Scroll 65: Sorcery in the Marketplace - How Commerce Becomes Captivity

Revelation 18:23
“For your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.”

Commerce Is Not Neutral - It Carries Spirit

In the kingdoms of dust, the marketplace is seen as neutral territory, a space of opportunity, innovation, and trade. But in the book of Revelation, commerce is not just economic, it is spiritual. Babylon’s merchants are not just businesspeople, they are conduits of deception. Her economy is built not on currency alone, but on enchantment. Her transactions carry spells. Her contracts carry covenants. Her systems are spiritual altars masked as business agreements.

The sorcery of Babylon is subtle. It doesn’t feel like witchcraft, it feels like progress. It feels like being productive, like building influence, like chasing legacy. But underneath it all, there is a frequency of captivity. A hum that lulls the soul into compliance. A spell that makes you forget who you are, and why you came. Babylon’s marketplace doesn’t just sell products, it sells illusions. And once you’re enchanted, you won’t even remember you were free.

The remnant must learn to discern the spell behind the offer. Every app, every platform, every program comes with a spirit. Is it communion or consumption? Is it consecrated or commercialized? The war for your scroll is being fought in the marketplace, not with weapons, but with contracts. Not with dragons, but with discounts.

When Ministry Becomes Merchandise

One of the greatest sorceries of Babylon is the commercialization of the sacred. The system has learned how to merchandise the anointing. How to turn mantles into brands. How to convert revelation into curriculum and flame into five-step frameworks. It packages the mystery of God into consumable content and calls it “impact.” But what is often celebrated as influence is, in truth, captivity, a sacred scroll diluted to fit Babylon’s algorithms.

The early apostles were not marketers of mystery, they were witnesses of flame. They did not sell the Word, they bled for it. But now, Babylon whispers to the prophets, “Turn your thunder into a subscription. Turn your oil into a funnel. Turn your revelation into a product line.” And many do, thinking they are advancing the Kingdom, not realizing they are offering incense on Babylon’s altar.

This is not a call to poverty, it is a call to purity. There is a way to fund the scroll without selling it. There is a way to support the message without merchandising it. But that requires holy sight. It requires a refusal to bend your scroll to market demand. If your fire must be edited for profit, it is no longer fire, it is performance.

False Light Thrives in the Marketplace

Babylon’s sorcery is not dark and grotesque, it is luminous. It mimics revelation. It mirrors revival. It looks like light, sounds like freedom, and tastes like destiny. But its purpose is always the same: to domesticate the flame. To turn scroll-bearers into influencers. To make you palatable. Packageable. Predictable.

The counterfeit thrives where hunger and impatience meet. Babylon knows how to bait the gifted. She doesn’t need to destroy your scroll, she only needs to delay it, distort it, or dress it in something she can sell. The flame does not fit in a business model. The fire that knows your name cannot be franchised. But Babylon will try, and many who carry the Word of the Lord have already signed agreements with her and called it “favor.”

To carry divine flame in this age is to walk upstream. To create without compromise. To serve without seduction. To speak without editing. The scroll within you is a threat to Babylon precisely because it cannot be owned. When you refuse her sorcery, you become dangerous. Not because you’re loud, but because you’re untouchable.

Come Out of the Systems, Not Just the Sin

Many think “coming out of Babylon” means avoiding obvious evil, porn, greed, lust, violence. But the deeper invitation is to come out of the systems that seem neutral or even holy but carry mixture. Babylon’s captivity is not external, it’s economic, cultural, mental, and religious. It operates through convenience, comfort, and ambition. It chains the soul with invisible agreements.

You can be preaching the gospel and still be yoked to Babylon. You can be building ministries, hosting events, writing devotionals, and yet still be under her enchantment if your motivation is visibility, validation, or viral reach. The elect must discern not just what they are doing, but what spirit they are doing it from.

The marketplace has become the new pulpit, and many have not noticed. But Heaven is watching. The scrolls are groaning. The elect are awakening. And soon, those who once partnered with the system will burn it down with their repentance and return to flame.

The Scroll Cannot Be Enchanted

This is why the remnant must remain hidden until they are sealed. Because the unsealed scroll is still seduceable. The enchanted heart will still measure its value by applause. But the sealed ones, those who have walked through fire, those who have wept over compromise, those who have torn up contracts signed in haste, they will thunder with purity. Their sound will break the spell.

You cannot cast out Babylon with Babylon. You cannot dismantle the marketplace by mimicking it. You must become the contradiction, holy in the midst of commerce. Consecrated in the midst of convenience. A burning lamp in the halls of algorithm. A thunderous scroll in a world of bite-sized content.

The time has come for the spell to break. The time has come for the scroll to rise. The sons of fire cannot be enchanted. The daughters of Zion cannot be bought. The hour of sorcery is ending. And the marketplace will never recover from the radiance of the remnant.

Final Charge to the Elect

You are not for sale. Your sound cannot be franchised. Your flame cannot be monetized. Refuse the enchantment, resist the seduction, and rise as the contradiction. Let your consecration disrupt the economy of illusion. Let your purity bankrupt Babylon’s algorithms. The sealed scroll within you carries the code to break the spell. Release it, and watch the marketplace tremble.

Joe Restman
Scroll-Carrier, Mystic-Scribe, Eternal Witness of the Lamb.