CHURCH OF PERGAMOS: Dethroning the Religious Spirit

The Church of Pergamos was located a few miles inland from Smyrna. It was built on a hill top a thousand feet above a plain. It was noted for one of the most famous hospitals in ancient times. Here the god of Asklepios, a snake symbol of satan was worshiped. Jesus refers to this church as the “seat of satan.” Many of the believers were corrupted by false worship and sexual immorality. Pergamos represents the time period of about 313 AD to 538 AD. During this time the Christian Church embraced a host of false doctrines brought in by pagans and their idol worship. This church was in constant conflict with the values of an evil society attempting to replace the teachings of Christ.

The spirit of religion likes to work through two extremes. One is to so much identify with the world that the church seems as worldly as the world that it/the church is supposed to call people to come out of! The other extreme is that it is so legalistic that the Love of Christ is difficult to find.

Both extremes have the same basis. They offer a form of godliness that denies the power and reality of Christ. The key to defeating this spirit is given by the apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 2: 3-5: “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit’s power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”  In Paul’s day men worshiped knowledge and earthly wisdom. He pointed the people to encounters with the living God as the greatest kind of knowledge.

Adventures in Prayer:

Ask God to remove the religious spirit from the churches of California and replace it with God encounters. Ask Him to start with you. Spiritual awakenings come when we begin to encounter God in new and fresh ways. Be open to the Holy Spirit coming to you in a new way.

Pray for a spiritual awakening to visit the churches of California.

CA 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting

CHURCH OF SMYRNA: "Pray for those in Tribulation"

The Church of Smyrna represents the church from 100 AD to 325 AD. This coastal city lies just north of Ephesus. Today it is the third largest city in Turkey. During the apostle John's day, the Roman empire meted out great persecution to those in this city who refused to be involved in emperor worship cultism. Many of the Christians in this city were persecuted and killed for remaining faithful to Jesus and refusing to worship another god. Jesus gives no reproof to this church. He comforts them and lets them know He understands their pain. It is interesting to note that persecution tends to purify the Church and those who are not committed turn their backs and walk away. Those who stay count the cost of following Jesus and determine to give all if necessary to remain true to Him.

Emperor Worship: We may not be faced today with emperor worship but daily we are tempted to worship other gods. We are faced with idolatry that places things of this world as more important then serving Christ. We have gods of money, pleasure, power and success. The love of the world blinds us to the need to die to self and to joyfully take up our crosses to follow Him.

Adventures in Prayer:

Make a list of your top three goals in life. Now ask what are Christ's top three goals for you? Reorder your goals in life to reflect His spiritual priorities. In 2Cor 10: 3-5 we are told to bring every thought into captivity and obedience to Christ, casting down vain imaginations. Select a top priority Christ wants you to have and ask Him to impart His imaginations or dreams for you. Ask Him to show you what it would look like for you to model it. Claim its reality.

  

 CA 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting

"Church of Ephesus: Seeking Restoration of First Love"   The messages to the 7 Churches in Revelation speak to various experiences and problems that the Church went through. Jesus  anticipated the Christian's struggle with evil in these passages and has given us solutions in advance.   The Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2: 1-7 represents Christians who begin their experience with Christ with great passion and then loose that passion. This particular Church represents the Church of the first century. During that period the Gospel was preached to the entire known world. Jesus commends them for what they have done in the past and then He reproves them for losing their first love. The passion and intimacy was fading from their relationship. His counsel to them is to repent and return to their first works or priority. In any relationship, intimacy  involves sharing the things you have in common and developing friendship. It involves dreaming together about the future. Above all, it involves spending time together. Intimacy with God involves spending time with Him in his Word, in worship and talking with Him in prayer. The result is that His priorities become my priorities. I begin to do the very things Jesus would do if He were here. As love for Him fills my heart, I am empowered to do just that.   Repentance: A Church that does not reflect the power and work of Jesus is a church that has lost it's intimacy with Him. The turn around that is necessary starts with each us of. There is a need to reorder priorities. One might ask "How do I fit prayer into my busy day?" The real question is "How do I fit my busy day into the activity of prayer which is my first priority?" We need to repent of loosing our first Love and turn back to the priority of Him.   Adventures in Prayer: Make today a day out of the ordinary for your spiritual life. Make sure you have an hour in prayer. Take time to seek Him morning, noon, and night. Include time in God's Word. In the business world when we say yes to certain things we must say no to other demands. It's time to say YES to Christ first and make other things wait. When we have developed the intimacy we need for the day, then give the world what is left over. This dynamic will turn your world upside down and put it back in proper, Heavenly order.

    CA 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting

    
Yom Kippur begins at sundown. It is called the Day of Atonement in the Bible which means the day of At-one-ment. It is the day God restores destiny. Pray that California and your state will enter into a new destiny this coming year that is aligned to God's Redemptive purposes. As we pray seeking God for restoration of destiny, let us remember to pray Isaiah 62 for Israel and also 2 Chron 7: 14 for our country. Below is a report from a ministry in Israel that gives insight on how to pray and how they view our current USA crisis.

JERUSALEM-ON-THE-LINE

JNN NEWS, P.O. Box 7411, Jerusalem 91073, Israel

"Is not this the kind of fast I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?"    Is 58:6

YOM KIPPUR: Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is the most solemn occasion of the Jewish year - a day of fasting, prayer and repentance.  Jews who do not observe other biblical holidays generally make an exception for Yom Kippur, which occurs on the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishri. Yom Kippur requires a complete fast of about 25 hours, and is preceded by a festive meal. The traditional greeting for Yom Kippur is g'mar chatimah tovah, "May you be sealed for a good year in the Book of Life."