What Ahab and Jezebel Can Teach Us About the Spirit of Rejection
Double-mindedness begins with rejection and opens the door for an unstable identity and personality. Here are some signs and symptoms that a person may have a spirit of rejection:
- A constant desire for physical love and assurance of self-worth
- Addiction
- Attention seeking
- Despair
- Despondency
- Discouragement
- Envy
- Fantasy
- Fears
- Frustration
- Guilt
- Hopelessness
- Impatience
- Inferiority
- Inordinate affection for animals
- Loneliness
- Lust
- Perverseness
- Pride
- Revenge
- Self-rejection
- Sensitivity
- Shame
- Suicide
- Unworthiness
- Vanity
- Withdrawal
Ahab: A Picture of Rejection
We can look at the lives of Ahab and Jezebel and see not only how Ahab personified the spirit of rejection but also how rejection and rebellion function within the double-minded personality. Both Ahab and Jezebel lived lives that consisted of the very things God hates.
Ahab, the seventh king of Israel, “did more evil in the sight of the Lord than all who were before him” (1 Kings 16:30). He promoted and participated in Baal and Ashtoreth worship. He allowed sexual rites—homosexuality, bestiality, and every disgraceful perversion—and prostitution in the temple of God. Men and women volunteered to serve as prostitutes.
Ahab is also known for his double-mindedness. He was often found waffling between righteousness and the ungodly ways of Jezebel, his wife, who was the daughter of a heathen king. She pushed him to incorporate her foreign gods and religious practices into Israel’s culture (1 Kings 16:31.) This is one of the reasons God commanded Israel not to take any wives from among the conquered people. They did not have a covenant with God and would not be able to understand how He dealt with them.
Jezebel’s influence led Ahab to forget God. First Kings 14:23 states that the people had earlier built up all kinds of images and places of worship to foreign gods in the groves under the trees. Ahab and Jezebel continued with this practice. There is symbolism that I want to point out so that you will see how these acts revealed that he was being controlled not only by a heathen wife but also by the spirit of rejection.
Strong’s concordance relates the word groves, as it is used in the 1 Kings 14:23, to Ashtoreth and idolatrous temple worship. These “services” were held outside in the groves of trees near the temple, where huge carvings of both male and female sexual organs were displayed and worshipped.
This is lust and perversion, two demonic spirits that are part of the rejection personality—two spirits that Ahab allowed in because of his relationship to these influences because of his own oppression. Jezebel did her part, but the door was opened through rejection.
The dynamic between Ahab and Jezebel provide for us a picture for how double-mindedness works. Ahab portrays the inward manifestation of double-mindedness (rejection). He was fearful and full of lust, insecurity and self-pity. He was envious, pouty and ridden with guilt and shame.
Jezebel is a demonstration of the outward manifestation of double-mindedness (rebellion). She was stubborn, self-willed, selfish, confrontational, controlling, possessive, and full of hatred, resentment, bitterness, witchcraft and idolatry. She also had a murderous spirit. Nothing would stop her from getting what she wanted.
First Kings 21:4–7 clearly reveals how the couple–one inward, one outward—linked together to form a double-minded union and accomplish wicked things:
Ahab returned home angry and depressed because of the answer Naboth the Jezreelite had given him, for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” He lay down on his bed and sulked and would not eat any bread.
But Jezebel his wife came to him and said, “Why is your spirit so sad that you refuse to eat bread?”
And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it.’ And he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.'”
Jezebel his wife said to him, “Are you not the governor of the kingdom of Israel? Get up and eat bread, and let your heart be happy, for I will get the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite for you.”
Ahab would pout in rejection, and Jezebel would rise up to retaliate in rebellion. Together they advanced wicked plots in Israel, driving the country to being rejected by God, led into bondage and left in desolated ruins. This is what the rejection and rebellion personalities accomplish when they work together within double-mindedness. They cannot be allowed to link up. In order to be disarmed, they must be separated and then cast out of the double-minded person.
The Jezebel spirit is domineering, manipulative and seductive. It intimidates, threatens, lies and does whatever it takes to accomplish its end.
Rebellion is a wicked personality that needs to be renounced and cast out. We will remain in bondage to it until we see how wicked it is.
The Ahab spirit is lustful, weak, fearful and tolerates wickedness. King Ahab allowed Jezebel to bring in the worship of Baal. His spirit is passive and will not stand up for righteousness. This inward and withdrawn personality is also wicked and needs to be renounced and cast out. God hates rejection just as He hates rebellion.
Rejection and Arrested Development
Sometimes people who have been rejected, especially early in life, get stuck mentally and emotionally at the time the first and significant rejection experience occurred. Many times they remain childlike in their understanding of life, in processing emotions, and in their behavior toward others, often being selfish and self-centered. It is as if they have been frozen in time. This is called arrested development. It operates in a specific area of the mind, targeting regression from ages thirteen to zero. For every year to which it causes a person to regress, a different spirit manifests. There is a different demon assigned to each age, and each (age) demon has a specific task.
As it operates in reverse, this spirit’s main objective is to hinder a person’s spiritual and natural growth. It aims to take the person back to the position in the womb and choke him to death. Many people who experience choking in their sleep may be struggling with this spirit. Even if its task is not completed, arrested development opens the door for spirits of terror by night, nightmares (controlled by a demon named Mare), and fear of the dark.
Many people who are bound by this spirit find that they try to escape hardship in life by turning to drugs and alcohol. It works strongly with Ahab, Jezebel, and whoredom spirits to keep the person depressed over her life, forcing her to regress to happier childhood years, while attempting to keep her from developing mentally.
The Word of God teaches us the power of the spoken word—death and life are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21). In his letter to the Corinthians Paul separates and distinguishes the things spoken by children and those spoken by adults. As mature saints we are to speak with the wisdom (mature things) of the Word. In Hebrews 5:12–14 we see that our understanding is to be matured.
Left unchallenged, the spirit of arrested development will stop a person from maturing past childhood. Adults who still play with toys and collect dolls are manifesting the characteristics of children. This could be the spirit of arrested development manifesting through fantasy and escape of reality, other spirits that come out of rejection.
Through arrested development and the other demonic manifestations we have discussed, we are gaining a clearer picture of how the spirit of rejection desolates the human soul, leaving a person fragmented and in pieces. Controlled by this spirit, people are left unable to be their true selves—the self that God created to showcase His glory.
There is no call, purpose or destiny that can be sustained while a person is controlled by this demon. {eoa}
Excerpted from John Eckhardt’s book, Destroying the Spirit of Rejection (Charisma House, 2016). To purchase the book, click here.
Apostle John Eckhardt is overseer of Crusaders Ministries, located in Chicago, Illinois. Gifted with a strong apostolic call, he has ministered throughout the United States and overseas in more than 80 nations. He is a sought-after international conference speaker and has authored more than 20 books, including Prophet, Arise!, Prayers That Rout Demons, Prayers That Break Curses, and God Still Speaks. Eckhardt resides in the Chicago area with his wife, Wanda, and their five children.
