The Meaning of the Seven Churches of Revelation

It's All About The Rewards

Map of the 7 Churches location in modern-day Turkey

The Revelation of Jesus. Learn the true current condition of the "Present Day Church" with this companion guide. The spiritual state of these churches exists in the Body of Christ right now. Keep the faith and the rewards Jesus has waiting for you in Heaven far surpass our light and momentary troubles here on earth. You have overcome already in Jesus. You are the light of the world, that is literally the Lampstand that Jesus holds in His right hand. We, The Church, PRAY, without ceasing, for the body of Christ.

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THREE FACTS

Where did the Seven Churches reside on the map in history (see map below).

Secondly, why study the seven churches, because these seven churches represent the problems in the current day church, and learn the true oppositions facing The Church. Living loveless, experience persecution, caving to compromise, participating in corruption, being spiritually dead, and live lukewarm. These are the seven issues The Church has to overcome while on the earth. All our problems fall within these seven key categories. See what they are below in this study. Once we reach heaven, Jesus is coming to reward you for overcoming.

Additionally, the bible teaches us in Colossians 3:1-5 that we are to seek the eternal treasures that are above, where Jesus is. Keep your mind set on things above and not on the things that are on the earth. Revelation chapters 2 and 3 shows us great things are ahead of us and lets us know what to expect in our near future, Heaven!

The Spiritual Name of each Church

The Location of the Seven Churches and their spiritual Name

The letters written in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, were literal letters written to seven literal churches. These seven letters represent the spiritual state of the "Present Day Church." The loveless Church, the persecuted Church, the compromising Church, the corrupt Church, the dead Church, and the lukewarm Church. In history, these seven Churches were located in modern-day Turkey, formerly Asia Minor territory and part of the Eastern Roman Empire that ruled until 1453. This is the same Roman Empire that was in rule while Jesus was walking the earth. Not one city of these churches is in existence today, but ruins remain. The Island of Patmos, the location John the Revelator led by The Holy Spirit, wrote Revelation, is west of Turkey now part of the Greek islands.

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The Revelation of Jesus, The Church

The Revelation of Jesus, The Church

This is what Revelation chapters 2 and 3 are all about, YOU, The Church. You are the light to the world. The seven candlesticks represent the seven churches each one with something to overcome and receive rewards from Jesus Himself. That's what studying Revelation 2 and 3 is all about, the rewards and eternal life for The Church, YOU!

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U.S./Turkey Peace Alliance

U.S./Turkey Peace Alliance

In October of 2025, President Trump and President Erdogan seen here joining in strength. A Christian-Judeo Nation joining with a former, and one of the first, Christian nations. This is a blessing for the preservation of Christianity, The Church. Turkey could become a future member of the Abraham Accords because of this alliance. Reported by CBNnews.com, Turkey is in this alliance for a future land grab somewhere, probably the Gaza Strip, where the current war is located between Israel and Hamas. Turkey and Egypt are possibly the two countries that will revitalize the Eastern Roman Empire because of their dominance in the region. How does this relate to the Second Coming of Christ and the rapture? First, the Eastern and Western Roman Empires must rise again for the Anti-Christ to rule and reign. The Western Roman Empire has already risen again, under the name, "The European Union." The Eastern Roman Empire is close to assembling through middle eastern peace alliances. Once this happens, the Rapture will take place, then the Tribulation will start once "The Church" is removed from earth. After the Tribulation period, Jesus will return as "The Second Coming" with us, The Church, to judge all that oppose Him on the earth and under the earth.

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The Seven Churches

Studying the Seven Churches will boost, renew a fiery faith, and bless you. These churches are rooted in ancient Asia Minor and connected to Apostle Paul’s ministry (Acts 19:10). The challenges these seven Churches faced are the same challenges we face today. Jesus gives us the answers and a way out, right now while on the earth, of what it is WE need to overcome. Then, when we reach Heaven and after the Rapture, Jesus will reward us, The Church.

View a list of these REWARDS by clicking here:

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EPHESUS

This church left, abandoned and deserted Christ, their first love. A Christian that left Jesus says, "I don't need God anymore, I'm good." Repent and come back to Jesus, your first love and I, Jesus, will reward and grant you to eat of the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God.

Revelation 2:1-7; 1 John 4:19; Matthew 22:37; Matthew 16:24

Smyrna

SMYRNA

This is the persecuted Church. Jesus knows your affliction, pressing trouble. distress, and abuses but you are rich! Do not fear! Jesus is bigger and stronger than those persecuting you. Be loyally faithful to Jesus and He will reward you with the crown of life and in no way be injured by the second death.

Revelation 2:8-11; John 15:18-27; James 1:12; 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

PERGAMUM

This is the compromising church. Married (yoked) to the world. Tolerating sin, seeking financial gain for false teaching, and leading believers astray through compromise with the world for selfishness. A compromising Christian says, "I don't have to do everything God says, I'm not sinning as bad as them." He called you out of the world. Repent and Jesus will give to eat the hidden Manna, a reward you a new name only you will understand.

Revelation 2:12-17; Romans 12:2,3; 2 Peter 2:15-16; Jude 1:18-25; 1 John 5:4; Exodus 16:31-35; John 16:33

THYATIRA

The corrupt church. Tolerating prophets and prophetesses claiming to be inspired by Jesus but leading The Church astray beguiling them to practice false religious worship to another without their knowledge. "I filled my religious obligation this week, I went to church." Awake, Repent and Jesus will reward you authority over nations and rule with a rod of iron given by Our Father.

Rev 2:18-29; 2 Kings 9:22,30; Psalm 2:8,9; Luke 6:37; 2 Corinthians 4:4; John 37-40

SARDIS

The dead church. Presumably alive, but dead. Awake, Repent! Remember your lessons, hold them to your heart. A spiritually dead person says, "I don't need to be concerned, I have time. Or, I will just blend in until my time is up." In Heaven, Jesus will reward you with white garments, keeping your name in the Book of Life, and will confess your name openly before God, Our Father for overcoming.

Revelation 3:1-6; Rev 20:12-15; Matthew 10:32-33; Mark 9:3; Matthew 24:42-44; Rev 22:12

PHILADELPHIA

PHILADELPHIA

The faithful church. Because you have kept the faith and Jesus' Word, you will receive a crown. "A faithful Christian is a BIG worshipper." Jesus will reward you as a pillar in God's sanctuary. You will receive a name of God, the name of the New City, and a new name from Jesus Himself.

Revelation 3:7:13; Isaiah 22:22; 2 Timothy 4:7; Galatians 6:9; Revelation 19:12

LAODICEA

The Lukewarm Church. Neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. You think you are in need of nothing, but you need zeal for Jesus. A lukewarm Christian says, "It doesn't take all of that. That's too much church and bible reading for me." Open your eyes and see, repent and I, Jesus, will reward you to sit beside Me on My throne.

Revelation 3:14-22; Matthew 7:7-8; John 14:6; Hosea 12:8; Proverbs 3:12; Isaiah 62:2; James 4:4; 2 Corinthias 6:17

IT'S ALL ABOUT SHINING YOUR LIGHT AND THE REWARDS

Studying the Seven Churches of Revelation can ignite a change in your heart to walk closer with The Lord. We all face these trials in our Christian walk at some time. Now we recognize it and overcome it empowered with the Lord Jesus. Revelation chapters 2 and 3 were written by Jesus to guide His followers back to Him, offering the path to overcome these obstacles (Psalm 119:105) and then...rewards them. Persist in your faith; Jesus has already conquered the world (John 16:33). Embrace this Revelation and share it with others. You might be the only Light someone sees on this earth.

So, keep your mind set on the eternal treasures above (Colossians 3:1-5), great rewards are waiting for you that no other group of people or angels in Heaven will receive. You are set apart (dedicated) to Jesus now, on the earth, to receive these rewards (1 Peter 2:9). That is why the darkness in the world cannot overcome the Light in YOU (John 1:5). Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).

God bless you, may the peace of God continually be with you

Silence The Critics

Has there ever been a time in your life when there was too much criticism being said to you and about you? How did it escalate to a near unbearable level that makes us want to run, hide, and lash out? We let it. We let it in, and we let it grow to a level that is out of our control. When it gets to that level, we turn into easily offended people. Some of us go through a lifetime of being offended because we never knew we let criticism get to us. We thought we could take it, we could handle it, and it didn’t bother us. But we couldn’t take it, and we did let it bother us. So, we shoved the offense deep into our sub-conscience and buried it. We became bitter and said the reason why was something else like old age, habit, I never knew how to let go, I have a right to be bitter, genetics, DNA, or say we’ve become a lot like our parents.  Up until now, we have not been able to arrive at the true reason why we are easily offended, bitter, and why we need coping mechanisms.  We let people criticize us in a harmful way and didn’t do anything about it. Now we need to ask for forgiveness from God and the person that harshly criticized us because we now hold something in our hearts against them. One might ask, “how is that fair, they treated me wrong in the first place and I was just minding my own business.” That could be very true, but where we went wrong at is we let it trouble and offend our hearts (John 14:1, 27), and we let it change our attitude toward them in a bitter way.

The bible specifically charges us to get rid of bitterness in every way (Ephesians 4:31-32), and we have to forgive those that do wrong to us so that God will forgive us (Mark 11:25-26). 

            There are 3 types of people that criticize us. People that desire to put us down because of our favor and righteousness with God. Sometimes to the point of persecution. People that do not intentionally desire to put us down but do because of their own insecurity.  And the third is our own self. Yes, that’s right. 

Sometimes we are our toughest critic and make it a daily habit. We put ourselves down more than others do. If you are putting yourself down so much that you want to give up on certain things and are considering making a bad decision because you need change in your life, then somewhere in your life you heard someone else criticize you and you held it in your heart and never let it go. Sometimes we hear a parent, mentor, coach, loved one, teacher, etc. criticize someone else and it puts a fear in us that we can’t ever cross that person. So, we put ourselves in a performance role whenever we are around that person. We put on an act of always being a good person because we are afraid of what they might say about us. So, we do anything we can, even if it means to put on an act or lie to them, just to keep them from criticizing us. If we continue to do this for years we will eventually put on an act and lie around everybody in everyday life (Ephesians 4:25). The bible says when we do this (lie) we let the devil in our life to steal from us, bother us, torment us, make the gospel in our life ineffective, and lose faith (Ephesians 4:27). But we can put a stop to the fear, lying, hatred, and the criticism because we have Christ!

            1 Peter 2:15 says, “For it is the will of God, that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.”  You will silence your critics by continuing to do good things. Many times, critics speak up because they are jealous of your success and the good that you do. Don’t give critics a reason to say anything about anything (Titus 2:8). However, that does not mean to stop the Gospel from flowing from you. It means, never get tired of doing right (2 Thessalonians 3:13; Galatians 6:9). Even though critics try to stop the Gospel, good works, and destroy our faith in the Lord, they will shut up when they see they can’t stop you or get to you. Let’s have the attitude that what they have to say (and that includes what we have to say to ourselves), is not even worth considering (Romans 8:18). It is not even worth our time to listen to it. Don’t even let it get us upset. Satan’s primary focus is to make us ineffective for the kingdom of God by sending criticism any way he can. When he knows you are listening, he will keep bringing it to you over and over to weaken you.  He will continue the criticism just to get you to sin, to act out on someone (Romans 12:17) or run away to a mess up. When that happens, just stop, praise God and confuse the devil (Psalms 40:3, and 96:1). God gave us the power to say no.  Say, “I’m not going to let this upset me.” Open your mouth and say hallelujah! The joy of the Lord is my strength (Nehemiah 8:10; Psalms 28:7-8). No weapon formed against you will prosper (Isaiah 54:17). What that means is critics can try all they want to take us down, but they will not succeed. They do not have the power to stop us, because greater is the One that is in us than the one that is in the world (1 John 4:4). That means any person doing the will of God has the power to stop and nullify anyone that is trying to stop the will of God because God is in us and not in them. Having faith in God triumphs over everything. Do you know who you serve? Do you know just how big your God really is? You have the victory in Christ. Ok then, let’s use His word and His power to silence the critics. 

God bless you

ByLisa

Influence and Faith: Navigating Voices in Times of Crisis

On August 27, 2025, a mass shooting occurred by an evil murderer who shot and killed two children and wounded seventeen people at the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minnesota. Heartfelt prayers flooded in for the victims and their families from across the country. Godly condolences, intercessory prayers, scripture-based thoughts, and an America united in Godly sorrow for the Minnesota community ravaged by the shooting. Then the media and popular politicians just had to chime in on the nation coming together to pray for the victims and the healing of the community. Their comments demanded the Christians and a praying nation to stop praying. Church, do we listen to worldly voices in a time of crisis, or only the Holy Spirit's voice? Most Christians will quickly answer only the Holy Spirit. But think about that for a moment. Church, are we going to stop and back down praying for people? Are we going to listen to popular politicians and media influencers with titles tell us their truths and take away ours? These politicians and media influencers are trying to preach and manipulate America to not pray. Citing, it doesn’t work, it’s a hoax, it is the problem, a waste of time, and there is no God. Jesus Himself has something to say about it. Oh yes, He does! He warns us and describes exactly who these people are and their agenda.

In this photo, a post by California Governor, Gavin Newsom, attacks prayer, saying, "These children were literally praying when they got shot.” Insinuating prayer is the problem. Prayer caused their death, and why would anyone pray.

In this photo, a media influencer host on the MSNBC Network, Jen Psaki (former Obama Press Secretary), also attacks prayer. She stated, “enough with the thoughts and prayers.” Further stating prayer does not work and abandon prayer. Really? Vice President JD Vance swiftly responded to discredit her godless ideology.

This is a tragedy that the devil is using to get Christians to stop praying. The enemy is manipulating the Christian community that will listen, to doubt their prayers. These are people that identify as Christians, but easily give in to strong influence, whether positive or negative. These people have itchy ears that cling to messiness. People that are not spiritually in tune with the voice of God but physically go to church. This group of people prays without accomplishing anything because of their lack of faith. Sure, we all lack faith at times, but this is just a warning to be careful who you listen to in a time of crisis. Have we ever said Jesus is Lord, which is great, but deny His power. Jesus gave this Christian community a title, The Lukewarm Church, a Church married to the World, and The Dead Church. Unfortunately, this group of people doubts their own salvation. Church! We can’t let that happen! We have to pray for them.

Jesus has something to say to Christians listening to media influencers, godless rulers, religions that deny Jesus, and anyone strongly persuading The Church to give up and modify our faith. Transforming ourselves over to their beliefs. In Mark 8:15 Jesus strictly says to us, The Church, “beware, watch out! Keep on your guard of the leaven of the Pharisees (religious leaders not aligned with Christ), of Herod (rulers like Gavin Newsom), and Herodians (media influencers like Jen Psaki).”

THEY ARE DANGEROUS!

Their corrupt influence, religious hypocrisy, and worldly influence is of the enemy aiming to destroy The Church. Seeking to recruit Church people over to the kingdom of darkness from the kingdom of Heaven. We can’t let that happen, as the reason for this message.

In a time of crisis PRAYER is the avenue to the answer, Jesus. Instead of listening to worldly influence, pray. Pray for the people in church that still have an ear that listens to worldly voices. Maybe that person is not you, but it might be the person sitting next to you in church. Pray for them. Yes, it is true. There are Church people married to the world, in and out of church not committed, and just sitting in church with a dead spirit. Let’s pray they AWAKE! TIME IS SHORT! THE ENEMY IS OUT TO SNATCH YOU FROM JESUS! Don’t you see, it is happening right before our very eyes. We cannot miss Jesus, his call to “come up here!” 

The meaning of leaven here does not refer to yeast in bread, but a person or group that is of strong persuasive influence that modifies, transforms, and permeates someone into their own agenda. These people have clout. Their social media followings and frequent appearances in the news give them the power to shape public opinion. They have a name for themselves. A lot of people listen to them forcibly or voluntarily. So, these strong-willed people think they can strong will you or your loved ones into doing what they say. It won’t work. We are not letting it happen. We are the Triumphant Church. We pray! We pray without ceasing. We move mountains. We pray intercessory prayers for all people. Our prayers heal, deliver, and save people. When we pray, we are unmovable, unshaken, and undisturbed. We know who we are in Christ. We conduct spiritual warfare and win. We are victorious in Christ. Our faith is mighty to pull down strongholds. We know Who the Mighty One is, JESUS! We know it is through Him all things are possible. We, The Church, change things through prayer, not the kingdom of darkness. We know the kingdom of darkness must bow to the throne of Christ. When the Church agrees together on any one thing when we pray, “Dark critics… Silence yourself,” it happens, in Jesus’ name.

We, The Church, are not silent. WE PRAY!

In Jesus’ Mighty Name, God bless you.

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Psalms 14:1; 1 Timothy 2:1-2; James 5:16; Matthew 5:44; John 10:10; Mark 8:15-21; Revelation 2:13-14; Revelation 3:1-5; Revelation 3:14-19; Revelation 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Mark 11:22-24; Matthew 18:19; 1 Corinthians 15:57; 1 John 5:4; 2 Corinthians 10:4-5; Mark 9:23; Philippians 2:10-11