Text: Ezekiel 8:5-12

Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. [6] He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

[7] And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. [8] Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. [9] And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. [10] So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. [11] And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. [12] Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth." Ezekiel 8:5-12

 

Reading the above scripture between the lines, some words will stand out clearly, jealousy, walls, gates, doors, wall, gatherings. All these amount to spiritual ingredients in cooking evil soup by the devil against the church and Nigeria for the gullible to use to eat their main 'pounded yam', 'Eba' and all sorts of evil contortions.

When you periscope the global trends of Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria, Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Shabaab and other terrorist organization targeting  the church and Christians, persecuting the church, gathering against the church, you will see that they are jealousy driven. The battle for Israel and other related activities perpetrated within 'a hole in the wall' led by  Jaazaniah the sons of Shaphan popularly  known as the sons of the bond woman is nothing but a repeat of the abominations that has being going on for years unchecked by the church trained intercessors and warriors. As we are looking for practical and political solutions to the menace of Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria, the church should not overlook their stronghold of dealing with the situation, the spiritual way.

What is a gate? The gate of hell is the house of assembly of hell, a place of the gathering of demonic powers. There, they meet to take decision to launch their attacks on the Body of Christ and all other interests of God on earth. What Jesus was saying indirectly is that the confederacy, assembly, dominion or the barrier of hell would not prevail against His church. The question is how do we spiritually deal with the gates troubling the church and Nigeria?

 

1. Repentance. This has been watered down today. It is rarely mentioned on the pulpit. Any true repentance brings about godly sorrow. The church in Nigeria the truth must be told, is wallowing in sin. We have churches everywhere full of sinners and few saints. We must repent for allowing the enemy to land on us. We must repent of opening the gates to the enemy. The church in Nigeria has become a political jamboree and just means for social network and networking for businesses, empire building, self projection and allied subjects. Repentance is not only about sin; it is about misuse of other God given resources. If you are not born again, do so now because the church is made up of individual souls largely, but do a fast rethink and repent of diseases of the church, unholiness, unfaithfulness, uncleanliness and unrighteousness. Let us follow the template of 2 Chronicles 7:14. If my people that are called by name, shall pray, seek God, turn from wickedness (corruption etc), God will heal the land. Even if you are not a Christian and you know you are doing evil against the nation, your conscience should trouble you to stop the killings and evil ways. Repent of committing atrocities against the nation.

2. Prayer. Disband evil gatherings using Isaiah 8:9-10 "Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. [10] Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us."

Rather than succumb to all threats, this evil rampaging, and manipulation , from the North appropriately described by Ezekiel , we also need to gather against this abomination. We need to "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." Let us root out, pull down and destroy this planned colonies and  territorial grazing mechanism. We need to build a Nigeria of our dream where there is no nepotism. 

3. Use the blood of Jesus to deal with gates. Declare the gates to each state in  Nigeria closed by the blood of Jesus, so that there is no longer any traffic of death sentences against them. Declare that the blood of Jesus was shed once and for all not just for Nigerians but for the world. Declare that the Fulani herdsmen need not shed the blood of Nigerians for rituals anymore. Declare that the blood of Nigerians will no more be split on our soil to appease evil gods. God said the blood of Cain is crying, declare that the blood of the innocent people that have been shed will not only flow but cry for revenge and make vagabonds out of the perpetrators of dastardly, cruel, barbaric killings going on in Nigeria.

4. Pull down and destroy the gates: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6. The Bible says; "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty to pull down strongholds and cast down imaginations. The church must destroy the evil traffic and recover what they have stolen from us, our confidence. Suddenly the church is just imagining these evil men over running us, capturing our nation. No. They cannot prevail. Greater is he that is within us, in us, with us and for us. Our Lord Jesus is a man of war. Our God is still a consuming fire, ( Heb 12:29) ready to consume evil strongholds. Forbid a re-establishment of wicked men in your life, ministry and local parishes and our land! Jesus calls Himself the gate. We read about the gate of heaven in Genesis. We read about the gate of hell in Matthew. The gate of heaven will always defeat the gates of hell. Let us re-establish our confidence in Christ Jesus. Pull down the stronghold of the wicked ones. Cast down their imagination to overrun our nation whether through the killings with their AK47, or legislation of dangerous bills through our corrupt legislators or 'legislooters'

5. Exercise your authority given by Jesus. Matt. 16: 18

"And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Command the gates of hell not to prevail. The church must arise and go beyond castigating themselves on social media. It is about dealing with the real enemy Satan and with the gates of fear, doubt, division, disunity, that the enemies are using to manipulate the church 

 

6. Use the name of Jesus. The scripture cannot be broken. At the mention of the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess... Phil 2:9-11. What is it that is constituting nuisance to Nigeria?  They have names. Command such names to bow. Command the spirit behind the Fulani herdsmen genocide, and blood sucking demons to bow at the name of Jesus. Command the spirit of corruption, the spirit of nation looting, pilferage, misappropriation of funds by subsequent governments, the spirit behind wastage of our human and natural resources, spirit behind inability to grow our economy, spirit behind our epileptic power supply and incompetence to develop our power sector despite millions of dollars budgeted and spent on it, spirit behind disintegration of the nation, evil rulership; the list is unending .. in the name of Jesus.

 

 

7. Pray The Prayer of Release,  Pray from Acts 12 especially 1-12

In Acts 12: 1-11 was the story of how Peter was saved miraculously by an angel from Herod after the church made prayer.  Sorry to say the church of Nigeria has been captured  by Herods. When Jesus was born Herod wanted to kill him, when he could not, he killed thousands of new born babies. When the church was born , Herod killed James one of the Leaders of the Church. Then he proceeded to take Peter. That was when the Church woke up.

Pay attention to 'Peter therefore was kept in prison but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.' Notice the word 'made' prayer' as opposed to say prayer'. A man of God came to our church in Christ Apostolic Church Bethel Toronto and threw light on that scripture. Last year November one of our members was in coma in the hospital; we took advantage of that revelation and  we 'made prayer' we 'cooked prayer' and God restored her to life. 

Making prayer means enforcing the release through the gates, Nigerians captured by political and normadic Herods through passionate, aggressive, proactive and continuos prayer and fasting.

 

Also, 'when they were past the first and the second yard, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord; and they went out and passed on through one street and forthwith the angel departed from him.' V10.(KJV)

That verse 10 said the gate opened to them of "his" own accord not of "its" own accord. The Bible does not make mistake. The gate represents a personality that has turned to principality and they are male. They are the AK47 carriers and they sit silently in Aso Rock and other convenient places in power asking not only for the heads of John the Baptist to pacify their nefarious tribes, they command the heads and lands of Nigerians. Until the church stop saying prosperity prayer and start praying violent prayers to release them from their captors, we shall just be playing away with our destinies and that of our children.

The gates don't just open up. You unlock the keys and swing it open only with the Name of Jesus, the Name that is above all names. That is what the name and Presence of Jesus does "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in." Psalm 24:7 Invite Jesus to Nigeria territorial waters and land space and in the name of Jesus let the demons manipulating the destiny of Nigeria bow.

There is no limit to what the name of Jesus can achieve but let us establish one more scripture to nail the coffin of the enemies of the church and bury them."For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."Ephesians 6: 12 Command all principalities, powers, rulers of darkness all people in high medium and low places of authority that are misruling this country to lose their position in the name of Jesus. Let them never secure position in this country to misrule us again in Jesus name.

 

Prayer points.

1. Pray that the church will get it right, repent and do the right thing.

2. Command all evil decision makers working against our nation to scatter in Jesus name.

3. Declare that What Jesus said directly or indirectly  that the confederacy, assembly, dominion or the barrier of hell against you , the church in Nigeria and Nigeria will come to pass in Jesus name. 

4. Every gate that is not allowing Nigeria to enter his place in the comity of nations should be scattered in Jesus name.

5. Every gate contending against you as a pastor, father, son, grandfather, minister represented by any personality or principality, must crush in  Jesus  name.

6. Every gate contending against Nigeria must bow in Jesus  name.The gates of Boko Haram was shut, let the gate if Fulani Herdsmen be shut forever in Jesus name.

 7. Pray  that the gate of the enemy holding you prisoner must open in Jesus name in 2018.

 

Pastor Amos Dada an author and a notable conference speaker is the Senior Pastor and District Superintendent Christ Apostolic Church Bethel Toronto. He is the Convener of International Gathering of Eagles (IGOE) Conferences and President, Canadian Institute of Leadership and Development. Invite him to your next event and do your best to attend IGOE 2018 from September 13-16. Also save August 4, 2018 for Canada Return To Your Maker Prayer Summit all in Toronto, Canada. You can also subscribe to his channel on Youtube/dramosdada.