1 Kings 21
Jezebel is a foreigner/ she is outsider to the Israelites, which are God’s people on the earth. She enters into the kingdom bringing her ways and beliefs which are against the ways of God. She is a spiritual intruder and she wants to affect God’s plan by introducing her ways into God’s people.
God’s whole plan on the earth hinges on having a people that carry His truth, His image, and His glory upon the earth. It’s because of His love and His grace that He created us to be part of His plans. He did it because He is love and there is no better place for love than within a family unit—God wants an eternal family.
He wants to have a relationship with us. So He created this physical realm as a place for the physical to exist, but the physical journey is a test, and the response in the physical, has a direct impact on the spiritual/ eternal inheritance that He has planned for His children.
In Adam, God gave man power and authority over the physical realm. This was God’s creation and He entrusted its well being to Adam. The spirit of the serpent was already in existence, and like Jezebel in the story, his plan was to intrude. Whether this fallen angel, as a spiritual being possessed the serpent or transmuted into the image of a serpent, I do not know and don’t really care. All I know is that he was a spiritual creation that had rebelled against God at a time somewhere in the past. He was not content as a creation of God and instead wanted to be above God, and so he rebelled against God. Through his rebellion, he brought about his own spiritual death and now, he sees Adam and this new creation. He sees Adam’s authority and he wants it, so he takes on the form of the physical enters, so he can steal the spiritual. He failed his test and now he wants Adam and us to fail ours. Snake analogy from last pm.
Flesh and blood cannot and will not inherit the kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:50); therefore, we will be tested in the physical before entering into the eternal.
So the story has a setting, a physical place where a spiritual battle is taking place—like a garden, a vineyard, a church, a workplace, a home, a family. And then a spiritual intruder disguised in a physical body with plans to steal, kill and destroy.
And the only way that it can enter and cause trouble is if the will in the natural gives permission to the demonic in the spiritual and Adam does, and Adam brings in death, chaos, confusion and rebellion into the narrative of God. The serpent was an outsider, looking for a way into the plan of God. The serpent is always looking for a way into the plan of God and Jezebel is the opening of the serpent’s intrusion into God’s kingdom on earth during this time of Israel’s history. We must remain vigilant:
1 Peter 5:8
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
God has a plan for the human race and He is looking for people that will be His people and help Him bring His plan to fruition. There will be opposition, there will be tribulation, but praise God, He is worthy of it all. For from you are all things and to you are all things. You deserve the glory….
We’ve talked enough about Jezebel recently. She isn’t the topic of this message. But she, like the serpent is the intruder on the outside given permission to come on the inside to cause trouble in the kingdom.
The topic of this message is Naboth’s inheritance. God has a plan for His people. His people are His family. According to the New Testament, the son’s of God have received an inheritance.
Matthew 21:33-41 is a good parable to describe what I mean by inheritance and the intrusion by evil to steal it. READ
The direct context is that God entrusted Israel with His vineyard, but religion killed the Son and tried to steal His inheritance. The serpent will use Jezebel, false prophets, Pharisees, false doctrine, the enticements of the world…whatever he can use to steal the inheritance and to spoil the harvest of God.
If you’re saved this morning, you have protection from the deception Satan plans. If you’re truly saved, you’ve experienced God’s entry into your physical realm. He spoke and you responded and invited Him in. He is there now and wants to protect you from the intrusion of the enemy.
Something happened in your heart and like Jesus told Nicodemus, you may not know where a specific breeze originated from but you can feel it’s effects, so it is when a person is regenerated, when a person is truly cleansed by the washing of regeneration and their life is transformed, it is the result of a supernatural move of the Holy Spirit.
Titus 3:5
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains:
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; And there may I, though vile as he, Wash all my sins away:
If this person continues to grow in truth, and protects the presence of God and God’s will for their lives, the spiritual transformation will be manifest outwardly by the fruit of the Spirit being produced in their lives. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, faith, self control, patience, kindness, … these are outward, physical manifestations of a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. In our new life with Christ, the word says that we’ve been healed, delivered, set free, sanctified. The blood of Jesus cleanses us and makes us a completely new person.
That is really my message this morning. As new creations in Christ, we have received an inheritance of promises. These promises include the future, but they are also true for today. It’s important that we understand that Jesus came to restore to us what Adam lost in the fall to Satan.
This is important! Just as Ahab wants to steal Naboth‘s vineyard and inheritance, Satan wants to steal the inheritance of the saints. He wants to make a deal and if that doesn’t work Jezebel through seduction or violence will try to steal. They want to steal God’s plan for the church and they want to steal, God’s plan for our individual lives. Satan wants to offer Christian a deal. He wants you to serve yourself and trade in your inheritance, exchange what you want in place of the Lord’s plan for your life.
Both Naboth’s name and his home town have spiritual significance
Naboth= fruits
Jezreel= sown of God
To be sown of God means that God planted the seed. This means that the land was God’s, that Naboth was called by God to bear or bring forth fruit for God, and in the story, Ahab wants to take from Naboth what belongs to him. Look at Naboth’s response:
1 Kings 21:3
And Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. REPEAT
The land is very important to God. There is a scripture in Leviticus where God tells His people not to sell the land:
Leviticus 25:23
The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
There is quite a statement being made here.
The land is God’s and His people Israel are instructed not to sell it.
He explains to them that they are fellow strangers and travelers in the land with Him.
While the land belongs to God, He refers to Himself as a stranger
The context is God created it and gave it to Adam. Adam lost it, and now God, finding others that will trust and obey His word, is taking it back one piece at a time. His creating the nation of Israel was a plot of land that He used as territory to produce an inheritance through Jesus and says, “Do not sell my land.”
The land He is giving them a land has been invaded by inhabitants that were polluting it with their occult practices, and it’s still going on today. He is sending them in to conquer and take over control of the land Leviticus 18:25-27.
Adam allowed a deceptive lie to bring darkness into the realm that God had given Him to have authority over. The result of Adam’s decision not only caused a personal problem with sin, but it also brought sin into the land
Now, thousands of years later, God is giving land back to His people Israel and He is saying, “Right now, we are strangers together in our own land [it’s bigger than this. It’s bigger than Israel. It’s the whole world, the whole Earth, but it starts here with Israel, it starts here with Naboth’s vineyard, it starts here with Shammah’s pea patch (2 Samuel 23:11), it starts here with your house and family, it starts here with this church and anyone willing to join us in this area and hopefully we will be able to help other churches see it also, but we’re taking it back one piece at a time, one step at a time. God would say, “You have to trust me. I have a plan. Don’t sell the land. The land is mine. I’m taking back what belongs to me, and I’m allowing you, my people, to work with me, while I’m taking it back.” But you can’t let the snake into the garden and you can’t let Jezebel into the kingdom.
Now, Ahab wants Naboth to do what Adam did. Ahab wants Naboth’s vineyard, he wants Naboth’s fruits, he wants Naboth’s inheritance, but Naboth’s said: 1 Kings 21:3 And Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee
Adam gave Satan a foothold through disobedience
Ahab gave Jezebel a foothold when he transgressed the written word of God and married an unbeliever.
Paul said don’t give place to the devil, which means a foothold to the devil
Satan infiltrated God‘s kingdom, but God is reclaiming it all through the lives of His people.
His plan includes partnering with people that He has given authority and dominion on the earth to occupy until He comes. When you, as a born again believer with the Spirit of God in you, believe God and pray God’s will, it has power on earth. When you, a Spirit filled believer work with God by planting seeds of truth on earth, it has the power of heaven behind it, it’s going to bring a harvest, you don’t have to see it, you just need to believe it. Story of what Stephen told me
I believe that true Christianity is us walking with God and reclaiming the land, advancing the Kingdom of God, learning His word, believing His word and doing His word. If Jesus said:
Matthew 28:19-20
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Then that is what we believe, teach and do
If Jesus said:
Luke 10:19-20
19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
Then that is what we believe, teach and do
If Jesus said:
Mark 16:15-19
15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. 17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Teach it, believe it, do it
God created Adam and Eve in the image and likeness of God. And God told them to reproduce after their own kind and to have dominion over the earth and to spread His glory over the earth. Sin may have changed man’s image (Genesis 5:3), but it didn’t change God’s plan. Sin may have caused them to lose their authority and stripped them naked of God’s glory. But Jesus gives believers His glory (JN 17). Sin may have left them banished outside the presence of God in the darkness of night, but God has a plan of grace, and He’s looking for a people that will finish the race.
He started showing us the plan by clothing Adam and Eve with the skins of an innocent animal:
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God created the earth for Adam to reproduce and replenish the earth with the image and glory of God. Satan offered light and life but his lie brought death and darkness. Now, with the power that he’s taken from Adam, he fills the earth with his plans. Then comes Jesus:
John 1:14
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
READ John 1:1-13
And conclude w/ the Luke 19:11 parable
