THE ISSACHAR MANDATE: BREAKING FORTH IN NIGERIA'S LOCAL DIALECTS

The prophetic church needs to identify more with present global issues. This is part of what birthed the award winning book Prophetic Engagement -The Issachar Mandate by Obii Pax-Harry. Having won the international Fred Grossmith's award barely six months after its release in 2006, this unique publication has since been translated into five foreign languages – Malaysian, South Korean, Chinese, Indonesian and Spanish. “The Issachar Mandate is a call to the prophetic community to interpret the times of God to a world that has half its population living in abject poverty,” said the author.

“There is so much depth in this book and I suggest keeping The Issachar Mandate with you and going back over it repeatedly. Obii's understanding of timings, timelines for nations and how boundaries work are three other aspects I have taken note of,” said Martin Scott, an internationally acclaimed preacher and author, Gaining Ground and Impacting the City Leatherhead.

“I felt it was time to bring these beautiful words home,” said Enuma Chigbo of Minds of Creation. The Prophetic Engagement, originally published by Pietro Evangelista of Destiny Image Europe had broken grounds in foreign countries, and according to Chigbo, Nigeria therefore should not be left out, especially as the author of the book is Nigerian. “With this in view, and as led by the Holy Spirit, Minds of Creation bought the rights to publish in the three major Nigerian languages, from Pietro Evangelista under his publishing house Evangelista Media.

“There is a uniqueness about local languages, with accentuations and tones that pierce the seemingly impenetrable. God does respond to local languages perhaps with more vigor than the borrowed ones who knows? Nigeria not only has three major languages, there are hundreds of other languages with melodies just as potent.”

This landmark product, with its local titles as: Jagorancin Issachar (Hausa) Ikike Isaka (Igbo) and Ipe Isakari (Yoruba) will be launched in January 2015, says Chigbo. “I believe it heralds a new beginning for Nigeria.”

“Having spent several years under the mentorship of Obii Pax-Harry, author of Issachar Mandate, one thing I have understood clearly from her is timing – a vital tool in the prophetic arena. Indeed these new translations, which I have nicknamed babies, have come on time. This year marks Nigeria's 100th year anniversary, 100 years since Amalgamation in 1914.”

Chigbo went further to say that years of being mentored in the area of prophecy have made her realize the value of prophets and nation building. “One cannot be isolated from the other otherwise that nation is doomed.”

“Take Nigeria for example. Beautiful and resourceful as she is, the negative voices echoed by multitudes all over the world, largely due to self inflicted reasons have put us way down the bottom of the world's gene pool.”

“Perhaps somewhere at the back of my mind, I feel that these fresh words are exactly what Nigeria needs – prophecies from the throne room of the Almighty God that would cause a radical shift from the bottom of the gene pool all the way to the top.”

She also recounted positive words on Nigeria that came through Italian Publisher Pietro Evangelista in 2010. He described Nigeria as “paradise” and had a divine mandate to publish Nigeria's prophets. According to him, the whole world was waiting to hear from Africa, with Nigeria and Kenya as a starting point.

“Two years later, in March 2012 to be precise, my publishing company, Minds of Creation bought the rights to publish in the three major languages.”

“The Issachar Mandate seeks to unlock the hidden power of the interpretive function in the gift of prophecy. Imagine this in your own local dialect. What a great nation we will be …”

Written by Enuma Phillips.