Series: The Incarnation; Babylon
Sun am 22 February 2009 – Kobus Swart
Rev. 17:1-6; Jude 1:1-4, 8, 12-13, 16; 1 Peter 4:17; Rev. 18:1-5
There will be two incarnations in the end time. The truth will be incarnated in God’s people, but the lie is also going to become flesh in those who reject the Truth.
When Jesus came out of the wilderness, filled with the power of the Spirit, He employed the power of the Spirit in a different way than many Spirit filled people today would want to do it: Minister to those in need! The moment the community of Jesus exercises power apart from the story of Jesus and try to manipulate people or events in ways that short-circuit personal relationships and intimacies, we can be sure it is not the power of the Holy Spirit; but rather the devil at work. The Holy Spirit is a stranger to such religious blasphemy.
Love is the way God works. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” Everything God does is because He loves us, sometimes it’s tough love but it is still love. FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES [Heb 12:6]. We talk about the power of love is demonstrated relationally, how power is demonstrated through love.
Jude warns us that there will always be those “viruses” that will try to infiltrate the community of believers. (Jude 1:4,8,12,13) They usually become like rocks in our love feasts. I believe the greatest manifestation of power in the Jesus community is going to be wrapped up in divine love.
John on the Isle of Patmos exposes another manifestation of the antichrist spirit: Babylon, the mother of harlots.
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”
And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.
The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly? [Rev. 17:1-6].
People that fall for this religious spirit are normally driven by greed, and the success syndrome as defined by the spirit of the age. We believe in achieving goals, but watch when that becomes tainted by the spirit of the age. This spirit has infiltrated every level of human existence, but especially the ranks of the saints where there is a religious mindset prevailing. Presently, many churches that have fallen prey to this spirit, are in deep trouble. Some leaders have fallen prey to the abuse of power and money. “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” [1 Pet. 4:17].
Judgment over these abuses have been declared long ago. “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”
The voice of the Holy Spirit is clear: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” [Rev. 18:1-5].
God is saying; “End of mixture, I want My nature reflected in the earth, I want the Word to become flesh again. I want the church to reflect the Jesus that walked the earth.”
The end of mixture starts in our thinking, in our minds. We must have a kingdom mindset, based on biblical principles. Look in the mirror of God’s word when you receive this and ask: how much mixture is in me? Let us respond to the word of this hour and establish a model where there is integrity, true divine love and where it is easy to serve.