The Sleeping Army

And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. (Luke 2:37)

And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? (Luke 18:7)

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. (John 9:4)

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. (Romans 13: 11 – 14)

Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. (1Thesalonians 5: 5 – 7)

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (2Peter 3: 10 – 12)

That I am sad is in no doubt. That the slaying of innocent students in a university is a national tragedy is also not in doubt.

But I want to bring us to some shocking truths that the media has been all the way doing their best to numb our spirits and hearts against the truth of the whole affair.

The sad fact is that this is purely a spiritual war, period. Let no one deceive you as the facts have been clear all the time since ‘terrorism’ was unleashed on Kenyan soil. People are being killed for being Christians, the most virulent enemies of the Islamic nation and faith.

Let us go back a bit. In the Westgate affair do you remember that Muslims were let out before the slaughter began? Yet what do the media report? They highlight the one Muslim man who used his gun to rescue others and the story changes to terrorism instead of profiling jihad!

They do the same thing in Mpeketoni by killing Christians, even writing their reason openly and the same is repeated, this time being painted as tribalism and terrorism though no one wants to ask how a Somali would differentiate a Kikuyu name from another Bantu name. But the media is playing their cards well.

Then in Mandera they clearly separate the Christians from the Muslims and slaughter them and again we are foolish enough to call it terrorism. They then go to a quarry on the same mission and repeat the same and again we believe the media that this is not the decimation of people for what they believe.

This recent one is the saddest because the first news releases said that they had come those early hours to kill the Christians who go to pray early in the morning. They were the first casualties where there was not any survivor. They may have retreated to the hostels when the police responded before they had accomplished their agenda. And I know the same song is being played again.

When will we wake up?

Let me give you a sobering fact. Goodluck Jonathan was as deceived as we are that Boko Haram were simply terrorists and I suspect the media played that kind of tape until the Christians who were safe from them believed as we are doing. He realized too late that it was an Islamic agenda that was being played to make sure that one of them rules the nation. Now they can expand legally by occupying all the positions they want even as the believers remain clueless.

I believe this is what is being played in Kenya. And we better wake up to that fact. Of course we know it is not very easy for them to occupy state house unless craftily like Obama did, which thing they are expert in. Again they do not need to place a Muslim there when there are enough bought ‘Christians’ willing to pursue the Islamic agenda for gain.

But my concern is not terrorism or the lack of it. I always remind people that I am a Christian minister whose main job is to share God’s message to His people. I am therefore not writing this for activism purposes. I am not looking to raise a Christian army after the flesh as then I would not be much different from Al Shabaab. I want to alert the church to the spiritual realities that concern this insecurity or terrorism to start from where you are.

A government that is of the flesh has no capacity to deal with a spiritual attack just like a painkiller cannot treat an emotional ailment. Only a spiritual entity can handle such an attack. And the only structure with the capacity to handle such kind of attack is the church.

Sadly it is sound asleep.

We have prophets who can only see when they are paid or when there are headlines to make. Where those prophets who like Elisha will warn the king where the enemy is planning to attack? Or are they paid by the enemy to show them the weakest point to attack?

Again do not for one moment think I find it strange that Christians have to die for their faith as that is what we were promised by the one who died for us. In fact a time is coming when a Christian will stand for everything evil to the world. We were told that a time will come that people will kill us convinced it is worship as the whole world will so hate us.

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (Matthew 24: 9 – 11)

What really saddens me is that many Christians live their lives as if the present is all there is. But even worse is that preachers are the advocates of that doctrine. All the preaching about breakthrough and favor and release have this world as their goal. Heaven is treated as an assumption of sorts as it occupies a very small portion, if any, of the preaching.

Worse is the fact that sin is mentioned only to remind one that he is forgiven unconditionally as if that forgiveness has no conditions. I can do anything and live anyhow once I get forgiven as no sin can affect that forgiveness.

Preachers are more scared of offending their congregation than they are of hell. That is why they would rather speak about visas instead of victory over sin. They would rather speak about vehicles and houses and promotions than about persecution. Women sit at the front to expose their thighs to the leaders during the services and the preachers fear to scare those offerings away. It is no surprise that they follow those thighs to their conclusion yet even then the preachers would not address the resulting sin.

An openly wicked leader attends church and the preacher hails that ‘attempt at godliness’ and praises him instead of addressing the conviction of sin that might have drawn him to the church in the first place because he needs the huge offering this leader brings though it may be in the open what he does to acquire it.

It is no wonder that we are blind to persecution even when the persecutors openly declare their motive and intention. We are so full of the here and now that we have closed our eyes to the eternal. Our minds and spirits are so engrossed on the worldly that the spiritual may as well cease to exist.

A church in tune with her Lord will be a church that will die for violently raiding hell instead of being scared to death of scaring the peaceful coexistence with opposing belief systems. Remember the disciples when they were ordered to do the exact same thing by the authorities?

… Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5: 28, 29)

Do you remember them calling for a thanksgiving service after being imprisoned and flogged for the same thing (Acts 4: 23 – 31; 5: 41)?

It is no wonder that miracles were following them as they were clearly not living for this world or even the present. Persecution was not an expectation but a reality in the life of the church from its inception.

The Christian faith as we know it has thrived mainly due to the pressure persecution has put on her.

Some time ago I was reading ‘Fox’s book of Martyrs’ and was able to appreciate the amount of blood that has been shed for the furtherance of our faith. And if what Christ promised us is anything to go by we are approaching similar times very quickly. What we are seeing with Al Shabaab and Boko Haram and ISIS are a precursor of what the church will soon experience if we will hold our fidelity to the tenets of our faith.

We can choose to die passively or actively; and I am not talking about bearing arms. But we will be killed one way or the other if the Bible is to be understood clearly.

The only activism we have been given is the sharing of the Gospel to the lost world that hates Christ with a passion because He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Or we can die like dogs because we do not want to offend the world hostile to the message we bear. But die for our faith we will and it is not optional.

Will we as leaders prepare believers for that eventuality that is as certain as night follows day? Or will we continue preaching worldliness and make our churches ‘seeker friendly’ by lowering Christ’s standards? Does a seeker friendly gospel result in the transformation we see with conversions in the scriptures?

What would happen if those ‘terrorists’ came heavily armed to your favorite church and asked those ready to die for their faith to step aside to face their death or learn the ‘shahada’? What would you say if they gave you a chance to say your last words before being beheaded like has been shown on the media of late? Would you give them a witness to the power of the Gospel or would you rather they gave you another chance to reconsider your faith?

How ready are we to face death especially from the enemies of our faith? Is this verse only in my Bible or is it also in yours?

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. (Revelation 6: 9 – 11)

Do you realize that it is not the passive believers who are in that list? These are people who not only practiced their faith but were also actively propagating it. Does that describe you? Will the enemy have a hard time picking you out of a crowd when he is looking at the real Christians to kill or will it be clearly evident?

How much of a witness are you?

(I have been on ministry outside Kenya for two weeks and was not able to post anything during that time. But the ministry was very fruitful and I am grateful to God. I will prepare a short report later.)