Today, I would like to address the question of how to make Nigeria (or any country) a first world country through the power of faith. The word ‘faith’ is very familiar to most people in the world, but unfortunately in over 30 years of my interactions with believers, I have come to realise that not too many people know how to harness the power of faith.
As we have seen in the title of this article, faith is a power. Before we begin to go in-depth on how faith could be used to bring about economic, political and social development in Nigeria and every other nation, I wish to first of all examine the meaning of the word ‘power’.
Power is the ability to make things happen or produce results. Power could also be the ability to produce an effect. Power is the ability, the capacity to act or do something effectively.
According to the above mentioned definition of power, talking in terms of national transformation, economic regeneration and social economic recovery, let’s examine the practical reasons for which God entrusted all of us with the power of faith. Let’s see what every believer should be doing with the faith they profess.
1. The power of faith makes things happen! That is, anything we believe God for, through the power of faith, we should be able to make it come to pass;
2. The power of faith gives us the ability to produce results. That is, we have the ability to produce results economically. We have the capacity through faith to produce results for the transformation of nations. Through the power of faith, we have the ability to produce political results. By the power of faith, we can produce scientific results, etc.;
3. The power of faith gives us the ability to produce an effect. The power of faith allows us to bring about the desired effect/movement, for which we can believe God for;
4. The power of faith gives us the ability to do things effectively. Which means by the power of faith, we become effective people. The power of faith makes us do things not just anyhow, but effectively;
5. Through the power of faith, all things become possible to the believer. No wonder the bible tells us that to anyone who can believe, talking of real faith and not the assumption of faith, to them all things shall be possible. (Mark 9:23).
It is no secret that Nigeria is the home to some of the largest Christian gatherings in the world. Our fathers in the Lord have done a great job, using the power of faith to set up these ministries and followership. Through faith they subdued the forces of evil that ruled over our continent for centuries. By the power of faith, these God Generals changed the whole spiritual landscape of Nigeria and Africa in general.
The Fathers of Faith in Nigeria brought about this huge change to the continent, yet they were not many in number. These tremendous spiritual transformation was actually brought about by just a few hundreds of people.
Today, however, Nigeria has millions of professed Christians, yet I don’t seem to see the same effect of their faith upon the social, economic and political landscape of Nigeria and Africa at large.
It seems to me as if the power of faith has suddenly been lost in our society. It seems to me that at best, if there is any power in faith whatsoever, then it has been confined only to the church and prayer grounds. This does not agree with the definition of faith as a universal power as seen above.
Could it be that faith is not a power? Could it be that faith is only a dogma? Could it be that faith is only a cliche? Could it be that faith is only a religion? Could it be that faith is only a facade?
If faith is a power, is that the power we see demonstrated on crusade grounds? If faith is power, are we talking about the power we see in the pulpit when the man of God is sweating profusely? Is faith what we see when people come forward to give their testimonies of victories, miracles and breakthroughs?
Is this faith only for dancing and jumping in church? Is this faith only for emotional gratification? Is this faith only for personal fulfillment and extravagance? If that really is the power of faith, why is it limited to the four walls of the church or to the crusade grounds?
Could it be that the power of faith is incapable, ineffective at our work places? Could it be that the power of faith becomes paralytic in dealing with social issues in the land? Is it true that faith can’t work in politics? Is it true that faith is powerless when it comes to the matters of the economy? Is the power of faith helpless in the issues of corruption?
If really faith is power, why is it not being applied to fix our social economic ills? If really faith is power, why is it not being used to direct aright the path of our youth? If faith truly is power, what makes it helpless in dealing with issues of moral decadence in our society? If faith is power, where is that power in resolving all the national issues that we are facing as a nation?
“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” – Martin Luther
When a nation loses or abandons her faith, and refuses to address the questions of social, economic and political decadence, the subsequent consequences would be that of national dissipation, moral decay, social perversions, corruption, immorality and societal disintegration. That is exactly what we have been witnessing in Nigeria in the past few decades.
It doesn’t really matter how many Christians, Muslims or people of faith there are in a given society. What matters is the ability of the people to put to work the power of their faith for desired effects in the country. That is, we could have a country full of believers, yet if these believers will not apply the principles of faith and the power of faith into every segment of that society, it willl be as if they are in a country where there is no faith whatsoever.
“Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” – Hebrew 10:38
On the other hand, if a nation is only having one percent or two percent of believers who are actively involved in putting the principles and power of faith to work in their social, economic and political life, that nation will be much more superior to the other nations with all the believers, and yet with inactive faith.
I want to illustrate how God sees similar situations from the scriptures. Let’s look into Judges 7:3:
“Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.” “And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.”
Notice that even God cannot help a people or a nation, where they have refused to put their faith into operation in managing their national affairs. Remember that the Israelites of old were all believers. But to believe God in your heart is not the same thing as putting into operation the power of active faith on a daily basis for national growth and development.
In the above story, God himself was so much interested in bringing about deliverance to His people, but He could not help them until He got rid of those who would not put their faith into operation. Of the 32,000 strong army that were going against the enemy, 22,000 of them had to return home, while they were left with only 10,000 men.
“Faith allows things to happen. It is the power that comes from a fearless heart. And when a fearless heart believes, miracles happen.”
Dear friends, please take note that the only criterion for which God decided to purge the army was that of the lack of faith. “Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.” Fear, timidity, trembling are the most evident signs of te hlack of faith. Fear, doubt, timidity, trembling, deprive faith of its power.
On the contrary, another compelling story from the Bible shows us the possibilities of the power of faith in building a nation.
“And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid, so the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give his father’s house exemption from taxes in Israel.”
“Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” – 1 Samuel 17: 24-26
Please note that in verse 24, even God, as powerful as He is, could not deliver Israel as interested as He could have been. The only difference in this story, however, is that a man of faith came to the fore.
That man was David! David was no doubt a man of faith per excellence. When he saw the confusion ravaging his beloved nation, even though he was not qualified to be at the war front, he had what the service men did not possess. David possessed the spirit of faith. He believed in the power of faith to change any situation. He could not keep quiet when the need demanded for him to speak. He could not hold back when the nation desperately needed the voice of a deliverer.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” – Hebrew 11:6
Credit: Sunday Adelaja, PT