After receiving so many e-mails last week asking what Aldo’s meant when he wrote that we have to “come out of Babylon”, I feel led by the Lord to explain a bit more about this topic according to the way the Holy Spirit has revealed it to me so far.
I have seen that people call themselves children of God, while at the same time shaking hands with the world. It is because of our compromises and indecisiveness that we don’t experience any real and lasting breakthroughs in the Kingdom of God. The time is quickly running out for us to get free and clean from worldly junk. From the beginning of this year I have been sharing with my staff at the office that the Lord is impressing on my heart that His fire of holiness will burn even hotter this year, and that manmade kingdoms will be shattered in this purification process.
Where our gates are open to the enemy, he will come in and destroy – and believe me it will be a fight for life and death if we wait too long. When we don’t put on our armor and take up our swords, we won’t see victory. While we stand guard against the enemy’s attacks, we also have to rebuild Nehemiah’s walls around our lives. If we don’t, the enemy will slowly but surely start taking over our lives; and while we are idly looking the other way, we will be pulled deeper into Babylon.
We need to repent and turn away from those things that are not in line with God’s will. We need to forgive others for their trespasses against us, and we need to fight and pray in the spirit for our breakthroughs. God has so clearly warned us in the book of Revelations that we need to come out of Babylon. There is no time to waste!
There is a demonic spiritual blindness and stupor that has come to rest upon so many Christians. It is a veil of pride that keeps us from seeing the truth (and only the truth can set us free); and that is why the attacks of the enemy are so intense. There is a false teaching going about that we don’t need to repent anymore. How can this be, if the Lord so clearly tells the churches (with other words, believers) to repent in Revelations? (see Rev. 2-3)
Scriptures about Babylon:
"So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written:
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH (Rev. 17:3-5).
After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.”
And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her (Rev. 18:1-8)
Scriptures about the City of God – the heavenly Jerusalem/Zion:
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west(Rev. 21:9-13).
When we carefully look at the Word of God, we will see that Zion represents the Kingdom of God, and that Babylon represents the Kingdom of Satan. Babylon encompasses all of Satan’s evil ways to deceive mankind into believing his lies; while Zion is built on Truth – with Yeshua the Messiah as the chief cornerstone.
We must understand that Babylon represents all of Satan’s deception – both religious and secular. There is ‘n religious Babylon (out of which the Lord calls His saints), and then there is a secular Babylon, from where the world system conducts its business. Without outright calling it Babylon and Zion, Paul clearly outlined the differences between the two in Galatians 5, when he wrote: “the acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other” (Gal. 5:19-26).
To put it short and sweet, Babylon is a system where the flesh rules your life. The cornerstone of this kingdom is “self”: self-centeredness, self-absorbed, self-willed, self-serving, and selfishness. The fruit of this kingdom will be pride, arrogance, vanity, control, domination, impatience, stubbornness, insensitivity, resentfulness, bitterness, anger, rebellion, anxiousness, complaining, judgment, negativity, manipulation, greed, lust, jealousy, faultfinding, dishonesty, deceitfulness and every wicked thing. It always seeks to serve “self” first, and in this kingdom it is only about “what is in it for me”. It never serves, it only wants to take, take, take all the time.
Even some churches are built upon this principle, because their foundation is only to please themselves and they preach lukewarm messages to a congregation with itching ears. Many churches today are just another system of self-worship. It is idolatrous, deceptive, and very dangerous. Please don’t misunderstand me – I am not saying all churches, but there is so much mixed seed out there. Many ministries and churches sow good and bad seed at the same time. I am not excluding myself from this scrutiny – I have to look at my own ministry too, and put my hand into my own bosom to see what kind of seeds I sow.
Unfortunately so many people quickly take offence at this message, and close their ears and their hearts from hearing it. The fall of the Babylonian system will be the most devastating to those of us who depend upon the church system, or on the acceptance of people, for our significance, identity, validation, recognition, value and security.
Zion refers to the body of Christ – His bride. The ancient Greek word for this is ecclesia, which means “assembly”. Religious Babylon refers to the false church system that is built upon religious acts and the traditions of man. Zion consists of people who have been born into her, while Babylon consists of people who have joined her or been voted into it.
Zion is a people who are called by the name of Jesus Christ, while Babylon is a people who are called by many different names (that represents division within this Babylonian church system); with each group believing they are right and the rest is wrong.
Zion is Jesus centered – Babylon is self centered.
Zion is to live by faith – Babylon is to live according to our prideful and selfish desires.
Zion is heavenly minded – Babylon is earthly minded.
Zion is life – Babylon is death.
Zion is being – Babylon is doing.
Zion is to be in His rest – Babylon is to do works.
Zion is light – Babylon is darkness.
Zion is humility – Babylon is pride and arrogance.
Zion is the Kingdom of God – Babylon is manmade kingdoms.
Zion has Jesus Christ as her head – Babylon has elected, or appointed, men and structures.
Zion is Holy Spirit led, full of liberty and freedom – Babylon is governed by rules and regulations of mans own making.
Zion is to be sensitive the Holy Spirit’s leading – Babylon is to be people-pleasing.
Zion is to be obedient to the Holy Spirit – Babylon is to be busy with religious activities.
Zion accomplish things in the power of the Holy Spirit (see Zach. 4:6) – Babylon tries to accomplish things in your own strength.
Zion is one body, with Jesus Christ as the head and Lord – Babylon is sectarian and full of division, consisting of many different people who all believe they are right and others are wrong.
Zion is to worship the Lord in spirit and truth – Babylon is counterfeit affection.
Zion is the priesthood of believers – Babylon is the clergy system (those who want to differentiate themselves as better as others, and appoint themselves over others.)
Zion answers to God as the highest authority – Babylon answers to men and man-made institutions as the highest authority.
Zion transforms people to the image of Christ – Babylon conforms people into their own “selfish” image.
Zion teaches us to decrease so that Christ may increase – Babylon teaches people to increase in power, position, riches and dominions.
Zion counts the cost – Babylon counts the money.
Zion lays down its life – Babylon preserves and protects itself.
Zion waits upon God to raise up what God wants in His timing – Babylon schemes, organizes and promotes to execute its own plan in its own way and time.
Zion is the city of God – Babylon seeks to build a city, a tower, a name for itself.
Zion longs to be gathered into Jesus Christ – Babylon passionately seeks to gather people unto itself.
This all comes down to one thing: we must be willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus the Messiah (Luke 9:23). Self denial is the cross we bear. The old man of flesh and sin has to be rendered dead. Self importance has caused many believers to forsake their First Love. We become so busy with “self” that the enemy has succeeded into seducing us to dance on his melody, whilst making us think we are dancing with our Lord.
Today the spirit of the Lord is calling us out of Babylon so that we may be an example of the Bride to others, and they may come out of Babylon with her institutions, buildings, stained glass windows, rituals and programs.
So many of our own agenda’s take us away from our First Love; and we have started measuring success by the size of our buildings and the number of our church members. Oh, how cunningly this spirit of pride infiltrates our midst. I was there too, believe me. Pride blinds us to the truth, and it hangs a veil over your eyes so that you will never know what you are actually busy with.
There is not a day that goes by when I don’t repent of pride. At every event where I am the speaker, I tell the listeners please not to give me a pat on the back afterwards. I cannot afford even a hint of pride. I don’t want to puffed up with accolades and awards – I want to be a humble servant of the Most High Lord who deserves all our praise. All the glory belongs to Him.
The prophet Ezekiel had a vision from God where he was instructed to tell the stiff-necked and hard-hearted elders of Judah the revealed Word of God, whether they listened to him or not (see Ez. 2-3). God wanted them to know that there was a prophet in their midst, and He wanted warn them and to give them time to repent.
Wisdom says: “Hannah (Samuel’s mother), will you help My children? The enemy guards are keeping them captive in Babylon.
The true house of God is built by love, mercy, grace, peace, life, light, rest, joy, hope , forgiveness, acceptance, righteousness, praise, worship, turning the other cheek, submitting to one another, the gifts of the Spirit for the building up of the body, having a passionate love for Jesus Christ, and being excited about the things that exited God.
That comes down to being the ecclesia: an assembly of saints, who act in unity, and love the Lord (and each other) with pure hearts. For Christians, ecclesia means to be one body submitted to one Head (Jesus the Messiah). Ecclesia means to be a pure Bride in waiting for her Bridegroom, with only one desire – and that is to please Him.