Nigeria 2002

It is an understatement to say that Nigeria was once considered another of the many forgotten nations of the world, devastated by drought, a dismal economy and AIDS epidemic of catastrophic proportions. No hope could be found in the corrupt government overshadowed by a spiritual heir ruling through witchcraft and radical Islam. But the Lord had not forgotten the more than the 100,000,000 people that make up Africa’s most populous nation. Over the centuries Christian missionaries, at risk to their own lives, came and continued to establish fellowships of prayer, bible study and worship. Although the Gospel was first shared with Nigerians by Portuguese believers some 400 years ago, it hasn’t been until recently that the then small minority of believers in this nation have actively begun seeking the Lord in prayer. Across the nation church leaders called on believers everywhere to pray. The battle was just beginning. It was the year 1990 when the house church movement began to take off. Christian gatherings were met with hostile resistance; Worship times and crusades were met with violence. Many villagers who relied on the advice of witches murdered believers to preserve their way of life. Hundreds of villages ruled by those involved in witchcraft ordered others to burn Christian homes. Still, the presence of the Lord continued to spread. Though the resistance was fierce, the praying house church was mid swept through central, southern and eastern Nigeria, filling corner to the north. Radical Muslim leaders reacted intensely, responding with their own prayers and pronouncements, coupled with violence. Church buildings and houses of worship continued to be burned and destroyed by Muslims. Christian missionaries now had even more reasons to fear for their lives. Reports of Christian martyrdom – an everyday occurrence. Entire Christian villages pillaged and plundered burned with tens of thousands of believers being killed. In the 19th century when missionaries from Britain began to come to Nigeria, Christianity spread in all parts of the country but only now had the gospel become a penetrable force on people’s hearts, as the small church of Nigeria prayed. Though the anger and hostility towards the gospel by some seemed unrelenting the Spirit of God was even more so. In just 10 years thousands of believers were tens of thousands and tens of thousands became hundreds of thousands, and today it’s tens of millions. It’s being called the Decade of Evangelism and Prayer for Nigeria even producing one of the largest college campus revivals in the world. Crusades regularly yield tens of thousands of new believers. With revival came the election of a godly president, a believer in Christ. The economy has begun to grow going from dead last to the second best in Africa. And although conditions were still very harsh, Nigeria was turning into another beacon of light to the nations. Like the church in South Korea, believers here are given over to prayer. Though these people have known hardship and want, mighty are they in the Lord. Supernatural miracles – not uncommon. The love of the Lord has filled their hearts and the growth has been staggering. Estimates put the number at 45,000,000 with the House Church movement that’s sweeping villages and cities as Christians gather to intercede for the peoples of the world. In the nation’s capital Lagos in the last four years the church of this city has gathered several times each year in a large field to sing, worship and pray, to lift up the Lord Jesus, all 2,000,000 of them. Two million voices crying out for souls, for nations all around the world. On Saturday, November 3, 2001, in direct response to the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, the believers of this city gathered for three days to fast and pray for revival and mercy in the United States of America. Two million voices raised to heaven loudly for 72 hours with tears for a people half a world away. A people they’ve never known. It’s happening all around the world as the Spirit of God continues to look for those who will be still seeking His face. He’s looking for you, calling you, wanting all of you even now.

...know them that labour among you... 1 Thessalonians 5:12 * ...pray for one another... James 5:6 * ...the eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of thee... 1 Corinthians 12:21 * ...there is one Body and one Spirit... Ephesians 4:4 * ...the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth... Ephesians 4:16 * ...I pray that they may be one with us so that the world will believe...John 17:21 * ...how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity...Psalm 133:1 "The purpose of life is companionship." *** "Worship is that form of companionship where we love on Him in response to His great love for us." *** "The most powerful drive in the human heart is the desire for companionship." *** "We inherited this drive from the One we were patterned after." *** "The difference between manipulation and leadership is motive." *** "Motive is purified and guided in the presence of God: Prayer." *** "Pride is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency, an attitude of self-entitlement and a motive for self-glorification." *** "Pride starts subtly and then turns into the aggressive enemy of real companionship" *** "The Cross and the presence of God brings fellowship (heart to heart), but the world offers only socializing (facade to facade)." *** "Every relationship has a foundation. The pride of public ministry has been a foundation for too many. At some point it consumes" *** "There is a difference between worshipping the idea that we worship God and actually worshipping God." *** "Why do we want to see prayer back in the schools, when it is no longer in our homes or churches?" *** "Corporate prayer around the Throne must return the center of church life if there is to be any hope for the masses." *** "Corporate prayer produces effective preaching, not preaching produces corporate prayer." *** "If we are so in the know, why do we no longer gather together to seek God, navigate through our haughty hearts to get a glimpse of God's heart and then pray in the lost?" *** "Christianity is not an enterprise, venture for self-discovery or political or civic organization. It is a Blood-bought fellowship of prayer focused on One." *** "Prayer-based friendships are the only ones that last." *** "Prayer-bathed friendships are not incidental to ministry, they are foundational." *** "Prayer is not a ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is the ministry" *** "It's one thing to tell somebody what we believe about Jesus, it's quite another to be able to introduce someone to our Best Friend." *** "We are more like Martha than Mary; More like Christian activists, than people of prayer." *** "We need unity in humility found at the foot of the Cross, not prideful uniformity that says: 'Look at us doing God's work'" "There has got to be a practical, excecutable strategy in place for us to dethrone the ministry of Hollywood in our homes and bring families and communities together via corporate prayer inspired by the Spirit. Technology is not the enemy; Our disobedient laziness is the enemy." ***