MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 22nd – Sunday 28th January 2024
LETTERS TO THE NIGERIA CHURCH
I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. (Rev. 1: 11).
We might consider 2021 “the year of letters”; the year in which the Lord sent different people to write letters to the leaders of the Nigeria Church. We are aware of five of such letters, but we have four of them in our possession. The letters were written on 11th April 12th April, 8th May, and 26th August 2021. In the letters, the Lord admonished His Church in Nigeria to repent or face judgment. (We do not have access to the fifth letter, which was also written in May 2021 by a Pastor, but we are aware that it was written to 12 Church leaders.)
Excerpts from the letters are as follows:
11th April 2021
In the early hours of Sunday, 11th April 2021, about four (4) captains of separate destructive troops from the LORD came into the country. They had a warrant from the LORD… The reason for their mission was sins of the Nigerian people and the sins of the Nigeria Church. Here are what the Lord mentioned:
a). They (the leaders) know that many in their congregation, who assemble before them, are rebellious sinners who continually grieve My Spirit which is among them, yet they love it so …
b). They know that My return is imminent and that their congregation is far from being ready, they surely know that their members are not ready for My return, yet they suffer them gladly to continue so...
c). They know the enormity of the bloodshed in their country, caused by their countrymen; they know the effect of the blood of the poor innocents upon the land…
12th April 2021
“… the Nigerian Church is facing LEADERSHIP CRISIS. The primary problem is not Boko Haram, Fulani ‘herdsmen,’ President Buhari, ISWAP, Islamists, or the "Bandits." Those are merely symptoms of the problem of the Nigeria Church. The problem is the LEADERSHIP CRISIS within the Church.”
8th May 2021
“Your repentance must be thorough, the highs and the lows, every Church and everyone that is identified by the name of the LORD across your country, for my wrath is upon all your nation, else I will strike you just once in full might, for my wrath is come up to my face,” says the LORD.
26th August 2021
“The Word of the LORD came with a force and rebuke that was unusual, unsettling and unmistakably URGENT. We heard expressly from the LORD that He is ANGRY with the leadership of His Church in Nigeria. He made it clear that He did not command His Church to be silent and He will hold everyone concerned individually and collectively responsible and accountable for the unrestrained run of evil in the land.”
To date, there is no evidence that any of the Church leaders who received the letters responded. Nearly all of them ignored the letters. The only response came from a prominent Pastor who castigated the message of 11th April 2021 and insisted in a circulated message that God cannot judge the Church. He referred to the message as “arrant heterodoxy” and he claimed that “God cannot judge the body of Christ.” His view directly opposes 1 Pet. 4:17; 1 Cor. 11:31; Heb. 10:30–31. Ironically, it is the views of that senior Pastor that are “arrant heterodoxy”, a complete deviation from accepted beliefs and standards in the Church.
On Tuesday 16th January 2024, a powerful blast ripped through the ancient city of Ibadan in Oyo State. Not a few intercessors agree by revelation that Ibadan is the spiritual capital of Nigeria. To the discerning minds, a powerful blow was struck at the spiritual nerve centre of Nigeria. Why was it not prevented by the Lord?
While Christians were still mourning the massacre of 238 brethren on Christmas Eve of 2023, the Fulanis started their "Nomad Vigilante" in Nasarawa State. An informed observer commented that that was how the militant group Janjaweed started in Sudan. To date, none of the estimated 500 insurgents that attacked Plateau state in December of 2023 has been arrested. Are they spirits? How can the Christian leadership be inactive in this situation?
As pointed out in all the letters, the Nigeria Church has critical issues with leadership. In many crucial instances, it was difficult to know on which side some prominent Christian leaders stood. Were they on the side of the Lord, or on the side of the Lord’s enemies?
According to the letter of 26th August 2021, the Lord expected the Church leaders to speak against the evils and the bloodshed in the land. On the contrary, what happens repeatedly is that some prominent Church leaders speak in endorsement of those promoting corruption, evil and bloodshed in the land. A few public examples may suffice, and they are present below, although the names of those church leaders who made those statements have been discreetly omitted:
* “God ordained Buhari, Osinbajo as our leaders, they will deliver.” - 2015
* “God will give Buhari solutions to Nigeria’s problems in 2017” - 2016
* “God’ll build Nigeria through President Tinubu” - 2023
* “Tinubu fought a good fight and God gave him victory” - 2023
* “President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed can fix the country with God’s help.” - 2023
* “God will use Tinubu, Wike, others to develop Nigeria.” – 2023
What those church leaders thus said on earth was not in agreement with what the Lord would have wanted them to say.
There is an urgency in the atmosphere. The household of God must be put in order. The starting point is the leadership, because God relates to His people through their leaders. The victory or defeat of an army is determined primarily by the quality of its leadership. Since 2009, Christians in Nigeria have been under attacks, daily. To date, there is no organized plan of response or defense by the Christian leadership. The Lord of the Church is stirring. He cannot take it any longer.
In 2017, the National Christian Elders Forum started calling for independent investigations into the leadership of the Church. Rather than hearken, Church leaders castigated and reproached the Forum of Elders and accused them of causing disunity in the Church!
Nigeria's Christians must prayerfully re-organize the Church. Prayer is good, but “faith without works is dead”. Christian leadership must be Christlike. The Good Shepherd places the safety and well-being of His flock first. In Nigeria, the flock of the Lord is vulnerable and exposed; it has become prey to every beast of the field. Insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, and Fulani herdsmen snuff them out without repercussions. For 12 years running, Nigeria remains the most dangerous country on earth for anyone to be a Christian. The 2023 World Watch Monitor report confirms that Nigeria keeps the unenviable title of headship, with 82% of global Christian mortality arising from persecution!
Meanwhile, there are Christian leaders to whom the Lord gave influence, power, and capacity to halt the mayhem. They would rather endorse the perpetrators and sponsors of the genocide against their brethren. How could any Godly leadership act in this manner?
The Lord has spoken, He has written, and He has been patient. No one can blame the Lord if He begins to execute judgment.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Isa. 26:9-11
Pray that God will teach Nigerian leaders, both religious and political, righteousness by the execution of divine judgment.
2. Ezek. 18:1–4
Everyone who has contributed to the bloodshed and indignation upon Nigeria through their rebellion against the will of God, whether they are leaders or followers, whether in the Church or outside of it, let Almighty God judge them to His satisfaction.
3. Gen. 9:6
All those shedding the blood of Nigerians and are still determined to shed more blood, let the judgment in Gen. 9:6 come upon all of them.
4. Ezek. 11:1–4, 13
Every false leader in the Church who claims to be the servant of Christ but is serving other interests, may the Lord expose them and judge them for their duplicity.
5. Matt. 3:8–10
Everyone whom God promoted and placed in a position of influence to stop the killings of Christians but did not do anything, let the judgment of God start with them.
6. Act 1:20
Pray that every Balaam in the Church, who placed his personal interests above the interest of the Kingdom of God, shall be dismissed by God and replaced with a worthy servant of Christ.
7. Matt. 25:31–33
Almighty, in this season, separate the sheep from the goats in the Nigeria Church.
