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A Date with Jezebel

We have a date with Jezebel on Oct. 7, 2006.

That is the day that we are to pour out the seventh bowls of water and wine into the air, as we read in Rev. 16:17. The seventh bowl ends the "Battle of Jericho" that began in 1993. At that point, it will be declared, "It is done."

In January of this year, we had a gathering in Los Angeles, where the Lord had us take Jezebel captive. We were not to dispose of her at that time, but to use her as bait in order to capture King Ahab, her husband. Who are these spirits? Jezebel is Babylon, the Queen of Heaven, and Ahab is the King of Babylon (Is. 14:4).

Ahab stole the Vineyard that belonged to Naboth, its rightful owner.(1 Kings 21). Isaiah 5:7 tells us that the Vineyard is the House of Israel. In other words, it is the Kingdom of God (Matt. 21:41). Those who would not and could not bring forth the fruits of the Kingdom usurped the Kingdom, as Jesus' parable shows. This was pictured in the Old Testament in the story of King Ahab, who usurped the Vineyard with the help of his wife, Jezebel.

The true owner of the Vineyard was Naboth, whose name means "fruits." He represents the overcomers who are truly called to bring forth the fruits of the Kingdom. Thus, Jesus gives the verdict of the Divine Court in Matt. 21:43,

"Therefore I say to you, the Kingdom shall be taken from you [the usurpers] and shall be given to a nation [ethnos = "people"] bringing forth the fruits thereof."

Naboth was a Jezreelite (1 Kings 21:1). That is, his vineyard was in Jezreel. This name is also the name of one of Hosea's prophetic children (Hos. 1:4). The name means "God scatters" (as a farmer scatters the seed in the field). Hosea's son was named as a prophecy that the House of Israel would be scattered in the field, which is the world (Matt. 13:38).

The House of Israel was the original Vineyard, the Kingdom of God. But because they did not bring forth the fruits of the Kingdom, God caused the House of Israel to cease (Hos. 1:4), and He scattered them into the world as a farmer scatters seed in the field. Hosea had other children named Lo-ruhamah ("No Mercy") and Lo-ammi ("Not My People") in order to emphasize other aspects of the prophecy against the House of Israel.

These Israelites, the ten tribes of the Northern House of Israel, were carried into Assyria from 745 to 721 B.C. Because of the prophecy, they were called the "lost tibes of Israel." This prophecy did not apply to the southern House of Judah, which later went into the Babylonian captivity yet returned 70 years later. Israel and Judah were two distinct nations, and only Israel was "lost."

The King was in Judah, but the Kingdom was Israel. This is made clear when God caused the division after the death of Solomon. In 1 Kings 11:30, 31 the prophet Ahijah tore his robe into 12 pieces, gave ten of them to Jeroboam, and told him, "I will rend THE KINGDOM out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to thee."

He repeats this idea in verses 34 and 35. Each time it is THE KINGDOM that is identified with the House of Israel. Judah was not the Kingdom, even though they had the King whose lineage was to culminate with Jesus Christ. The breach between the King and His Kingdom is a theme that carries into the New Testament, where Jesus comes as King, but is seeking His Kingdom. He must die to redeem it (Israel), and He also must "go into a far country to receive for Himself a Kingdom" (Luke 19:12). In other words, He had to ascend into heaven--the "far country"--to petition the Father for the Kingdom, even as King Herod had to go to Rome and petition Caesar to receive authority over the Kingdom of Judah.

The Kingdom is Israel, not Judah. And Israel as a nation had "ceased" (Hos. 1:4). And yet Hosea says that Jezreel-Israel would again be betrothed unto God (Hos. 2:20), and Israel would again become His people. Jezreel has a double meaning, for it means "God scatters" and "God sows." Hence, Hos. 2:23 says,

"And I will SOW HER unto Me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not My people, 'Thou art My people;' and they shall say, 'Thou art My God.'

And so we see that in some way, the Kingdom of God (Israel), which ceased to exist in its old form, was going to become His people (as "sons of the living God," Hos. 1:10) once again. In the divine purpose, they were sown in the earth in order to bring forth a greater harvest in the end of the age. A seed cannot bear fruit except it die first.

But this resurrected Kingdom will not take the same form that it originally had. It will no longer be a carnal kingdom, overgrown by "tares" (Matt. 13:25) or "birds" (Matt. 13:32) or "leaven" (Matt. 13:33). It will be a perfected Kingdom, and it will be ruled by the New Man--Christ and His Body. These are the ones who fulfill the prophecy of Naboth, for they bring forth the fruits of the Kingdom. They bring the Manchild to birth, which is the "fruit" that God has always required.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom was taken from the Jewish leaders in Matt. 21:43, just as the Kingdom had been taken out of the hand of Solomon's son, Rehoboam,  in 1 Kings 11. It is not a Jewish Kingdom that is coming, nor is its capital the old Jerusalem. It is an Israelite Kingdom, and it will be given to those who bring forth its fruits. If you want to know how to become an Israelite in order to be an inheritor of this resurrected Kingdom, see my book, Who is an Israelite? You must become an Israelite in the same way that Jacob became an Israelite. Jacob was not born an Israelite, and if it had come through genealogy, even Esau would have been called, for he was Jacob's twin brother. Genealogy is not sufficient to qualify for Israelite status.

The usurpers of the Kingdom are pictured in the Bible as Ahab and Jezebel. So if you want to understand what is going on today, you must know that story. It is a great historical allegory of the Kingdom and how it was usurped from Naboth, the Jezreelite.

We are privileged today to see the end of that story, for we have a date with Jezebel, the Queen of Heaven, and Ahab the King of Babylon will also be taken. I believe that this will prove to be a major step (if not the final step) before we see the actual in-the-world overthrow of Babylon. This is the city that is also pictured as Sodom for its immorality, Egypt for its bondage, and Jerusalem "where also our Lord was crucified" (Rev. 11:8).

Elijah himself, with the backing of the 7,000 remnant of grace, could overcome only the opposition of the priests of Baal. But we now have a new Gideon's army that is greater and adequate to overthrow both Ahab and Jezebel. That is what was accomplished on June 15-18 in our Battle of Waterloo that we called "God is Able."

We now know what 2 Cor. 9:8 means when it says, "that you, always having all sufficiency in all things." It means we now have "all sufficiency" to do the job of overthrowing Jezebel in October 2006. The prayer campaign supplied us with enough prayer warriors to get the job done. What Elijah lacked, we have all sufficiency. I did not know this until after the battle was concluded. It is so typical of God to give us the revelation before a battle and then tell us afterward what it means. He is the God of Surprises. Isn't it great!