Rebecca Lightfoot
The fourth challenge to a real and honest relationship with the Lord is what we allow into our minds/hearts/lives that leads to an immorality of any kind.The Church of Thyatira that Jesus addresses in Revelation 2:18-29 has no problem with being “religious” and faithful “religious servers” in their community.But Jesus calls them out for what is the darker side of their lives,& probably things that they would like to keep from many others knowing about.These people have a portion of their lives that is “above the surface” where they do good things and are faithful to religious/churchy things that make them feel better about themselves and look “religious/faithful” to those around them!But Jesus knows what is going on WITHIN other parts of their minds/hearts/lives that are “beneath the surface”-things they are doing & thinking that are away from what is RIGHT&TRUE.Jesus says(Rev2:18-20),”To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.”There is much more to this spirit of Jezebel that Jesus is taking about in the Church at Thyatira...,all leading to immorality.This includes sexual immorality,but implicates much more by Jesus using Jezebel as the “example”.The Jezebel Spirit is what Jesus is referencing, which defines immorality as anything not conforming with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.When Jesus talks about these things,we know that The Word of God is the RIGHT&TRUE “textbook” for RIGHT Behavior and TRUE Goodness of Character!This is what Jesus is calling the Church in Thyatira to.He is pleading for them to turn away from all in their midst that is not RIGHT&TRUE,& to turn to THE TRUE GOODNESS that HE teaches in HIS Word with the help of HIS Spirit.Unless we are heeding Jesus’ message to this group of people in Thyatira in our own lives,then we are vulnerable to the strategies of the Jezebel Spirit ourselves.I found a list of 30 traits of the Jezebel at https://truthinreality.com/2013/09/24/30-consistent-traits-of-the-jezebel-spirit/ It is eye POPPING/OPENING to read through these.Dear Lord Jesus,sitting in these verses and rolling over and over what You are saying here is making me aware of things in my life that I have allowed to have influences that have distanced me from and all honest and true relationship with You. Forgive me,& may Your Spirit use these verses to continue working in my mind/heart/life so that I purge my mind/heart/life of all these influences and be filled with Your Presence in my mind/heart/life.