As we saw yesterday, today we live in the age of grace, the age of the church, which can also be called the age of the Spirit of reality. Therefore, the last two thousand years should be the age in which all the New Testament believers live in the spirit. After the Lord departed, the apostles tried to lead the saints to live in the spirit. What is the church life? The church life is a life of living in the spirit.

According to church history, the age of the church in Smyrna, which typifies the period of the church in tribulation in the second and third centuries of the Christian age (Rev. 2:8-11), came after the apostolic age, represented by the church in Ephesus (2:1-7). The church in Smyrna lived in the spirit. How can we say this? We can say this because it was a church that called on the Lord's name and kept the Lord's Word. Even though they passed through great persecutions and were martyred, they lived in the spirit. The more the Roman Empire killed the Christians, the more believers appeared. Since they were in the spirit, they were full of life. That is why the Lord said that they would receive the crown of life (v. 10).

From the fourth century on, the church fell into the condition of Pergamos (2:12-17). It fell by joining itself to the world. From the fifth century, Roman Catholicism was formed, typified by the church in Thyatira (vv. 18-29), where there was the teaching of the woman Jezebel (Rev. 2:20; 1 Kings 16:30-33). Most of the so-called "Christians" were not even regenerated. They received teachings that led man into error and deviation from the Word of God.

When the sixteenth century came with the Reformation, the church in Sardis came into being (Rev. 3:1-6). This church was supposed to lead man into the orthodox way, but this did not happen. Some were led to defend the doctrine of the fundamentalists, and because there was disagreement, divisions arose. The reason for this is that they analyzed the Bible with their mind; they fell into the trap of their mind. God's Word is life and must be assimilated as spirit. We can say that the strongholds of the mind were built up even more during this time. Many reasonings, theories, knowledge and even literature appeared. Others took the way of Pentecostalism: the way of the outward outpouring of the Spirit, not the way of the Spirit indwelling man.

Man was led even more into knowledge to develop the strongholds of his mind in his fallen soul. Today we realize how much we have been damaged by this evil. The saints are in the spirit in every conference but if we are not alert, the strongholds can be built up again. In every meeting we need to say "amen" to God so that we will allow Him to break the strongholds of our mind. We need to release the spirit! It is very easy for us to fall into our mind. This is a pity. We are no longer in the second two thousand years: we do not have to continue analyzing in our mind. No! Let us release the spirit so that the strongholds of our mind will be overthrown.