Awakening the Intelligence of the Nigerian Church (1), By Ayo Akerele

This “so called” man of God has a huge following in Nigeria. Tens of thousands of people troop to his meetings. You will never believe he could be faulted. Yet, this man is an extremely dangerous fellow whose direct and indirect activities have led to the destruction of the lives, careers, and businesses of several people, home and abroad. This man operates exactly like a mafia. You will never suspect him until he destroys his targets and blames and packages the victims with breath-taking evidence as the cause of their owns predicament. He is a superstar in covert destiny destruction operation. No law enforcement agent in Nigeria can ever probe into this.

Interestingly, the crowd of supporters around him has continued to swell. But where did this level of deadness of spiritual intelligence in Nigeria come from? Well, I’m really not surprised about the fallen state of the church in these last days as occasioned by the collapse of truth and disciple-centered messages in our churches. In reality, the Nigerian church is really a reflection of the state of the Nigerian society. Most of the actors in the larger society are active players and actors in many of our churches, and rather than the church being the light of the world, the opposite seems to be the case, the world is now the light of the church, for the most part. My life’s assignment and calling are to call us back to righteousness.

However, what usually stuns me is the amount of apathy and ignorance in the church. The spiritual intelligence of majority of believers seems to have been totally shut down. Here is the reality, friends. Not everyone in the church has an eye that can see or an ear that can hear. Many among us are actually suffering from spiritual amnesia, a total shut down of their capacity to see and hear from the standpoint of the Spirit. The Bible speaks of a spiritual status where God personally supervises the judgment of men with blind eyes and deaf ears.

“They do not know nor understand; For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, And their hearts, so that they cannot understand.” (Isaiah 44:18).

In other words, one of the judgements of God on a nation is the temporary shutdown of the spiritual sensitivity of a generation.

I love intelligence. Recently, someone asked me what I do to catch fun. Well, my most cherished activity when I am not writing or studying or praying or listening to messages is the art and science of watching war movies. You don’t want to tempt me with an Israeli Mossad rescue mission of a Jewish commando or a Navy Seal capture of a notorious terrorist. I have watched dozens and scores of such documentaries.

I am captivated by the vast number of efforts that are devoted towards the crafting of intelligence strategy by the world’s most elite intelligence agencies, the Mossad, the CIA, and the KGB. In all of my extra-curricular activities, one thing stands clear, life’s success or failure is at the mercies of the amount and accuracy of your level of intelligence. Every war is fought and won on the wings of nerve cracking intelligence. Whether in the Business world where the Bill Gates and the Elon Musks of this world are cracking tough business bones or in the political turfs where hardened politicians are competing for the life of their nations, intelligence is not negotiable for every and any kind of success.

In the spirit world, things are really not much different. In fact, the Bible’s replica of intelligence is “wisdom” or “rhema” or “revelation”, the awakening of the spirit of a man to see and understand life’s events from the perspectives of God. In Revelations 4:1, an angel called out John to a place of intelligence. He said to John, “Come up hither and I will show you what is to come.” Daniel operated at an unbelievable level of spiritual intelligence, and so were all of the prophets. The prince of intelligence is Jesus, our unparalleled saviour. The master Himself was intelligence personified, while on earth or there in eternal glory. Jesus routed the Pharisees beyond words. In Mark 6:1, they had this to say about Him.

“And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands.”

Consequently, a major aspect of divine judgement on a nation is the dampening or numbing of the ability of men to see or hear. Hear me saints, anytime God wants to judge a nation, he starves them of intelligence. Hear how Paul puts it:

“Just as it is written: “God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, To this very day.” (Romans 11-8). To be continued.

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