NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 10th - Sunday 16th March 2025
THE FROG IN THE POT
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished (Prov. 22:3).
The human brain reacts sharply to three things: food, beauty, and danger. Instinctively, the brain notes all three. It is not human nature for one to see danger and remain passive. The quest for survival is the greatest instinct in humans. Once danger is sensed, amygdala, the "fight or flight" region of the brain that processes emotional responses, is instantly activated.
Humans rarely respond to situations like the frog which, as demonstrated in a social experiment, would flee when thrown into a pot of hot water. However, if the same frog was placed in a pot of cold water and the pot was placed on the fire, the frog would boil to death. The frog would keep adjusting to the temperature until it boiled to death.
The above analogies are shared against the background of the passive and uncoordinated response of the Nigeria Church to Islamist insurgency in Nigeria, fifteen years after the organized murder of Christians started in the country. By now, it is clear to conscious minds that there is deliberate agenda to exterminate Christianity in Nigeria. Instead of kicking against the agenda, the evidence is that some of the influential church leaders who campaigned for the Islamists to be in power are still working for the Islamists to remain in power. Meanwhile, many other church leaders who are not Islamist collaborators keep watching, passively.
Whenever this point is made, some Christians retort angrily, that someone is 'antagonizing Church leaders.' With due respect, no one is fighting any church leader. If the Church is facing a threat, it is right for those who understand the issues to speak out. If, after speaking out, the Church leaders refuse to take corrective measure, the clarion caller should not be silent but continue to speak to protect the interest of all Christians. As a result of the nefarious agenda of the Islamists, hundreds of thousands of innocent Christians have been murdered while the lives of many more are under threat. Christian leadership is required to be proactive under the circumstances. The passivity with which Church leaders are approaching this issue is disturbing.
Last week, this prayer call raised the alarm that the only Chapel in Aso Villa no longer observes Sunday worship service since the Muslim-Muslim ticket came into power. One is yet to hear any Church leader amplify the protest. After the prayer call of last week, some brethren pointed out that the former governor of Delta State, Mr. Ifeanyi Okowa, had said in a publicly shared news item in 2023 that the Chapel in Aso Villa would be shut for four years because of the Muslim-Muslim ticket! It has now been shut for almost two years! This is the ticket that some Christian leaders openly supported into power. https://www.nairaland.com/7596509/okowa-aso-rock-chapel-closed
The warning of Mr. Okowa has been in the public domain since March 2023. What have Church leaders done to prevent the closure of the Chapel or reverse the action, after it was taken? The Chapel in the Villa was built in 2000 and has been observing Sunday worship for twenty-three years, until the Muslim-Muslim ticket candidates entered Aso Villa. Meanwhile, they rode into power on the shoulders of some Church leaders.
After shutting down Aso Villa, the Islamists have proceeded to shut down schools in four states in the North because of Ramadan. What will they shut down next? In core Arab Islamic nations, no government shuts down schools because of Ramadan. One is therefore compelled to ask, “What is going on in Nigeria?”
It is good that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) responded and even threatened to go to court. However, after a press release and a threat of litigation, what next? Should not a conscientious Church commence mobilization and harmonization of all Christian assets to become more influential in politics and governance? The Islamists of Nigeria have hijacked the apparatus of the State, and they are using it to push their brand of Islam which is based on the doctrine of hate and intolerance.
Christians should remember that what is going on is not a coincidence. It was planned and meticulously executed. Unfortunately, it appears that the Christian leadership in Nigeria lacks survival instinct. Instead of "fight or flight," they merely frown, and continue business as usual. The proverbial frog in the pot comes to mind.
Over the years, a lot of information leaked into the public domain about the plans of Islamists in Nigeria, in collaboration with foreign Islamist organizations and Islamic countries, to transform Nigeria into the largest Islamic nation in Africa. The strategy meeting of OIC which was held in London in 1983 produced a 356-page document on the plans to turn Africa into an Islamic continent. Of that volume, as many as156 pages of the document focused on Nigeria.
The OIC meeting of 1983 was followed by the Islam in Africa Organization (IAO) conference in 1989, in Abuja, which produced the “Abuja Declarations 1989”. The communique issued at the conference detailed the plans of the Islamists to, amongst other nefarious plans, “,,, eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all non-muslim religions in member nations (such religions shall include Christianity …)” It beats the imagination that an information like this would be in the public domain yet some Christian leaders would mobilize to bring Muhammadu Buhari into power in 2015 and support a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2023.
In 1990, a document from IAO also leaked into the public domain. The document detailed instructions on how Nigeria should be transformed into an Islamic state. Some alarming instructions, with impunity, were given by that Islamist organization to a sovereign country, as if Nigeria was a vassal state.
It is a fact that when the Christian Social Movement of Nigeria (CSMN) and the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) launched the Christian Political Consensus project in 2018 to harmonize Christian presidential candidates, that initiative was frustrated by some Church leaders. On 30th November 2018, the day the Christian Political Consensus meeting was held in Lagos, CAN released an advertorial, which was published in PUNCH newspaper that it had dissolved NCEF. The plan was to create credibility crisis for NCEF. The purported dissolution was null as CSMN (and not CAN) established NCEF.
On 10th December 2018 when the Elders met in Abuja to commence deliberations, CAN issued a statement in the press that it would “interview” both Christian and Muslim presidential candidates on that same day. Instead of harmonising Christian candidates to produce one strong candidate, the Church leaders brought Muslim presidential candidates to the National Christian Centre.
What is narrated above in summary is not an attempt to denigrate Church leaders but an effort to awaken Christians in Nigeria to the danger that is facing them and their faith. Historically, in most nations where Islam displaced Christianity, the Muslims succeeded through the collaboration of influential Christians. A good example is Syria in 634 AD. Syria was where the followers of Jesus were called Christians for the first time in Antioch (Act 11:26). Syria became an Islamic nation when two priests, Jonah and Romanus, betrayed Damascus and Bosra, two major cities in Syria. Jonah agreed to show the Muslims the way to take Damascus in exchange for immunity for himself and his fiancée when the city was captured, and the other Christians were slaughtered. Damascus fell but his fiancée committed suicide when she knew what her would-be husband did. The city of Bosra fell after priest Romanus converted to Islam and led the Arab forces through a secret way to take the city. From 634 AD till date, Syria has remained an Islamic nation.
Christians in Nigeria must not act like the frog in the water on fire. This is no time to be passive. We are not advocating violence or any act of vandalism. However, Christians ought to commence plans, with the two institutions established by the Church, for the purpose of providing leadership. CAN and CSMN should be planning together on mobilizing and harmonizing Christians. There would be an election in 2027 yet there are no signs that the Church is prepared.
This is no time to harbour grudges or maintain division in the Church. Leadership must place the interest of the followers first, by strengthening unity amongst all the various Church groups. All the Christian fellowships managed by laity leaders must be involved in the preparation to provide a righteous government for Nigeria. For good things to happen to a land, good people must plan and execute the plan. A righteous government will not come merely because some people have fasted and prayed. It will come because, after praying and fasting, they worked. It is for the same reason that people will not win election because someone prophesied over them or poured anointing oil upon their head. You win election because you have structures. If a candidate has no structure, it does not matter who poured the anointing oil, that candidate might not win.
This is the reason we say that the problem of the Church is a leadership problem. It is the leaders who will organize the followers to build the structures. The Church in Nigeria must not be the frog in that pot on fire.
God bless Nigeria.
PRAYER POINTS
1). Ps. 129
Thank God for not permitting the Islamists to overrun Nigeria and the Church of Christ in Nigeria.
2). Is. 8:9-10
Pray to cancel every agenda against Christianity in Nigeria, and against the country. Decree that it shall not stand neither shall it come to pass.
3). Mal. 3:3-5
Pray that God will purge the Nigeria Church and dismiss all collaborators with Islamists from His Church.
4). Ps. 133
Pray for unity for the Church to plan together and work together.
5). 2 Cor. 12:9
Pray that the grace of God shall be sufficient for Christians in Nigeria to plan and organize effectively against the agenda of hell.
6). Is. 51:9-11
Pray for revival, that the power of God shall be demonstrated again in the Church and in Nigeria
7). Is. 33:20-22
Pray that the Lord would mediate and advocate for us, and the new Nigeria shall come forth.
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DAILY INTERDENOMINATIONAL PRAYERS FOR NIGERIA
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
VENUE: ZOOM
ZOOM link:
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Meeting ID: 968 0619 0505
Passcode: 024184
LINK TO MARATHON PRAYERS ZOOM ROOM
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Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar