Lilith, a power behind the throne?

There has been a dramatic resurgence of interest in this ancient "mother of demons" in recent years...

by John & Helen Gardiner

The church has been on something of a Jezebel binge for the past decade or so. Mountains of books, tapes, videos and seminars have been churned out in the quest to expose the so-called Jezebel spirit.

Yes, it has been valid to identify certain symptoms and characteristics of a very real stronghold that needed to be pulled down in the church. But there has also, unfortunately, been gross spiritual abuse (especially of women) under the guise of keeping the Jezebel spirit in its right and proper place.

Unfortunately, the major movers and shakers in the realm of this spiritual hobbyhorse, have sometimes themselves been the most "Jezebellic" -- resorting to using manipulation, domination and control to keep their show on the road.

And the truth of the matter is that the whole concept of a Jezebel "spirit" is extra-biblical, or outside of scripture.

Nowhere in the Bible is there any mention made of a Jezebel spirit. The books of 1 and 2 Kings mention the very real, very malevolent queen Jezebel while the book of Revelation (2:20) speaks of tolerating that woman Jezebel.

Queen Jezebel ruled over the nation of Israel as the power-behind-the-throne to her weak-willed husband, Ahab. The question we should ask is: What was the demonic power behind this power behind the throne?

Instead of simply labelling people as "Jezebels" or as "operating in a Jezebel spirit," we should get to the root of the matter and identify the demonic stronghold at work over Queen Jezebel and a number of other people mentioned in scripture.

The Lord recently began to open us up to something that, we believe, holds the answer...

There are a number of places in the Word of God where our English translations simply don't accurately portray the original meaning of the Hebrew words used -- especially when it comes to the demmonic realm.

In many cases the translators attempted to give rational, natural names to demonic creatures. The word leviathan, mentioned in Job 41 and Isaiah 27:1, is an example of this.

A passage that mentions a number of these creatures is Isaiah 34. From verse 6 onwards, this chapter speaks of God's judgement upon Bozrah, a city which is used throughout scripture as a symbol of evil pride and arrogance.

While this passage speaks of God's judgement upon a natural region, it also paints a picture of spiritual desolation. Verse 11says "and He will stretch over it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness." Verse 13 speaks of thorns and brambles and nettles springing up. That's a clear picture of someone who is demonised -- just confusion and emptiness, a life overgrown with thorns and brambles and nettles.

This passage mentions a number of creatures that are either clearly demonic or ritually unclean in terms of the Mosaic law.

The first mention of unusual creatures is in verse 7, which speaks of unicorns.

Verse 11 mentions four different creatures.

Firstly, some translations speak of the cormorant or pelican or the owl. The Strong's Concordance says the exact meaning of this word is unknown, but the literal translation is: the vomiter!

The second creature is translated into bittern or porcupine or hedgehog -- but the literal translation is "a shrinking animal."

Then come the owl and the raven, both ritually unclean birds

Verse 13 speaks about becoming a habitation of what most versions translate as jackals. The Hebrew word used here is tanniyn, which means a dragon, or a sea or river monster.

Verse 13 also speaks about owls. The Hebrew word here is bath which means female beings.

Then verse 14 speaks of wild beasts of the desert. The Hebrew word used here is tsiyiy, which means a desert-dweller a crier or yelper. And these wild beasts of the desert shall meet with what some translations term jackals and others refer to as wild beasts of the islands. The exact meaning of the Hebrew word used here (iy) is unclear, but it also has to do with doleful screeching creatures.

It then goes on to say "the wild goat shall bleat to its companion." The Hebrew word here is saiyr or satyr, which is a demon-possessed goat. Satyrs are mentioned in Greek mythology as creatures which are half man and half goat, and which are supposed to inhabit wild and desolate regions.

Then different translations speak of the screech owl or the night creature or night hag, which shall "settle there and find for herself a resting place." The Hebrew word used here is Lilith.

Few English translations really portray the meaning of this word with any great accuracy. However, the Afrikaans Nuwe Vertaling comes close. It reads: "veldgode sal na mekaar roep en die naggees sal daar bly en 'n woonplek vind."

The original Hebrew meaning of Lilith is generally accepted as being "a female night demon."

Before looking at Lilith in more depth, verse 15 concludes the assortment of unusual creatures mentioned in Isaiah 34. Some translations speak about a great owl laying eggs, some speak about the arrow snake or dart snake. Again, the exact meaning of the Hebrew word used here is unclear. The pictures of a demonic creature hatching its evil eggs and of a snake darting out, spreading its poison and darting back under the rock again are vivid ones.

A few months ago, the Lord highlighted to us this word Lilith. This is the only place in scripture where this word is used -- so you might question why one should attach any importance to a word only used once in the whole Bible.

Well, as we began to research this word -- we became more and more was amazed!

We did a word search on the word Lilith on the Internet, and found there were more than 140 000 references to this word (Jezebel, by the way, only scored 66 000 mentions)!

A general survey of these sites revealed that they were divided between:

*Dozens of new age feminism sites -- and in America there's even a Lilith festival and a Lilith magazine, dealing with spiritualised feminism. It would seem that the spirit of Lilith has become the darling mascot of new age feminists.

*Next in order of the number of mentions were occult and witchcraft sites glorifying Lilith as a powerful demonic spirit -- and some of them even contained elaborate and very detailed rituals on how to summon the demonic spirit of Lilith.

*Then there were numerous kabbalah and midrash sites. Kabbalah is a Jewish form of witchcraft and mysticism, while midrash is a Jewish form of scriptural interpretation and teaching.

*And then there was a smattering of pornographic and very perverted sexual bondage sites.

So we began to question why an obscure and relatively unused word should have such prominence. Why the obsession with this word Lilith?

The Encarta Encyclopedia cast some further light on the subject:

"Lilith, in Jewish folklore, a demon that is an enemy of newborn children. The name Lilith is etymologically related to the Sumerian word lil (wind), not to the Hebrew word laylah (night), as was long supposed. Like the Sumerian wind demon and its later Babylonian counterpart, Lilith was regarded as a succubus, or female version of the incubus. In the popular imagination, Lilith eventually became confused with lamashtu, the Babylonian child-slaying demon. The only biblical reference to Lilith is in Isaiah 34:14, in which she is depicted as a demon of the desert.

"In post-biblical Jewish literature, Lilith came to be identified as Adam's first wife. The first fully developed account of her mythology is found in the alphabet of Ben Sira, written between the 7th and 10th centuries AD. According to the alphabet, when God decided to create a female companion for Adam, he created the first woman out of earth in the same way as he had created the first man. The pair immediately began to quarrel because Lilith refused to submit to Adam. Lilith fled, and in response to Adam's request, God sent three angels to bring her back. The angels told her that if she refused, one of her demon-children would die every day. Lilith refused to return to Adam and vowed that she would harm male infants up to the eighth day after birth and female infants up to the 20th day.

"In traditional European Jewish communities, belief in Lilith persisted into the 19th century, and protective amulets were frequently placed near the bed of a woman about to give birth. Since the mid-1970s, Lilith has returned to Jewish poetry and fiction. In particular, she has been adopted by American Jewish feminists as a symbol of women's strength and independence.

"The Jewish feminist journal Lilith first appeared in 1976, and Jewish feminist theologians have worked to reinterpret the biblical story of Adam and Eve in light of Lilith's myth."

It is significant that even this secular encyclopaedia recognises that since the mid 1970s there's been a resurgence in interest in the Lilith spirit. The 1970s marked the emergence of the charismatic renewal in the Church, but it also marked the emergence of a demonic counterfeit.

In order to give some understanding of what the Lilith obsession is rooted in, we would like to quote from just a few of the sources on the Internet.

From the article "Lilith: the first woman" by Clara Negri:

"Lilith, is a provocative and lustful creature, who rebels against the first man by cohabiting with demons and forcing Jahwe (sic) to create Eve. Since then until today, the image of 'negative' feminine is part of every civilisation: evil goddesses, pythonesses, necromancers, sorceresses, soothsayers and witches, who generally were ugly and bad, but also satanic charmers, able to push a man to perdition. In this way sexuality became synonymous with sin, dirty thing, loss of reason!

"The name Lilith is derived from the Assyrian-Babylonian word Lilitu, meaning 'wind spirit.' Lilith appears in Jewish, Sumerian, Arabian and even Teutonic legends. She's also present in many Jewish books, such as Talmud, Sefer-ha-Zoar or splendour book and midrash.

"Some tales show her as a divine creature, resourceful, intelligent, independent and animal-loving. Lilith is often associated to the fire, as she has been described as a beautiful creature from head to navel, but as a 'burning fire' from navel to toe."

Another source states the following: "Lilith is usually derived from the Babylonian-Assyrian word 'Lilitu,' a female demon, or wind-spirit -- one of a triad mentioned in Babylonian spells. But she appears earlier as 'Lillake' on a 2000 BC Sumerian tablet from Ur containing the tale of Gilgamesh and the willow tree. There she is a demoness dwelling in the trunk of a willow tree tended by the goddess Inanna (Anath) on the banks of the Euphrates. Popular Hebrew etymology seems to have derived 'Lilith' from 'layil,' 'night'; and she therefore often appears as a hairy night-monster, as she also does in Arabian folklore. Solomon suspected the queen of Sheba of being Lilith, because she had hairy legs."

In Jewish kabbalah texts, Lilith is portrayed as the seductress. We won't go into details, but these kabbalah and midrash texts tend to be extremely perverted.

The caption to the photograph of the relief of Lilith featured here reads as follows: "Dating to 2300 BC or earlier, Lilith is the first feminist. While she is referred to as a demon by Levite priests who wrote the Bible. A Sumerian, Hebrew, and Muslim goddess, she is referred to anciently as the hand of Inanna who gathered males into the temple for sacred sexual rites. She holds the rod and ring of Sumerian royal authority, wears a stepped crown perhaps symbolic of lunar cycles, and is guarded by the bird of wisdom and has the king of beasts under her feet."

We believe we are in a time when the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will arise and crush this stronghold under His feet!

The one thing that struck us is that most of the sources we looked at refer to Lilith as the "mother of demons," "the queen of the demons" and even "the queen of heaven." So there is a recognition among these non-Christian sources that this is a powerful demonic spirit.

In light of the research we have carried out, and as we sought the Lord since then, we have come to firmly believe that this spirit of Lilith is one of the major spirits of this age, and that it is the power behind many other demonic spirits.

We also believe this is also the power or principality behind the throne of the so-called Jezebel spirit. And just as it took a combination of the kingly anointing of Jehu and the eunuchs to cast down the literal queen Jezebel in scripture, we believe it will take the kingly anointing of Jesus combined with people who are totally eunuched to him, to cast down the principality of Lilith.

We believe this is one of the major strongholds over the church, and one of the major strongholds over the lives of individual Christians.

We believe this is a warring, divisive principality, a master of manipulation. It is a spirit that knows how to use deep emotional hurts and wounds to manipulate and control. It is a spirit that leaves a wake of chaos, upheaval, uncertainty, broken relationships, and havoc. It is a spirit that loves to divide and conquer.

We believe some of the hallmarks of this stronghold of Lilith are double-mindedness and confusion; uncleanness; marital strife and divorce; financial curse; a perversion of Godly truths; the new-age spirit of tolerance and "all roads lead to God;" lust (not just sexual lust, but the spirit of lust that rules over society) and finally rebellion.

Specifically in women it manifests in: a despising and hatred of men, a provocativeness towards men, sexual seductiveness, a resistance towards Godly authority, militant feminism.

In men it manifests in: sexual perversion, addiction to pornography, a passivity and fear of taking up leadership and authority, a wimpishness.

We believe there is a need for fervent prayer to pull down this stronghold in individual lives and over the church corporately. Come before the Father and ask Him to begin to show you the operation of this spirit in your own lives, then in and over local churches and then in and over your locality.

Lord Jesus, I thank You that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to You. I ask You to reveal every area of my life that has been under the authority of or held in captivity to the power of Lilith (trust God to reveal these areas to you, and then repent of each specific area).

I ask You to forgive me where I have in any way tolerated, entertaining or welcomed the working of the spirit of Lilith in my life. I appropriate the cleansing, life-giving power of Your blood, Lord Jesus, in each of these areas.

I ask that You will arise as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and break every yoke and shackle that the power of Lilith has had over my life -- spiritually, physically, emotionally and circumstantially. I pray that You will do a complete and perfect work of healing and deliverance from this spiritual stronghold.

And, Lord, as you set me free please would give me the authority, compassion and love to see others come into the freedom that is there's in Christ Jesus. Thank You, that whom the Son sets free is free indeed!