People living with an evil, unclean spirit classified as a Joab Spirit are disloyal scheemers who use whatever leverage they have over the leader. This may be the husband in a home, the Senior Pastor of a church, or the king of a nation, as David was over Israel.
Joab knew that David had caused Uriah’s death in order to cover up his adultery with Bathsheba. (2 Sam.11:14-15) This knowledge, I believe, caused Joab to be bold in his actions of rebellion against authority, believing that King David did not have the moral strength to deal with him. Be very careful because people with a Joab Spirit will try to gather a "dirt file" on their leader, hoping to use it against the leader's authority to make themselves look better in the eyes of the people they are attempting to influence.
The Absalom Spirit is different in some ways from the Joab Spirit, although both types of evil spirits are allowed to manifest through people who have unbridled pride controlling their lives rather than choosing to be under apostolic alignment. Pride was Lucifer’s downfall, and can open the door to an opportunity for any evil spirit to attack, oppress, influence and sometimes possess a person.
The Absalom Spirit wants to take over leadership and rule in place; whereas, the Joab Spirit wants to undermine leadership authority and rule behind the scenes.
Absalom’s proud younger brother, Adonijah, made decisions based on the Absalom Spirit and followed in his brother's footsteps of rebellion, using the same tactics to undermine authority and lead an open rebellion by having a chariot and horses and fifty men to run ahead of them. (2 Sam. 15:1; 1 Kings 1:5-6)
Notice that Absalom did not learn from his opportunity for being corrected with mercy and grace (2 Sam. 14:21-24) for being allowed to return to the kingdom after killing one of David’s sons, Amnon, who was Absalom’s half brother. (2 Sam. 13:28) Adonijah also did not learn from being corrected with mercy and grace for trying to take over as King of Israel when David, who was dying, had not appointed him as Israel’s new King. (1 Kings 1:5-9; 50-53) Absalom continued to try to overthrow leadership and rule when he led a rebellion against his father, King David, and slept with David’s concubines. (2 Sam. 16:21-22)
Adonijah was the elder brother of Solomon and was put to death for conspiring a second time to take the throne away from Solomon. (1 Kings 2:13-17) He asked Bathsheba to have Solomon give him Abishag, the Shunamite lady who took care of David in his last days, to be his wife. (1 Kings 2: 22-25). King Solomon recognized this as another plot by his elder brother to show the nation of Israel that he should be their king. This time Solomon immediately had Adonijah executed.
The Joab spirit of disloyalty, ambition and preeminence is more dangerous than the Absalom Spirit. It took King David 47 years to deal with Joab because of his murderous action against Uriah. Finally, he had enough of Joab’s constant undermining of authority and had his son, Solomon, kill Joab. (1 Kings 2:5-6, 28-34)
The Joab Spirit is very dangerous to those of equal rank and position, as commanders Amasa and Abner were to Joab who murdered them. The Senior Pastor or husband must deal decisively with the person operating under the influence of a Joab Spirit, or problems of disloyalty and betrayal will continue throughout the church or home.
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