THE PROPHETS RESPONSIBILITY IN A WORLD IN CRISIS

Ezekiel Fajenyo and Sunday Patrick At no better time is the relevance of the prophetic institution may be tested than now, and the reasons are obvious to all who truly believe that the worlds crisis intensify on a daily basis because man is not doing enough to attract Gods intervention into His affairs. Regardless of the country concerned or arguments pushed from the ethnic and religious divides, the truth exists that the modern society is in troubled moments; it lives in a muddy waters of uncertainty, unease and threats of self-annihilation. Recent instances of the socio-political confusions in Syria and some countries of the Middle East, and in some African countries like Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, among others, tell of moments of shocking tragedy and human madness. Economic, political and social forces have combined to push away peace in many countries of the world. Hunger, starvation, hopelessness, poverty, misrule, ethnic and religious marginalizations and political manipulations have kept frustrating tangible efforts at setting the world aright. Manifestations of corruption, nepotism, exploitation, greed, insensitivity and negligence in governance, education and social programmes have been key forces of negativity in most countries. The system of administration in most countries on earth is bereft of human value and Godliness; there is massive blindness and myopicism in the approach to socio-economic and political projects; the struggles for power have since menaced developmental programmes, and retrogression is the order of the day. Unfortunately, the religious aspect has been undermined in many places. The God factor has been terribly desecrated. Cultism, idolatry and human cannibalization have stood out as respected forces among people of twisted mentality. In the face of these troubles, the world has been turned upside down. Evil forces keep tormenting man and his universe. The dark spirits from hell keep engineering forces of negativity, impotence, wickedness, destruction in human circles. Homes are afflicted with much self-antagonism among members; hatred and envy have destroyed ethnic and religious groups. Acts of betrayal, lust, wickedness and selfishness have made it impossible for trust and loyalty to exit among human circles. Mischief and deep disaffection walk naked in the streets. In a situation in which politicians and statesmen have failed in their assignments, it is ideal for true men and women of God to be allowed to play their role and be honoured as progressive messengers of the creator. The prophets, in particular, have a mission to act as the voice of God, relate messages to people and nations as being sent and make way for the transformation of society. Prophets are agents of a holy living; they symbolize perfection, thoroughness, truth, discipline and integrity. While the world turns upside down, they remain standing with God using the Word as plank. They obey the Word of truth, because God is truth. Truth is pure; T.B. Joshua says Gods Word is pure and, therefore, sure. It

cannot be disputed; it cannot be minimised or added to; it is constant as the proverbial northern star. A prophet of God should be embodiment of truth, fairness, humility, sincerity, and discipline. It is for these reasons that the prophet in the modern context cannot keep away from doing the service of God. One of the principal functions of a prophet in the modern context is to re-direct peoples consciousness and mannerisms in consonance with Gods wisdom; he/she should serve as an authentic voice through which irrepressible truths are revealed about life and people. A prophet should be bold, courageous and focussed while doing that which is approved by God. Prophet T.B. Joshua is one of such prophets who have shown that they are salient voices of the Creator who never ever waver to tell the truth as it should be, and encourage people to take to the reality of this truth. What is absent from the world today is truth; there is no neighbourliness in the right meaning of the word because of lack of trust. The belief in God is hollow, and religious commitments are shabbily observed. Those who should practicalize true faith in God have not been known to be doing so. The prophet has a duty to particularly tell the truth to power instead of colouring same to the detriment of the leaders, in particular. Prophet T.B. Joshua is fond of telling such truths as revealed to him by God to those in authority. The examples of the late Libyan leader, Colonel Ghaddaffi and former President Gbagbo of Ivory Coast, to just mention a few instances, will illustrate this fact. He has been bold enough to advise Africas past leaders who showed positive virtues when in power to form an association which would help the continents socio-political firmament to grow; especially assist in propagating healthy and developmental electoral system. This is most important by virtue of what is happening in many wrong souled countries where people are hungry, famished and discouraged because of acute planlessness, corruption, and moral indecencies. Rather that tell the truth to the powers-that-be, most so-called prophets surround different palaces where they tell lies to the leaders; they feed such leaders with falsehoods, half-baked truths and fake visions in order to win favour. This is predicted upon the fact that these leaders have a sense of self-righteousness and lack interest in truth and discipline; they are agents of negative principles and false philosophies of development. These leaders seek advice from false prophets and pastors, and most times, the advisers take to cheap propaganda in order to be found attractive to the palace. They have no evidence of Gods influence in their lives, and indeed God does not ever talk to them. They are pretenders and imposters, using Gods name to swell their banks accounts. In the midst of such people who prophesy great things and noble achievements when the reverse is the case, such leaders become confused and difficult to decipher the truth from untruth. The result of this is the wrong approaches to issues of development, which is why life remains so difficult in these countries. Significantly, prophets should draw people to Christ, regardless of their positions in life. Every person alive has a duty to have a positive relationship with the Creator through Christ, without which lifes challenges and brutalities cannot be faced. No man can exist in isolation he is either for God or the devil; he is either for progress or retrogression; he stays with Christ or goes into ritual observances. And life without

Christ is in crisis. Great evils which exist today have a foundation in the devil; he has succeeded in winning many souls to himself using tools of immorality, greed, lust and indecency among others. Prophets exist to dislocate and destroy the existence and foundation of evil. Prophet T.B. Joshua writes in the introduction to his book, The Mirror (2006) that prophets should be Gods generals who mirror God and we see in them the image and likeness of God. They are men and women of faith who share in the authority and power of our God over all forms of satanic oppression. Because many prophets have failed to live up to expectation, Jesus is disappointed in them as they lack the necessary faith to release the power that has been given them. He writes in the conclusion that any person who hears Gods Word and acts on it can exercise faith. People who neither heard Gods Word nor obey it do not have Gods kind of faith. Faith requires hearing and obeying so that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for not all have faith. Those who should be frontliners in projecting faith and the Word have often failed, and this is quite dangerous to the modern world. Prophets, through their viable visions, must assist people to shape their lives, their future. God has an opinion on every matter; He does not allow a true and committed searcher for truth, to suffer. Prophets are His profound mouthpieces; they are active apostles of functional evangelism. Using the Gospel, the prophets strongly puncture the area of falsehoods; they successfully combat the wisdoms of the devil and his evil agents. They guide people through rare instructions of life and expose all hidden troubles which assail peoples lives. It is no wonder then to see prophets revealing strong prophetic messages at the beginning of every year (though some of the false prophets also do this, with grave implications!) to individuals, states, and countries of the world. Despite the fact that the devil often struggles to make people disbelieve in such true prophecies, God works miracles in the minds of the truthseekers. Prophets are equally expected to be moral examples in sincerity, truth, faithfulness, simplicity and humility so that people could imitate them. In the peculiar example of T.B. Joshua, prophecy has become a progressive statement from God. He dazzles people with the accuracy and poignancy of his visions and this is one reason why some people (including presidents) are afraid of him. His prophecies are pungent, and his delivery of same is so believable. Millions of people had been helped out of their terrestrial challenges through prophecies delivered by him. Like Micaiah during the time of king Ahab in Israel, he has usually demonstrated boldness and courage, and has made people and nations of the world to be conscious of the voice and opinions of God on virtually every issue, for over 15 years. Presidents, Prime Ministers, Governors, etc have every reason to keep going to him, the way they have been doing. There are other prophets of the true Lord (though few) who have made God so close to people and nations, despite the fact that the world is quite unbelieving! They keep winning souls through the preaching of the Word of God; they are when capable committed to acts of philanthropy and charity. T.B. Joshua also influenced people in their millions through the giving of scholarships, housing and feeding allowances, and delivering people from all sorts of plagues and deformities and ancestral curses. The contemporary experiences in the world are tough, harsh, diseased and inhuman and it takes a true prophet to reveal the sincerity and believability of these issues,

as the world has seen in Prophet T.B. Joshua of The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN).
Fajenyo and Patrick are authors and Fellows of the Social Engineering and Research Initiative (SERI)