The Harlot Bride in Today’s Church

The truth is that Jesus Christ is coming back for a Bride in revival who has her heart set on not only encountering Him today but who yearns and longs for His Second Coming.

It is possible to be focused on temporary revival without ever being marked for bridal revival. The difference is found in the emphasis on and zeal for eternity!

As I began to fast and pray into the Wedding Altar that God is inviting this generation to build in the earth and the need for bridal revival in the end times, He said to me:

In the last days, there will be two dueling brides that will emerge—the Consecrated Bride and the Harlot Bride. The Consecrated Bride will marry itself to the Bridegroom King, the Man of War, and the Harlot Bride will marry itself to the world and look like Babylon.

It is so important for us to understand this concept of the “two dueling brides” so that as deception increases in these last days we will be sober and alert as the Scriptures teach us. In fact, the first to speak of apostasy in the end times was the Lord Jesus Himself. He prophesied, “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people” (Matt. 24:10-11 NIV).

In Second Thessalonians 2:3, the apostle Paul wrote to those who said that the coming of the Lord had already happened: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (KJV). Paul wrote to warn Timothy, his spiritual son, and said, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim 4:1).

The Harlot Bride vs. The Consecrated Bride

The Holy Spirit gave me five specific attributes regarding the harlot bride. They are sexual immorality, drunkenness, tolerance, greed, and pride. James reveals the core of the harlot bride when he writes, “You adulteress, 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” (see James 4:4).

Very simply put, the harlot bride loves the world and enjoys friendship with it. The consecrated Bride is in love with the Bridegroom and develops special friendship with the Holy Spirit.

While the harlot bride may relate to Jesus as the Lamb, only the consecrated Bride also recognizes Him as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Let’s look closer at these five attributes of the harlot bride so that we can examine our own lives and perhaps even the church assembly we attend to make sure we are not living in deception.

1. Sexual Immorality

Sexual immorality is at the top of almost every list of sins in the New Testament. It is emphasized in the book of Revelation as one of satan’s primary weapons against the Church in the end times (see Rev. 2:20; 9:21; 14:8; 17:1-4). If someone is continually and habitually engaging in sexual immorality and calling themselves a Christian, they are seriously deceived (see Rom. 6). Lifting our hands up on Sunday morning and pulling our pants down on Friday night is not okay. Heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and however else sexual you want to get, but if it’s not in covenant as defined by the Word, then God doesn’t bless it. He condemns it. It doesn’t matter if someone attends a supernatural school of ministry, speaks in tongues and prophesies, their daddy’s a preacher, or they’re under some false grace teaching. If we are not saving ourselves for marriage, we are selling ourselves to the devil! The harlot bride will not only embrace heterosexual immorality but will also welcome homosexuality. It will be welcome in the pulpits and in the pews.

2. Drunkenness

The harlot bride will have a very casual approach to drinking alcohol and this will cause many to stumble. Remember in the days of Amos, the prophet indicts the spirit of harlotry in spiritual leadership when he says, “You made the Nazirites drink wine” (Amos 2:12 NIV). There is a steady pressure and worldly culture that has infiltrated much of the global Church that welcomes casual drinking and even drunkenness. Paul warns in Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit!” (NIV).

3. Tolerance

The harlot bride will be very relaxed in her approach to morality and biblical doctrine. It will place more emphasis on feelings and experience than the infallibility of God’s Word. There will be a twisting of Scripture and a spirit of perversion that will fill the harlot bride and allow for wickedness and compromise in the house of God.

In 1959 it was Billy Graham who said:

Tolerance, in one sense, implies the compromise of one’s convictions, a yielding of ground upon important issues. Hence, over-tolerance in moral issues has made us soft, flabby and devoid of conviction. We have become tolerant about divorce; we have become tolerant about the use of alcohol; we have become tolerant about delinquency; we have become tolerant about wickedness in high places; we have become tolerant about immorality; we have become tolerant about crime and we have become tolerant about godlessness. We have become tolerant of unbelief.

4. Love of Money

First Timothy 6:10 says, “But if it’s only money these leaders are after, they’ll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after” (MSG).

The harlot bride will be governed by her love of money. She will sacrifice the truth of the gospel for pleasure and entertainment. The harlot bride’s leaders will fleece the sheep and be continually hungry for monetary gain. Revelation 18:3 says, “The merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality” (NASB95).

5. Pride

The worst attribute of the harlot bride will be her pride. The harlot bride will glory in her perversion, drunkenness, tolerance, and harlotry. She will mock the consecrated Bride and persecute those who walk in humility and meekness. Revelation 18:7 says of her that, “To the degree that she glorified herself…to the same degree give her torment and mourning” (NASB95).

James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (ESV). Prideful people deeply resent criticism. They are insecure and don’t know how to laugh at themselves. They crave constant praise, and in their own eyes they are extremely important. They cannot bear not getting credit for what they’ve accomplished, and they possess an insatiable need to prove themselves to everyone.

A Time of Personal and Corporate Reflection

If you are reading this and are coming under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I strongly encourage you to put this book down and began to dialogue with Him about what areas in your life need His transforming love. Hear the voice of your Father calling out to you today before it’s too late, saying, “‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4 NIV).

If you are attending a church where the leadership is more concerned with pleasing spectators and has not taken clear stands on biblical morality and doctrine, you are in great danger of being swept away into end-time apostasy. Please pray about whether you need to make an exit from that assembly or move you and your family geographically to a city or region where there are saints and leaders who are the consecrated Bride and eager for the return of Jesus Christ.

In the words of David Wilkerson, “Where you attend church and the teaching that has your heart is a very serious matter. The mark of a seduced Christian is that they are constantly carried about seeking some new and sensational teaching. They run from church to church, conference to conference, and have no root or foundation. The ears of such people are always itching to hear something entertaining, something new, and something pleasing to their flesh. This appetite is dangerous and will end up leading millions into apostasy in the last days.”