The NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 29th January – Sunday 4th February 2024
BLOOD, BLOOD, EVERYWHERE
Three things defile a land and bring curses upon the people. They are:
a. Adultery
b. Idolatry
c. Bloodshed
Of these three factors promoting curses, the worst is bloodshed, because it is not easily atoned for. The Bible says in Num. 35: 33: “So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.”
Since 2009, Muslim insurgents have embarked on a killing spree in Nigeria and in the process murdered tens of thousands of Christians. Their primary target has been the Christian communities. This was affirmed by Abubakar Shekau the leader of the Boko Haram terrorist group in a widely circulated video in 2012.
It is widely published that in the 8 years of Buhari, 63,111 Nigerians were recorded killed (according to available figures), making an average of 22 people killed every day in 8 years). Sadly, there are several other deaths and 'disappearances' unaccounted for.
In 2023 alone, over 8,119 people were killed in 4,326 violent events. That year rounded up with the massacre of 238 Christians in Bokkos, Mangu, and Barkin Lardi Local Government Areas of Plateau State on Christmas Eve. Those are the official figures, which usually underplay the gravity of such killings.
In August 2021, the Lord sent a message to Nigerian Church leaders, that He did not command them to be quiet about all the evils taking place in the country. In a strongly worded message, the Lord declared that He was “ANGRY” with Nigerian Church leaders. As published in our prayer call for last week, none of the Church leaders responded to that admonition as well as to the other messages sent by the Lord in 2021. One might ask, What is the fate of Christians if their leaders no longer listen to the Lord?
In all the bloodshed going on in Nigeria, we also wish to ask, whom is the Lord holding primarily responsible? Ezekiel 34:7–8 laments, “Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord; As I live, saith the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock...”
There is documented evidence that every effort to build structures to protect Christian lives in Nigeria was deliberately truncated by some Church leaders. The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) gallantly confronted the Church leaders and demanded accountability from them. The shepherds of the Nigerian Church retorted that the NCEF was causing disunity in the Church. They went so far as publishing in the newspaper that CAN had dissolved the NCEF. There is no such constitutional authority in the apex body of the Church. The Christian Elders asked Church leaders 12 questions in June 2018. To date, they have not provided an answer to any of the questions.
Last week, a delegation of church leaders visited President Tinubu and, in a published report, said that "President Bola Tinubu’s administration is making positive efforts to tackle the challenges facing the country”. During the same period, a Muslim organization said that it was "deeply concerned about the current economic reality in Nigeria and the devastating impacts of the removal of petrol subsidy on Nigerians.” While the Muslim leaders spoke truth to power, Christian leaders patted the President on the back.
It has been observed that most of our prominent Church leaders play a brand of politics that negatively impacts on Christians and weakens the Church, while their Muslim counterparts play politics to protect Muslims and promote Islam. It is the Christian leadership brand of politics that cushioned the 2015 conspiracy of some Church leaders to unseat a Christian President and hand power over to a jihadist. They repeated it in 2019 by facilitating the re-election of Buhari and topped it in 2023 by throwing their weight behind the Muslim-Muslim ticket. While the blood of 238 Christians killed in Plateau State on Christmas Eve is still fresh on the ground, Church leaders were in Aso Villa commending Tinubu.
The only good thing that came out of the meeting was President Tinubu sermonizing to Nigerians not to make money their god. We hope the Church leaders got the message.
According to another message from the Lord in 2021, the Nigeria Church has a LEADERSHIP CRISIS. That message from heaven in 2021 went further to state: “What the Nigerian Church is parading as Christian leadership today cannot enter the Holy of Holies to obtain deliverance for Nigerian Christians.”
In the prayer call for last week, we stated, "The victory or defeat of an army is determined primarily by the quality of its leadership." It is time for Nigeria Christians to interrogate Christian leadership in the country and hold it accountable. The bloodshed going on in the land must be stopped. The runaway evil and corruption trampling upon the country must cease. The Church is the light of the world and the salt of the earth. The Nigeria Church deserves leadership that will be a moral authority, enabling Christians to exercise spiritual authority over the hordes of darkness invading the land. A Church without moral authority cannot exercise spiritual authority.
Christian leadership must be accountable and Christlike. A Christian leadership that attended the funeral of TB Joshua and claimed it went to “honour” him should be interrogated. In his lifetime, the Nigeria Church rejected TB Joshua as a servant of God. Why would Church leaders officially attend the funeral of such a man to “honour” him? Would true prophets give honour to a false prophet? Now that BBC has produced a three-part documentary asserting to the whole world that TB Joshua was an occultist and a false prophet, what would the apex body of Christianity in Nigeria say? Afterall, they went to “honour” him.
A set of Christian leadership that ignores messages from God must be overhauled. Such leadership that is evidently disconnected from the Lord of the Church can only lead Christians into penury and destruction.
At the National Prayer Altar, all we can do is to pray. However, there are influential Christians in the country who can act. The relentless bloodshed, adultery, and idolatry in Nigeria must be checked. Christians must ensure that their leadership accepts responsibility to lead the Church into victory over all the evils assailing Nigeria. A Christian leadership that is preoccupied with selfish interests is not what this season needs. There is too much at stake. If Nigerian Christians are truly desirous of deliverance from all the evils in the country, they must ensure a Christlike leadership.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Ps. 24:7
Thank God that the foundation of Christianity in Nigeria was built by God on faithful servants of Christ, like Bishop Ajayi Crowther, Apostle Ayo Babalola, Evangelist Paul Gindiri, Pastor Granville Elton, and so on. Pray that this foundation of righteous Christian leadership shall speak again and produce faithful servant-leaders for the Church in Nigeria.
2. Matt. 25:28–30
Pray that all the Church leaders whom the Lord empowered and positioned to intervene for the Church and speak against the evil in the land, but who did not take any action, being therefore guilty of criminal negligence, should be judged by God as unprofitable servants.
3. 2 Pet. 2:1–3
Pray that every Church leader who received money, land, and other favours from politicians, governments, or Islamists, and because of those inducements exposed the Body of Christ to injury, shall be judged by God.
4. 2 Cor. 11:13–15
Pray that every Church leader in the occult or who traffics with the powers of darkness in the name of a Christian 'ministry' shall be exposed and judged by God.
5. Matt. 15:13
Pray that all the greedy, covetous, and self-seeking people polluting the sanctuary of God in Nigeria shall be uprooted and dismissed by Heaven.
6. 2 Pet. 2:12-15
Pray that all immoral and perverse 'ministers of the gospel', who engage in sex rituals or in immoral sexual acts with Church members and non-members, shall be exposed by the light of God and dismissed from the altar, in the name of Jesus Christ.
7. Dan 1:1-8; 6:3-5
Pray that God will promote righteous, God-fearing, and Christlike Christians into positions of leadership in the Nigeria Church. Amen.
