Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini, has warned the Church against pursuing fame and wealth.
Having travelled across America for the last three years raising awareness of persecution, Abedini said she has observed "the condition of the body of Christ".
"Pursuing fame, wealth and 'followers/numbers' has become normal in the Christian world. We are becoming like the world and we are totally OK with that. Yet the scripture has serious warnings even calling us ENEMIES OF GOD," Abedini wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
Abedini has committed to a three week fast accompanied by daily Facebook updates which she began on Sunday. She has encouraged other Christians to join her fast.
"May this time of prayer and fasting bring us to our knees. May it be a time of repentance and being raw before God admitting our adultery and enmity toward God. Revival starts with us admitting our true condition and turning back to God," she said.
Abedini, a mother of two, has campaigned for her husband Saeed's release since his detention in Iran in 2012.
Abedini shared that her Christian faith cost her dearly when, at the age of nine, she converted from Islam.
"When I became a follower of Jesus at the age of nine, I had to let go of all I had been taught as a Muslim despite the cost and the rejection and persecution that came from my own family," she wrote.
In a later post about her fast, she shared one of her biggest hopes for the New Year is that people would become passionate about their faith.
"May this year be the year that we make the decision that being a mediocre Christian is not enough and may we enter into a greater intimacy with God," she said.
Abedini's husband, Saeed, is being held in Iran's notorious Rajai Shahr prison on charges of undermining national security.
He began developing home church communities for Christian converts, who are forbidden from gathering in Iran's public churches, more than a decade ago. He was first arrested in 2009, but was later released after pledging to stop formally organising house churches.
He was arrested for a second time upon returning to Iran in 2012 to help build a state-run, secular orphanage and was held without charges until January 2013, when he received his eight-year sentence.
