God created the earth and gave it to the children of men. Consequently, it’s only a person born of a woman that has the power to operate on earth. God himself sends messages to the people on earth, through human instrumentality called prophets. The devil also sends messages through his messengers called prophets, even if you add false to the messengers of Satan. The ratio of genuine prophets to false prophets is in the neighbourhood of 1:450. The Bible, in 1 Kings 18:22, states thus: “Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men”. In that generation, God spoke directly to only one prophet for the consumption of the whole nation. This does not make him the only righteous person in his country, it shows how selective and restricted God is in sending messages to mankind through prophets. Also in 1 Kings 22, the ratio of the genuine prophets to lying prophets is 1:400. We must note the difference between false prophets and lying prophets. False prophets are prophets who receive their powers from the devil and demons even if they masquerade as pastors and priests of God. Lying prophets on the other hand, maybe genuine prophets of God, but lie from time to time for selfish, financial, etc, reasons.
I recall how one genuine old prophet deceived a younger prophet who was sent by God to evangelise a country and return back to his base without resting. The old prophet confronted the younger prophet with a purported message from God in which he told the young prophet that God had sent a message to him that he should not go back to his base but come back to dine with him and depart the next day. The younger, genuine, but foolish prophet, believed the old prophet, maybe because of his old age, and decided to discard the direct message he heard from God, to obey the purported message he heard from the old prophet. As he was dining with the old prophet in the night, the true message from God came to the old prophet and he told the younger prophet that he had acted foolishly by believing his message rather than believing what God told him directly. The old prophet now released the true message: you will not reach your home tomorrow, you will die on the road for disobeying God.
In fulfillment of this prophecy, the young prophet was killed by a lion on his way home. The old prophet buried him and warned that if he dies, he should be buried beside the young prophet. It turned out that the reason the old prophet deceived the young prophet was because he knew that in future a king will emerge and excavate the corpses of all fake prophets and burn them as punishment for deceiving the people. He knew that the only thing that will prevent his corpse from being desecrated was to be buried beside the young prophet who was nationally known to be genuine. This eventually happened as he foresaw. He lied to the young prophet for self preservation. (See 1 Kings 13:1-32 of the Bible)
The most revealing of this message is that the mere fact that persons are actually prophets of God does not mean that what they are saying is true even if the message comes directly from God. This is deep. It is in this method that God demonstrates His sovereignty over all mankind. God can instruct the spirit to release an untrue message to any of His errant Kings in order to compel him to take the wrong cause of action that will lead to his destruction. God, in this regard, will still use some of the prophets who have soiled their garments by receiving gifts or grafts from the corrupt leaders in power. The prophets used are commercial prophets who have become sycophantic and praise the leaders, no matter what they are doing. Such prophets blame every other person, including the spiritual, for the problems of the country, while exonerating the leaders themselves.
A look at 1 Kings 22:1-39 of the Bible, explains this philosophy. King Ahab consulted the commercial prophets whether he will survive from the war he wants to embark on and was told by the commercial prophets that he will go and come back triumphantly. God intentionally put a lying spirit in the prophets to make Ahab to go and die in the battle field to pay for his sins. Only one true prophet told him that he will die if he embarked on the war and was locked up in the prison until Ahab went and died in the war. Also the mere fact that a prophet foretold the correct future event doesn’t make him a true prophet of God. King Saul consulted the witch of Endor when God refused to answer him and the witch even summoned the familiar spirit of Prophet Samuel who told King Saul the absolute correct information that he will die in the war and he did. (See 1 Samuel 28:6-19)
This is what is going on in Nigeria today. The false and lying prophets are everywhere prophesying for politicians and very rich people even when the politicians and very rich people did not solicit for their prophecies. They usually conclude the prophecies by urging for prayers for the politicians and rich people to avert the looming disaster to create room for the politicians and rich people to consult them. They are no longer interested in the souls of these men as all they are interested in is praising them no matter what they do in order to receive honorariums from them. Let us point out clearly, there’s no place in the Bible where God commanded his prophets to praise corrupt, evil or incompetent leaders in a country, or exonerate them. King Herod sought to kill Jesus, and Jesus referred to him as a Fox (Luke 13:31-32). When King Ahaziah sent to compel Elijah to come and see him, he sent fire from heaven and consumed them (2 Kings 1:10). When Jesus entered the temple and saw people trading and changing money in the temple, he used whips and flogged them out and called them thieves. ( Matthew 21:12-13). God expects his true prophets to call these evil and corrupt leaders foxes and thieves publicly.
The only duty God bestowed on the prophets and children of God is to pray (not praise) for the people in authority and this is to prevent the evil powers from inhabiting these leaders to make foolish and wicked decisions (1 Timothy 2:1-2). This was what happened when God rejected King Saul and revealed to Prophet Samuel that he will punish him. Whereas Samuel was rebuking Saul openly, he was interceding for him privately, asking God to have mercy on him. (1 Samuel 16:1). Today’s Nigeria prophets will publicly praise the corrupt evil leaders that they are doing their best, and exonerate them that it’s not their fault, and turn to blame spirituality for our problems. The truth is that if the leaders are doing their best and our problems are spiritual, it then means that those in charge of the spiritual are the cause of the problems. Majority of the church system now have become the spiritual wing of the evil, corrupt and incompetent political leadership and the people of Nigeria should start seeing them as the same with the political class. It’s on record that when some men of God want to visit these politicians, they go with their contractors that will harness the financial gifts sharp sharp.
Those prophets prophesied that Buhari will solve our problems. It turned out to be false. They prophesied that Tinubu’s policies will revamp the economy, but things are turning worse, and when they discovered that things are turning worse, they are now telling us that it is not the fault of Tinubu, that it is the fault of the spirits; that our problems are spiritual. A pattern of ethnic, personal, or pecuniary bias is emerging in all these prophesies. The only function of the prophets should be instruments of reconciliation of man to God, and not exonerating or defending evil, corrupt leaders. Indeed, God commanded the prophets to go and tell the wicked that it shall be ill with them (Isaiah 3:11). Elijah shut the heavens for three and half years to punish the King and the people for their sins. Nigeria prophets say to the evil leaders, it shall be well with them and blame the poor masses that they are having spiritual problems because they are not fasting and praying enough for the evil leaders.
Nigerians must note today, that our problems are man made not spiritual. God has given us fertile land, intelligent people, lengthy coastal line, solid minerals, liquid minerals, creative minds and so on. Our problem is leadership not spiritual. God cannot come down to become our President. America, France, United Kingdom, China, Russia are where they are today and became super power nations by physically removing their evil and corrupt leaders and replacing them with accountable and transparent leaders. Today, they are enjoying their countries and most of the countries do not even pray at all. Nigeria has been praying since independence and things are getting worse every year. Faith without work is dead being alone. If we pray from today till eternity, without doing the needful of removing these bad leaders by every legitimate means, things will never change, because God cannot come down to do it for us. Time has come for these old, false, fake, lying prophets to retire and let the people institute the government of their choice that will cater for their security and welfare. The present leaders are not doing their best, they are doing their worst, and there’s a limit to what the people can take.