Defeating the Athaliah Assignment
By Jane Hamon
2023 started off with a bang! Glorious meetings, open doors of incredible influence, salvations, miracles and breakthroughs supercharged 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 have been contending against major spiritual attacks against us, our family members and ministry friends. Unusual sicknesses, accidents, diagnoses and oppression have attacked 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, January 29th the Lord showed me this assignment was an attack of the spirit of Athaliah and it was coming against leaders especially those who are reformers and their families to stop them in their tracks from their Kingdom work of breakthrough and transformation. A few days later, a prophet friend with our ministry from the northeast, Gwen Sutton, 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.
To be clear, Jesus hung on the cross to become a curse for us so that we don’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 (Ephesians 6:10-15). 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 that “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 our righteousness is of Him.”
Actually, in the midst of this story of this 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 covenant redemptive grace with His people and with His nation.
So who was Athaliah and what are the characteristics of this assignment? 2 Kings 11:1 tells us “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal seed (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 temples of Baal and Ashteroth throughout the land and advanced her demonic cause, taking out anyone who stood in her way.
This is both an assignment against leaders, believers, generations and even nations. It has implications both within the church to individuals, but also within the government of nations. She illegitimately seized the throne and spiritually and naturally controlled the land, creating a blood altar using her own heirs as the sacrifice. I think you can definitely bring a correlation with these acts and the sacrificing of generations through abortion. What a picture of evil!
In looking at what her name means in Hebrew we find the basic meaning is “Jehovah has afflicted”. This is exactly what she tried to do to others - to afflict, constrict and compress (words used in the description of Athaliah’s name. See Strongs #6271 and #6270) Affliction means “to distress with mental or bodily pain, to trouble greatly, to overthrow or defeat, to impose a burden, to deliver a blow”. This is the nature of the attack - to afflict through any means mentally or bodily…sickness, accidents, viruses, violence, etc. Compress means “to cause to contract or shrink, to stop or slow the natural growth, advancement and development of.” This is the purpose of the attack - to keep us from advancing. Constriction 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!!!”
In 2 Kings we see several individuals who were responsible for thwarting and ultimately defeating Athaliah and her illegitimate rule. First we see Jehosheba, Ahaziah’s sister, the wife of the priest, Jehoiadah, who hid Ahaziah’s son, Athaliah’s one year old grandson, Joash and kept him from being killed. He was the only one left in the lineage of David whom God had promised would produce the Messiah. But Jehosheba thwarted the plans of hell. She is a picture of intercession, doing what needs to be done to re-establish righteous rule in the land and breaking the attack of the enemy. Her name means, “Jehovah has sworn.” It’s a covenental name as “Sheba” is a Hebrew word meaning “to seven oneself” which was a covenental act of making an oath. Every believer must understand the power of our covenant and prayers to defeat the plans of the enemy. When all hell breaks loose we must press in to our covenant with God and receive strategies that defeat hell. There is no time to lose. As she acted quickly, so we must be earnest and urgent to engage in this battle with spiritual eyes and ears open and tenaciously go after every assignment from hell, fortifying ourselves in our covenant with Him and overthrowing every decree of death and destruction.
The next character in the story is Jehoiadah the priest who led a revolution for the true king. He is the picture of reformers God is raising up today. Reformers bring change. He was a priest but also commanded an army of watchmen to protect the king by stationing them at the gate of the temple on all sides. While Athaliah was in her reign of terror, Jehoiadah kept the true king in the temple and cared for him for six more years. At the age of seven he crowned him king. Again this is a picture of God’s covenant as the number seven is a covenental number. Jehoiadah’s name means “the knowledge of Jehovah.” (When we know who God is, we will know who we truly are.) When Athaliah heard the sounds of celebration of the coronation of the true king she burst into the temple crying “treason, treason!” Isn’t it just like the enemy to accuse the righteous of what he is guilty of himself? And the soldier/watchmen took her out of the temple and killed her, ending her reign. God is empowering His watchmen to effectively deal with every demonic foe and break every assignment from hell.
2 Chronicles 23:6 says during this time of revolution it was not just the soldier/ watchmen who guarded the king, ‘but all the people shall keep the watch of the Lord.” It also tells us that “every man had a weapon in his hand.” (2 Chron. 23:10). Jehoiadah, the reformer, made sure they were all in position. This is a time for true ministers to equip, encourage and empower believers with the understanding that we should all be intercessors, we should all be watchmen and we should all be warriors!
In the United States our military goes to war but those left home remain in their civilian lives. In modern Israel, every citizen is trained as a soldier. When Israel goes to war, the entire citizenry goes to war. The ekklesia needs to develop the mentality that it’s not just the intercessors and leaders that fight against the forces of hell, but each one of us must have a weapon in our hands and know how to watch and pray!
After the death of Athaliah, Jehoiadah re-covenanted the nation back to God and overthrew all the temples and altars of Baal. “Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, the people, and the king, that they should be the Lord’s people. And all the people went to the temple of Baal, and tore it down.”II Chronicles 23:16-17 Again all the people made covenant and all the people confronted Baal. Jehoiadah then restored true worship, sacrifices and proper structure in the house of God.
The last covenantal character is the king, Joash. His mother was from the city of Beersheba, which means, “the well of the sevens, oath or covenant.” Joash’s name means “the fire of God”. God is restoring the fire of God in the lives of His leaders and believers everywhere. Joash was righteous as long as Jehoiadah was alive and guiding the nation in righteousness. This is such a picture of spiritual leaders partnering with civil leaders to bring God’s kingdom into the land.
Do you feel like you have been under attack from something trying to thwart your destiny, to put out the fire of God in your life or to rob your generations, your children and grand-children? Have you had unusual accidents, sickness or pain? If so, right now decree this with me:
I am bought by the covenant blood of Jesus and can not be cursed. Therefore, I take authority over every demonic assignment against myself, my family, my ministry, my business or my God-ordained leadership role. I break every assignment of an Athaliah type spirit and decree Jesus is my true king and I will serve Him only. I declare I am in covenant with God and will be the intercessor, reformer, watchman and warrior He has called me to be. I receive fresh fire from heaven so I can complete my assignments and fulfill my destiny, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Additionally I pray that God would raise up leaders, reformers, watchmen and intercessors to fight to covenant our nation back to God, overthrowing every false altar and decree of the enemy. Release your fire God and bring us back to you. Let us be your instruments, as was Jehoiadah, to make every crooked place straight.
We decree the sovereignty and supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ - that at His name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We declare He is All Powerful, completely Mights and Spectacularly Magnificent! We declare that He rules over the affairs of men! His name is far above all other names - above every principality and power and all things have been put under His feet. His feet are in the Body and we are Christ’s body in the earth, therefore, all things - all other names have been put under our feet.
We decree our God is a warrior - Jehovah Sabaoth is His name! He has already triumphed victoriously! The horse and the rider - every enemy pursuing us - has been thrown into the sea in defeat! No one can stand before Him. Thanks be to God who always gives us the victory! The Holy Spirit dwells in us and therefore, the curse destroyer, yoke breaker dwells in us!
You are a covenant keeping God, who keeps covenant generation to generation. Therefore, we decree that every demonic assignment of Athaliah - every attack of affliction, constriction or compression, every spirit of Baal, witchcraft and occult - that has tried to stop advancement, tried to get us to shrink back or quit, every assignment from hell against us and against the prophetic movement throughout the earth is broken. Every hex, vex, curse, blood sacrifice, blood oath or any occult assignment is made null and void by the power of the blood of Jesus. One drop of the blood of Jesus is more powerful than any other blood shed. The Voice of the Lord shatters the enemy - striking down any other demonic voice, in Jesus’ Mighty name!
We decree every cycle of death & destruction - every torment sent to afflict the body of Christ with accidents, mental or bodily pain or torment, disruption, discouragement, sickness and harassment - is broken by the power of our covenant with Christ. We overturn every decree of the enemy in Jesus’ name.
We repent for spiritual slumber, apathy & complacency.. for not being awake and watching when the attack came. We repent for being distracted or lacking the new level of discernment you called us to operate in. We repent of the spirit of religion that keeps us from advancing into the new season. We receive eyes to see and ears to hear for this new day so we can be a mighty army arising in your strength and power.
We decree complete victory and a pay back of restoration of all that has been lost in this battle. We decree a seven fold payback for all loss of time, money, joy, peace & opportunity. We boomerang the pain back on the enemy’s head just like you did time & again for your people. We decree he will pay it back in souls saved, lives set free, bodies healed, finances flowing and anointing released that destroys every yoke! The
We decree & declare that we are breaking out to break through into the greatest outpouring, revival and awakening ever seen. We decree Athaliah’s curse is being turned to a blessing and Jesus our King will be enthroned in this place, our city & our nation! We decree the Fire of God, Joash, is being released from hiding and taking its rightful legitimate place here at Vision Church and CI and throughout our network…. For our members & all those associated with us….. Let the fire of revival burn!!! Let it burn through all of CI, in every state & nation. Let it burn through every prophetic camp & ministry. Let your fire wake up the Ekklesia to who we truly are! Let your fire burn in every heart, every life, every marriage and every family. Let it burn over our nation and in the nations of the earth. Ww decree we will be a house and a movement ablaze with the fire of the Holy Ghost! In Jesus’ mighty name!!!! Amen! So be it to this decree!