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The Body and the Beast - Part XI

                                       What Does “Revival” Mean to a Beast?

[Part I]   [Part II]   [Part III]  [Part IV]   [Part V]   [Part VI]  [Part VII] 

[Part VIII]   [Part IX]   [Part X]  [Part XI]   [Part XII]   [Part XIII]  [Part XIV]

[Addendum]


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In this and the next sections, we want to look at two related delusions the prophetic intercessory Body has entertained in her perception of nations that bear evidences of the Cyrus anointing. In our original discussion of that anointing, we carefully examined the difference between anointing and identity—showing that God’s anointing on a nation-beast does not convert it into the Body of Christ. We also noted how most Christians don’t discern this, including the prophetic church.

 

The stronger God’s taming of a beast by the anointing for His purposes, the greater the Body’s inability to distinguish her heavenly identity from it, and—if not obedient to the cross of heritage denial—the greater also the delusions the Body comes under in relationship to such beasts. 

 

In this light, we look today at the term “national revival” as commonly applied by the church to nations, and especially to America. For when under delusion relative to the Cyrus anointing, and when also her own anointing increases under what is called “revival,” so increases the Body’s misconceived expectations of what her own revival anointing can do to “revive” (i.e., change the intrinsic nature of) a Cyrus-anointed beast. This needs careful attention here.

 

The Concept of National Revival

 

One of the casualties of the delusion accompanying the Cyrus anointing on a fleshly nation is the meaning of the word revival. The concept of revival has come into its own in our generation. The word is now on the lips of every forward movement in the Spirit-filled church. Everywhere impending revival is being proclaimed, particularly “national revival.” But under the delusion related to beast anointing, the concept is being used to promote a false expectation.  

 

Revival, like every other saving work of the Holy Spirit, is a work of heart change. It is not just a work of the anointing that displays spiritual phenomena like tongues, physical healings and miracles. In revival, hearts are convicted of their separation from God and brought to repentance. This leads to identity change in the lost as they are born anew, and identity perfection in believers who are convicted toward fresh dedications in fulfilling their eternal destiny.

 

When true heart-changing revival strikes the church, and it spills over into the world reaping conversions, the remaining surrounding nation is affected for the good. It is tamed like an animal is tamed. As lost sheep are saved and believers matured, general crime decreases and a greater awareness of God comes on all people, affecting them for good temporal behavior. Peace and prosperity increase in such a nation.

 

But these effects on society are just that, effects! They do not change what a nation is by nature in Adam. It is still a beast (minus those who have been called out of it through conversion). It is a beast before revival. It remains a beast through the revival—however tamed by it—and it still remains a beast after the revival passes, eventually to come under judgment with all the beasts of the earth.

 

This is important because, under the delusion accompanying the Cyrus anointing, the Body misconstrues national revival to promote what can never be true of any beast. True revival converts men from beastly identity into identity in the Body. But the Body is promoting national revival as a hope for “restoring” what it falsely believes to be a “Christian beast” to a past state of “Christian culture” (a state that never existed in the first place), with an ultimate expectation for that national culture to fully convert into a “kingdom utopia” that establishes the reign of Christ in that beast, making it a “kingdom beast.”  

 

The focus and hope of most national revival talk is not to save men from the surrounding “untoward” beast as Peter urged in Acts 2, but to reinforce a romantic imagination that the “Christian beast” with all its systems of culture, law and economy can somehow become the Body, creating an eternal paradise within human nationhood. The bottom line of false national revival fever is the expectation of a thoroughly “Christianized” world culture—leading to a world of “peace and safety.”

 

And the delusion does not stop there.....

 

[Next: The Myth of “National Destinies” ]