The Midnight Cry:
A Prophetic Witness to the Church Today

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5
A GREAT Shaking!

A few months ago, the Lord gave me a vivid dream of a house shaking. The earth beneath it was heaving to and fro like in an earthquake. The building was rocking up and down and cracks appeared in the walls.

The shaking was relatively short, but it was intense while it lasted.

This building had a main structure, built by the original builder, with other extensions added onto it. What I noticed was that a separation occurred between these as a result of the quake. Definite cracks, big enough to put your fist in, developed between the later additions and the original building.

After the dream, its meaning was implanted in my spirit. I realised that God was conveying something important concerning His Church. God built His Church through Jesus (Matt 16:18), but others have since added to that main structure.

Not all that man has added to Jesus’ teachings is correct. What man has attached to Christ's original teachings will not stand in the upheaval to come. If it has not been built on the same foundation, it will be unable to withstand the tests that will come.

There is a great shaking coming! That is an undeniable fact of prophecy. Not only in the secular world, but in the Church too, God is going to cause or permit an intense shaking to rattle our ‘cages’.

"This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty" (Hag 2:6,7).

God’s purpose in allowing this upheaval is to prepare the way for a great outpouring of His Spirit. He wants to fill His house with glory – His glory, the glory of His powerful nature and the glory of His holiness. While there is corruption and compromise in His Church, He cannot respond as He, and we, would like.

Many want healing. Many need healing, both spiritual and physical. But many aren't getting what they need because of Satan's deceptions which prevent them receiving what they lack. A similar tragic state of affairs existed in the church in Corinth (I Cor 11:29, 30). That church first had to be shaken by Paul's correction before it could receive.

Many need deliverance from demonic forces, strongholds of deception, powers of darkness that hold us in bondage. Christians are all too frequently trapped – trapped by custom, habit, and the forces of fear and sin in this wicked world. Instead of being lights in a dark world, too often their lamps go out, snuffed out by their own compromise and unwillingness to face the light of day.

God has to shake us out of our lethargy! The shaking is coming!

‘Measuring’

"Then I looked up – and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand! I asked, ‘Where are you going?’ He answered me, ‘To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.’

"Then the angel who was speaking to me left, and another angel came to meet him and said to him: ‘Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it. And I myself will be a wall of fire around it’, declares the Lord, ‘and I will be its glory within’ (Zech 2:1-5).

Jerusalem is a type of the Church. It will enlarge so much that its present walls will not be able to contain it. There is another reason ‘walls’ will go.

Before the Lord can manifest His glory within the Church, we must do something! We have got to be prepared to change to get into line with His ways – not just what we are happy to get in line with, but with all His ways. There can be no half-way commitment.

Notice the urgency conveyed in the words above. The angel didn’t just say ‘go’. He said ‘run’! We don't have time for ‘clever’ games with God, hiding from the truth, compromising with His Word for the sake of expediency.

God is about to shake the Church to break down the walls which men have erected that keep them from going further. The shaking is coming, and everything that is not built by Him is not destined to remain.

Men have erected artificial barriers around God’s people, hemming them in inside the walls of denominations. Christians generally accept the teachings of their denomination and once they are comfortably ensconced within their respective churches they don't want to move forward. Denominational walls are artificial. Men have built them. They are not part of the original building Jesus erected. They need to be torn down. His disciples must come out of everything which is artificial and find the real substance – Christ!

Some will protest, saying, "But I found Christ through my denomination. If I found him through my church, why do I need to come out of it now?"

Yes, you may have been introduced to Christ through your particular church. He may have used your denomination to initially draw you to Him. But, there is more of Him to discover; there is more truth you need to know which you will never fully comprehend while you stay within the confines of just one denomination or church. No one group has all truth. Nor do they have all of Christ.

Paul continually sought to come to a complete understanding of this immeasurably great Being who died for us. He didn’t consider he knew Him fully (Phil 3:10; I Cor 13:12).

God is measuring His Temple now. We are the temple of God, the body of Christ, His Church, spiritual Israel, created to be like Him in His holiness. Jesus is preparing His bride for the grand occasion; she must make herself ready (Matt 25:1-13; Rev 19:7). You will never be able to be fully ready while you give your loyalties to men who lead your church or denomination.

While you sit within such confines you will not perceive that you need any more spiritual truth or experience. Denominational walls create an artificial confidence and can give us a sense of complacency. Like Laodicea, we can easily deceive ourselves that we are fine and have no need to move on (Rev 3:17-20).

While you are in that condition, Jesus stands at your door knocking (Rev 3:20). You need to open the door and come out to meet Him (Matt 25:6).

Come Out To Meet Him

The Church has a lot of coming out to do yet! Many sectors of the Church are more steeped in the customs of the Babylonian Mysteries than they are in the true Christ of your Bible!

Pagan Babylonian customs have been assimilated by the Church and passed on down to us from Catholicism through Protestantism. The Protestant Reformation didn’t release the Church from all its pagan ideas. Many false concepts and traditions were shaken and made to fall, but some still cling tenaciously to this day and have yet to be demolished.

Hierarchic church structure, Sunday, Christmas, Easter, the immortal soul, an eternally tormenting hell, the Trinity, 'Epicurean' desires (the ‘prosperity gospel’), all these customs and concepts have their roots in paganism. They were not part of the original gospel or practice of our Lord and the first disciples. They were alien to the early Church in its pristine condition. All these were added later by anti-Christian influences.

God says through His prophets, "Come! Come! [It must occur more than once in the Christian life!] Flee from the land of the north’ [Babylon], declares the Lord … ‘Come, O Zion! Escape, you who live in the Daughter of Babylon!’ " (Zech 2:6,7).

Who is this daughter of Babylon? She is the descendant who has perpetuated the pagan mysteries of this biggest cult of the whole earth. She sits on seven hills and has curried the favour of the political rulers of the world. She has intoxicated the whole earth with the spiritual wine of her adulteries (false teaching – Rev 17:2). She is the Roman Catholic Church.

But she is a mother of prostitutes. She is not the only one Jesus regards as a prostitute. He considers her daughters equally guilty of perpetuating pagan myths in Christ's name!

It is fitting that Zechariah's prophecy later describes Zerubbabel, meaning shoot of Babylon, as the Deliverer. Physical Zerubbabel brought the exiles out of their physical captivity in Babylon and re-established true religion in Jerusalem (a type of the Church). Spiritual Zerubbabel (Jesus Christ) will bring His people out of spiritual captivity to re-establish them in His truth.

This can only occur through a mighty shaking! How will this be achieved?

Zechariah prophesies, "What are you, O mighty mountain? [The Babylonian Empire, and its spiritual counterpart today, the great false church.] Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground" (Zech 4:7).

"‘On that day [when Jesus assumes total rulership of the earth in the Millennium] … I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel … and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the Lord Almighty" (Hag 2:23). This Zerubbabel is Jesus Christ.

"Tell Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, that I will [cause to – Heb.] shake the heavens and the earth. I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms [demonic strongholds]. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother" (Hag 2:21,22). Although this prophecy will be fulfilled in a literal way, it may have an important spiritual analogy for us. There may be an equal fulfilment in the spiritual dimension.

Young's Concordance says the Hebrew word shake means cause to shake, which implies that others will be involved in the shaking besides the One who instigates it. Part of the shaking to come involves the re-establishment of the truths of God’s Word (the Sword), hidden – for the most part – from Christianity by the clever deceptions of the false church in Rome. Leaders of denominations are loathe to accept new teachings that diametrically oppose their present concepts and which undermine their control. Jesus will use His sword in the hands of ‘inconsequential’ individuals to bring about this change. Your false concepts could fall by the sword of your brother!

Malcolm B Heap,  March 1995
(This article first appeared in Awake! Awake! of April/May 1995, Vol. 3, No 5.)

Other Prophecies About The Shaking

God Will Do A NEW Work

Source: Goodnews Church Fellowship, Ifechukwu Ifezulike, Lesotho, S Africa. Quoted in The Amos Report, May 1993.

"Behold, I do a new work in the heavens and in the earth. I arise to shake all things, to overturn tables once more and drive our them that buy and sell in My temple; to overthrow kingdoms and dominions; and to break down strongholds. I arise to shake terribly the earth and the heavens; so that only that which cannot be shaken – that which is of Me – will remain. And who can stand in the way as I do these things? For I will work and none can hinder.

"I arise this day like a man of war to bring My people to the place of safety in Me – to the place of their full inheritance in Me. I will lead them through a way they have never known, through paths they have never been before. Every mountain shall be brought low, and every valley shall be filled; and My way shall stand perfect before their eyes – the highway of holiness."

The Shaking Has Started

Prophecy given to Morris Cerullo, world evangelist, October 1975 and September 1979.

Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, PO Box 85277, San Diego, CA 92186, USA.

"Tell My people that everything that can be shaken, will be shaken...

"Tell My people that everything that can be shaken, will be shaken...

"Tell them to fix their faith. If their faith is not fixed during the crisis, they will not stand.

"They must fix their faith on that which is infallible, and that which is impregnable. They must have a fixed point for their faith.

"That fixed point is the Word of God.

"There will be no earthly thing, no institution of man, no human structure, nothing in which people have placed their confidence, that will not be affected by this shaking.

"That is the reason for the shaking of churches, of structures, of personalities, of religious experiences... so that the unshakeable will emerge and reveal and glorify God.

"There are people by the tens of thousands right now who are riding the middle of the fence. They have one foot here and one foot there, and God is letting them straddle the fence. They will not be able to straddle it much longer.

"A clear line is going to be drawn, but that line no longer will be between various denominations or organisations. It is going to separate the real, the genuine, from the fuzzy and uncommitted, the grey area.

"The two things which really govern a denomination most are fear of the loss of money, and fear of the loss of power. It is for these reasons that loyalty to certain denominations has been stressed, even demanded, by the controlling authorities of those denominations.

"When the shaking comes, that power structure is going to crumble.

"The centralization of power in denominations is going to crumble.

"The centralization of power in denominations is going to be broken.

"God's real people will make every effort to reach the lost and build up the body of Christ under extremely trying conditions.

"The real concern of God's people (not just everybody who goes to church) will be to make the best effort possible, as the body of Christ, to reach whomever they can with the limited time left.

"Under the stress of persecution, the separation will be between the real Body of Christ and that other camp, the super-church which eventually will be headed by the false prophet.

"The Body of Christ will make spiritual breakthroughs that will parallel in intensity what man does in the natural world. There will be breakthroughs in the revelation of the Word of God as it is opened up to us in a greater way than we have ever known before. Truths that are hidden, revelations that have been clouded, will become crystal clear, and we will understand things in the spirit world that we did not understand before."

Morris Cerullo

"There will be greater miracles, creative miracles, taking place as Jesus Christ's coming draws nigh, but even greater than the breakthrough of miracles is another spiritual breakthrough which we will begin to see.

"That breakthrough is in the arena of a lost truth and practice in the Church of Jesus Christ.

"God said to me, 'Son, there is coming a breakthrough in the Church before the coming of Jesus Christ and it is coming in the arena of righteousness and spiritual holiness."

Morris Cerullo

Further Reading

If you want to know what God is referring to about "a lost truth and practice in the Church of Jesus Christ", request The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints (£1.00), Our Sabbath Rest (£3.00), and The Festivals of God (£1.00). Write to the address below.