Page 82 - Principles of Leadership - Nehemiah

of the early church, he found in the book of Acts that corporate praying permeated the practices of their activities.
He says, “The greatest workings of God come by corporate prayer, and we will not see the power of God in
sufficient measure to transform the world around us until we pray together. As a leader, you must make praying
together a priority equal to preaching and teaching.” 202 “I looked up every occurrence of prayer in Acts preceding
chapter 6 and discovered prayer mentioned five times: Acts 1:14, 24; 2:42; 3:1; 4:23-31. Amazingly, every verse
pictured the apostles leading others in prayer; not once is their personal prayer life recorded. In every instance,
we see the apostles involved in leading the people of God to pray together. These stories confirm that Acts 6:4
speaks of a corporate prayer ministry.” 203 He concludes this point with the following comments. “A study of
church history and conversations with experts confirmed my expectations. I did not discover a single example in
which the church transformed culture when Christians did not spend significant time praying together.” 204

Notice that the Israelites assembled corporately as they were fasting. God was bringing such conviction to their
hearts that they realized that they must separate themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed
their sins and the guilt of their fathers. In the following chapters, you will discover that the fathers' sins were
remarkably similar to the sins we find in today’s culture. Money, sex, and power rose to the top of the list, just
as they do in today’s culture. Throughout the Old Testament, you will find the practice of confessing generational
sins. In the past few years in America, there has been an emphasis on confessing the sin of racism, which has
been a generational sin. Every culture needs to revisit generational sins and ask itself if the confession of the sins
and the guilt of their fathers is something that needs to be explored to a greater degree. We do not want to look
at the lingering effects that generational sins have on us today, even to deny that they exist. However, we are
warned in Exodus 20:5 that the sins of the fathers are sometimes passed down to the third and fourth generation
without our even recognizing them.

When a breach in a relationship is experienced between a man and God, only confessed of our sins will restore
our relationship with God. This confession of sins was extremely important during this postexilic era. Repentance
is associated with the return from exile. Today, we must agree with our Lord about our sin and likewise confess
if we expect to maintain a deep relationship with Him. (I John 1:9) As they stood in their places, they read from
the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day and [spent] another fourth of the day in
confession and worship of the LORD their God. They spent somewhere around 3 hours reading from the Law of
Moses and another 3 hours in the confession of their sins and worship. Any in-depth study about revival will also
reveal that there was always a deep conviction of the faith communities’ sinfulness, which was always followed
by deep repentance of that faith community.

By contrast, our contemporary society writes taboo on most preaching, which would embarrass us about our
folly. The secularist cries out don’t confront us regarding our behavior with your judgments. Raymond Brown
writes that “It is an unmistakable folly to ignore the one inescapable event to which every single individual is
moving – the inevitable termination of life in this world. The secularist avoidance of death, denial of eternal
judgment, and cynicism about heaven have had their subtle repercussions in the modern church; the topics are
not prominent in contemporary Christian proclamation… It is a topic to shout from the housetops, not whisper
at the street corners.” 205 Again, it begs to be repeated that there has never been a great revival in all of church
history where there has not been a deep conviction of sin, which led to deep repentance, which led to a great
confession of sins, in the faith community. Even brother Lawrence wrote in his book, Practicing the Presence of
God, that he found himself coveting his brother’s chicken leg locked up in a monastery. We must recognize the
monster of sinfulness in our lives and yield to the Holy Spirit, the great bondage breaker and deliverer. Thank
God that greater is He that is in us than he which is in the world. (I John 4:4)

This then brings us to a deeper understanding of the nature of God. Nowhere is the hatred for sin and love of
God so powerfully displayed as it is on the cross. Yet, at this time in history, the cross was a future hope.
Therefore, many other examples will be used to encourage people to stand up. Bless the LORD your God from
everlasting to everlasting. Praise Your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.

80