I want to share something with you that the Lord has just put on my heart. I've been in a season, Joy and I both are in a season of fasting, can't remember how long it's been now, probably a couple of weeks or something like that. You just lose track after a while, but we're just having a sense it's a new season, new season in our lives, new season in the church.
When it's like that, you have to stir yourself up, you have to get near to God so you're listening to God. The Lord has been downloading a number of things to me. He spoke to me just over a whole number of areas recently, and He spoke to me on one thing particularly, and I want to read this scripture here, then show what He showed me.
Isaiah 52:1: “Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall come no longer to you. Shake yourself from the dust, rise up; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!”
God is speaking through the prophet, telling the church of the day: Wake up! Wake up to what's happening. Wake up spiritually, wake up on the inside, wake up - begin to arise back to become the people of God! Shake off the things that have held you down. Arise and begin to take your rightful role and positioning.
God is speaking strongly to a church, which was in a place of defeat, to awaken the church.
I recently received an article showing how the Islamic faith was spreading like wildfire through the world, and how it's emerging in Europe all over the place. The call for the church was: wake up! Wake up! Don't you see what is going on all around you?
God spoke to me, not directly, but through this verse. He spoke a personal word around a whole lot of other things, speaking to me and to the church. He said: “awake, awake from the slumber of Jezebel. Put on your strength O Zion”.
I thought - I know that verse, but that doesn't sound like the way I read it. I remember that many times, Jesus and the apostles quoted verses; and then they would alter them a bit, to actually just expand what was going on, or to give an additional insight. I thought: ‘Slumber of Jezebel’ - I'd never heard of such a term, never read it anywhere. I got my concordance out and looked it up - couldn't find it anywhere! Well, I don't know about that. Where can I find it in the word?
I began to look, and then the Lord just began to open up, just story after story, illustration after illustration. I encourage us to just be open to what God wants to say, particularly if it relates to you.
He's saying: awake, awake, awake! Awake church! Rise up. I believe it's a word to the church in our own nation; it's a word to us as a people - it's time to awaken, and to arise with much greater strength in God, strength in prayer.
I want to open up what this term ‘Slumber of Jezebel’ is, and some Bible examples. I don't want you to get hung up on what you may know about that particular demonic power. Just be open to what I feel the Lord's unravelling to me.
First of all, 1 Kings 16. The word ‘awaken’ means: to open your eyes; wake up out of sleep; rise into your proper place of operation. When the Bible is talking about awakening, it's referring to a sleepy condition, where people are not operating or functioning as they ought to.
In 1 Kings 16:30, you'll find the first reference to this person called ‘Jezebel’. I don't want you to label any woman, or anything like that - I want you think in terms of spirit powers, unseen spirit powers, which operate in the spirit world.