Judgments (5) - Church

In New Testament times, the church is the people of the new covenant. The prophetic role of watching over the covenant continues, but the focus has shift from nation to church. New Testament prophets are primarily responsible for watching their church, rather than their nation. Agabus, Judas and Silas are New Testament prophets who watched over their church to ensure that its leaders fulfilled their covenant with Jesus (Acts 11:28; Acts 15:31). This is not a doom and gloom ministry.

When a church loses the plot and persists in disobeying God, the Holy Spirit will be forced to withdraw. This is a new covenant judgment. These judgments should usually be called in advance by the prophets. They will warn of the consequence for the church and explain must be done to return to blessing. John’s letters to the seven churches are examples of a prophetic challenge to a church that has lost the plot. John explained what was wrong and where this would lead. He also told each church what it must do to return to blessing.

New covenant prophets watch over the church. They will not need to prophecy judgment against a church very often, because in contrast to OT Israel, the victory of the cross and the gift of the spirit means that most churches will mostly walks in blessing. More often they will need to encourage the church through the troubles that often arise when it obeys Jesus voice.

Read more at Blessed Economist