According to the Scripture it is God’s intention that we be a force, To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgement written; this honor have all His saints. Psalms 149:8, 9a. We’re going to see principalities and powers bound. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. Romans 16:20a. This is the heritage of the saints of God. If you don’t believe in the judgments of the Lord, you can’t believe in this walk, because it is based upon judgments as well as grace. The grace of God upon a remnant is based on a judgment that has to come.
This has always been part of the message in this walk and yet we still take it rather passively, as though it were not that important a function. Government agencies, large church denominations, financial institutions—all have a great deal of power; but they can control and hinder the work of the Lord just so long. Big enterprises operate like steam rollers, crushing little churches and little people.
At the first coming of Christ, the selling of lambs in the Temple for sacrifice was a big business (with over two hundred thousand being sold every Feast of Passover) until the Lord went into the temple with whips and drove out all the merchants. From that time on they were plotting to put him on a cross. When you destroy people’s financial interests, they’ll plot against you.
We have faith in the King and the Kingdom that is coming. Therefore we’re going to contend earnestly and believe with all our heart for God to bring Babylon down. He taught us to pray. “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” I don’t think we should over envision anything else except Jesus Christ as King. He has been given all authority in heaven and earth; He’s seated at the right hand of the Father, henceforth expecting till His enemies be made the footstool of His feet (Hebrews 10:13). We must constantly live with the expectation that everything will be brought under his control and rule. Never live with a tolerance toward evil, expecting to coexist with it. There must be a continual protest in our heart against the evil of Babylon and the wickedness of sin. We should come against everything that Satan is doing. Not only do we need to be delivered from Babylon ourselves, but we need to stand as the only enemy that it has in the world. We are the salt of the earth, and if we lose our savor then wherewith will it be salted? We’ll be good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men (Matthew 5:13).
After God brings this walk to you, sooner or later you must see the necessity of rebelling against Babylon. When you see the New Testament order, you find yourself repenting of Babylon, your part in it and everything that was wrong in your life; and you oppose it. Sometimes it’s very difficult for people to go through that time; God has to deal with you and take out of your mind and heart the tolerance you’ve had for certain accepted practices and procedures, and bring you to the place where you truly oppose them.
Some denominational pastors accept the principles of a New Testament church, and even preach our messages; yet they can’t see the corruption of Babylon or the need to break away from it. Sooner or later they will have to see it. God used the serpent of brass to deliver people in the wilderness, but when they made an idol of it, it had to be destroyed. The same principle applies to denominations. Just because God was leading and blessing them once does not mean that He is now. I can walk among many groups of people with whom I used to minister, and say “Ichabod,” for the glory had departed. If you don’t agree, visit some of those churches. Many pastors themselves are not even sure whether the Bible is the inspired Word of God, or whether Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. Many are so disillusioned they are seriously considering forsaking the ministry altogether. Babylon is being shaken and those who are sincere in wanting to walk on with God are ready to leave it. There will be a great exodus out of Babylon—not toward the tolerant appeasers, but toward those who have a definite word from God and a New Testament Church. For a while it may seem as if we have no friends, but suddenly the tide coming out of Babylon will fill our churches. God has a lot of people in Babylon and the cry of Revelation is, “Come out of her My people; be not a partaker of her judgments” (Revelation 18:4).
In the current prophecies God has been speaking about the downfall of Babylon; and whenever you find prophecy sweeping like a mighty tidal wave from the heart of God, you’d better listen to it. God hates Babylon and He wants His people loosed. Some will not be able to make the transition from Babylon directly into the New Testament church, and God will station them in a “halfway house” temporarily. When God wants us to make a pilgrimage, it is sometimes necessary that it be made in stages, so that we can catch up and absorb the new truths. However, that is only a temporary measure in the will of the Lord. We should be dedicated from the very beginning to go as far as God directs. He will be patient to lead us no faster than we’re able to go, but we should be prepared to go the whole route: to the New Testament church, to its purity, to anything that is required, until no man speaks ought of that which is his own, but people have everything in common (Acts 4:32).
Would you back away from that concept? We already have many communal homes and we are in the process of establishing farms. With the produce of our farms we’ll be prepared in days of tribulation to feed our brothers and sisters. Don’t back away from the idea. The time may come when your money is not worth anything, and you’d better be prepared to lay it all on the line.
God is constantly bringing us to a state of crisis. From the time this walk started, whenever God brought a new revelation, it always eliminated a few who weren’t prepared for it. People circumscribe their horizons. They decide how far they will go, how much they will see, and what they’re going to believe. When the Lord reveals a new truth that they can’t accept they drop out. You cannot condition yourself to how much you will believe. Nine-tenths of what we’re going to believe is yet to be revealed to us. You must recognize that this is a walk of progressive revelation.
Denominations went astray when they decided, “I’ll accept this doctrine and I’ll accept this experience”; and then proceeded to build a wall around it to defend it, without ever accepting any new teaching or anymore experiences. The reason we can’t be a denomination is because we must move on. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord; He shall come to us as the former and the latter rain (Hosea 6:3). The former rain is the teaching rain, which teaches the little seeds to grow. God has to teach us to grow. The rain of revelation must fall upon us to help us grow up in God. Truths we never dreamed, of truths that were never in our theology before, will be now. We’re going to live in them and walk in them.
And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. Isaiah 54:13a. The ways of teaching children and ministering to them will change. The accepted procedure and practice that has existed in Babylon cannot have its counterpart in the New Testament church. God has something more for our children: believe for them while they’re still in the womb; believe God for things beyond anything we’ve ever dreamed of before. Get rid of your limited horizons. God will open the door and start showing you things, and if you’ve already decided how much you’re going to believe, then you’ll be leaving.
Just before a new truth comes, God puts us through a real heart-searching time with a work of the cross in our lives, and the people who try to bypass that are not prepared to receive the new revelation when it comes. It takes a great deal of dedication to the Lord and a real work of the cross for you to be prepared to accept a revelation of a new truth, and if you don’t do it, you’ll be left behind. We’ll continue to preach repentance, the work of the cross, the vision of the Lord, and then when a new truth is brought you will either stand or fall on it.
Many a time I had to stand before the congregation, with a new revelation from the Lord, prepared to walk on alone if they should turn away and not accept it. I’ve been dedicated to that, because obeying God and listening to His voice is more important to me than holding a church together. If it’s going to stray, if it is not going to fulfill the perfect will of God I would rather destroy it than see it go out into some orbit just like every other denomination that has missed the will of God. I’ve given the better part of my life seeking to do the will of God and preach this word, and rather than see a perverted form of it come forth I’d tear it down with my own hands.
With whom shall we have fellowship? and to what extent? I am constantly looking to the Lord for the answer most honestly. There are so many ambitious men who are intent only on building a career for themselves in the ministry. This I want no part of.
We must be extremely cautious (in fact, almost fearful) lest we become presumptuous and consider ourselves wise enough to avoid the pitfalls of many past generations. When Simon, the magician, promised Peter and John a large sum of money if they would give him the ability to lay hands on people so they would receive the Holy Spirit, he could have started a good denomination and called it the “Simonites.” However, Peter and John rebuked him, “Your money perish with you” (Acts 8:18–20). You don’t try to receive something from God that you can use to do your own thing; you give yourself to be used by God. That is the main difference between God’s work and the operation of paganism and witchcraft. Those using devil power do so to achieve their own ends; whereas we want God to use us as His instruments and vessels. Let there be fear and trembling and submission in your heart to be what God wants you to be, but don’t try to get something from God to use to do your own things. We recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ over our lives. We’re His servants and His handmaidens, upon whom He will pour out His Spirit so we can prophesy—not build something for ourselves. His is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
When the three Hebrews were threatened with the fiery furnace, they replied, “We don’t know whether or not God will deliver us, but this we do know: we’re not going to bow down to that image.” There must be that uncompromising determination to obey the Lord, whether He delivers you or not. All of us are expendable, if the Lord wants it that way. There will be some casualties in this walk, those whom the Lord will be pleased to use as martyrs; and others He will use to finish the course. When soldiers storm the wall, a lot of them are killed, but their bodies provide the bulwark on which the others can climb over the wall.
Hebrews 12:27 tells us that when God shakes all things, all that remains is the Kingdom that cannot be shaken. When God gets through shaking, you’ll be amazed to see how much of it He wasn’t in at all.
The Lord has said that He would tell us how to think, so that we wouldn’t proceed at our own initiative, but we’d have the mind of Christ in every situation. What God wants us to think, that we are going to think; what God wants us to do, that we will set out to do. In this generation we’ll behold both the goodness and the severity of God—the goodness of God upon a remnant and the severity of God bringing real judgment. How can we tell whether goodness or severity is to be applied? Using our human judgment we would send the goodness of God where He wanted severity, and the severity of God where He intended to send goodness. We wouldn’t judge it rightly, and therefore we must be completely led by the Spirit of the Lord so we will think the way He wants us to think in every situation.
“There can be no coexisting with Babylon, no trying to fellowship with some group that has already crossed off the Lord, even though they may still be going through the motions. God is demanding that we walk wholeheartedly, all the way, in what He is doing.
“Jesus went into the Temple before the Feast of Passover and became very upset with the perverted conditions He saw there, and with a whip chased out the merchants. Still riled by what He’s seen the night before, He was hungry and approached a fig tree. Finding no fruit on it He said, “May no man ever eat of you again,”and it died from the roots up.
“This is what God is now establishing in our hearts by revelation: He’s showing us the conditions, the moneychangers, how rotten and perverse everything has become. And as our own spirits begin to be stirred, it is not a matter of becoming emotional, of taking things into our own hands and making a lot of noise with our mouths, because the Lord is giving the authority, along with the revelation, to prophesy against situations and watch them fall. Jesus had the authority; and if there isn’t a rapport between our own hearts and the Lord in the revelation that He’s bringing, then we don’t have that authority. We would then be like those who just stand on the sidelines griping about what is wrong, which is wasting time and doesn’t accomplish anything. But the Lord is returning to His remnant that authority Jesus had. And as God shows us and we realize that His people are still in Babylon, we will prophesy against the spirit that has brought all the deception and division among the family of God, until the people of God come out.”
“The Lord told Jeremiah, Go forth with My word in your mouth, and it will be like fire and the people like wood. Jeremiah prophecied, but they were all caught up in their own doings and private gods, the things they had brought in to defile themselves.
“God may have been in the various little churches and denominations that sprang forth in the past. They grew and put out fruit; then, suddenly, they got into a bag. They had their own bag of tricks, and wouldn’t let anyone else in unless they agreed to live by that bag of tricks. So they themselves became defiled.
“A great many people who handle Jesus’ teaching would refuse to talk with Him if they met Him on the street today. They’ve taken His blessing and used it in their own little box for themselves.
“The church I used to attend was like a Coney Island; the people at the back were always being grabbed to buy things. After being confronted there so long with the tickets and raffling, I finally said, “I didn’t come to gamble, I came to pray,” which stirred up quite a commotion.
“People have used God. They’ve thrown in their denominational organizations with the Babylonians, so that they can all get along together—it’s a nice false facade, just like they had when Christ first came.”