Page 91 - The Road from Babylon to Zion

I John 2:15-17
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life,
is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away,
and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

James is even more plain, and he uses language that is in perfect agreement with
what John has written regarding the 144,000 virgins on Mount Zion.

James 4:4
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is
hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the
world makes himself an enemy of God.

If adulteresses are those who are friends (lovers) of the world, then virgins are those
who deny the world and love only Christ. Zion is a place of heavenly vision, where the
saints look beyond that which their natural senses report to see into the heavenlies.
That is why the blind cannot enter into Zion. The blind see only what their physical
senses report. The blind live always in the physical to attain the pleasure of the
moment. The blind will not choose to turn away from the pursuit of the things of this
present world, for they do not see the better and more glorious inheritance that lies
ahead.

Zion is a realm of purity. Babylon is a corrupt mixture which is detestable in the sight
of God. Babylon mixes the pursuit of Christ with a pursuit of the world and all it
offers. Zion has come out of Babylon, out of mixture, into a pure devotion to Christ.

Is Christ alone enough to satisfy you, or do you, along with the manna from heaven,
also cry out for quail to satisfy your flesh? Is it sufficient in your heart to have only
Christ, and to forego any demand that you have all the nice things that others have?
Are you content to know lack in the things of the world, and still consider yourself
rich in Christ? Or do you murmur and complain that you do not have all the luxuries
that are afforded to others?

Those who do not have eyes to perceive the riches of Christ will always cry out for
quail. The manna that has come down out of heaven does not satisfy them. The
manna (Christ) feeds the spirit, but many saints want to feed the flesh as well. If God
were to determine that you were to live as one who is destitute in this life with no
home of your own, no new cars, no nice clothes, suffering lack even in the area of
food, would you be satisfied?

There was a time during the 18 months that the Father forbid me to work when we