“And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen…” (Rev. 18:1).
Prior to the fall of Babylon, John relays a great sight as he sees the earth illuminated with the glory of the Lord. The earth is the realm the scarlet woman of Revelation 17 had previously inhabited and where she had caused the kings of the earth and the inhabitants of the earth to commit fornication.
But the angel’s descent from heaven illuminates the earth. The testimony is sure; all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord (Num. 14:21). Light is synonymous with life. Individually, His light illuminating our earth signifies His life manifested in a regenerated soul.
However, this great event has a corporate application. The earth signifies the realm where carnal Christians dwell. These are soulish Christians who occasionally touch heaven but primarily reside on the earth and mind earthly things. The illumination of this realm by the light of God’s glory is the precursor to the end of Babylon’s dominion over the saints on the earth.
Surely God will do a quick work of Mystery Babylon. We’ve said much about religion though there is much more hidden mysteries written about Babylon and God’s dealings with her. One thing is certain; Babylon is falling in the individual experiences of those who are now pressing into identification with Christ. These are experiencing the illumination of their earth by the glory of the Lord.
Unfortunately in many of our fellow brothers/sisters we see the walls of Babylon fortified in their lives. These are Babylon’s dogmas which function as a barrier to the entrance of God’s truth. Through the centuries, Babylon’s walls have been reinforced, protected, and the duty of guarding it passed down so that every new generation has been born to believe within the confines of its pre-established creeds and traditions. As the years, decades and centuries rolled on, these religious ideologies have not only been institutionalized but they have become deeply embedded in the minds and hearts of the saints. They have become assumptions held so deep that most are scarcely aware of them.
What has followed is spiritual stagnation in the transitory realm of Pentecost; a realm in which many believed they had escape the very traps and confines of religion. Settling produces spiritual stagnation, deterioration and ultimately death. The saying is true; in this world you’re either growing or you’re dying. Paul too assures us that though our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16).
However, how many who troop to church every Sunday can confidently claim that their inward man is being renewed? How many can declare that His light is illuminating their earth? Indeed there is famine in those who abide within the walls of the Babylonish religious system.
Anyone who has no sense of the current spiritual condition of the church is, without doubt, in a deep sleep. What’s more troubling is that many of our fellow brothers and sisters are complaining: “don’t wake me up”. They are rather enjoying their slumber and don’t wish to be disturbed. But as our dear brother has shared, God is raising another company who are releasing a shout to awake the virgins of the church. Indeed it is an outcry that is ushering in the Bridegroom in those who are ready to receive the Lord’s coming outside of Babylon.
Many of us can testify that we have wasted away much of our years in religion, continuously being encouraged in Adam but never growing in Christ. Week after week, month after month, and year after year listening to the same recycled message coated with just enough humor, just enough stories and just enough promises to keep us coming back. Tell me, who in the church doesn’t want to be revived? That many yearn and pray for revival is itself indicative of the spiritual condition of the church. To ‘RE-VIVE’ is to restore to life that which was once alive. It confirms that the one who needs to be revived is indeed dead.
But revivals have come and gone. Consider the great revivals of the 19th century from the Methodist revival under John Wesley in England to the second great awakening in the U.S. under men like Charles Finney to the revivals of the 20th century, such as the Welsh revival and the birthing of the Pentecostal movement in the U.S. through the Azusa street revival. No one contests that these were remarkable moves of God where earth was illumitaed by His glory. Of the Welsh revival we read testimonies of thousands who were saved, families were impacted, bars were closed, crime rates dropped, and a deep yearning for God had overcome entire communities.
But all these revivals have one thing in common: they all ended. Despite their divine visitation, many ended in conflicts, divisions and the formation denominational camps. Their flames were snuffed out by Babylon. No revival through the course of history has been able to overcome Mystery Babylon. One and all have succumbed to the harlot’s devises.
So here we are today, the dust of those revivals has settled and the church finds itself praying for yet another revival, for yet another visitation, for yet another move of God. Ironic that many seek revival while being married to the religious system. They desire revival to come, but only within the confines of their denominational sects and countless erroneous doctrines.
If nothing else, should we not learn from history. Where is the Methodist church today and what of our Pentecostal churches? Where is the evangelical zeal of William Booth? Has it not been reduced to a charitable organization called the Salvation Army. Where is the fire of the Azusa street revival in the U.S.?
A Chinese missionary was once asked what impressed him most about the church in America? He replied: “the great things Americans can do without God”. Indeed that fire has been replaced by man’s strength in the hype and delirium of mega churches. What of Whitefield, Wigglesworth, Seymour, Lake, the Wesley brothers, Roberts and the countless others whose stories history has not recorded? I do not belittle these men that God raised in times past. I believe they fulfilled God’s purpose in their generation. But these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise.
All these revivals and might moves were but a small sample of the might work God is getting ready to unveil. Yet this is not another revival. No more are we contending for Christ’s visitation but rather His permanent habitation and manifestation. Which would you prefer, for Christ to visit your or for Christ to make His home in you and to abide in you and make you a permanent vessel of His glory? I for one, no longer contend for His visitation or His touch, only for it to eventually depart from me. Yet, is it not because His visitation was lifted that the revivals of old were hijacked by flesh to eventually die?
The combined revivals of history pale in comparison to the glorious work God is getting ready to unveil. The times of revival are no more. But God is now preparing to bring forth the greatest event the world has ever experienced. It is unlike anything man has seen, heard or known. It is the next stage in God’s redemptive plan for creation. This glorious event of which I speak is the manifestation of sons (Rom. 8:19).
Creation is not earnestly longing for another revival. Revivals will not establish the kingdom of God on the earth. The revivals of the past did nothing in the way of redeeming creation from its corruption. The carnal religious and world system of man are still here among us stronger than ever.
Precious saint, it is not revivals that will set the saints free from Babylon or redeem creation from the bondage of its corruption but the unveiling of the sons of God. Creation’s earnest expectation and yearning is the manifestation of those conformed to the image of Christ. These are Sons of the light and sons of the Day who will illuminate the earth with His glory! Oh what ministry this is!
For this cause, we too groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the culmination of this corporate manifestation of Christ in our redeemed body. This is the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven!
What God is getting ready to unveil in this hour transcends everything we have experienced in the realm of Pentecost. That we would continue to grow, that we would continue to go from glory to glory, from revelation to revelation, from one level of maturity to another until we come unto a perfect man and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is the will of God for His apprehended sons. Even now the true Light is illuminating our earth with His glory and we rejoice in it! But we also yearn to be conduits of His glory to the multitudes on the earth and indeed to all of creation.
May the grace and peace of our Lord abound to you!
Kingdom Truths 
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