortive measures, not preventative. So let’s talk about what will really prevent this spirit from having a host and putting down roots from the git go.
Deborah, the Ultimate Feminist
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand’?”
And Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!”
So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; he went up with ten thousand men under his command, and Deborah went up with him. (Judges 4:4-10)
Deborah.
You know her. Whenever people champion women ministers, especially women prophets and pastors, we rush to the Deborah camp. We women LOVE, LOVE, LOVE us some Deborah! This little honey bee for Jehovah, through her leadership, routed the Canaanite tribe of King Jabin before Israel. (With the help of the Lord of Hosts and those awesome angels a.k.a. “stars” who fought in their heavenly courses against the General Sisera and his evil forces.) And she did it all without bashing, hating, overriding, minimizing, degrading, or belittling men in the process. In short, Deborah was a feminist hero.
I know, I know. “Feminist” has become horrid, dirty word now. (I rarely use it myself unless in a derogatory sense.) The feminist movement, which walks hand-in-hand with lesbianism and is driven by Jezebel, has become a hodge podge of all things ungodly and doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to anything feminine. But that’s not the type of feminist I speak of.
The true feminist upholds the ideals of femininity. She is feminine.
She does not beg, plead, and protest for equality because she knows that she is already equal to man; equal, but not the same. And this lack of sameness--not to be confused with a lack of value--is what makes her the perfect, divinely orchestrated partner to man. In friendship, in marriage, in ministry, in work, you name it, she is his perfect partner in every way.
She does not fight against being a man’s doormat because she knows she is his rib: delicately and intricately crafted by God to stand, not toe to toe with any man, but side by side with her man.
She does not revile childbearing and childrearing because she understands that no man on his best effeminate, homosexual, or transgender day can naturally conceive, carry, or give birth to a miraculous human life. And even if she chooses to never have children, she knows that she can and that her body was intentionally crafted to bear that gift and responsibility. And even if she, for some medical reason, cannot have children, her breasts and her other womanly parts were still crafted for that primary intent. Her breasts were not made to be bared for the sake of social experiments and cheap male entertainment, but for the comfort and pleasure of her husband as well as the nourishment of her children. Her “lady parts” were not made to be ground against other another woman’s parts or pleasured by another woman at all, but to provide an experience of pleasure to her husband and herself in a way that no vibrator, dildo, or other artificial machination could ever fully replicate.
She does not compete with men because she knows it isn’t a competition. She is in a class all by herself, just as a man is in a class all by himself. Different, yet equal.
She is not threatened (even if she is disgusted) by a man trying to be like her or actually be her because she knows no man can ever truly, fully accomplish that divinely ordained feat.
The true feminist does not feel second-best, overlooked, less than, trampled upon, or confined by her sex. Perhaps, by an ignorant man, a Spiritless tradition, or off doctrine, but never by her foreordained gender. She knows that being a woman is a gift from God and God alone (as is being a man) and that God’s gifts are utterly irrevocable.
Deborah, the Ultimate Woman Under Submission
In the Garden of Eden, when the human race fell from grace, God cursed the Serpent, the man, and the woman. And to the woman, He said:
Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you. (Genesis 3:16)
And here is begun, as the late Derek Prince would say, the natural religion of man: witchcraft. Man, because of his natural characteristics in his fallen state, would be more inclined to try and dominate women. Woman, because of her natural characteristics in her fallen state, would be more inclined to try and manipulate men. And both men and women have the natural, fallen tendency to try and intimidate each other in various ways. The very definition of witchcraft, again, as Derek Prince would say, is to manipulate, intimidate, and or dominate a person, thing, or outcome.
Because of humanity’s Fall in Eden, we were literally empowered to fail. But God, in His lovingkindness which is from generation to generation, saw fit to give us hope. Because the love of God knows no bounds. He may have bruised us, but He gave us the hope of healing and told us how it would come:
And I will put enmity Between you [that Old Serpent] and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel. (Genesis 3:15 emphasis mine)
God would, did, send His only begotten Son to rectify what we made wrong. And by His death, burial, and resurrection, He freed us from the curse of the Law.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:13-14)
Therefore, we know that since God is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent (Numbers 23:19), if we are under a curse, it is our own fault. Either because we are ignorant of something, because we did something sinful, because we don’t believe the Word of God...whatever. King Solomon warned us,
Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, So a curse without cause shall not alight. (Proverbs 26:2)
Now this isn’t to knock anyone. We all need deliverance in various areas of our life at one point or another. And deliverance isn’t always some sensational, demon-manifesting ordeal. Sometimes it’s a “simple” revelation or illumination God gives us while reading His Word (rhema) or praying. Sometimes it’s a word of knowledge, either direct or, perhaps, in a sermon we’ve heard. Sometimes it's the implementation of self-discipline and allowing God to renew our minds. And yes, it could also be the form of the generally understood deliverance (exorcism) sessions. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how you get free, only that you get free.
Christ redeemed us and freed us. Yet it is up to us to appropriate for ourselves--actually apply--what He has done for us. Time to cash in that divine gift card. God will not and cannot do for us what we must do for ourselves.
And Deborah did just that. She was a free woman, even while under the Law. She abided by the Law and thus, lived under the blessings of the Law. The two books of the Bible dedicated to her demonstrate that undoubtedly. There is some argument over whether or not she was literally married since the text says she was the wife of Lapidoth. Some Hebrew scholars believe it is simply saying that she was a woman or “wife” of excellence since “Lapidoth” seems to mean that. Whatever the situation, whether a wise wife like Abigail or an honoured single woman like Anna, she did whatever she did in excellence. If she was a mother, she was undoubtedly a Proverbs 31 Woman. She was the embodiment of Lady Wisdom. And a woman of wisdom does NOT operate in witchcraft. Yet as we discussed in our exploration of Jezebel’s family tree, witchcraft is to Jezebel, what the Nike symbol is to the Nike brand. Thus, Deborah is to wisdom what Jezebel is to witchcraft.
Stay tuned as I “air” Part II soon!
