Hosea 1:4 | You DO NOT want to be a Jehu

Many believers desire victory over darkness, authority in spiritual warfare, and success in ministry. But what if you could conquer Jezebel, fulfill God’s assignment, see results, and still miss the very thing God desires most.

In this episode of The Warrior Bun Podcast, Codie takes a deep dive into Hosea 1 and the surprising connection between Jezreel, Jehu, and God’s warning to Israel. What begins as a study on spiritual warfare unfolds into a sobering revelation about outward obedience versus inward transformation.

Jehu was anointed by God, commissioned for a divine assignment, and successful in carrying it out. He destroyed Jezebel, eradicated Baal worship, and executed God’s judgment. Yet Scripture records a devastating truth: “Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord with all his heart.”

Together we’ll explore:

• Why Hosea’s son was named Jezreel
 • The hidden warning behind Jehu’s story
 • The difference between ministry success and intimacy with God
 • How you can cast out demons, confront darkness, and still leave areas of compromise untouched
 • Why God desires covenant love more than sacrifice
 • What it means to stop pursuing the “anointing of Jehu” and start pursuing the heart of Jesus

This message is a powerful invitation to examine the foundation of your faith. If God removed your ministry, your position, your finances, or your influence, would Jesus still be enough?

The greatest victory is not conquering Jezebel—it’s allowing God to fully possess your heart.

“Jehu was willing to destroy someone else’s idols, but not his own.”

Grab your Bible, open to Hosea, and join the conversation as we discover why God wants more than our obedience—He wants our heart.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey guys, alright. I hope you are having an amazing week. It is Wednesday. Um I am sitting outside again, so if you guys hear the birds, I had a couple um people say, I thought I was hearing birds in the spirit. Um, but actually I really am outside. So this week I want to just kind of the Lord uh really broke open a truth for me, and it was something that I had desired and I believed, and I had used it in warfare and deliverance, and just you know, anytime I was in battle, it's like I was using this um this tool, and uh as I was studying this, the Lord just opened up a deeper revelation of this, and so I want to take you where he took me. And I started reading um in the book of Hosea, and so in Hosea 1, it literally um starts begin, it talks about Hosea, you know, and what God tells him to do, and the assignment that God gave him that is very much out of the box, very much against religion, very much much against the normal of what um mankind thinks should have been done or not done. And so I really uh love it when the Lord does this because he really likes to break our boxes, he really likes to break us out of the mold. Um, as soon as we uh we get an obedience, it's like the first thing we do is we we kind of go off of what we've been taught, you know, what will people think, things like that. And it's just really funny to me that a lot of times God is actually going to ask you to do something that makes no sense to you, um, it makes no sense to anybody else, and actually, you're gonna probably get persecuted for it. Um, people are not gonna agree with you, and so the story of Hosea is is really a beautiful uh story of how God actually loves to restore and how he uses prophetic acts um to actually do that, and it's very important that in the prophetic and in the body of Christ that we actually um continue to partner with God in this way, um, just as they did in the old. So it says, when the Lord, uh, this is Hosea 1, 2, when the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take yourself a wife of whoredom, and have children of whoredom. For the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord. Okay, so this would be like a a man of God literally going and taking a prostitute and marrying her and having children with her. I don't even know it doesn't even look like he said to marry her. He just said to go and take her and have children with her. And I and it's like wow. Um, but he literally said that this is an image, this is a prophetic act, this is a resemblance because the people, the it says, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord. In other words, spiritual adultery, in other words, um, like spiritual prostitution, that is worshiping other gods, that is having other idols. Um, you know, I know we think of whoredom, we think of perversion and and sexual things, but we can be um we can be people of whoredom spiritually, you know, if we are um if we are going to other things for our peace and our comfort and our joy, um, if we have other idols, if we are, you know, um into drugs and alcohol and and we're going to all these different things um instead of going to God. This this is spiritual whoredom. And um, so we have to understand that this is what God was saying, that literally his people were forsaking the Lord, and he called that great whoredom. The land commits great whoredom. So it says, Hosea went and took Gomer, the daughter of Dibblum. I'm not the best with those uh those names, but you get the point if you're reading your Bible. And she conceived and bore him a son. So um the next verse is actually where the Lord took me deep into Revelation, and the Lord said to him, Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. So when I read this, the first thing I noticed was that that word Jezreel, okay. And let me let my dog in because she's causing the neighbor's dog to bark. Um, guys, this podcast is real and raw. That is one of the foundations of it. I I want to just I want you to get the relationship as if I'm just sitting here talking to you, okay. Um, I don't want to have to be all perfect and all these things. Um, I just want to be real and raw with you guys. So um in verse 4 where it talks about he wants God said for him to name his son Jezreel, and I thought the first thing that I thought as like um someone who does deliverance and teaches warfare and spiritual warfare, you know, I really try to um equip believers in that we are not fighting flesh and blood, we are fighting principalities and powers and rulers of darkness. I really try to um my one of my passions is to help believers understand that it is not flesh and blood, it's not people that we're fighting against. Um, even when people come at us, when they attack us, you know, when they persecute us, um, when they're mean to us, when they mock us, you know, all the things. Yes, the person is the vessel, but we're we're not fighting flesh and blood, we're not fighting the children of God, we're actually fighting uh principalities and rulers of darkness, okay. These are these are spirits, these are demons, and yes, these spirits do have um obviously they have license to use these people, but we can't attack the person. Um, because even Jesus said uh the first one without sin, throw the stone, and no one could throw the stone, okay? So it's it's really beautiful if we can get this vision and get this view that it is not the person, but it is the spirit that's working through that person, okay. So in doing that and teaching warfare and things like that, um this word Jezreel, you know, we use this in uh deliverance ministry because when we are battling a Jezebel spirit, um, it says that the dogs of Jezreel um finished off Jezebel and licked her blood clean. You can go and listen, um, not listen to it. Well, you can listen to it if you want to. Um, but go back and read it in 2 Kings, and I will give you those scriptures. I have them here in my notes. But um, the point is, is is I that word jumped out at me, and I was like, wait, God told him to name his son Jezreel. Is this the same Jezreel as in the land of Jezreel when Jezebel was defeated? And so I began to dig into the scripture and I was like, okay, I didn't even relate this. It was like, I don't know, I have read Hosea so many times, but that verse four, for him to call his son's name Jezreel, I was like, wait, and it took me back to 2 Kings, where um where Jehu is anointed to conquer Jezebel and actually destroy the whole house of Ahab. And and I began to think, okay, wait a minute, this is the same. So God is speaking about that time when Ahab and Jezebel ruled the land, and the worship of Baal was very prominent. He anointed Jehu to actually tear everything down for the glory of God. Yet, God says here in Hosea, I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And God, I was just like, wait a minute, I thought Jehu was positive, and Jezreel was actually a positive, like to me, it was it was very positive and conquering, and you know, this this this defeat of the house of Ahab and Jezebel and the worship of Bel. And I was like, God, why are you saying that you're gonna punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel? So if you know me, I just I was this was literally at night, and I ended up studying scripture to like uh passing the night because I just got so the the Holy Spirit just took me so deep into this. And and as I was studying this, I realized okay, Jehu killed Jezebel. But if you go back and you actually study Jehu, everybody in in spiritual warfare and and what I've been taught and what I've heard preached, it's like, oh, we want to be like Jehu, you know, we want to have the anointing of Jehu, and we want to be able to conquer Jezebel, you know, and all these things, and and people preach this and they make it like this big glorious thing. And I've even actually like in spiritual warfare prayer and intercession, you know, I've just I've I've had that in my spirit as well. And the more I begin to study this, I actually began to say, no, I actually don't want to be like Jehu. Um, yes, I want the Lord to help me conquer Jezebel, and he has many, many times. Um but Jehu killed Jezebel, but he never turned from his sin. And when the Holy Spirit revealed that to me, I thought, I don't want to be like Jehu. Like I don't I don't want to fight and and I don't really understand it. Now that I I'm you know a lot more mature in the prophetic, I don't understand why people desire to have, you know, these different types of anointings. You know, we we see books about like, oh, the the anointing of Moses and the anointing of Elijah and the anointing of Jehu and like all these things, you know, all these great warriors and David, and don't get me wrong, you know, I think they are a beautiful we can, you know, resignate with those anointings in their life and things like that, but I'm like, why do we want to have the anointing of Jesus? Like, what about Jesus? You know, and I and I constantly hear these messages and all these things, and don't get me wrong, they're great messages, and I think they speak to people in different seasons that they're in, and I think they do encourage people. I mean, there were many times where you know the God spoke to me about different people in the Bible, and you know, saying, okay, you know, like this is the season you're in, and you know, this this um study in this person's life in the Bible will help you understand, you know, what I'm asking you to do and and things like that. But it's like, man, can we just desire to be like Jesus? Can we literally just want that anointing? I think about um when Jesus was on the the you know, transfiguration, the mount mountain, it's like Moses and Elijah, they they all came, they all like dis they disappeared into Jesus, like it was just Jesus standing there at the end. And so it's like we have to understand that Moses in representation of the law, and then Elijah in represent representation of the prophetic movement, it's like they all came into unity and alignment with Jesus Christ Himself, and so that is what that is this that is the image or the anointing or the the heart posture or the calling that we need to desire is how can I be more like Jesus? So here was Jehu, um a great warrior, very well known in scripture. Um you might hear people preach about him. Uh he killed Jezebel, you know, um she came Elijah, he called down the fire, you know, with the with the um the the Bell prophets, and and you know, he was like, Oh, where's your God? Is he you know going to the bathroom or whatever? You know what I'm saying? Like, you know the story if you don't go back and read it, but um the showdown basically of God's prophet versus the false prophets. And so he conquers, you know, he doesn't really conquer Jezebel in that moment, he just takes out all her warriors and um all her foot soldiers, and they all die. She comes after Elijah. Well, then later he um, you know, Elisha gets the double portion of Elijah's anointing and a mantle, and so then you have Elisha who sent a prophet to anoint Jehu to actually finish Jezebel. Okay. But the fact that Jehu killed Jezebel but never turned from sin, this is literally one of the most sobering stories in scripture because Jehu is a man who was genuinely anointed by God for a specific assignment, yet he never fully gave his heart to God. God specifically chose Jehu to execute judgment on the house of Ahab. Now, if you don't know, Ahab was the husband of Jezebel. Elisha sent a prophet to anoint Jehu and declare. In 2 Kings 9 7, it says, You shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants, the prophets, okay? Because one of the main things that Jezebel is just passionate about is actually killing prophets, okay? Whether she silences them, whether she delays them, whether she kills them completely. Um, and she still does this today, guys. This is not um her spirit is still very much rampant in the body of Christ and in the world. But um, so if you if you have any of these attacks against you, um, just know that Jezebel is at play. The spirit of Jezebel. Um, that is her her ultimate purpose is death. Her ultimate purpose is killing anything anointed, killing anything that is going to prosper, killing anything that is going to mess up her plans of darkness. But remember, this wasn't Jehu's idea, this was God's assignment. Literally, God sent Elisha, God had Elisha send a prophet to anoint Jehu for this mission. And guys, anything God anoints you for, he always finishes what he started. So we see that he did succeed in this mission. But again, this wasn't Jehu's idea. He didn't just want to, he didn't just see what was happening and go, you know what, I think I want to take that, take that challenge on. No, he didn't do that, he didn't do like David. David actually was, he had such a fear and an intimate relationship with God that he chose to say, you know what, I'm gonna fight the giant. And he pretty much was like, God, you better show up. God never told David, go fight Goliath, he never did, but you have to remember that faith moves the heart of God. So David stepped out in faith to help God or help conquer this giant for God, and God just happens to show up because that is who he is, and he will always back up those who fear him. So this wasn't Jehu just saying, Oh, I see this, and Jezebel and her house, and Ahab and all this is happening. No, he didn't even he got commissioned by God, he got a he got anointed by God to do this. So Jehu, he obeyed aggressively, he killed the king, he oversaw Jezebel's death, he destroyed Ahab's descendants, he eradicated Baal worship from Israel. On the surface, Jehu looked like a reformer and revivalist. But guys, here's the problem. Immediately after celebrating Jehu's victories, scripture gives a startling assessment. 2 Kings 10 29. But Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam, the golden calves that were in Bethel and Dan. And then in 2 Kings 10 31, it says, Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. Notice what God says was missing, his heart, his heart posture. So God had his yes, God had his obedience, God had his passion and his drive and his entrepreneurship, and God had all of that, but he never had his heart. Like that just blew my mind. I'm like, how is that even possible for God to still not have your heart when you're actually completing the assignment that God gave you? What? Like, I don't know if you guys' minds are getting blown by this, but I'm getting blown by this because I'm just like, how in the world? God came and anointed you for a task, you're actually fulfilling it aggressively, you're actually doing it with passion, and you're being persistent and consistent, and yet 2 Kings 10 31 says he did not have Jehu's heart. Jehu was willing to destroy someone else's idols, but not his own. I'm gonna say that again. Jehu was willing to destroy someone else's idols, but not his own. Jehu correctly identified Jezebel's wickedness. He correctly identified veil worship, he correctly identified corruption, but he never allowed the same sword of judgment to cut into his own life. That's why many teachers see Jehu as a warning that you can confront sin, cast out demons, expose falsehood, fulfill a ministry assignment, and still have areas of compromise that remain untouched. So when God spoke through Hosea over a century later, he says in Hosea 1 4, I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel. At first that seemed strange because God had commissioned Jehu. Many scholars understand this to mean that. That although Jehu carried out God's judgment, his dynasty eventually became characterized by the same violence and corruption he was supposed to eradicate. The work was extremely correct. I'm sorry, the work was externally correct, but the heart was never transformed. Guys, Jehu teaches us you can be anointed for an assignment without being surrendered in every area. The anointing on your life does not automatically equal intimacy with God. I'm gonna say that again. The anointing on your life does not automatically equal intimacy with God. The ability to confront darkness does not mean darkness has been removed from every hidden place in your own heart. I'm gonna be obedient to the Holy Spirit. I bind every unclean spirit right now in the name of Jesus. Guys, Jehu had authority. He was commissioned, he had courage, and he had results. But scripture says he did not follow the Lord with all his heart. Jehu's story is about judgment without transformation. But here in Hosea, it's about transformation that restores relationship. God wasn't merely looking for someone who could kill Jezebel, He was looking for a people who would return to him in covenant love. God wanted more than Jehu's obedience to an assignment. He wanted Jehu's heart. Outward acts of obedience versus inward covenant faithfulness. Guys, these are the people I feel like I end every podcast with this phrase. And I pray that it brings a fear of God over your life to make sure, not that you're doing the right things in ministry, not not that you're you know you're seeing success, you're seeing results, you're seeing demons bow, you're seeing things get conquered. Not, I don't want you to focus on that. I want you to focus on what does the intimate relationship between you and Jesus look like? Like if he took your ministry away today, if he took your marriage away today, if he took your boyfriend away today, if he took your house away today, if he took your job away today, what would your foundation look like? Would you be stable? Or would you actually crumble? Would you fall apart? Would your whole world fall apart? Or would you be still standing firm because Christ is your firm foundation, not your ministry, not your job, not your spouse, not your children, not your, you know, whatever it is that is your daily security? Like if he took it away, would you continue to have a firm foundation? Would you be able to still walk in peace? Would you still be able to love? Like, what is your foundation? What is your heart? What is at the root of your relationship with Jesus? Not how often you read your Bible, not how often you go to church or don't miss a church service. None of that matters, guys. None of it matters. It will mean nothing when you get to heaven. The only thing that will matter is what your relationship with Jesus Christ. Was it intimate? Do you know what intimacy looks like? I'm not talking about sex here. That's a different kind of intimacy. I'm talking about a trust and a faith and a strength and a joy that that is you can't even understand it. You don't even know you don't even know how to explain it. Like, do you have that kind of piece where you're like, I just I just have it, but I don't know, I don't know what I did or why I have it, or like there's nothing I did to earn it. I just have it, like, and it makes no sense to other people. It really makes no sense to you. Because guys, he's outside of time, he's outside of your understanding. Like, you should have that inner core in your heart that you're not easily shaken. And if you don't have that sustainability in your life, you should you should feel it. I know people are like, don't go off of your feelings, but to be honest, you should feel the presence and the peace and the confidence and the strength of Jesus at all times when you have an intimate relationship with him. You're not easily shaken. You're not easily shaken by your finances. You're not easily shaken by by lack or poverty. Like, who cares? I have Jesus. You know what I'm saying? Like, you should be at this place where you're like, none of that matters because I have Jesus, and that's really all I need. That's it. So I encourage you today, don't I mean, like, don't be like Jehu. Don't go and do all these great things for God and see results, and and you see you see every everything come into alignment, yet your heart, he says, but he, but yet he says, I don't have your heart. I had a dream one time that um a minister came to me and he said, 'How much money do you want?' and it was like he was trying to like bribe me to like um be on his side. And I remember in my dream, I looked at him and I said, I don't want your money. I want your heart. In other words, it's not about all the money. And this was this was like a ministry. This was a minister. So it's like this was kingdom work. And it's like it's it's not about, oh, well, I want all the money so that I can, you know, bless more people, or you know, I want the money so that I can build more things for the kingdom, or you know, and and we in our ministry we ask for donations, we ask for money, yeah, because I mean, hello, you gotta have money to build things, like stuff costs money. But the thing is, is in that dream, it was like we can't be so focused on money to help build the kingdom of God. We have to be focused on does he have our heart? And he will test your heart, he will test you to see if he truly has your heart. Let him test you this week and and ask him to to open your eyes to the fact that it's a test, and then to open your eyes to the fact that did you pass or did you fail? And where can I grow? Where can I, you know, um, where can I work on my relationship with Jesus more? Where can I, and it's not from this place of striving and doing, like, just be with him, just sit with him and say nothing. So I challenge you today, um, study Jehu, study the life of Jehu and all that he conquered and all that he did, and the fact that he was anointed by God, um, and he saw results and he saw success, yet God says, I didn't have his heart. So I challenge you this week, don't be like Jehu, be like Jesus, and allow your Moses and your Elijah um understanding and perspective to come into complete unity so that all you see is Jesus Christ. And I promise you, once you begin to gaze and fix your eyes upon the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, you too will become transfigured into the very image of Christ. I love you guys. We'll chat next week.