Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

When Bishops Replace Prophets

blessing of God) begin to prosper and forget their roots. It is a time of accom modation, a period of establishing harmonious relationships. If the church has spiritual manifestations, these are relegated to special, out-of-the-way times and places. The ministry depends more on academic training than on spiritual gifts and prayer. The prophetic voice is silenced by neglect. 4. A Spiritless monument. Finally the church stands as a mute monu ment to that which once was but no longer is. People do not know God as they did in the beginning. Missionary zeal is gone. If the Holy Spirit removed Himself from the property, the organization would carry on its program and none would recognize any difference. If the founders of the first church could pay a visit, they would see the same system that originally drove them out of their home church and forced them to start a new one. David Watson says: "Often through the history of the church, the pat tern has been the same: God breathes into his church fresh life by the renewing power of the Holy Spirit: man likes what he sees, organizes it, regiments it; and the patterns thereof continue for decades, if not for cen turies, after the Spirit has quietly made his departure." 16 New beginnings. At this point, by the providence of God and the hunger of sincere believers, the cycle begins again. Sincere, spiritual peo ple-discouraged with the lackadaisical attitude of their church lead ers-begin to pray and seek God. They start once again to experience the things of the Spirit. Conversions take place and the joy of the Lord sweeps into people's hearts. But, alas, the old wineskins are too dried and cracked to withstand the pressure of the fomenting new wine of the Spirit (Luke 5:37). Hungry people want to hear and believe the Bible. Sincere hearts want to experience the things of the Spirit. A wooden, out dated liturgy will not meet the needs of a restless new generation. Unless a church contends for the Spirit and the Word, there will eventually be an exodus of disenamored people who want to go on with God. This does not mean every new religious movement or doctrine must be accepted without being tested. Every new surge of religious fervor, with its accompanying "revival phenomena, " need not be embraced as authen tic or appropriate. Like the Bereans of old, we must search things out in the Scripture to make sure they are genuine, and we must ever be open to the possibilities that the Spirit brings to us. Remember, none of us has yet seen all God can do!

The Ecclesia

The essence of the Church (Greek, ecclesia), 17 the special nature of the select group who followed Jesus, lay not in a formalized or heavily struc tured organization. Jesus founded an organism-a living fellowship of 249.