This Is How To Come Out Of Babylon
The parable of the ten virgins greatly expounds the book of Revelation. This establishes that the book of Revelation, like most books of the Bible, is a continuation of the ministry Jesus came to establish, which He spoke in parables.
The ten virgins are the Church. They are all christians but, with two different lifestyles. One set was wise, this is the set referred to as the Bride in Revelation. The second set was foolish, this is the set referred to as Babylon in the book of Revelation.
These two sets of christians do not necessarily refer to a gathering of people (denomination) as we understand it today. It does not refer to a physical meeting but, to the individual lifestyle of the people in the gathering. It is therefore, safe to say that in most gatherings, we have these two sets of christians in different proportions.
Come to think of it, we only gather to fellowship few hours in a week. Therefore, it is not really the fellowship/church meetings that make us christians but our everyday lifestyle - the little/big things we do daily. As we know from the scriptures, the first time the Word - Christian was coined in Antioch, it was because the people saw the disciples live the lifestyle of Jesus Christ and they called them "Like Christ".
Which brings about the question: How did Christ live? We are gradually delving into the differences between the Bride and Babylon in their daily lifestyle. Like I said before, I'm emphasising again that it is more of an individual walk than a corporate affair, especially in this age.
I recently came to understand that Christ means the Anointed one while Jesus means the Savior. So, Jesus Christ means the Anointed Savior. If the Disciples were called christians, that means they must have lived like those who carried the anointing as a result of the Holy Spirit in them.
This means that the proof of us being Christians indeed is that we have the Holy spirit (the anointing) to guide us. Therefore, a person without the Holy spirit cannot refer to themself as a Christian.
Back to the ten virgins - two sets of people, all with oil (which represents anointing, the Holy spirit) in their lamps initially. This establishes that they are all christians.
We now understand that the five wise virgins are the Church, while the five foolish virgins are Babylon. But what set them apart in the parable?
The foolish virgins lost their anointing because the groom (Jesus) tarried and were not prepared when he came around. So, their lamps went off (meaning they lost the Holy Spirit/Anointing) and without a burning lamp, they could not approach the groom.
This brings up the question: How did they loose the Holy spirit/anointing? How did they become Babylon? The answer is that they became enticed by the world and all it had to offer them (wealth, recognition, fame etc) that they forgot their fist love and became entangled with the affairs of the world until their light went out. Remember, this is in their daily lifestyle, not only in their corporate gatherings. It is in their heart condition and desires which direct their actions.
The wise virgins (the bride) kept their focus on the coming of the groom. They kept their lamps burning, got rid of the works of the flesh in their lives, while being fueled by the Holy Spirit. Their light continued to burn brightly, showing others the right way to God through their daily lifestyle, by portraying the fruit of the Spirit and His characteristics.
They also stumbled at some point because of the test of life and slept off but, the wise virgins (the bride) still had their lamps burning and overcame by the help of the extra oil (the fullness (earnest) of the Holy Spirit), gotten by their obedience to Him.
Eventually, when the Groom (Jesus) arrived, the wise (the Bride) was ready and joined with Him as one, while the foolish virgin (Babylon) was caught unawares and cast out because she has become too entangled with the flesh (the world, the adamic man) and it's desires. She tried to align back by going in search of the Holy Spirit (Anointing) but, it was too late.
We know that the flesh is an enemy of God because it cannot be subject to the will of God. And we also know that the Kingdom of God is the Will of God being obeyed. Therefore, Babylon (the foolish virgins) cannot be subject to the will of God because she is one with the flesh and had been perverted, deceiving many.
The call to "COME OUT OF BABYLON (HER)!" is not a call to self righteousness and forming new denominations, but is a call to turn our individual minds and desires back to Christ, back to becoming perfectly like Him and portraying His lifestyle in our daily affairs - portraying the fruit of the Holy Spirit and living out the will of God, thereby being the light of the world indeed. It is a call to turn our minds away from running after vanity, to starve the flesh and its desires.
Chasing after these worldly things is an illusion the Devil has created to make us think that is what we need to do to feel fulfilled on earth. This illusion is vanity because the end result is death with no eternal value.
But, the real fulfillment we can have on earth, as Christians, is in seeking after being transformed into the fullness of Christ by overcoming flesh and yielding to the Spirit daily; in seeking the will of God and obeying (i.e seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness); in being light and salt to the earth in our daily lifestyle by potraying the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In knowing that we are citizens of heaven sojourning on earth, we should not be distracted into forgetting our goal, vision, purpose and the big picture.
The promise we have when we do this is that every other thing we need to survive upon the earth would be added to us by His divine grace and favour, when we have our minds stayed and fixed on God in our daily life. As we commune with and yield to the Holy Spirit.
The bottomline is that, Coming out of Babylon is beyond our denominations and corporate gatherings but, in our personal and everyday life. It is many individuals that make up the corporate Church. So, when every individual has indeed come out of Babylon in our hearts, minds and daily life, then we can say that we have indeed come out of Babylon as a Church.
May God give us grace and help us to align.
©Blessing Enofe 2021
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