“Now, therefore,” says the Lord,

“Turn to Me with all your heart,

With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

So rend your heart, and not your garments;

Return to the Lord your God,

For He is gracious and merciful,

Slow to anger, and of great kindness;

And He relents from doing harm. Vs12-13

We can turn to the Lord in repentance, because He repents of the evil that He will do unto us.

I’m in Southern Nigeria - the land of false prophets - and the people don’t understand my message. Most have no interest. Why? Because they’ve never heard about sin, righteousness, and judgment; they’ve never heard about self-control and joy in the Spirit. All they talk about is money and fake miracle, so when I preach the kingdom of God it is strange and foreign. The prophets PROPHESY LIES, and the people love it.

They love to be told about a fake kingdom where God makes everyone rich. They are like the Israelites of old, who told Jesus, “Sir, give us this bread always [John 6:34]!” But, they walked away from Him, when He said that HE is the Bread of Life. They wanted something for their belly and not their soul!

Yet, we can repent, and He will receive us! He is so gracious - that if we turn to Him now, even after deceiving ourselves and others, He will receive us and avert the wrath that’s surely coming.

He uses preaching and hard trials. He uses broken promises, until you’re tired of hearing the same old story about this being “your year.” You’re tired of the lies about do this and do that, and then you’ll have position, get husband, and miracle money. You are tired of singing songs and going home the same unchanged person. You’re tired of deliverance that never delivers.

I hope God has crushed you, or He will soon! Maybe He’ll use this message, and you’ll vomit out false religion.

Secondly, we need some weeping [vs15-17]!

Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

All I hear is, “Hallelujah! Shout, ‘Amen!’” As if God is going to be impressed with disrespectful religion that doesn’t honor Christ!

The true nature of the kingdom is distorted. There is no spirituality to the message, and it’s all superstition, hucksterism, and twisting the word for financial gain.

Here’s an example. Let me show you how the false prophet handles Ps 126, which talks about deliverance from Babylonian bondage into restored fellowship and obedience to God.

He says,

1When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, We were like those who dream.

[“When our money came and we got financial breakthrough… when we got high position and title.”]

2Then our mouth was filled with laughter,

[We laughed at our enemies and those who doubted us.]

Then they said among the nations,

[“Everyone will hear in village what God has done for you. How he brought you to Abuja, to Lagos, and you have car and driver. They will see you build house, and they’ll doubt you no more. They will come asking, ‘Oga, bless me, Oh.’ ‘Madam, I see God has favored you!’”]

3The Lord has done great things for us,

[“He’s given me car, house, big salary. I have high position at company! My son works for oil company. My daughter schools in UK.”]

[And it is all an abomination. A filthy lie masquerading as God’s blessing, while everyone envies and doubts, giving naira they don’t have for visa offering. “Aha, an American is coming! This is my time, Oh! This is my chance to follow him to U.S.”]

5Those who sow in tears

[“Those who give money they don’t have… who go to mountain and fast, who bring seed money... Who hold their offering high, and fast 40 days! They will get the blessing.”]

[This is nothing but works religion. If you spent as much time strategizing and investing in business, something better would happen than giving everything to the preacher.]

6He who continually goes forth weeping,

[“Oh, we must make heaven hear us. We beg You, Oh! Oh God of riches, look how much we weep and make big sacrifice. We pay high price. We give until it hurts.]

Bearing seed for sowing,

[“Money in, money out,” they say. “It takes money to make money. You have to show your faith. God helps those who give big. Sister ‘So And So’ gave big. Two months salary. Now, her business has five workers! Aaaamen!]

Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,

[“Your breakthrough is coming. Husband is coming. Children are coming. You will get school fees. You will go on holiday in Dubai!”]

It’s all fake and fraudulent. False prophets should be utterly rejected for promising things that don’t happen, but we have to be weary and tired of it, so we cry out. “Lord, help me! Please forgive me. I have sinned! I have misled the people. I will do it no more. Help me change. Please, Father, bless them with salvation.”

Finally, Nigeria could be the greatest nation on earth for the preaching of the gospel [vs18-19].

Then the Lord will be zealous for His land,

And pity His people.

The Lord will answer and say to His people,

“Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil,

And you will be satisfied by them;

I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.

You have enough religious freedom and enough natural inclination. If you had the truth in the power of the Spirit and did not play fake religion, you’d no longer be the 419 capital of the world. You’d no longer be a mockery and notorious for false religion.

You’d send preachers all over the earth. Africa, which has followed you in prosperity preaching, might follow you in the truth. Nevertheless, it would be known that God is worshiped in Nigeria, and He moves with power.

Justice would reign in your streets. The government would feel the impact as senators and governors are converted. Police and judges could no longer be bought. Churches would be places of love rather than exploitation and greed. People would have true hope, know the kingdom is spiritual, and the fruit of the Spirit would reign.

That joy you do not have… that peace… would be yours! The prodigal son would be you, and there’d be music and dancing in the streets. Everyone wouldn’t hear sermons and think about their belly; they’d think about reaching their neighbor with Christ - not to stack up merit, but because they are highly favored with things that can’t be seen.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” [2 Cor 4:18]

You’d get off this physical kingdom, and you’d look to what the blessings truly are, and the fact that they can’t be taken from you. Then, you’d endure this cruel world with hope, peace, and contentment. You’d preach truth and everything would be real.