The NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 5th - Sunday 11th August 2024
WHEN WILL THE CHURCH SAVE NIGERIA?
LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy (Hab. 3: 2, NIV).
John Calvin wrote: “When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers”.
A certain information came out last week and it sounded like fake news, but the video was provided to confirm that the news might not have been faked after all. (So far, no one has claimed that the video was manipulated.) In the video, the Senate President, in apparent reference to the planned nation-wide protest over hardship in the country, said, “We are not interested in regime change. Let us own this government. Those who want to protest can protest but let us be there eating.” Earlier, the President had said, “the cost of fuel has gone up, food and other prices have followed it, households and businesses are struggling, things seem anxious and uncertain. I understand the hardship you face. I wish there were other ways but there is none”.
In 2010, God gave a word that Nigeria would go through a 7-year season of judgment from 2011 to 2018. It was in that same message that God said “a season of death” would come upon Nigeria. People will die in large numbers under various conditions. At the end of the 7-year season of judgment, God decided to test Nigeria to determine if the country had learnt righteousness. Details of this are contained in an article published in July 2019 entitled “Christianity in Nigeria: What is going on and Why”. https://houseofkaris.net/blog/christianity-in-nigeria-what-is-going-on-and-why-2
In setting the test for Nigeria, God neither tested the Presidency nor the National Assembly, but God tested the Church. Would the Church of Christ in Nigeria defend righteousness? In 2018, the Church failed the test flat out. Consequently, as published in July 2019, a new season of judgment commenced, this time, without a terminal date. It will end when the Nigeria Church learns righteousness. All of this was published in 2019. What is going on in Nigeria at present is the consequence of the controversy between God and His people, represented by their church leaders.
A lot of Christians in Nigeria have dutifully and faithfully embarked on intercession, supplications, and prayers for Nigeria. Repeatedly, God has given the assurance that He has heard, and a new Nigeria will come forth, yet He did not stop dealing with Nigeria. That the populace has now embarked on open protest nationwide is a confirmation that the matter of God’s dealing with Nigeria is becoming unbearable for the citizens. But, has the Church learnt its lesson?
Undoubtedly, Nigeria is now being governed by the most insensitive and implacable set of political leaders since independence in 1960. This set of leaders is not touched by the suffering of the masses, and as proclaimed by the Senate President, so long as they are there "eating," the people can complain all that they want and perish.
According to the Scriptures, “the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will" (Daniel 4: 32). Tinubu could not have succeeded in becoming the president of Nigeria if the Most High did not permit it. God is fully aware of the character and the dispositions of Tinubu before permitting him to access the office of the President. If God wants, God can remove him in a moment. Therefore, if God permits such an entity to be the president of Nigeria, the people of God should be interested in the reason.
The reason is that the Church has fallen short of God’s expectations of righteousness. Despite all the dealings of God on the land and on Christians, the key Christian leaders have neither changed their attitude nor called themselves to order. For them, business continues as usual. A few weeks ago, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) conducted elections in Lagos State. That exercise made INEC look like a saint. It was so bad that the Vice President of PFN (SW) resigned in protest.
Not content with promoting Buhari in 2015 and endorsing him for re-election in 2019, Church leaders endorsed Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2023. There were eighteen presidential candidates in 2023 election, eleven of them were Christians. None of the Christian candidates received the kind of reception that Tinubu received at the National Christian Centre. In fact, one of the key Church leaders publicly announced that God would punish Christians if they did not vote for Tinubu. Maybe God is punishing the nation now for those who did not vote for him.
If the Church had united behind one of its own, APC would not have returned to power. As of 2023, after eight years of Buhari, Nigerians were tired of APC. While most Christians wanted another party to form a government, the key Church leaders supported the political party which had spent eight years to prove it should no longer be in power. What makes matters worse is that Christians still refuse to demand accountability from their spiritual leaders, but keep demanding accountability from political leaders.
According to 1 Cor. 5: 12 – 13, Christians are meant to judge evil inside the Church. It is when Christians judge evil in the Church that God will judge evil outside the Church. In effect, when Christians judge themselves, and sanctify the sanctuary, God will judge the political leaders. Christians cannot continue to tolerate and accommodate ungodly men in the sanctuary while expecting God to sanitize their country so that they will have peace and prosperity.
If Nigeria does not have good leaders, Christians should look inside the Church and not inside Aso Villa. At present, Christians in Nigeria are acting like Israel after the captivity, when God had to shut the heaven over them to get their attention.
Haggai 1:9-11 says, "Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit."
Christians must pay attention to the way the Church is being run. God expects Christians to deal with misconduct in the Church, like Jesus confronted the hypocritical religious leaders in His days on earth, and the way Paul called Peter to order (Gal. 2:11), all in compliance with the word of God in Jude 2 to “contend earnestly for the faith”.
Christians can heal this country. They are empowered by God to transform Nigeria into a praise in all the earth. However, they shall remain incapacitated so long as they continue to accommodate hypocrisy and evil in the Church under the guise of “respecting” their spiritual leaders. If Christian leaders indicate that they have little regard for God and His ways, it is righteousness to expose them and resist them.
We congratulate Nigerians for rising to express indignation over the evils going on in the country. It is a signal that God answers prayers because brethren have been praying for a stirring in the land against all the various acts of corruption and wickedness perpetrated by the APC-led government. We grieve over the lives lost during the protest and we pray that the efforts shall not be in vain. We pray that positive results shall follow the protest and government shall be compelled to review its policies and take decisions that will make life better for Nigerians.
Christians should remember that God will deal with Nigeria according to the state of the Church in His sight. It is the Church that must provide healing for Nigeria. We also urge Nigeria Christians to remember that Christianity is equal brotherhood. We must prepare our minds to confront evil and unrighteousness in the Church. As citizens of Nigeria, the electoral assets of Christians must no longer be used to endorse ungodly men into political offices to satisfy personal selfish interest. The Church must heal the land.
PRAYER POINTS
1). Isaiah 10: 27
Thank God for the stirring in the land against wicked rulers. Pray that the efforts of the people shall not be wasted.
2(. Hab. 3:2
Pray that God will have mercy upon Nigeria and deliver the Church from ungodly leaders as well as the land from wicked politicians.
3). Job. 5:12–13
While Nigerians are genuinely grieved over the hardship in the land, there are those who plot to take advantage of the season to perpetuate evil in the country. Pray that God will disappoint their devices and catch them in their craftiness.
4). Mal. 3:2–3
Pray that God will purge and purify the Nigeria Church from all manners of defilement and corruption.
5). Ps. 94:20
Pray that the throne of iniquity shall no longer reign in Nigeria. Pray deliverance for the land.
6). 2 Cor. 5:21
Pray that the righteousness of God in Christ shall speak for the Nigeria Church, and the indignation against the Church shall come to an end.
7). Jer. 3:15; Acts 13:22
Pray that God will give the Nigeria Church leaders who only seek His heart.
