Can a church walk in disobedience while congratulating itself for progress? Are we a part of the generation that the bible prophesied would curse thei
Can a church walk in disobedience while congratulating itself for progress? Are we a part of the generation that the bible prophesied would curse their fathers refusing to bless their mothers? The generation that is pure in its own eyes while it is not cleansed from its filth? Are you attending a church whose offerings are sweet to the eyes but odious to God? ……… Before we hasten to answer the questions let us learn from history because Israel was in the same trap for many years. 2 Chronicles 15:3 Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law. Israel kept up every form of worship for years without realizing that it was all in vain. The Nigerian church seems to have been treading a similar path for years without understanding the seriousness of the spiritual situation. Sometimes the Church can only come to its senses when the consequences of the disobedience bears fruit.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a powerful force and righteousness will yield promotion wherever the gospel is applied but for about three decades there has been a steady decline in the general well being of Nigeria. If we watch the Church carefully we will also discover that there has been a numerical explosion in Christian confession without any improvement in the moral being of the nation. Someone described the Nigerian revival as miles long but inches deep.
God had been trying catch my attention over the years because of this issue but it is somewhat difficult to see the stark reality of the situation. Mildly put, God said something to me that was hard to swallow. He said The Nigerian version of the gospel that has been impotent against corruption cannot handle the boko haram (islamic sect) issue. God asked me to halt my TV program “Oracles of God” last year and because the program had been on for about a decade the public outcry was tumultuous when I halted it. Apart from the pastoring of a few local churches I had also been involved in the Macedonian Initiative as its international coordinator.
From the wanton bloodshed and systematic suppression of the Christian faith that I had witnessed all over the country especially in the Northern Belt, it was clear that the church leadership did not understand the size of the threat the nation was facing. For decades the Southern Church had been at ease while the Northern Christians were being slaughtered but the progression had penetrated the Middle Belt and was fast making its way into the South.
By divine instruction I trimmed my lamps and restructured my ministerial schedules to accommodate more time for waiting on the Lord. There was a terrible dream about Nigeria that I had dismissed for years until it changed into a clear vision with the same consequences. After a while the vision was intruding into my consciousness. At first I was bewildered because I thought Nigeria was in the middle of a great revival but the truth gradually came out clear and I did not like the conclusion. I had a great burden in my heart and travelled out of Nigeria to the USA searching for a word from above to ease the burden. I visited Eagle Mountain in Fort Worth, Texas to fellowship with Kenneth Copeland, Ministries staying alert for a prophetic word for Nigeria. As much as I respected the unction upon Kenneth and Gloria Copeland I returned with nothing.
I have always had a great respect for the Old timers because their generation saw dimensions of glory that the present church is yet to approach. After some more days of prayer and fasting, the Lord opened a door for me to fellowship with R.W. Schambach in Tyler Texas. By this time I only had a few days to exit the USA and the appointment did not look very promising because R. W. Schambach’s office was a four-hour drive away from Houston. The projected cost of car rentals, hotel bills, etc. was definitely inconvenient but the Spirit of the Lord encouraged me to go. Pastor Jonathan drove the rental through most of the night to get us into Schambach’s city and a friend Timi Owobowale had again agreed to accompany me to Tyler Texas even though we had both expended a lot on the trip to Dallas.
When I met with R. W. Schambach on the 2nd of August 2011 everything that God had been showing me through the years came together with clarity. R. W. Schambach had some prophecies and concerns for the Nigerian church but the most important question in my heart was answered during my encounter with him. I had previously thought that R. W. Schambach was strictly an evangelist with a spectacular healing ministry and nothing prepared me for the prophetic cutting edge and apostolic insights that he displayed. There was no condemnation in the man’s voice as he released the prophecies and voiced his concerns. Instead, his voice softened as he projected the words of faith into my heart. The most important question that was answered for me had to do with the state of the Nigerian Church.
I had been worried because the Lord had told me that the Nigerian gospel that could not handle corruption had no hope against Islamist terror (Boko Haram). The Spirit of the Lord opened a revelation I had never seen before through the lips of R. W. Schambach. It was an earth shaking revelation that is worthy of consideration and it went like this. Using the scriptures from Galatian 1:6-8 Schambach exposed the existence of something called “another gospel” and confirmed it from 2 Corinthian 11:4 to reveal that “another gospel” was sponsored by “another spirit” which was based on “another jesus”! The revelation showed that Nigeria like Israel had been without the “true gospel”, the “true spirit” and the “true Jesus” for a long time because there were no teaching-priests to expose the truth. The book of Galatians made it clear in the first two chapters that Apostle Paul was chosen by God to confirm the genuine gospel! He was chosen and taught by Jesus Christ directly to preserve the gospel of Christ or the Eternal gospel as some call it.
The 3rd chapter of Galatians spells out the consequences of following “another gospel” and listed witchcraft, frustrations, confusion and many ills that have plagued the Nigerian church. The consequences were further enumerated in chapter 4 with the loss of our divine inheritance to the “spirit of Sudan” bearing emphasis in verses 28-30! The Islamist terror or boko haram (Islamic sect) falls under this umbrella! The revelation emphasized that God would never defend any other gospel than His own! Since the Nigerian Church had decided to embrace “another gospel”, “another spirit”, and “another jesus” there was little that God could do to prevent bloodshed and the consequences spelt out. If the Nigerian church would repent of its rebellious gospel the glory of the Lord would defeat boko haram (islamic sect) and corruption with one stroke of the sword.
I had to admit to myself that the revelation was accurate. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5: 43-45 that we should love our enemies and bless them that curse us! But “another jesus” instructed the Nigerian church to hate every enemy and return curses for curses! We even went one step further to forge an accord with the spirit of death against our enemies. Nigerian Christians have been prophesying die, die, die for decades and the spirit of death has now arrived to shed blood on a large scale. The Nigerian church forgot that life and death is in the power of the tongue and we have invoked the spirit of death over the entire nation. Now bombs are exploding in churches and innocent Christians are dying.
Another respectable axis of the Nigerian church began to collect money to include people’s names in the Lamb’s book of Life. The special category singled out for the spiritual heresy are those known as the firstborn in every family! The blood of Jesus Christ suddenly proved to be worthless concerning the first born of most families. Collecting silver and gold for services rendered by the heretic churches embraced the blood of “another jesus” that is not as precious as the blood of Jesus to sell salvation to those who are the first born of African families. Without knowing it the churches have allowed many families to dedicate millions of children to “another spirit” in their occult based church services. It would seem that we have forgotten that we are all members of the church of the firstborn! If we are not supposed to know any man after the flesh how come we have singled out the firstborn of families for a special redemption based on money and the blood of “another jesus’?”
The Nigerian church has also forgotten that it is impossible to worship both God and mammon at the same time. Mammon has taken over the Nigerian church to embrace corruption in both pulpit and pew! The spirit of Mammon is about the valuation of human worth based on money instead of God’s love and our ministers are puffed up with silly pride. Where mammon reigns every form of oppression will be present and the desperation to acquire wealth has reached an unthinkable level. I have just mentioned a few symptoms of the Nigerian gospel and no one in his sane mind would disagree that we have these challenges. As if the depths of our depravity were not enough the Nigerian church is now exporting “another gospel”, “another spirit” and “another jesus” to the rest of Africa and other nations of the world.
As the revelation sank in, God reminded me that there was a time when human sacrifice, idol worship, infanticide and occult practices were the norm in ancient Africa but a handful of men with the genuine gospel and the spirit of God left their nations to serve as missionaries until the power of darkness was destroyed. If the early missionaries had operated in the same spirit that the Nigerian church has now, they would not have achieved the glorious results of old. If Nigeria is to survive its present drift into anarchy we must restore the original gospel that was once delivered to the saints of Jesus Christ. In the last twelve years we saw great bloodshed in the Northern Nigerian church as the Islamist agenda in Nigeria expanded. When the northern saints cried out there was practically none to deliver because the spirit in the Nigerian church is a very selfish one.
In the days ahead it will be good for each Nigerian Christian to know that it was our diversion from the real faith into “another gospel” that invited the boko haram (islamic sect) and the rocket launchers into Nigeria. It is my prayer that we will all repent of “another gospel”, “another spirit” and “another jesus” so that God can preserve our nation. Many of the North African countries above Nigeria fell to the spirit of Sudan because the Christian leaders allowed “another gospel” to ruin the work of the Lord. Let us remember that God will never defend any other gospel apart from the genuine gospel of Christ. I believe that we are all guilty in one way or the other and there is no time for finger pointing but a national repentance program targeted at expelling the fake gospels.
I do not think that fighting petrol subsidy removal is the way forward for the church instead we must all confess our guilt and attack the very foundations of corruption and bloodshed. I pray that we will not go the way of other North African nations.
Ladi Peter Thompson.
