Sermon

At church today, the sermon was from Revelation 2:18&19. The topic was "The Spirit of Jezebel".
Here are some points Pastor Storms made:
According to 1 Kings 16:31, Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, who married Ahab, king of Israel. Jezebel was responsible for the killing of Naboth and confiscation of his vineyard for her husband ( 1Kings 21:1-16). She sought the death of all the prophets of Israel ( 1Kings 18:4; 2 Kings 9) and even came close to killing Elijah ( 1 Kings 19:1-3).
The name "Jezebel", had, in fact, become proverbial for wickedness.
Most likely the Jezebel that is referred to in Revelation was a female member of the church who was promoting destructive heresies and leading many into moral compromise. She is a real person, but the name Jezebel is probably symbolic. Although the first Jezebel had been dead for over 1,000 years, her " spirit"  had, as it were, found new life in this woman of Thyatira.
She was a self proclaimed prophetess. She may very well had prophetic ability, but it was an ability energized by a demonic spirit.
The spirit of Jezebel was not unique to the church in Thyatira. It is alive and well in the body of Christ today. It is an insidious, yet subtle spirit. It is destructive, yet enticing.
The solution is not to repudiate the prophetic altogether, or any other spiritual gifts for that matter. Rather, we must be good Bereans, " examining the Scriptures daily" ( Acts 17:11) to see if these things are of God or not. In sum, we would do well to heed Paul's counsel: "Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil" ( 1 Thess. 5:21-22).