Time is a gate. All purposes, good or evil, must pass through time-gates to manifest on earth. Ecclesiastes 3: 1 tells us that all purposes have gates of time assigned to them. Time governs all men and activities under heaven. In varying degrees, all men are gate-keepers who must give or block access to purposes. Purposes have no access until they find gate-keepers that favor them directly or indirectly. Intercessors are powerful gatekeepers and must watch gates of time carefully. The Bible helps us to understand all gates of time and the purposes that seek to use the gates. This week, our prayers will focus on the 50th week of Nigeria’s year, and on the 37th week of the year. *THE 37TH WEEK* One major thing for which the 37th week of the year is remembered globally in this century is that it’s the week of ‘9/11’ when terrorist plane-hijackeers and suicide- bombers destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and sought to strike other strategic places in the United States. Many lives were lost and many nations were affected. It was an attack on the world. How did the wicked have access to this gate of time and how can it be secured? There is a clue in the word of God.
1. The Word of God indicates that the kingdom of darkness pushes the wicked to take the center stage in the 37th season (especially through the spirit of murder). The word ‘wicked’ is used 104 times in the book of Psalms. It is used 14 times in Psalm 37 alone. No other chapter of Psalms has a much mention of ‘the wicked’. This reveals how prominent and active the wicked can be in the 37th season. The word ‘slay’ is used seven times in the book of Psalms but twice in Psalm 37. In Genesis 37, Joseph’s brothers planned to slay him but God distracted them. In Jeremiah 37, the prophet was arrested and imprisoned and left to die until he pleaded with King Zedekiah to get him out the dungeon in the House of Jonathan the Scribe. In Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel prophesied, in a vision, over dry bones of slain men. In Psalm 37, the wicked plotted to slay the righteous but the Lord would not let it happen. Psalm 37:12-15 says, “The wicked plots against the just, And gnashes at him with his teeth. [13] The Lord laughs at him, For He sees that his day is coming. [14] The wicked have drawn the sword And have bent their bow, To cast down the poor and needy, To slay those who are of upright conduct. [15] Their sword shall enter their own heart, And their bows shall be broken”. Psalm 37:32-33 says, “The wicked watches the righteous, And seeks to slay him. [33] The LORD will not leave him in his hand, Nor condemn him when he is judged”.
There was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the 37th President of the United States, Richard Nixon, in 1974. The man who wanted to kill the President had killed one of the pilots of the plane he planned to hijack and crash on the White House. Being frustrated, he killed himself before he could be arrested. The 9/11 suicide-bombing of the World Trade Center happened in the 37th week of 2001. On September 10, 2018, there was explosion in a gas/petrol station at Mafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. At least 15 people were roasted by fire, 17 vehicles (including two petrol tankers) were burnt, and over 40 people injured. The operations of wickedness in the 37th season is contrary to God’s plan for the season.
2. What is God’s intention concerning the 37th season? The Lord gave the gate of the 37th season to the House of God. The 37th book of the Bible is about rebuilding the House of God (House of Prayer). God treasures His House in this season and fights for it. In Exodus 37, Bezalel and his company were busy with the construction of parts of the Tabernacle and fabrication of things to be used in it (Ark of Testimony, Table of Showbread, Gold Lampstand, Altar of Incense, Anointing Oil, Incense). In Isaiah 37, Hezekiah went to the House of the Lord to pray against Sennacherib. He also consulted Isaiah, the living House of God in his days. It was from the House of God that Hezekiah and Isaiah defeated Sennacherib. These show the strategic place the House of the Lord occupies in a 37th season. It is the Power House of the season. We are the House of God and the House of Prayer. While the kingdom of darkness is busy planning to kill, God is busy fixing His House. The House of God is greater and stronger than the wicked and their plans and efforts.What is the role of the House of God in the 37th season? It is to capture the season for God’s purpose. It is to enforce the purpose the purpose of God for the season. If the House of God does not occupy and dominate this gate of time, the evil one will gain access and seek to hijack it and make it a gate of destruction.
2.1. The first task of the House of God in the 37th season is to cause the voice of God to be heard. This a week of the Voice of God. Job 37:2-6 says, “Hear attentively the thunder of His voice, And the rumbling that comes from His mouth. [3] He sends it forth under the whole heaven, His lightning to the ends of the earth. [4] After it a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, And He does not restrain them when His voice is heard. [5] God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend. [6] For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’; Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength”. The means by which the House of God will work in this season is to prophesy, issue decrees, and speak the word of the Lord. Joseph spoke (prophesied) his dreams in Genesis 37. In Isaiah 37 the servant of God prophesied against Sennacherib. In Jeremiah 37, the king invited the servant of God to give him the word of the Lord and he did. In Ezekiel 37, the servant God prophesied to turn dry bones into a mighty army. This is a week to prophesy.
2.2. The second task of the House of God is to frustrate the agenda of wickedness by the voice of God. When Hezekiah reported the evil plans of Sennacherib to Isaiah, the prophet sent him a reply from God:Isaiah 37:33-37 says, “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. [34] By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,’ Says the LORD. [35] ‘For I will defend this city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake. Then the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses-all dead. [37] So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh”. This week is given to the House of God. A functioning House of God is the only force that can stop or frustrate the evil agenda of the wicked in the 37th season. Let us occupy this gate at make no room for the evil one. It was from the House of God that Hezekiah and Isaiah defeated Sennacherib. The living House of God should, today, decree that the plans of the wicked will not prosper in this week.
2.3. The third task of the House of God in the 37th season is to bring down the wicked. Psalm 37:9-11 says, “For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. [10] For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, But it shall be no more. [11] But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace”. Psalm 37: 20 says, “But the wicked shall perish; And the enemies of the LORD, Like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away”. Psalm 37: 35-36 says, “I have seen the wicked in great power, And spreading himself like a native green tree. [36] Yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more; Indeed I sought him, but he could not be found”. Isaiah 37:38 says, “Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place”.
A NEW BEGINNING
The will of God is to make the 37th season a new beginning. The story of Joseph began Genesis 37 and continued till Genesis 50 – the end of the book. A new king of Assyria emerged in Isaiah 37. Zedekiah became king of Judah in Jeremiah 37. Second Kings 13:10 says that “In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz became king over Israel in Samaria….” Jeremiah 52:31 reveals that it was “…In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah…that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison”. That 37th year was a new beginning for both Evil-Merodach and Jehoiachin. Ezekiel 37 is about a new beginning for dry bones of slain men. Queen Elizabeth II died on the sixth day of the 36th week of 2022. Her son and successor, Charles III, was sworn in as king on the first day of the 37th week. This makes this 37th week a new beginning for the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, and the world. It is interesting that 1937 was the first year of his grandfather, George VI, on the throne. He became king December 11, 1936 but was coronated May 1937. This 37th week of the year is a new beginning for you.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Pray that the House of God in the nations shall be strong and on alert this week. Pray for the awakening of the House of God in your nation. Pray that God’s people do no abandon the prayer altar because of discouragement from pressures.
2. Pray, this 37th week, that the Lord will frustrate the destructive plans of the wicked. Pray that the wicked will plot and gnash their teeth in vain this 37th week. Decree that no plot of wickedness against your this week will prosper.
3. Raise your voice, as and from the House of God, against the slayers and murderers. Prophesy their sudden downfall. Prophesy safety, deliverance, and preservation on God’s people. The righteous in your nation will not be put to shame.
4. Give thanks to God for the 37th week and declare, in the name of the Lord, that it is a new beginning and for a new direction. Pray for open hearts and minds concerning the new direction. Pray for grace and wisdom in the new direction.
B. THE 50TH (JUBILEE) WEEK IF NIGERIA’S YEAR
The Bible gives a special place to the 50th. Leviticus 25: 8-13 says, ‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. [9] Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. [10] And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. [11] That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. [12] For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field. [13] ‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession.
September 10-16 is also the 50th week in Nigeria’s year. God named the 50th ‘Jubilee’ and commanded His people to sound the Trumpet of Jubilee alongside – to alter the natural characteristics of the season. Naturally, the 50th is associated with mourning. Nigeria lost President Umar Musa Yar’Adua in the 50th year of our nation. The second and third presidents of the United States (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson) died the same day – on the 50th Independence Anniversary day – 4th of July 1826! Genesis 50 is about the burial of Jacob and ended with the phrase “in a coffin in Egypt”. In Isaiah 50:3, God said, ‘I clothe the heavens with blackness, And I make sackcloth their covering.” Jeremiah 50 is prophecy about the fall of Babylon and ends with “At the noise of the taking of Babylon The earth trembles, And the cry is heard among the nations” (Jeremiah 50:46). In the 50th book of the Bible, Epaphroditus was sick unto death but God delivered him. That book is dedicated to joy and rejoicing because it is through joyous sounding of the trumpet that the 50th is made Jubilee and the garment of mourning is removed. Psalm 50 ends with “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; And to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.”
This week,
1. Pray and proclaim liberty throughout Nigeria – every state, territory, LG, ward, and family. The words you speak are spirit and life.
2. Sound the trumpet and pray to drive away the spirit of mourning from our streets and communities in the 50th week. This week shall not end with “in a coffin in Nigeria”.
3. In this week of returning to possessions, pray and prophesy that unjustly deprived and dispossessed Nigerians shall return to their possessions. This week, you shall have jubilee instead of mourning!!!
SCRIPTURES FOR THE WEEK:
Ezekiel 37:26: “Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore”.Jeremiah 50:34: “Their Redeemer is strong; The LORD of hosts is His name. He will thoroughly plead their case, That He may give rest to the land, And disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon”.Have a happy 37th week of the year and a greatly blessed 50th Nigeria-week
