Annual Conference & Thanksgiving Service Of The Pentecostal Fellowship Of Nigeria, Plateau State On 30/10/2021

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REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND THANKSGIVING SERVICE OF THE PENTECOSTAL FELLOWSHIP OF NIGERIA, PLATEAU STATE ON THE 30^TH OF OCTOBER, 2021

PROTOCOLS

Rev. Dr. Steven Dangana, thank you very much for the kind invitation to be here at this Annual Conference and Thanksgiving Service of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Plateau State. It is a special honour for me to be at this event of unity and love in the church bringing together Heads of Churches and Denominations, Leaders of Ministries, para-Church Organizations, and Pastors from across the State, for a time of Prayer, Fellowship, Thanksgiving and Impartation.

I also bring to you the warm felicitations of His Excellency the President of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari who wishes this thanksgiving service very well indeed.

God is pleased with us for this thanksgiving! Indeed, it is a good thing to thank the Lord, because He says in Isaiah 57:19: “I create the fruit of the lips.” In other words, I am the one who creates the reason for thanksgiving.

And he says in Hebrews 13:15 “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”

Brothers and sisters, the coming together of the saints is always a time of incredible spiritual occurrence; a time of supernatural blessings and breakthroughs. After all, the Word of God makes it clear that even where only two or three of us are gathered in His name, He is there with us, and should we agree on anything, He, our father in heaven will perform our requests. Let us all be expectant at this gathering.

After hearing Bishop Wale Oke, surely, surely, the siege is over in the mighty name of Jesus!

The second reason why I am pleased and favoured to be in your company today is that this is a gathering of believers, we believe in the priesthood of the believer, that every believer is an anointed priest of God. So, unlike any other gathering such as a gathering of politicians or members of a club, those of us here, are led not by the flesh, but by the spirit of God.

We rely on the inerrant, infallible word of God, not speculations or rumours. Indeed, for us, the foundation of truth is the Word of God. This is why I am completely convinced that the future of our nation is very bright, very bright indeed.

Things are going the way God operates. Our God is the God of complex situations. He steps in when things get really complicated. He is not a man whose options are limited, He has no limits no boundaries no quotas, He is God. This is why from the very beginning of creation He demonstrated that He is a God of the most complex and difficult situations.

In Genesis 1:1-4: “1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.”

So even at creation, there was confusion, the earth was without form, it was bleak, dark, it was void. Darkness was on the face of the deep and we are told that the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “let there be light! And there was light.”

In verse 4, God saw the light and it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. Even at creation, there was confusion. The earth was without form, it was bleak, it was dark and void. There seemed to be hopelessness and despair. But in all the confusion, the same verse says that God was right there. The spirit of God, even in the confusion, was hovering around the face of the waters.

In this nation, despite all we are seeing, the spirit of God is hovering over the face of the nation.

Then what happened? God spoke!

In verse 3, it says, “then God said let there be light and there was light.”

This is the point. God spoke! The word He spoke transformed the darkness, the insecurity, the fear, the conflicts, to light, to peace, and to joy. He spoke and the situation was transformed.

If we want our personal circumstances to change or we want our country to be at peace, and to prosper, we the saints of God, must declare it! We must speak! Speak the reality we desire.

There is divine power in the spoken word of the saints. Scripture says “death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

But I want us to spend a moment reflecting on Ezekiel 37, the prophet Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones.  Ezekiel 37,1 Ezekiel said, “The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.”

When you hear that the hand of the Lord is upon a man or a nation and that the spirit of the Lord is leading a person or a nation to a place of promise, you will expect that he will be led surely, to a beautiful place, a place of unimaginable luxury and incredible sights and abundance, a land flowing with milk and honey.

When He promised an uplifting and fulfilled His promise, we may expect a large place and a place of high achievement, but God took Ezekiel to a valley. And all around him were dry bones. Instead of a place flowing with milk and honey and fine foods and apparels, it was a lifeless place, not just death, but long-buried dead! Not just bones but dry bones, very dry bones.

God does not owe us an explanation for where His spirit or promises take us, His promise is that I will never leave you nor forsake you, I will be there with you. In the boat that is perishing, I will be there with you, at the Red Sea, I will be there with you, in the fiery furnace, I will be there with you, in the belly of the whale with a recalcitrant son, I will be there with you!

So here we find Ezekiel, the man of God, led by the promise of God, in an open valley, a huge wasteland and dreams cut short.

Put yourself there, the hand of God is upon you, you are led by the spirit of God, but here you are in the valley of dry bones.

Or put our nation there, this is a nation that God’s hand is laid upon, a nation that the spirit of God is leading, a nation with many great promises. We have so many expectations from God as He leads us by His spirit. All of a sudden, He lands us in a valley not a mountain top of our expectations, surrounded not by life and abundance, but Death! Death is the most confounding event in human existence. It is the greatest demonstration of our powerlessness before an omnipotent God. Death is the ultimate bewilderment.

We are confronted with a wasteland of death, dreams gone, plans defeated, hopelessness, helplessness, every doubt about our abilities gone, all self-confidence gone, in the valley of death, in this open valley of death. Even in the shadow of the valley of death, we have to say, I fear no evil because of His promise, you are with me, your rod, and your staff they comfort me.

In this wasteland of death, hopeless and helpless you have run out of answers, there is no one to seek an opinion from, all around you is the silence of death, but the spirit of God is hovering over you. Then He speaks as He is doing now, saying son of man can these bones live? Can this nation survive, can a nation wracked by corruption, besieged by kidnappers, nihilists, and insurrectionists live?

Can a nation whose priests, sometimes curse it daily live? Can a nation whose youth are fleeing, live?  Ezekiel the great prophet of God is short of answers, he is too discouraged to answer. He says, “Only thou knowest Lord, only thou knowest.” I have reached my wits end, I have reached the end of my imagination, only thou knowest.

This is a man of God speaking, a great man of God, one to whom God had spoken often, one to whom God had demonstrated His power repeatedly. A major prophet, but even he doubted.

But God said to the prophet,” Prophesy life!” In Ezekiel 37:4-6 “4. Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. 6. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.”

The story of the valley of dry bones is God’s metaphoric depiction of the helplessness and hopelessness of a nation and God’s ability just by the spoken words of a man, to bring back life and hope. We who are the sons of God, priests, must speak, the power and grace of God to our nation, to fear, to insurgency to banditry.

And the church must not fear, we are the ecclesia, the called-out one, a people of promise.

In Matthew 16:18-19, it says, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” So, we bind all forces of evil, hate, fear, division, and injustice, and we release prosperity, love, and justice in this land in Jesus’ name.

So, the people of God cannot speak like the people of the world and say things like, the country is bad, this Nigeria is not working, this country will break up. That is death, not life. We carry life. we carry liberty from evil and oppression. That is our DNA.

And we are pilgrims on this earth, heaven-bound strangers but God tells us in Jeremiah 29:7, that we must “7. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

We will speak blessings unto our land, our communities, and our families, we will use the blessings God spoke to the children of Israel through Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 60:10-22, “10 “The sons of foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in My wrath, I struck you, but in My favour I have had mercy on you. Therefore your gates shall be open continually; They shall not be shut day or night, that men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles, And their kings in procession.12. For the nation and kingdom which will not serve, you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined. 14. Also, the sons of those who afflicted you Shall come bowing to you, and all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet; And they shall call you The City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel. 15. “Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no one went through you, I will make you an eternal excellence, A joy of many generations. 16 You shall drink the milk of the Gentiles, and milk the breast of kings; You shall know that I, the LORD, am your Saviour And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

17. Instead of bronze I will bring gold, instead of iron I will bring silver, instead of wood, bronze, and instead of stones, iron. I will also make your officers peace and your magistrates’ righteousness. 18 Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor destruction within your borders, but you shall call your walls salvation And your gates Praise. God the Glory of His People 19 “The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; but the LORD will be to you an everlasting light, And your God your glory. 20 Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself; For the LORD will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended. 21. Also, your people shall all be righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified. 22. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time.”

And the church must not fear, we are the ecclesia, the called-out ones a people of promise, we are indestructible, the force that will destroy the church does not exist and cannot exist because the church is the church of the creator of the heavens and the earth.

Matthew 16:18-19, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

So, we bind all forces of evil, hate, fear, division and of injustice, and we release prosperity, love and justice in this land in Jesus’ name.

The word of God now reminds us that the glory of the latter temple shall be greater than the former. The church is coming to its season of greater glory, of peace, and of victory, you are also coming to your time of elevation and victory in Jesus’ name,

The church is coming to its season of greater glory, of peace, and of victory, we have seen it. It is before us and it shall be so in the mighty name of Jesus.

Let us repeat three times; the siege is over! The siege is over! The siege is over in Jesus’ mighty name! Amen.