*Can Anyone Hear a Trumpet over Nigeria?*

God speaks through dreams and visions, He speaks by an audible voice, but sometimes He simply hangs signs in the sky and tells His people to read those codes. Such signs are no less the voice of God than if a prophet with fire on his head had declared, “Thus saith the Lord…” Usually, those signs announce seasons; they are called _“signs of the times”_ (Matthew 16:1-3); signs by which we might generally tell the ‘time of day’ as if we were reading a clock.

Sometimes the signs are things we see, sometimes they are things we sense, sometimes they are both things we sense and see. They might not always be signs in the sky, like a blood moon or some ominous formation of clouds (Luke 21:27; Acts 2:19-20). They could be as natural as the tender flower dressed better than King Solomon ever was, the little birds chirping their merry message to a world in too much worry and hurry to hear, or the fig tree growing there, for those who that can hear (Matthew 6:26-33; Mark 13:28-29). Over Nigeria now, there seems to be such a sign; a trumpet sounding, summoning voices for Pentecost of a kind, an old season ending and another chance coming. _“The kingdom of God”_ may come _“not with observation”_ (Luke 17:20), but times and seasons could. This year, October 1, Nigeria shall celebrate another Independence.

I got a call last month: God had spoken to a group of Germans to pray daily for 40 days for Nigeria until October 1. I got another call from the US: a group had been praying for Nigeria for over seven years, now there was a leading for a 24-hour prayer cover which, fortunately, is an ongoing effort in Nigeria. Another pastor in the UK had been talking with me: God had prompted him to initiate 40 days of prayer and fasting for Nigeria until September 30th. We had been working at the logistics, mobilising intercessors towards the effort. That has been on, with impressive responses. I had got another call: a group of young student Nigerians in the United States was doing 60 days of quiet intercession three times daily until October 1. I have been in touch with them.

The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria have proclaimed a 40-day prayer schedule that started since August 22, until Independence eve on September 30. The following day, Independence Day, shall be a day of common prayers. Their concern is the killings in Nigeria and the threatened destiny of the nation. The list is long of praying people – many of whom we would never know – groups and individuals in noiseless upper rooms who have seen a sign or heard a sound, to petition the heavens in this season for the birthing of a New by October, from the passing away of an OLD wine skin.

At the end of one of our daily online prayer meetings in August, initiated at short notice in response to His Voice, a sister brought up her persuasion that thirty nations should be enlisted to pray a day each for Nigeria through September. That also has been on: 30 nations praying 30 days. The countries include Canada, Ghana, the United States, Uganda, China, Cameroon, Mali, the UK, South Africa, Panama, Turkey, Haiti, Qatar, etc.

To what summon in the spirit are these all responding simultaneously, without plan? What sign is this? At least this also says to me that God is gathering eagles, and if any should be too proud or too busy, there are many replacements already out there. I do not wish to be replaced, not in this season nor ever. God is stirring the waters of Nigeria. Amen.

At the beginning of this month, I got a message from a dear brother, a pastor over a prominent church with headquarters in Nigeria and branches outside, a missionary and an intercessor. The message stressed the point more strongly about the season and its signs. It said,

"Welcome to the Month of Sept. This is the month that will end the year 2020 and begin the new year, according to the Jewish Calendar. The Jewish new year and the Feast of Trumpet is on Sept. 17th & 18th. The Day of Atonement & National repentance is on Sept 27th & 28th. I am calling all of us to a season of 21 to 30 days fasting and prayer, this month."

The prayer call is for “Personal and Corporate Revival,” for “a great awakening in the Church and in the Nation,” for God to “raise and manifest the JOSEPH and the DANIEL COMPANY all over NIGERIA and the Continent of AFRICA.” It’s a “Daniel fast” during which participants might take only “vegetables and fruits” or break the fast in the evening. I was concluding this epistle when I got a call from a praying mother from the leadership of a global women’s prayer movement in Nigeria. She said she was calling to encourage me. They had just returned from a prayer mission to one of the states in eastern Nigeria. Our prayers in this season have not been in vain. Testimonies abound to the many answers to the season’s intense prayers, for which the enemy has been most desperately fierce. Sadly, we seem to have been hearing and fearing about the enemy’s calendar more than we would hear the Lord’s.

What is God about to do in this season? Why all the ‘mobilizations’ to prayer? A ‘happy new year’ call in a very auspicious season according to God’s calendar coincidental again with Nigeria’s calendar? October 1 is another Independence celebration for Nigeria. For Pharaoh’s forces desperate to kill all Jews, may God prepare a Red Sea after a Night that shall not be passed over. Amen. Happy New Year, O land; Happy New Year. Amen.

In alignment with the season, The Preacher weekend retreats in Nigeria, interrupted in March and June by coronavirus regulations, shall hold for one day from 9am on Thursday, October 1, physically at The Retreat Centre of St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Port Harcourt, and online through media platforms that shall later be supplied on the website and in subsequent posts. Besides the multiple ongoing fasts in the nation, participants shall, as usual, fast daily from Sunday, September 27. The fast on October 1 shall be broken together at the end of the meeting in the evening after a very strategic Communion. Each participant should have studied the book of Lamentations – as we pass through the mourning gates in sackcloth and ashes into merciful restorations for a people and a land – even you. Amen. Interested participants shall have registered ahead by email or SMS, free.

Can anyone hear a trumpet over Nigeria? Does it still make an uncertain sound (1 Corinthians 14:8)? According to this season in God’s calendar, are we be able to say again ... and may we truly say, “Happy New Year, O land; Happy New Year.” Amen.