Women are the most wonderful creature

Baatee Pagos Kpegediba Wrote:

Women are the most wonderful creature I have seen on Earth,

but am yet to understand why some men are busy finding
faults upon faults on them.
Ok, lets look at them this way and tell me if am lying
1) Women are the only creature that can change their original
surname just for the sake of love.
2) They are most easiest creature to convince.
3) They are the only creature that loves from the bottom of
their heart.
4) They are the creature that can prefer to go to bed with an
empty stomach, just to make sure that their children feeds
well.
5) They are the only creature on Earth that cries very easily,
just to expose their inward disposition.
6) They are always awake even at the dead of the night just to
make sure that their children are protected.
7) They can even sell out their cloths just to buy food for
their children, and also see them smiling.
8) They are always ready to sacrifice their lives just to save
the lives of their children.
9) They are always in the kitchen inhaling the smoke without
complaining, just to prepare something for their children and
husband to eat.
10) They are the only creature that can abandon their
biological family and start up a new home with a stranger.
11) Even when they are battling with the pains of pregnancy,
yet, they are busy looking after their husbands and children.
e.t.c
In fact!
Mmmuahh! Just a Kisssssssss for all my wonderful female
friends on Facebook!
Indeed, am glad to have you all!

What we don't like and what needs to change - Let's tell them

Muslims very often come up with the argument that we are racist or hateful towards them. In reality, we have nothing against Muslims and Islam is not a race, it is a religion. We don't hate Muslims or any other religious people. In fact, they are part of our daily lives and very close friends or family members as well. What we hate is the cruel barbaric teachings and the atrocious acts committed in the name of those teachings. We don't hate any Muslims, but we do have a problem with verses like the following in the Qur'an:

- Quran (8:12) - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them" No reasonable person would interpret this to mean a spiritual struggle.

Or Bible:

- Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)

Or:

- A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to death by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death. (Leviticus 20:27 NAB)

The Quran alone contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding.

I would like to make this post into an educational one and try to let Muslims or any other religious fanatics know about what we don't like with regards to their religion. This is to try and send a strong message that we don't hate any of them. That we will start trusting them when you start condemning and stop preaching about all the barbaric / nonsensical / ridiculous / unscientific aspects of your religions.

Let's SHARE what we don't like about Islam, and any other religious teachings that need a revamp towards love and compassion. Tell us what you don't like and what needs to change. Let's educate them a bit and I hope that the Islamic haters won't start a ruckus about this one like they use to.

Please help share this post so that other people can participate.

L

There's a Miracle in Your Mouth

There's a Miracle in Your Mouth It's Just Simple Quantum Physics, That's All by Pastor John Hamel “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.  And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” (Matthew 21:21,22) Many of us have been around the Word of God long enough to know that Jesus said we can have what we say.  Of course, we can only have what we say when it is based upon what God has already agreed to do in the Bible.  Jesus is talking about finding a Scriptural promise for something and speaking it forth with the words of our mouths.  Here in Matthew 21:21 where Jesus referred to speaking to a mountain, He was referring to mountains of human obstacles, or problems.  Look at something interesting Zechariah said about mountains in the Amplified Bible. “…Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit [of whom the oil is a symbol], says the Lord of hosts.  For who are you, O GREAT MOUNTAIN [OF HUMAN OBSTACLES]?” (Zechariah 4:6,7 Amplified Bible)  It is pretty obvious here that Jesus, like Zechariah, was making reference to human obstacles when He referred to the mountain in Matthew 21:21.  We can take the Word of God and stand up to any obstacle that confronts us, commanding the obstacle to be removed and it must obey.  If your obstacle is sickness, you can take one or more of any of the healing promises of the Bible and move that mountain of sickness by the very words of your mouth.  If your obstacle is financial, emotional, moral, social, etc., simply find in the Bible where God has agreed to do something about your obstacle and begin to speak the promise (or the solution) over the obstacle (or the problem).  If you have not been receiving from God as proficiently as you desire, I believe the following three keys will help you. Repent of All Negative Communication The Apostle Paul said without repentance there can be no faith towards God.  (Acts20:21)  If you have been allowing Satan to use your tongue to speak words of doubt, sickness, failure, rejection and destruction, you need to first ask God to forgive you for that.  Some people come to Jesus and give Him their families, business, money, body and possessions, but they stop at the tongue and say, “That’s mine, Jesus.  You can have everything but that.”  You need to realize that Satan knows if he can get you to use your tongue against yourself, he can shred you into small pieces.  The only authority he has over you is when he can get you to start speaking his will into your life.  “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walkethabout, SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR:” (1Peter 5:8) Notice that Satan must seek for those whom he may devour.  He cannot just devour everybody or he would have done so by now.  Satan is looking for those who will speak his words of destruction, granting him access into their lives.  Repent.  Repent.  Repent.  Repent.  Repent if you have been letting Satan use your tongue to do a number on you.  God will forgive you. (1John 1:9) Recognize Your Need for Supernatural Help “For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:  BUT THE TONGUE CAN NO MAN TAME; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.  Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.  Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.” (James 3:7-10) Jesus did not tell us to tame our tongues only to have his half brother, James, to tell us that no man can tame the tongue.  Jesus and James are not contradicting one another.  James is telling us that we cannot tame the tongue, as Jesus instructed, without supernatural assistance.  He is telling us to ask the Holy Spirit to help us to tame the tongue.  We cannot do it alone.  James himself said if we needwisdom and help in a situation, we could ask the Holy Spirit Who would give it to us freely.  “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, andupbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (James 1:5) James said God would give liberally all the supernatural help needed to tame that wild tongue of yours before you kill yourself or someone else with it.  (See Matthew 12:35-37, Mark 11:23, Psalm 141:3, Proverbs 18:21.) Pay Attention.  Pay Attention.  Pay Attention. Most people do not even pay attention to what they are saying.  They just talk because they feel the need to talk.  Some people think that just because no one else is talking, it means they should be talking.  They just ramble on and on and on.  They do not even listen to the curses they are pronouncing upon themselves or their loved ones.  Some people go on and on so much that they should join the new support group called “On and On and On Anon.”  Start paying deliberate attention to everything you say.  When you catch yourself saying something negative, ask yourself this question.  “Is that what I really want?  ‘Cause I’m going to get it if I keep saying it.”  As long as you keep saying things like, “My husband is just a drunk and he never listens to me about Jesus.” or “My kids are disobedient little monsters.”  That’s what you will get.  Your husband will get drunker and your kids will become more monstrous. There is an area of research in Science called Quantum Physics.  Quantum Physicists will tell you that atoms, neutrons and protons actually respond to human words.  Scientists have literally watched atoms, neutrons and protons become excited and respond positively as positive words were spoken to them.  They have also literally watched as atoms, neutrons and protons slowed down, becoming irresponsive and seemingly lifeless as negative words were spoken to them.  Do you understand what you just read?  The source of everything in existence that lives, atoms, neutrons and protons, respond negatively or positively, depending on the words being spoken over them.  This is a scientific fact.  This is a fact that Jesus understood thousands of years before anyone thought of such a thing as Quantum Physics.  This is what Jesus was referring to in Matthew chapter 21 in our opening Scripture text.  Jesus understood the Law of Quantum Physics way back then because Jesus created Quantum Physics long before He ever came to Earth as Heaven’s Solitary Missionary. (Colossians 1:16) Yet, there is something even more fascinating about all this Quantum Physics business.  The same Scientists have discovered that by simply looking at those same neutrons and protons moving within an atom, they can also have an effect upon them.  When they expect the neutrons and protons to stop moving as a result of being looked at, they will.  When they do not expect the neutrons and protons to stop moving within the atom, they will not.   I don’t know about you, but for me, this certainly confirms Jesus was right on the money with everything He taught about speaking and expecting our words to come to pass.  Expecting the supernatural really is the key to life.  This, of course, has made Believers out of many Quantum Physicists, too.  While other Physicists who have witnessed this phenomenon are so shocked by it, because it turns on end everything they believe about the origins of life, they insist there has been no such discovery.  That's almost as bad as the people who say there was no Jewish Holocaust.  Lying does not make the truth go away.  You simply cannot un-ring a bell.   Your life is what it is today because of words spoken over you, by yourself or someone who was responsible for you in days gone by.  If you don’t like the way things are, you can change all that by beginning to speak new words today.  God's Words, right out of His Book.  You can become an armchair Quantum Physicist for Jesus! “Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.  Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!  And THE TONGUE IS A FIRE, A WORLD OF INIQUITY: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” (James 3:4-6) Are you destroying yourself and your loved ones by letting your tongue do its own thing independent of your brain and spirit?  Someone said, “Well, I don’t believe in all that saying stuff.  It doesn’t work.  No matter how hard I try, it just doesn’t work for me.”  I told that person, “Sure it does.  It’s working for you now.  You keep saying it does not work no matter how hard you try.  Therefore, the harder you try, the more it does not work.  You’ve got the thing in reverse with the accelerator to the floor.  Why don’t you put that power to work for you instead of against you?”  “Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: LET THE WEAK SAY, I AM STRONG.” (Joel 3:10) “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: SO WILL WE RENDER THE CALVES OF OUR LIPS.” (Hosea 14:2) The Hebrew word for “calves” in this verse is actually “sacrifice.”  It takes faith and sacrifice to say, “My God meets all of my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus,” when you are having to walk everywhere you go because you still don’t have that car you asked Him for.  It takes faith and sacrifice to say, “My God meets all of my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus,” when you are living in a rundown ole shack, eating crackers and watered down soup while all the other anti-Word of Faith believers are calling you a heretic. You are just going to have to endure.  God will pull you through if you can stand the pull.  He is undoing some things you got all tangled up by operating the Law of Quantum Physics in reverse for all those years.  You dug a hole for yourself.  The least you can do is give Him a few months to clean up that mess and bring you up and over.  The least you can do is say what He says about your situation and give Him half a chance to prove Himself strong on your behalf.  Keep speaking faith words.  Things are happening behind the scenes.  The same principles that were once your problem are now your solution.  “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.  But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.  FOR BY THY WORDS THOU SHALT BE JUSTIFIED, AND BY THY WORDS THOU SHALT BE CONDEMNED.” (Matthew 12:35-37) These are the words of Jesus Christ, not Dr. Kenneth Hagin or Dr. Kenneth Copeland.  These men have simply been raised up by Jesus Christ to restore the message of the operation of faith to this generation.  People who come against these sincere, enlightened Prophets of God apparently do not understand they are actually coming against the Lord Jesus. (Psalm 105:15) I made up my mind that I’m not going to run with the crowd who’s all hung up on what God doesn’t do for people.  I’m not going to run with the crowd that stripsfaith out of the hearts of God’s precious creation.  I’m running with those who dare to not only believe what Jesus taught about the power of words but who also dare to speak their faith.  I would rather be a “Name it & Claim it” than a “Doubt it & Suffer without it.”  How about you? “THROUGH FAITH WE UNDERSTAND THAT THE WORLDS WERE FRAMED BY THE WORD OF GOD, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” (Hebrews 11:3) “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and UPHOLDING ALL THINGS BY THE WORD OF HIS POWER, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;” (Hebrews 1:3) Not only did Jesus create the world around us with the words of His mouth, He keeps it from falling apart with the words of His mouth.  Jesus expects us to keep our personal worlds from falling apart by using the words of our mouths, as well.  That's what the Bible means when it says we are created in His image and likeness. (Genesis 1:26)  It’s time to stop using your mouth to mess up your world.  It’s time to start using your mouth to create the kind of world you want to live in.  It’s time to start using your mouth to create the miraculous in place of thedisastrous. What Jesus is actually saying in Matthew 21:21 is, “There is a multitude of miracles in your mouth.  It’s just simple Quantum Physics.  That's all!" Be Blessed ... John and Barbara Hamel

JUST BRING THEM IN

Dearly beloved, I want to commend you for your labor of love here. You have been doing a great job adding people to this group, and God will continue to use you mightily in Jesus name. 
In addition, please don't select the type of people you add to this group. Just bring them in, no matter who they are, be they righteous, the worst sinner, drunkard, fornicators, or whatever you can think of. They cannot stay outside and hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Remember, Jesus did not tell the world to go into all the churches and hear the Gospel, But He told the church, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15. Yes, one way you can go, is to bring them in, and add them to this group, so they can hear the Gospel and be saved.
Jesus said in Luke 19:10, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

May God bless you as you continue to bring them in here, in Jesus name.
Jesus loves you and I do too.

GOD HAS GIVEN US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION

Have you ever thought about what God has called you to do and what is God's will for you as a believer? Sure, many people have thought about this, but all they are hearing everyday in church is how to get blessed quickly. Thus, it's time for you to know what is God's will for you, and that the ministry which God has committed into the hand every believer is the one of reconciliation.  

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

Therefore, as you worship God today, may God grant you the grace to be a partaker of this great ministry, so that you'll be able to join all other believers everywhere to reach out to this lost word, reconciling them to God through Christ, in Jesus name. You are blessed.

Jesus loves you and I do too.

MAN VS WOMAN

IT IS GOOD TO ASK QUESTIONS

Dearly beloved, I want us to know that it's a good thing to ask questions, and that no question is too small or too big, So, I want to encourage everyone to ask questions, because many people do whatever they are doing and perish because they didn't know. If they had known, maybe they would have acted otherwise. Hosea 4:6 says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."

I also want to encourage all servants of God here to be ready to answer any question in other to help the new believers and everyone grow together as a body. 1 Peter 3:15 says, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." Sure, this is the purpose that God brought us together so that everyone here will grow together as a body. 

Let us understand that the church, which is the body of Christ is like the human body. And consider a person, if only the head is growing and all other parts of the body are not growing, the person will end up being a small man or woman with a big head. And if only one hand is growing more than the other, the person will end up having unequal hands where one hand will be longer than the other. But if all parts of the body grow together, you'll see a handsome looking man and a beautiful woman.

Therefore, it is better to ask questions in order to get clarification that will help us know how to do God's will and make heaven, than to perish in silence. May God help us, and may we find answers to every confusing questions of our lives in Jesus name.
Jesus loves you and I do too.

PRAYER WITHOUT DISTRACTION

Status Update

By Prayer requests to Pastor Chris Oyakhilome

PRAYER WITHOUT DISTRACTION
“Elijah went up to the top of Camel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees” (1 Kings 18:42 (KJV)

One of the reasons some Christians don’t experience the manifestation of God’s glory in their lives as they should is that they often treat their time of fellowship with the Lord casually. Their minds being full of distractions are unable to concentrate and hear what God has to say! In James 5:16, the Bible says, “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man make tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]’’ (James 5:16 AMP). The prayer is earnest and heartfelt, devoid of external influences or distractions.

Prayer isn't a time of religious monologue, where you just talk and talk, until your mind wanders away. It’s a time of fellowship where your spirit mingles with the Holy Spirit; so much that your very being syncs with his laid out plan for your life. God bless you.

Join us this Sunday at the CHRIST EMBASSY VIRTUAL CHURCH where Pastor Chris will be teaching us the word..
Come with an expectation in your heart and be ready to receive the word in its fullness.
God bless you.
Click on the link to register and attend the service
http://vchurch.christembassy.org/registration/
Share the link with your friends and families.

What is good about Good Friday?

An innocent man is

Betrayed

Abandoned

Falsely accused

Ridiculed and abused

Condemned in a biased court trial

Nailed to a cross to die

The "good" of Good Friday is found

In the words He spoke before his last breath

"It is finished"

A debt was paid

An account was settled

The sentence of death for sin was commuted

He paid a debt He did not owe'

We owed a debt we could not pay

We needed someone to wash our sins away

Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Messiah, did that very thing Trust Him

Only a Loving God could take a really bad Friday And turn it into a Wonderful Fulfilling Forever.

Is God the Author of Evil?

Nigeria: Is God the Author of Evil

BY FEMI FANI-KAYODE, 13 APRIL 2014

RELATED TOPICS

• Nigeria

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OPINION

Today I shall go down memory lane and ponder on a few soul-searching questions that I posed, and attempted to answer, a few years ago. I believe that these questions are as relevant today as they were at that time. Sit back, fasten your seat-belts and I implore you to stay with me till the end. Here we go:

Life can be so complicated and sometimes we are forced to ask and answer some difficult questions. Permit me to ask a few in this contribution. Why do so many people suffer so much in life and why is this particularly so in Nigeria? Is God punishing us for our sins? Is God the source of all this evil that we see in our lives and in our land? Just look at all that is happening?

The best are crucified, tormented and persecuted whilst the wicked are celebrated and exalted. Many of our leaders are a plague and an affliction with dark hearts and many of our followers are ignorant ingrates and traitors. What is wrong with us? Why is God punishing us like this? Why has He forsaken us? Why has He visited so much evil on us? For millions of people each day is a struggle. There are so many shattered dreams and there is so much sadness, failure and sorrow in this land.

Worst still, in Nigeria when someone is good he must be punished and when he is bad he must be rewarded. That is our record and that is our delight. One wonders why God has afflicted us in this way? Why all this evil, poverty, failure, injustice, persecution, shame, pain, cruelty and wickedness? Is He not a God of love? Why does He allow this evil to thrive in our lives and in our nation?

We are a sick nation with a sick leadership. A nation of small minds governed by small minds. A nation where the sons of slaves ride around on horseback and the sons of kings walk around barefoot. A nation where the rich and powerful lack sensitivity, compassion and humanity and where the poor have little hope, eat from the dustbins and wear second hand clothes.

A nation where truth is mocked, ridiculed and treated with contempt and where falsehood, hate, deceit and misrepresentation is exalted. A nation where light is described as darkness and where darkness is described as light. A nation where eighty year old men are described as promising and dynamic leaders, where fifty year old men are described as youths, where thirty year old men are described as children and where seven year old girls are taken as wives. This is evil.

Is it because of our sins that God has visited all this on us? Consider our quality of life and our numerous challenges? Is God the source of all this evil? Many are suffering, are in despair and are badly weighed down by their unsavoury circumstances. Yet there is still hope and the purpose of this contribution is to encourage the broken, the wounded and the disheartened and to answer some of these complex questions.

Permit me to start by saying that God is a God of love and not the author of evil. It is our enemy and adversary, satan, that delights in wickedness and he alone comes to kill, steal and destroy. He alone brings evil, sorrow, discord, fear, poverty, want, failure, death and shame wherever he goes.The bible says "the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel" and cruelty is the devil's stock in trade. He alone is the merchant of misery and the dealer of suffering. God is not the source of any of these terrible things. Rather He brings life and He is full of grace, compassion, love, blessings and mercy.

He allows negative things to happen to us and to our nation only because He has given us the power to deal with them ourselves and the grace to come through them and have a great testimony at the end of it all. His word says "the righteous shall live by faith" and that "He has given us power to tread on scorpions and serpents and all the power of the enemy and none shall by any means hurt us". That is why if only we can believe, stand firm and not allow such challenges to cause us to derail or to despair, we shall always be victorious at the end of the day and His promises for our lives shall surely come to pass.

As regards sin, we thank God that there is no condemnation for those of us that are in Christ. He shed His blood and He paid the price. Once we have confessed and truly repented of our wrongdoings the power of sin and death is completely broken in our lives. He has bought us eternal life through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection and ascension. All we need to do is to claim it and just believe.

That blood brings grace and mercy and it cleanses away ALL our sins. So the source of the pain that you are feeling, and that we are all feeling, is not God but rather the devil, our collective enemy. And thank God that we have overcome Him and that we will always overcome him by the blood of the lamb and the testimonies of our lips.

God loves you very much and He is with you and not against you. You are not a loser but a winner. You shall certainly overcome. Just continue to believe and to do good. And believe and pray for our fatherland Nigeria too: one day things will change in this country and that is God's promise. Be rest assured that our Father in heaven has a plan for Nigeria too. It is that assurance from God that we are all holding on to: that is our hope and that is our strength.

He will surely deliver us one day and the yoke of the devil and his children, the Amalekites and the Midianites, over our nation shall be broken forever. I assure you that these vicious oppressors and Egyptians that we see today, the time is coming when "we shall see them no more".

So fear not and despair not: just hold on, just watch and just pray and you will see the salvation of the Lord in this land. The accusers will soon become the accused and the oppressors will soon become the oppressed. Despite all the evil, false accusations, wickedness, treachery, injustice, persecution, marginalisation, brutality, callousness, greed, bloodshed, hatred, idolatary, murder and deceit that we see around us and in this nation, we must continue to do good and to stand firm.

We must continue to exalt fairness and righteousness and we must continue to love even the unlovable and to see the best in even those that hate us and that seek to destroy our lives, our future and our country. God will deliver and in the end He will make ALL things beautiful in our land and in our lives. The Lord has spoken it and so it shall be. May God continue to be with us all and may He give us strength even in these difficult and lonely times.

Yet we must never forget the place of prayer because there is nothing that prayer cannot do. It is the engine room of all that is. It is the unseen spiritual force that makes things happen in the physical. It is the catalyst for a meaningful and positive change and without it nothing good can come. We need to appreciate the fact that the countries that are advanced today originally had their roots and foundation in God and at some point in their various histories went through periods of massive revival having experienced immense suffering.

When one third of all the people in Europe dropped dead as a consequence of the "black death" (the bubonic plague) in the Middle Ages they did not stop praying or turn their back on God. They held on to their faith, called on God, received a word from Him and the evil cycle stopped.

When the Pilgrim Fathers founded America they prayed her into greatness and made God her foundation: that is why she is what she is today. Prayer and faith is the key to all things, coupled with hard work, an understanding of the times and good old-fashioned hope.

When 20 million people were killed in the First World War and 50 million were slaughtered in the Second, it was prayer and faith in God that enabled the world to survive it and move on to build a better world. It was prayer and faith in God that pulled down the Berlin wall and that destroyed the evil and godless empire of Soviet communism. It was prayer, faith in God and the ability and courage of righteous men and women that were filled with the Holy Spirit, to rise up and say NO, that destroyed the evil that was Hitler and Nazi Germany and the vicious and racist system of government in apartheid South Africa.

The Book of Job in the Holy Bible teaches us that oftentimes God allows the devil to touch us in order to test our faith in Him.

Yet He can change our fortunes in the twinkle of an eye, either for good or for bad: that is His prerogative and His nature. He can make a promise and honour it at once or wait 400 years to do so, as was the case with the children of Israel when they were in exile in Egypt. That is what makes Him God. The most important thing to appreciate is that through good and bad, through night and day, through thick and thin and whether as individuals or nations, He is with us every step of the way, He loves us deeply and He is eagerly waiting to see our reactions to our various challenges and circumstances. His word says "the righteous shall live by faith" and that is, indeed, the cornerstone of the christian faith: total faith in God and trusting Him to deliver us and help us in our time of need. This is because it is in our weakness and helplessness that He shows and proves His strength.

Now that does not mean that we should do nothing else. That does not mean that we should not, at the same time as praying, work hard, fight hard and shout loudly to make our country a better place. After all the bible says "faith without works is dead". This means that we must work hard at the same time as we are praying and exercising our faith, otherwise we will fail. It means that whatever we are doing we must do it with prayer. As a matter of fact it is that prayer that will guarantee the success of the relevant venture- It is our strength and hope for a better tomorrow. Thank goodness that it actually works and, by God's grace, it will do so for Nigeria no matter how bad things may appear to be today.

Permit me to end this contribution by considering the words of Queen Victoria which she spoke at the height and power of the British empire and in the days when the United Kingdom was truly "Great Britain". During the Scottish rebellion in the late 19th century she said "I do not fear the armies of Scotland but I fear the prayers of John Knox". John Knox was the spiritual father of Scotland and one of the greatest prayer warriors and intercessors that ever lived. The Queen's words smacked of deep wisdom and she did well to fear John Knox's passionate and powerful petitions to the Lord.

You see prayer delivers the captives, protects the weak, humbles the powerful, heals the brokenhearted, breaks down the strongest walls, brings tyrants to their knees and causes kings to weep and tremble. It shapes the destiny of nations and restores and rebuilds the lives of men. There is still hope for Nigeria as long as we have faith in God and we continue to pray. And why not? He is, after all, "our shield, our glory and the lifter of our heads". He is "the Author and Finisher of our faith". God bless Nigeria.

(THIS PIECE WAS FIRST WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED IN 2009)