Awakening the intelligence of the Nigerian Church (2), By Ayo Akerele

And interestingly, Satan is madly in love with a blind generation, for when men, the sons of God are deaf and blind, Satan relishes in his ability to strike them hard. Your eye and ear gates are your most significant and strategic weapons of victory in spiritual warfare. An enemy that cannot see or hear is dead before the fight. Why does any serious army spend fortunes on intelligence gathering? To aid their operational activities. Let’s tie things together.

Nigeria, and the church in Nigeria in particular is at a crossroad. A vast number of believers are deaf and blind, they can’t see or hear anything.

Millions upon millions of Christians are under the crushing weight of false and fake ministries, but they do not know. Sadly, some of these evil ministries use various diabolical means to tie the spirits of their members to their churches. That is a topic for another day.

There has been a complete hijacking of the gospel by a group of preachers with very large following, but the followers are completely oblivious of the true picture of those they desperately love and cherish. Many of these men-worshippers are actually on their way to destiny Golgotha, but they do not know. Well, the forces of the last days are also playing a fast one on our generation. The people are looking for teachers who will give them what they want to hear. Apostle Paul captures it in a very succinct way:

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers” (2 Timothy 4:3).

The time Paul was speaking about is now here with us. It is your responsibility to test every spirit. God will not test spirits for you. Apostle John helps us to understand this truth:

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)

You need to wake up from your slumber and choose you this day whom you will serve, Jesus or your pastor. You cannot be loyal to both at the same time. If you choose to be loyal to Jesus, then pick up the words of Jesus, the Bible and start feeding on it to enlist yourself in the elite group of intelligence gathering saints. The entrance of His word gives light (Psalms 119:13). That is intelligence. When this light comes, you won’t fall victim of charlatans who are parading themselves as servants of God. Your eyes will be sharp. Your ears will be sharp. Money or material things will lose their values to you. Numbers of church branches and size of church auditorium will cease to shape your perception of truth. At that point, the only thing that will move you is fruit.

God is sharing vital intelligence about His plans on earth. He is looking for the custodians of these vital pieces of information. Will He find you like He found Abraham in Genesis 18:17-19? Are you sold out to Jesus or sold out to men? Building a spiritually intelligent life is as expensive as building an army of intelligent officers. Intelligence is costly. If you don’t invest in it, you will pay heavily for its absence.

The days ahead are evil. False prophets will continue to rise in numbers. Apostasy will grow in scale. The way to the kingdom will never be broader than it is now. It will still remain narrow, only a few will be found in it. If it is broad, it is the way to hell. Invest your life in prayers and in the study of the word. Know God for yourself and He will visit you with the vital intelligence you need to survive the evil of the last days.

Ayo Akerele is the Senior Pastor of Rhema Assembly and the founder of the Voice of the Watchmen Ministries in Ontario, Canada. He can be reached through ayoakerele2012@gmail.com