能力

好事

2000年来， 尽管基督没有亲临教会的发展，但因着圣灵的同在，上帝就在他们中间。在早期，圣灵赐予福音的使者们智慧、能力和安慰。所有的人都能辨明基督徒确实与众不同。他们已经接受了耶稣，他们拥有福音的权柄。基督藉着圣灵住在他们心里。尽管耶稣已不在世上，别人还是可以认明他们是跟过耶稣的，（使徒行传4:13）。同时，圣灵赐给他们传福音的不同恩赐。有些人是传教士（使徒），有些是先知，有些是布道士，有些是教会监督（牧师和长老在《圣经》中基本相同），还有一些是教师。所有人都在教会传播基督信息的工作中各司其职。至少在起初他们做的都非常好

属灵恩赐

圣灵是上帝预先赐给我们的属天恩赐。耶稣应许将带我们去天国，所以当我们还在地上的时候，祂赐天国的一部分—圣灵给我们。当我们行在圣灵里时，就得到许多益处。祂塑造我们的品格，使我们能像基督一样。祂赐我们传福音的恩赐。祂使我们可以度合上帝旨意的生活。这就是早期教会的成功，也是福音传播如此迅速的原因。但是，随着时间的推移，世俗的影响悄然而至，信徒们开始抵挡圣灵的能力。由于失去了圣灵的能力，教会用其他方法来维持自己。结果不尽如人意。

败坏和丑陋

任何了解早期教会历史的人都可以证明，在耶稣升天后的几个世纪内，教会落入了叛教的境地。她开始随着假教师和假道的进入而瓦解。不公平的事很快发生，对权利的追逐占据了上风。教会最终沦为了异教，非但不遵守上帝的诫命，还试图改变它们！更糟糕的是，她从起初被逼迫的对象转而成为取得权力之后的逼迫者！首先，她开始迫害非基督徒。教会领袖们失去了圣灵的大能后，转而寻求国家的权势来处理教会事务，而这些事非藉着圣灵的大能不能成就。他们甚至开始逼迫那些没按照他们吩咐去做的信徒。他们把《圣经》藏起来，不让信徒们阅读，而是仅允许一些神父查看。他们中有一些酗酒成性的旅行修士，通过告诉人们若不为自己的罪付钱，将会落入“炼狱”之中来骗取钱财。他们还让人们继续付钱以解救自己的家人摆脱“炼狱”。虽然总有善良和忠心的人相信他们所听到的真理信息，并尽力跟随上帝，但整个体系从头到脚都腐败了。教会不仅腐败，而且拥有很大的权力。在世界上有一个同时掌控着宗教和政治权力的人取了“基督”的称号。他在教会中拥有至高无上的权威。他杀死或驱逐任何不向他低头的人。简而言之：不管教会如何自称，她已经不再是“基督的教会”了。

先见之明

教会进入了一个非常强势并背信弃义的历史时期。但你猜怎么着？《圣经》已经预言了这些事的发生。耶稣在马太福音、马可福音和路加福音中预言了此事。保罗在帖撒罗尼迦后书2章预言了此事。但以理在但以理书第7、8和11章中预言了此事。启示录第12、13、14章中也预言了此事。《圣经》不仅预言会发生这种情况，也预言了这种叛教行为的垮台和完结。也就是说，预言以一个好的、充满希望的景况结束！事实上，圣灵的恩赐之一，就是预言的恩赐。这是赐给忠心余民的一种恩赐。根据约珥书2:28,29所说，预言的恩赐将在耶稣复临之前以特别的方式出现。这些经文描绘的是以色列雨水时节的景象。先下早雨，后下晚雨。同样的，圣灵在第一世纪被降下，并将在世界历史结束时以一种特殊的方式再次降下。启示录记载，上帝的子民–余民–会遵守上帝的诫命，并有耶稣的见证（启示录12:17）。然后启示录告诉我们，耶稣的见证就是“预言之灵”（启示录19:10）。这样，预言的恩赐就会在上帝信实的子民中显明出来，因为他们有上帝的灵。

预言的价值

预言的恩赐是具有非常价值的。预言首先为耶稣作见证。这就是为什么它被称为“耶稣的见证”。耶稣说过，祂要预先告诉我们一些事，当事情成就时，我们就会相信祂是基督（约翰福音13:19;14:29）。也就是说，我们可以看到事情的发生，就像上帝所预言的那样，这样我们就会有信心跟随这位无所不知的上帝（以赛亚书46:10）。这个恩赐也是为了帮助我们在等待耶稣再来的时候不会失去对祂的信心而灰心沮丧。此外，面对如此众多的迷惑，“预言之灵”可以指引我们找到上帝的话语，帮助我们免受欺骗。有时很难辨明说谎者和说真话的人之间的区别，但当我们查考上帝的话语时，我们可以看到上帝在事情发生之前就揭示了秘密，这有助于我们从错误中辨别真理。保罗写道：“信是所望之事的实底，是未见之事的确据”（希伯来书11:1）。上帝不会要求我们在没有凭据的情况下相信。祂也没有给我们太多的凭据，以至于我们不需要有信心。（无论如何，如果没有一定程度的信心，我们几乎无法相信任何事情）然而，上帝已经给了我们足够多的凭据，帮我们在信仰什么和跟随谁的问题上作明智且理性的选择。我们要么相信上帝和祂的话，要么相信别人说的话。然而，预言确实给了我们很强的说服力和理由，帮助我们相信上帝。

Power

The Good

For 2000 years, the church has moved forward in the absence of Christ’s physical presence; but through the presence of the Holy Spirit, God was in their midst.

The Holy Spirit provided wisdom, power, and comfort to the messengers of the Gospel in those early years. People everywhere could tell that Christians were, indeed, different. They had embraced Jesus, and they had authority behind their message. Christ was living in their hearts through the Holy Spirit. And others could tell that they had been with Jesus, even though Jesus wasn’t on earth (Acts 4:13). Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit gave them special gifts in order to spread this message. Some people were missionaries (apostles), some prophets, some evangelists, some church overseers (pastors and elders are basically identical in Scripture), and some teachers. All chose a vocation in the church designed to spread the message of Christ. And they did a good job, too. At least as first.

Spiritual Gifts

The Holy Spirit is our down payment from God on Heaven. He promised He would take us there, so He gave us a part of Heaven while we are on earth – The Holy Spirit.

When we walk in the Holy Spirit, we receive numerous benefits. He shapes our character to be like Christ. He provides gifts for sharing the gospel. He makes living a life in line with God’s Will possible. This was the success that the early church was having and why the gospel spread so quickly. But, then, over time, worldliness crept in, and people in the church started resisting the power of the Holy Spirit. As a result of losing the power of the Holy Spirit, the church used other means to sustain itself. And the results were not pretty.

The Bad and Ugly

As anyone who knows early church history can attest, within a few centuries after Jesus left the earth, the church fell into apostasy. It began unraveling with false teachers and false beliefs. Inequality quickly entered, and the hunt for power prevailed. The church eventually became pagan in practice and, instead of keeping God’s commandments—it sought to change them instead! To make matters worse, it went from being persecuted to, once it gained power, being the persecutor! First, it began to persecute non-Christians. No longer having the power of the Holy Spirit behind them, church leaders sought the power of the state instead to do for the church what, without the power of the Holy Spirit, it could not do for itself. It even started persecuting Christians who were not doing what the church leaders told them to do. They hid the Bible from masses and let only some priests read it. Later they had traveling friars who lived on alcohol and tricked people out of money by telling them that they would go to “purgatory” if they didn’t pay. Then they started having people pay to get their families out. Although there were always good and faithful people who believed what they were told, and sought to follow God the best that they could, the whole system itself became corrupted from beginning to end. The church, now not only corrupt, also became terribly powerful.

A single man at the helm of the religious and civil power took the title of “Christ” on Earth. He had supreme authority over the church. And he had killed or ex-communicated anyone that wouldn’t bow to him. In short, the church stopped being “Christian,” regardless of what it called itself.

foreknowledge

The church entered a truly powerful and treacherous historical period. But guess what? The Bible predicted that this would happen. Jesus predicted it in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Paul predicted it in 2 Thessalonians 2. Daniel predicted it in Daniel 7, 8, and 11. And Revelation predicted it in Revelation 12, 13, and 14. It didn’t just predict that this would happen, but it also predicted the downfall and end of this apostasy as well. That is, it ends on a good and hopeful note! One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is, in fact, the gift of prophecy. It is a gift that accompanies the faithful remnant. And, according to Joel 2:28, 29, the gift of prophecy will be especially present right before Jesus returns. The picture given in these verses is the agricultural rainy seasons in Israel. The early rain came first, and then later came the latter rains. In the same way, the Holy Spirit was rained down in the first century, and will again rain down in a special way at the close of earth’s history. Revelation says that God’s people—the Remnant—will keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 12:17). Then Revelation tells us that the testimony of Jesus is “the Spirit of Prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). Thus, the gift of prophecy will be made manifest among God’s faithful people because they have God’s Spirit.

Prophetic Value

There are so many valuable reasons for the gift of prophecy. Prophecy testifies, first and foremost, about Jesus. That is why it is called the “testimony of Jesus.” Jesus says that He tells us things ahead of time so that, when they happen, we will believe in Him (John 13:19; 14:29). That is, we can see things happening, just as God has predicted that they would, so that we will have faith to follow an all-knowing God (Isaiah 46:10). The gift is also given so that we won’t lose faith in Him or get discouraged while waiting for His return. Also, with so many errors out there, the “Spirit of Prophecy” can point us to the Word of God and help us avoid being deceived. Sometimes it is hard to decode the difference between a liar and someone telling the truth, but when we read God’s Word, we can see God revealing the secret things before they happen, which helps us discern truth from error. Paul says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). God doesn’t ask us to believe without evidence. He doesn’t give us so much evidence that we do not need to have faith. (Very few things, if any, can we believe without some level of faith, anyway.) Yet God has given us enough evidence for us to make an intelligent and even rational choice about what we will believe and who we will follow. We can either believe God and His Word, or we can believe what others say. Prophecy, however, does give us powerfully compelling, and powerfully rational, reasons for trusting in God.

原文链接：https://www.apictureofgod.com/power