BRETHREN, TIME TO SWITCH ON THE LIGHT

So, is the global economic crisis therefore, a punishment from God? Not necessarily. It’s the inevitable repercussion of the choices of a people who have sold their souls to the devil; it is an affliction from the god of this world whose own ministry is to kill, to steal and to destroy. That is why I once said here that the divide is no longer geographical, as in North versus South or the West against the East. Nor is it along the old traditional socio-economic lines, any longer. It is not even racial or political. The new divide is spiritual. The Bible said of this divide in Isaiah 60:2 “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee”. In other words the divide can be said to be that between revellers in darkness and carriers of light. What we are seeing today is the beginning of darkness that’s covering the earth, and its people; but children of the light cannot be covered by it. Darkness, after all, is simply the absence of light!

That the global economic crisis is already taking its toll on the Nigerian economy is incontrovertible. Even when you concede the position of being so vigorously canvassed by the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo that all the banks are healthy, which is doubtful, there is still considerable cause for anxiety.

As I write this, bank lending rate is a whopping 27% and as usual only big ticket transactions qualify; one US dollar exchanges at the unofficial market for N170; and prices of many essentials are heading northwards, in response. Crude oil price have remained on the floor. Though it rose marginally to about $45 during the week, this is still a great distance from the $147 height it crashed from a few months ago.

The situation on the stock market is not in hurry to improve. Market capitalisation of many of the big operators remains at five-year lows. The banks are still carrying those toxic assets known as margin credits on their books with little hope of recovering them, unless government steps in. A sizable percentage of the emerging middle class which responded to the lure of mouth watering returns from the capital market is still reeling from the crash aftermath, with grave consequences for the consumer goods market.

The rank of the unemployed is swelling already, with the addition of new entrants from the tertiary institutions at home and abroad; and the usual big employers, already considering downsizing, and therefore with no appetite for new recruits.

There is restiveness on the labour scene. Teachers in the Southern states are on strike to force the hands of governments to pay them the new Teachers Salary Scale; oil workers are still dissatisfied with the security situation in the Niger Delta which has over time taken the lives of many of its members; and labour and civil society are warming up for resistance against the Federal Government’s decision to withdraw subsidies on petroleum products in the name of liberalisation.

It is already well known that government workers are likely to take pay cuts in the coming weeks in order to reduce its estimated N1.3 trillion annual wage bill. It may therefore be incongruous to expect that same government to accede to any pay rise agitation, which inexorably follows every sharp rise in price levels. Were the government to want to accede to wage increase and/or other spending stimulation stratagem, it has paucity of funds to contend with. What with dwindling foreign reserves, depleted excess crude oil account, nose-dived oil revenue and threats to the revenue from Customs and Excise! A resort to ways and means, which is official jargon for printing money, is one way out; but traditionally, nothing fuels inflation more effectively!

So, as the journalist, Ray Ekpu would have put it, it’s a hunchback problem, no matter where you touch it, it hurts! In other words, all facts considered, we may as well hang out the sign “bumpy road ahead”! And as we pointed out in No Hiding Place (January 11), there is really nowhere to run to. We wrote in that piece: “The situation used to be that if things got tough in Nigeria, you endured whatever humiliation they heaped upon you at the United States embassy, get a visa and bolt. If the United States won't do, you tried the United Kingdom or Ireland, or Japan, or China or wherever else seemed likely to provide succour. But, just look around you, virtually every major economy in the world is either on the verge of recession, already in recession or is unofficially already in depression”.

Now those are the stark physical realities, the facts of the case. But are they the truth, from a spiritual standpoint? Are you, as a child of God, subject to these facts and figures, permutations and conjectures; well thought out as they are? The answer is an unqualified ‘No’. Why should you trust the economic wisdom that could not prevent the set of circumstances from arising to correctly predict its outcome?

You see, the truth is that we are where we are because the wisdom of man has failed as the Bible has said it would. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (1Corinthians 1:19 &20)

This truth leads to another inevitable truth, the current global recession seemingly triggered by the financial market meltdown has its roots in the spiritual. We’ve said it here before, the wise men of the western world build a gargantuan financial and economic structure based on greed and fear, fuelled by the unholy trinity of me, myself and I and operated on the principle of “everyone for himself; the devil take the hindmost”. They called it the free market system and it became attractive because of its seeming success. Itself an offshoot of the free market of ideas in the field of politics, so successful did the system become that pride set in. Freedom became the object of worship. God took back seat, wherever and whenever He had a place at all. The West became so proud of this system that it began not just to export to willing importers but also to the unwilling by share force. My Bible says God resists the proud!

So, is the global economic crisis therefore, a punishment from God? Not necessarily. It’s the inevitable repercussion of the choices of a people who have sold their souls to the devil; it is an affliction from the god of this world whose own ministry is to kill, to steal and to destroy. That is why I once said here that the divide is no longer geographical, as in North versus South or the West against the East. Nor is it along the old traditional socio-economic lines, any longer. It is not even racial or political. The new divide is spiritual.

The Bible said of this divide in Isaiah 60:2 “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee”. In other words the divide can be said to be that between revellers in darkness and carriers of light. What we are seeing today is the beginning of darkness that’s covering the earth, and its people; but children of the light cannot be covered by it. Darkness, after all, is simply the absence of light!

In very clear terms therefore, there is absolutely no reason why a child of God should be consumed in the darkness of economic recession whether they live in the United States or sojourn in China; whether they be Negroid or Caucasian, whether they be Nigerian or Pakistani.

How so? That is because God’s children have access to resources that children of the world do not. First you become a child of God because you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. Apostle John puts it like this: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12 ). Then your regenerated spirit opens up to be led of God’s Spirit. This is powerfully stated in chapter 8 of the book of Romans: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God…The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (verses 14,16). Access to the wisdom of God through the Holy Spirit is one of the things that makes the child of God able to prosper even in the so-called difficult times.

Another thing that marks us apart from the world and which should insulate us from the hard times is dominion power. The book of Genesis records that “God created man in his own image…And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion…” (Genesis 1:27-28). The will of God is here clearly revealed: that His children should not just multiply and replenish the earth, they should subdue it! To subdue is to conquer, subjugate, bring into bondage, force, keep under, bring into subjection. So, nothing on earth should be able to hinder your success and prosperity in whatsoever your hand finds to do, even in the midst of economic meltdown. So, don’t let the economic crisis reach you. Reach for your key resource; listen to your spirit and do what the Spirit of God is saying to your spirit, whether it makes sense or not. When you have, go right ahead and exercise dominion, like your Father does: speak your success into manifestation. Arise don’t melt with the darkness, switch on your light!