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@this-is-not-an-alien

Hi Cathy,

Absolutely. Here is the essence of what is happening, as the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthian Christians:

So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. … For even if I grieved you with my letter, I don’t regret it. And if I regretted it ​– ​since I saw that the letter grieved you, yet only for a while ​– ​ I now rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn’t experience any loss from us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death. For consider how much diligence this very thing ​– ​this grieving as God wills ​– ​has produced in you: what a desire to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what deep longing, what zeal, what justice! In every way you showed yourselves to be pure in this matter. So even though I wrote to you, it was not because of the one who did wrong, or because of the one who was wronged, but in order that your devotion to us might be made plain to you in the sight of God. [2 Corinthians 7:1, 8-12 CSB]

Confession is the recognition of what additional sins we permit to come between us and our relationship with Christ Jesus.

James reduces the concept of what sin is down to its essence:

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. [James 4:17 NLT]

Paul writes of the new nature, that God puts into a person who accepts Him as Lord and Savior:

Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. [Colossians 3:10 NLT]

It is the struggle of these two natures that Paul alludes to when he writes:

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. [Romans 7:23 KJV]

The new nature in us is what is being perfected and is taking over the territory lost, under the confidence of the finished work of Christ.  When Jesus becomes the Lord and Savior of the life of a person, they are held in Him, but there is still the perfecting work to be done that conforms them by their faith into His image.  That is why a person who is a Christian still struggles with the natures of the dead person (their flesh) and the new heart on awakened Spirit made alive by their faith in Christ.

How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it? I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. [Galatians 3:3-5 NLT]

Kind of like in the Matrix movie, “Neo” awakens to what is really going on in the “real world”, by choosing to take the “red pill”.  Satan is at war with the saints, but those who remain asleep are safely tucked away into his web of deception.  He is only threatened by those who become aware of what really if happened around them in the hidden realm.  They awaken to the war.  Those asleep and oblivious are his, those awakened and joining in the resistance are the called-out ones who Christ has liberated, by paying the ransom for them, when they accept his sacrifice as their own.

Salvation is only the awakening after taking the “red pill”, representing His shed blood at the Cross of Calvary.  But once awakened, we are an instant threat.  We take up the arms and armament that Paul describes in his letter to the Ephesians:

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. [Ephesians 6:11 NIV]

The Book of Ezekial in two places talks about this new nature and this promise.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. [Ezekiel 36:26 NIV]

It is that new nature and new heart of flesh that has the capacity to fellowship as fully justified with God Himself and to discern and recognize the discipline of the Lord.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. [Ezekiel 36:26 NIV]

It is this blessed new nature that gives us spiritual insight and discernment because it is attuned to the “mind of Christ”.

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. [1 Corinthians 2:15-16 KJV]

It is supernatural armament that prepares us in coverings as we contend with the defeated enemies of this world and or areas in our own hearts where we still struggle with the tug of the old nature.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he [is] Christ’s, even so [are] we Christ’s. [2 Corinthians 10:3-7 KJV]

Azragoth /Az-Rah-Gawth/ – In Israeli, the name Azra means – pure. In Israeli, the name Gath means – a wine-press. Hence, Azragoth means, Pure Wine-Press. The New Wine, pressed out of trouble and crushing.

Here is the key verse related to the City itself.
The LORD will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine and oil, And you will be satisfied [in full] with them; And I will never again make you a reproach among the nations. … The threshing floors will be full of grain, And the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil. [Joel 2:19, 24 NASB]
“But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. [Luke 5:38 NASB]

In my WIP, Azragoth represents a type of “Jerusalem”.  My WIP is not an allegory, but it does have very definite types and archetypes that foreshadow and are represented in part and correlated to the biblical events and places in the “Surface World”.  The Mid-World is meant to darkly mirror both the world we recognize and live in and the metaphysical landscape of the human heart/soul.
Azragoth, having been reduced to a ghost town and left for dead in the Mid-World, mirrors the A.D. 90 invasion and sacking of Jerusalem in history. But God promised Jerusalem would “after becoming a haunt of jackals” (Jeremiah 9:11) would eventually rise again.  The same fate will come to Babylon (Jeremiah 51:37), but unlike Jerusalem, it will never rise after its desolation.
Every time God punished the sins of His prodigal people, He called them to repentance and to turn back to Him, and He would accept and restore them.  This practice of confession, mirrored by this ritual is how repentance looks.  Even though the vile sludge is under the city pavements, the remnant of the city, lift what is underneath their feet and move the filth to down the gutter to the front reservoir of the city, outside of the inner city.
Jesus said:

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. [Luke 9:23 NLT]

“Taking up your cross” is essentially confessing any lingering sin that your new nature recognizes as hindering your fellowship with the Holy Spirit.  This exercise in the story’s ritual represents and dramatizes that practice.
It is also important to note Azragoth is the very heart of the training ground for the Resistance that is moving against the forces and fortress of darkness that occupy the Mid-World.  This is why these Resistance fighters, must purify their camp from the diseases that came from them neglecting their personal hygienic conditions that led to the plagues’ outbreak. They have learned that they must purge their lives and their city to strengthen it and keep it healthy mentally and physically for the training they are involved in for the warfare that is ahead of them.