The atmosphere around the Cathedral Church of St. Gabriel Umueri was heavily charged today, 06/06/2020 as His Lordship, Bishop Johnson Ekwe PhD, led Mount Zion participants in a spiritual warfare against killer herders who have pillaging communities and killing people all over Nigeria.
Mount Zion is a monthly first Saturday Prayer Meeting organized by the Bishop.
Speaking before the prayers, His Lordship bemoaned the spate of insecurity and killings by armed herdsmen in Nigeria, especially the in South West, Eastern Nigeria and some communities in the northern part of the country.
According to the Bishop, the situation of the entire world has become a case of one week, one trouble. “Everywhere is in chaos and no one, including governments of the developed world seem to have any reliable answer to these problems.” Down here in Nigeria, the people are threatened not only by hunger but also by incessant attacks from armed Fulani herdsmen. “No one is safe anymore in Nigeria,” Bishop Ekwe lamented.
However, in spite of these fears and uncertainties, the prelate has a message of hope for Nigerians. Quoting from the Prophesy of Isaiah (Is 40: 21-25), he assured the congregation that their protector was the God of the Army of Israel. And based on this, their lives were too precious so much so that God would leave no stone unturned to protect them, not just from the marauding killers but moreso from all the troubles of this time.
Earlier, in the prayer meeting, Rev Canon I. G. Obalum, preached on the theme: Saviours Shall Come from Mount Zion (Obadiah, 21-22). Accordingly, Can. Obalum identified Mount Zion as a “Divine Theatre where God operates to remove anything that causes pains and setbacks in the lives of His people. Through this spiritual operation, God would prepare, equip and send His children to judge Mount Esau (principalities and powers) and to re-establish His Kingdom in the world. Can. Obalum on this note enjoined the congregation to count themselves privileged for unto them the rare opportunity has been given for a special encounter and empowerments that would make their lives never the same again.
Leading the congregation in prayers, Bishop Ekwe by Divine mandate declared the forests all over the country but particularly in Eastern Nigeria unsafe for killer herdsmen. He called on God to dispatch his angels to be on guard and to patrol the four corners of the communities that have been visited by incessant attacks from herdsmen. His Lordship particularly prayed for the destabilization of all counsels, spiritual and physical, taken anywhere in the world to waste innocent lives in Nigeria or to create panic and insecurity in Igbo land. He asked God to protect His people, to take away demons of death from their families and to bless them bountifully in the month of June and in the remaining part of 2020.