Text:
Ephesians 5:15-17
Nigeria's political transition is important for the growth of
God's Church and for fulfilling her God-ordained purpose. Before the 1914 Amalgamation
of the Southern and Northern Protectorates by our British colonizers, Satan's strategy
against the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus in our region was already
advanced via the agency of Islam. This, however, was temporarily truncated by the
1914 formation of the confederation called NIGERIA.
The new nation of Nigeria thereafter permitted the gospel of
Jesus Christ to penetrate the core north. Hitherto, people in the core north
had not heard the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ because of Usman
Dan Fodio’s ferocious jihadic wars.
The body of Christ (the Church) needs to see the importance
of the 2015 general elections from GOD's perspective. It is spiritually significant
to both unbelievers and to believers. What is at stake is more than just a
struggle for the control of the economic resources of the country (the gold and
the silver). Also, when we study how God dealt with nations in the past, we
will realize that His plan for us is more than just uprooting corruption from
our land. The enemy of the gospel, Satan, knows exactly where to plant the
falsehood in order for his followers to hold onto the reigns of political power.
This is Satan’s stock in trade. He applied the same trick in the Garden of Eden
between Adam and Eve and caused them to fall.
Worthy of note is fact that 2015 ushers us into our second
century as a nation. The first century of our nationhood ended in 2014. Most of
our first century was dominated by Islamic ascendancy accompanied by its
strangle hold on government via the various governmental agencies. These
governmental agencies have become powerful machinery for the subtle
prosecution of 'jihad' by core northerners. This is clearly evident in the military,
police, paramilitary, the civil service and in the control of the political
system as the ultimate tool.
GOD, in His infinite mercy, intervened in the last eight years of our first century. The last eight years determined whether God’s LIGHT would prevail over DARKNESS in our country’s leadership or not. We saw late Musa Yaradua being replaced by Goodluck Jonathan through natural processes. This, to any Nigerian child of GOD, was divine intervention, in view of the injustice, nepotism and religious killings that immediately followed this divine intervention.
Because LIGHT took over the leadership, DARKNESS, which had
its roots deeply entrenched in governmental agencies, mobilized to frustrate the
new order in Nigeria. The new emerging Nigeria is for the purpose of showing
forth God's Glory and nothing else. HIS will, therefore, is that Nigeria's 2nd
century, which begins this year 2015, should be started and steered by a 'Jacobite’
and not an 'Ishmaelite'.
An allegory highlighting this conflict in the Nigerian polity
can be seen in Matthew 26:14-16. Satan crept into the heart of a chosen vessel of
the Lord to attempt to thwart the will of God. The intention was to try and truncate
Jesus' earthly ministry prematurely without the sacrifice of His pure blood on
the cross of Calvary. The devil has tirelessly fought Christ without success,
to try and frustrate His mission on earth – the SALVATION of man from sin. In
this passage the devil entered the heart of greedy Judas, who never belonged to
the light anyway.
PRAYER: The Church needs the infilling and leadership of the
Holy Spirit in order to be able to successfully fight falsehood within its
ranks.
A second allegory can be seen in Acts 7:55-58. The enemy usually
doesn't use his own disciples to thwart GOD's plans on earth. Rather, he prefers
to use foolish but willing tools among those who profess the LORD as their God.
This way he achieves infamy. He entices gullible Christian men & women to create
internal wranglings within the Church of God. Once he has sown the seeds of
discord, he proceeds to wreck havoc in the land using his cheaply acquired
authority.
PRAYER: GOD should help the Church of Jesus to live right and
to be be watchful in these treacherous last days. (1st Peter 4:11)
To round up my brief understanding of GOD's will for Nigeria,
I call upon all who profess the LORD's name to grasp the following message:
1) That we should be guided by love and avoid being noise
makers like Nigeria's enemy, who, by much talking, hope to convince saints into
handing over their lives for evil manipulations. (1 Peter 4:8)
2) To know that our Holy GOD, who chose Isaac to fulfill Abraham's covenant, cannot go back to Ishmael, whom He cursed.
3) Pray fervently because we are in Nigeria's crucial hour, just as it was with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Matt 26:39). That GOD's will for righteousness in our country’s leadership be achieved so that His plans for us may come to pass. That our Muslim neighbors may see the light and be saved before the end comes.
PRAYER: LORD fill the church, including me, with love, which you gave in Christ, so that we can share this understanding with others.
Prologue---
I quote Richard Grenell – Thursday, March 19, 2015 who said:
·
That Buhari is a Boko Haram sympathizer.
·
That the Obama administration should "wake up" to
the growing threat of Nigeria turning into an Islamic state, leading to other
African nations also capitulating to Muslim extremists.
·
That Buhari as working tirelessly to enthrone sharia law across
Nigeria as a whole. This will pose a further challenge in the fight against
terrorism in Nigeria & the continent at large.
·
That Western foreign policy observers who are preoccupied
with the rise of ISIS in the Middle East, should wake up to the reality
unfolding in Nigeria.
Grenell was a spokesman to four former US Ambassadors to the UN,
most recently, to Ambassador Zal Khalilzad.
Stay blessed:
Apostle
Morgan Azih
True Love Mission Centre
(Being text of a speech delivered by Apostle Morgan Azih at the
prayer meeting of PLATEAU INDIGENOUS INDEPENDENT MINISTERS’ASSOCIATION on March
24, 2015 in Jos.)
