Following the Leader

 Last night we had an hour long prayer meeting. The devotion went for 20 minutes, singing 15 minutes and sharing of prayer needs 10 minutes which means actual praying was only 15 minutes. I learned much from the devotion on Joshua 6 on how God destroyed the walls of Jericho. But the lesson I got was following the leader. Every instruction of Joshua was obeyed without question. The Israelites believed that God spoke to Joshua and what he commanded was God’s command. The Israelites obeyed Joshua.

The priests who blew the trunpets followed the instructions of Joshua to walk around the walls of Jericho once a day for 6 days and on the 7th day they had to circle the walls 7 times. I wonder how long one trip of encirclement took. One hour at least as the city precinct was not small. So it took them 7 hours on the 7th day from morning to afternoon before they blew the trumpets with shouts of victories and the walls came down.

I sat in my chair wondering how many of my leaders or church members would follow my instructions without disputing or saying lets discuss it over a meeting or outright opposition. I could say there were countless times I refused to speak up or take the initiative, not wanting to expend more energy of endless discussion with this or that committee. 

No wonder the church does not grow. I see a slight growth in numbers and perhaps half the congregation is responding well to His Word. But without leadership and new initiatives to improve many things, we are just recycling old ways of doing things, as those have drunk the old wine say “the old is good”.