2023 started off with a bang! Glorious meetings, open doors of incredible influence, salvations, miracles and breakthroughs supercharged my husband Tom and I as we gathered with our church and in a variety of meetings, from Korea to numerous places in the US.
But in the midst of all this, we had been contending against major spiritual attacks sent against us, our family members and ministry friends. Unusual sicknesses, accidents, diagnoses and oppression had been attacking those we love and other ministry friends, so we began to press in to understand the enemy’s assignment in this season.
On Sunday morning, Jan. 29th, 2023, the Lord showed me that this assignment was an attack of the spirit of Athaliah, and it was coming against leaders—especially those who are reformers—and their families, in order to stop them in their tracks and from their kingdom work of breakthrough and transformation.
A few days later, a prophet friend with our ministry, Gwen Sutton from the Northeast, was driving her car and heard that the spirit of Athaliah was coming against ministers and their families. Yet again, a few days later, prophet Marty Layton from Nashville heard the same thing. Obviously, when God speaks the same thing to numerous prophets, we need to pay attention; but more than that, we need to fortify ourselves and take spiritual authority to break any and every curse.
God’s Redemptive, Covenantal Grace
To be clear, Jesus hung on the cross to become a curse for us so that we wouldn’t have to live under a curse. Satan was defeated that day. However, he is obviously still loose on the earth, trying to harass and torment those who do not understand that we can enforce the victory of the cross through employing our spiritual weapons (Eph. 6:10-17).
We overcome every work of hell by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony and by loving not our lives unto the death (Rev. 12:11). He may attack through his illegitimate power, but Isaiah 54:17 prophetically encourages us with these words: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises up against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is from Me,’ says the LORD.”
Actually, in the midst of this story of the horrible, illegitimate ruler of Judah and all her violent acts (who usurped control of a nation and murdered a generation), we find a beautiful picture of God’s redemptive, covenantal grace with His people and with His nation.
Who Was Athaliah?
So who was Athaliah and what are the characteristics of this assignment? Second Kings 11:1 tells us, “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs.”
Athaliah was the daughter of Jezebel and Ahab, a wicked duo who brought witchcraft, oppression and idolatrous worship to the land. Athaliah’s son was king and was killed in battle, so she decided to seize the throne for herself. In doing so, she attempted to kill all who contained royal blood in the lineage of David in order to serve herself and her own wicked agenda. (This is a picture of the enemy’s assignment against all believers who are royal heirs of the kingdom.) Her rule was established illegitimately on the blood of her own family. During this time, she empowered the temples of Baal and Ashtoreth throughout the land, advancing her demonic cause and taking out anyone who stood in her way.
This is an assignment against leaders, believers, generations and even nations. It has implications both within the church and individuals, but also within the governments of nations. She illegitimately seized the throne, spiritually and naturally controlling the land, and created a blood altar by using her own heirs as the sacrifice. I think you can definitely find a correlation with these acts and the sacrificing of generations through abortion. What a picture of evil!
In looking at her name in the Greek, we find the basic meaning is “Jehovah has afflicted” (see Strong’s #H6271 and #H6270). This is exactly what she tried to do to others—to afflict, constrict and compress. Afflict means “to distress with mental or bodily pain,” “to be caused harm or trouble by something,” “to overthrow” or “defeat” and “burden.”
This is the nature of the attack—to afflict through any means, mentally or bodily (sickness, accidents, viruses, violence, etc.).Compress means “to press or squeeze together” and “to reduce in size.” This is the purpose of the attack—to press us and reduce us to keep us from advancing. Constrict is the picture of the enemy, like a python snake, trying to squeeze the hope and life out of the believer. This is the subtlety of the attack—to keep leaders and believers distracted, discouraged or depressed as the enemy squeezes faith out of them in the midst of the battle. But the Lord is saying, “Enough is enough!”
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Tom and Jane Hamon are the senior pastors of Vision Church @ Christian International in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. Their ministry together is an example to the body of Christ of a husband and wife team working in tandem and unity to accomplish God’s purposes. Their ministry is characterized by a rich deposit of God’s wisdom to provide apostolic covering for the church, prophetic teaching and ministry and demonstration of kingdom anointing and power. They travel as an apostolic/prophetic team to the nations, imparting both the spirit of wisdom and revelation to establish the church and break open territories through spiritual warfare for the kingdom of God to be experienced in a powerful and practical way. Jane has also written several books, including her very practical work on “Dreams and Visions,” her call to marketplace ministers called “The Cyrus Decree” and her proclamation over women in the church to arise and be “The Deborah Company.”
