That I may Know HIM - A Devotional

Day 35: THE ONUS OF THE WATCHMAN

 Take, for instance, the apparent vexation of Apostle A.M. in Lagos after reading “Responses to the Spirit of Sudan & Visions of the Future” and “A Declaration of War”:

You are right on the spot, beloved.  This is the enemy’s agenda, using this subsidy crap. O that we would wake up and overcome this spirit of slumber.   I weep for us.

 The Apostle’s provocation in substance was a confirmation to what the ‘eyes’ of that publication had earlier seen and counseled about the present subsidy strike.  Rev James from Port Harcourt added:

 What a pity that many who should have prayed have either joined the strike or are mouth-washing President Jonathan in plain ignorance! Pray that God will open the eyes of more Christians.

 Now to a different item of thankfulness to God: Whether one agrees theologically with him or not, it must be admitted that Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s call for Christians to be ready to defend themselves against the Boko Haram marauders made great tactical impact in the conflict with enemies who have taken it for granted they are up against weaklings whose creed it is to turn the other cheek even when their head is off and there is no cheek to turn.  As documented in one of the previous posts in this series, namely “A Declaration of War,” the reprobate outcry that has greeted this leader of the Christian Church in Nigeria on account of that statement, even from the uppermost of the Islamic hierarchy, says much about how strongly they took the call and what impact it must have had on their conception of the Christian today.  May God grant the Church a yet stronger voice.  Amen.

 It has been occurring to me (I do not say, though, that I have heard a voice on the matter), that God may have allowed for some strategic purpose the Boko Haram leader’s call for his foot soldiers in the south to return home.  This is what I see: in the past few years, there has been a steady increase of the population of Muslims in southern cities and villages, even in far away creeks by the Atlantic Ocean where one would have thought they would have been scarred by not being naturally swimmers.  They engage in all sorts of odd jobs, especially such as enable them to be mobile, thus doing ‘prophetic’ marches and mapping of the land and noting which Bishop lives where, or what Christian organization does what where.  For many observers, this gradual immigration is part of their grand Islamization agenda, in the hope of fulfilling the aspiration of their prophet and grandfather Usuman dan Fodio, that they would conquer down to the south and ultimately dip the Koran in the Atlantic.  Now that they have largely fled in response to their leader’s call, or in fear of reprisals, may intercessors whose burden their presence has been, go to the gates of their states, cities, communities and villages, seal up those gates against them, and decree that they shall never return, and that those of them who are still in the land will wither into perpetual inconsequence.

 I am reflecting again on the last post, “The Next Agenda,” especially on the coming roles of the Central Bank Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in the Third Phase.  I recall that with respect to that Malam’s passionate pet project of Islamic banking in Nigeria, another of their top politicians had threatened war if the Church continued to oppose it.  As you may have read in “Responses to the Spirit of Sudan & Visions of the Future,” in the same way did Buhari, Atiku, El-Rufai, etc threaten inexplicit trouble if Dr Jonathan rather than Muhamadu Buhari won the presidential elections.  I am wondering deeply, What makes one group so often and so boldly speak the language of war unless one lets them have their religious and political way, to the neglect of every other person’s civil rights?  Why would any go so far if it did not mean so much to an unknown agenda?  If Islamic banking be part of an agenda, then the players were conscious agents.  If that be also true, then the generality has long been blinded and fooled, and the many trophies that such agents have got or bought to themselves have been a cover up.