PRAYER AND POSITIVEACTION
The scriptures say, "And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall Surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after me, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. And Abraham drew near, and said, wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked; and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee; shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, if I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I would spare all the place for their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes; peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said if I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. And he spake unto him yet again, and said, peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. And he said unto him, oh let not the Lord be angry, and I ill speak: peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. And he said, behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. And he said, oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once, peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham; and Abraham returned unto his place."Genesis 18:17-33 KIV. In the scripture above, we see how Abraham intervened in God's plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. It is sad that majority of Christians in Nigeria are reactionary and this tendency has greatly hampered Our growth and development. proactive; do something before a catastrophe happens but no, instead we wait until calamity has taken place before we respond to it. To be good watchmen, we have to keep abreast with spiritual, political, economical, and social developments in the country if the destiny of Nigeria is indeed in our hands as God's people. Therefore, we have to go for every available means of getting to know what is happening including the use of our meagre resources to purchase national dailies. The truth is that when we don't know what is happening, we wouldn't know what to do either.
On my part, I read a minimum of four Newspapers on a daily basis in addition to listening to news on radio and television. I do this to monitor what is going on so as to be able to effectively pray and take appropriate actions when the devil starts raring his ugly head in any part of the nation or any aspect of Our national life.
Recently, there have been cries from some people that what we need to change this nation is a bloody revolution. We were even told by one of the false prophets that there is going to be a bloody revolution. According to him, most notable national figures Will be killed. When this prophecy was published, Some misguided fellows picked it up and began to say all kinds of things in affirmation to the diabolical prophecy. Surprisingly though, I have not heard any Christian leader make a press statement condemning such prophecies So, we allow the devil to Continue to pollute the minds of people by planting all kinds of negative things in their minds. The moment we allow that to go unchallenged, people will begin to believe them, and that way, some people who are looking for ways to destabilize government will think It Is their own opportunity to strike. But i believe we don't need any bloody revolution to change this nation, what we need is a spiritual revival. That is why the Church is extremely important in a nation for we are called the light of the world, and salt of the earth. The Bible says that your light should shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. The number one problem of Nigeria is moral decadence, yet this is a nation full of professing Christians. One of the greatest problems we have, as Christians, is that we tend to departmentalize our lives and even the life of the nation. We try to separate the spiritual from the social, political and the economical. We tell people that they should not take Christianity to government offices. To me that is a calculated attempt from hell to paralyse the growth of Christianity. The truth Is that Christianity does not end in the Church, we are supposed to shine our lights out there in the darkness where the sinners are. So, if the greatest problem of this nation is moral decadence, the Church is in a better position to address the problem. appears government is more concerned about the morality battle than the Church because I have not seen much effort on the part of the Church in tackling this menace. But it On the Contrary, most of our messages seem to have been focused on trivial issues (the mundane things of this life). On the other hand, what I believe the church should be preaching more now is morality and practical Christianity so that the Christian life of the believer is not in doubt anywhere he finds himself. It is evident that we have more Christians in Nigeria than any other single religion. If this is true, we have far more professing Christian civil servants. Therefore, if we want the nation to truly change, we have to begin from the Church. This is because if we are able to change the orientation of the church and teach the truth of the word of God and they go out there (including Christian civil servants) to practices it, this nation will change. But it is because we have failed in responsibilities by not ring what we reach and have become so caught up with strange teachings that we have added to the problem instead of being the solution. So, what do we do? We have to return to biblical values; emphasize the teachings of Jesus which say, the life of a man does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possess. Let us truly believe the word of Jesus that, if a man gains the entire world but loses his soul, he has not profited anything. We should also believe the clear teaching of the Bible that tells us that a good name is better Our than riches. When we all come to terms with these truths we would have gone back to the solid issues of the Bible as we begin to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all other things shall be added to us. By the time we put things in their right perspectives and stop putting the cart before the horse, our nation will witness a transformation. In the story we read in Genesis about Sodom and Gomorrah, two corrupt cities, God asked a very important question, he said, "Shall I do anything without Servant?" How I pray that in Nigeria today, we Have more servants and children or God that will say this of them. The moment we have men and women like that in this Country, we Will have hope. The Bible says in the book of Amos 3:7 that God will not do anything Without first telling it to his servants the prophets. informing Abraham, my servants are meant to be watchmen over our cities, Communities and nations. But if we become blind watchmen the devil will take advantage of our blindness to devastate our land. But if we are alive spiritually, God will not do anything that will affect us and our nation without telling us ahead of time. Again that is a challenge to us to live up to our responsibilities by sanctifying ourselves by drawing closer to God and maintaining a close relationship with him so that he can trust us with these kinds of revelations. God reveal what he intended to do to the two cities, Abraham began to intercede for them. He did this because he had an interest in the place; his nephew was resident there. He started by saying that for the sake of fifty destroy the cities. Abraham Kept pleading for the sake of the righteous an he came down to the number ten. Sadly, God could not even find ten righteous men in the two cities where Lot had spent his entire life. However, we see that Abraham was the kind of person that God can confide in. We also see that Abraham will pray when he receives a revelation of what God wants to do. That is what God expects us to do in the case of Nigeria. He wants us to make ourselves into the kind of persons he can confide in. Are you living in such a way that if God has a burden, he will communicate it to you? Will God trust you to positively respond to avert a calamity? If God has called us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, we have to live up to Our responsibilities. assured that one day we are going to stand before God to give account of how we lived and carried out responsibilities God gave to us here on earth. So, if we desire to be solutions to problems that God called us to be, the first thing we need to do is to live our lives in such a way that we are intimate with God. In Ezekiel 22:30 God said, And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none." KJV. Is that not the reason why Our nation is suffering? When you call for prayers Concerning the nation, you see only a handful of people in attendance; it appears To Christians are burdened to intercede for Nigeria. What people will respond to is the call Or miracles and blessings. But one of there Greatest ways to be blessed is for Nigeria to be Revived. If you woke up tomorrow and found that this nation has been devastated, what Would you do with your so-called blessings the Church needs to take her stand and resist the onslaught of the devil against Nigeria. Let us deal with him and his cohorts so that the nation Could have rest. But it takes people Who are looking for the best of God for their fives to stop pursuing the mundane things of Life and seek to pay the price by making up the hedge and standing in the gap. We need more intercessors and if we are praying sincerely with all our hearts we shall obtain the victory. Is it not surprising that in the entire cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, there could not be found ten righteous people who were not involved in the sins or those cities but were crying out against their sins? One of the greatest problems we have in our nation is that those who are supposed to be solution to the problem of the nation are themselves part of the problem. speak even if it is happening under their nose because they are not living righteous lives. Another reason is that they are also benefiting from the corrupt system. Many Christians cannot out against sin in their offices
The scriptures say, "He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man with a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side; and they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar.
And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, where upon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; And the Lord said unto him, go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, go ye after him through the city, and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity, slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began with the ancient men which were before the house." Ezekiel 9:1-6. KV.
This was the revelation that God gave to his servant Ezekiel. Those that were charged with this task were spiritual beings that God has put in charge of the city. God instructed them to go through the city and seek out those who are Concerned about the wickedness in the city and are crying out against evil and mark them. But those that were insensitive and unconcerned were to be killed, beginning from his sanctuary. My prayer Is that It should not get to the point where God will order that we be slaughtered before we wake up to do what is expected of us. But God has a way of getting his things done. When Israel refused to obey him, he raised their enemies to deal with them. When the early Church refused to obey the Command to go into the world to preach the gospel and sat tight in Jerusalem, God raised persecution to scatter them. We know that God has not changed, if we continue to mark time and refuse to do what we are supposed to do, I am afraid, God will not spare us either. In one way or the other, he will have to make us do what we are supposed to do. The problem we have is that there are too many worldly and Compromising Christians. And if we are talking of changing Nigeria, we have to begin with ourselves. But as long as people who call themselves Christians continue to be collaborators with evil, we will hardly witness change.
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