A Thyatira Moment

 

A Thyatira Moment | by Donna Diorio

My thoughts in the early morning hours. Yesterday I was online searching and was exposed to a great deal of Christians speaking bitterly against someone. Later I watched a British movie called The Victim that again highlighted the self-destructive path of seeking our own vengeance instead of doing as Jesus told us about in Matthew 18, especially how He lays it out in parabolic form in the last half of chapter 18.

Christians don't realize the damage they do to themselves by failing to forgive others and leaving judgment at the Cross. In the world of unbelievers, we are seeing how bitterness and unforgiveness is literally driving people mad and plunging them into illness, both physical and mental. Christians think that because they are saved they are safe from this happening to them. Sadly they are wrong, and Jesus told us this exactly in Matthew 18. We are forgiven by our Master, but we still need ongoing forgiveness as we walk out this life that is fraught by betrayals, woundings, sins and trespasses against us. 

Our most intense failing after we come to the LORD is not forgiving others, knowing how much God has forgiven us. Jesus said after we are saved, when we don't forgive then God stops forgiving our ongoing need for forgiveness, especially the bitterness that starts forming in our hearts because of those we refuse to forgive and release for the "debts" we feel they owe us. A debt to apologize for what they did, how they treated us, stole from us, marked us for disregard - whatever it is. 

Automatically those begin to fill our cup, and as they do, demons are attracted to our vulnerability to sin. Many begin to fall ill and can't figure out why their health is so terrible, never considering what Jesus said in the Matthew 18 parable applies to them. Many begin to suffer various forms of mental illness. We cannot hold bitterness in our hearts without it corrupting all of our mental capacity. Demons flock to wounds that we refuse to release to the LORD completely. Wherever the dying body is, there the vultures gather. (Luke 17:36)

In Revelation 2:21, in the letter to Thyatira, Yeshua tells them He is aware of the praiseworthiness of their lives living for Him, but He has against them that they "tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess." We are talking about in the congregations of the saints the spirit of Jezebel is greatly tolerated. Jezebel is the "patron demon" not only of our sexually-saturated society, but sex is only a tool for power-hungry control. 

Yes, it forms in women and men who have felt powerless, but they did not process this wounding at the Cross. They did not lay that down at the altar, but kept it locked up in their heart. We do that easily. We think we deserve to hang on to this one bitter unforgiveness...but it just attracts more demons to us. Feminism in this country is the spirit of Jezebel and Cancel Culture is her weapon of revenge. Accusation is the tool to get what we want ourselves. God has no part in it, no matter how religiously we frame it for public consumption.

But Jesus said to the church, verses 21-23: "Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling. 22 Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds. 23 Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds."

The immorality of Jezebel is not only sexual. The Church is held responsible for allowing those with a Jezebel spirit to teach. This is not about women teaching, it is about allowing those with controlling Jezebel spirits to teach without discerning it and disallowing the woman or man to teach the congregation. It's not so hard to recognize, but many have become dependent upon those operating in a Jezebel spirit. They fill roles that leadership does not want to have to fill with someone else. Highly capable people, gifted with manipulating others' support, deceptive enough to keep their own influence hidden under the radar...except from those who exercise discernment.

Jezebel in the leadership of the congregation will instruct others in her devious ways, her immorality will be duplicated in others - immorality that is not always sexual - and to spiritually consume "food sacrificed to idols" - that which is passed off as the prophetic from the throne of God, but is not. "Prophecy" that turns people into following a spiritual life full of idolatry. What is idolatry but following fake signs, wonders, and parlor tricks instead of focus on the one thing that protects us against such things: being transformed into the likeness of Yeshua, who is the express image of God in the flesh. 

The whole prophetic movement is having a Thyatria moment. Only those who lay bitterness at the Cross, who forgive as they have been forgiven, will come out of this still walking with God. Those who stand accused by the Jezebel spirit will not all be like Naboth who was murdered so Jezebel could give her weak husband King Ahab Naboth's vineyard. It was Naboth's inheritance she stole by manipulative, deceptive means. 

Jesus means us to course correct from what He told the church at Thyatira. If we will not, He has told us illness and even death await.