Addressing The Root And Solution Of Fulani Herdsmen: Destroying Our Idols And Embracing God’s Strategies For Victory

Source: His Priestly Bride.

Recently, I watched few Youtube Videos on the devastations of the Fulani Herdsmen over our nation. In one of the protests by Zamfara people, the man speaking on their behalf spoke just one word that deeply touched my heart. He said: Stop killing us…! Yea, too many innocent lives wasted, homes burned down, families rendered hopeless, cars burnt down, people’s inheritances forcefully and violently taken away.

I watched another video, and the people were marching about crying out: “Fulani Herdsmen, we want peace, we want peace, we want peace!”. My heart again bled. You are crying out for peace to people whose hearts are smeared with hot iron, who took it upon themselves to hunt lives, destroy innocent lives, burn down properties including churches, devastate cities without restraint from the government. Would they hear? Would that stop them? I wept for my fellow Nigerians. I have been in the US for long, but the beatings and devastations of my people are my beatings too. A young lady was crying hopelessly that they killed her only brother. I saw women who were forcefully made widows, children made orphans, families lost. There was no declaration of war in Nigeria, yet cities and families are being devastated day by day, lives violently taken away, women raped and killed. The people are crying out for redemption, for justice but no one is giving them the needed justice. I saw people carrying their beds on their heads, walking to where? Has the government been providing them any shelter like American government would do for their own people when they lose homes? These people are looking for justice from wrong angles because the very people they are looking to for justice continue to look at their troubles without doing anything to save them.

The Ecclesiastes Preacher said:
So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter (Ecclesiastes 4:1 (KJV).

The oppressed, the preys of the Fulani Herdsmen and other deadly groups in Nigeria have no comforter. Their homes gone, their families taken, their properties burnt across the nation, their means of livelihood taken. They move from place to place. No one is sure of tomorrow and what may happen next. The people continue to cry out to the government in vain. They cannot find justice or comfort anywhere because God is their only Comforter, and Helper (Our help comes from the LORD who made Heaven and Earth Psalm 121). Yet, the oppressors, the Fulani herdsmen, and their counterpart killers in Nigeria (the oppressors), have power to continue their oppressions with all their weapons despite the outcries of the people, but no comfort for them either. The word of God says that there is no peace for the wicked. Peace is an effect of righteousness and justice. The wicked has no peace and comfort. The LORD Jesus is our Righteousness and Peace. For He is the Prince of peace.

THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF THE HERSMEN ATTACK

Every battle and problem have their roots in the spiritual dimension. The spiritual controls the physical. Whatever is consistently taking place over a life or nation on the Earth is as a result of a spiritual judgment in place. So, when a case is settled spiritually, it gets settled in the physical. The enemy uses accusations and false judgments to set a disastrous course over a life, people and nation; but when we understand the spiritual laws that govern matters and address them through the needed approach which include confession of sins, prayers, restitution and understanding God’s gift of righteousness and our authority as believers through the Blood of Jesus; we can reverse every satanic false judgment or a curse placed upon a nation or a life, and the problem is solved. The LORD God said: “

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV).

Here, the LORD is answering King Solomon’s prayers concerning His people

If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near; Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly; If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name: Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee (2 Chronicles 6: 36-39).

We see that solution to all problems come from the LORD. So, we shall examine the issue of the Fulani herdsmen and see what opened that door of their troubles and how God will solve the problem of the Fulani herdsmen for my beloved nation.

We shall also see if such problems as Fulani Herdsmen has happened in the history of mankind, nation and God’s people in the past, and how the problem was solved. It is written that there is nothing new under the son.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us (Ecclesiastes1:9-10).

The preacher is saying here that whatever happened in the past will happen in the future; whatever is happening now, will also happen in the future. There is nothing new under the sun.

LEARNING LESSONS FROM SUCH INCIDENTS IN THE PAST

The situation continues to point to such incident in the Bible when it happened to the people of Israel. It is written concerning the experiences of the people of Israel:

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come (1 Corinthians 10:11 (KJV).

In Judges 6 &7, the people of Israel were greatly oppressed by the Medianites, and the neighboring armies who devastated their lands and Harvests, doing what the Fulani herdsmen do today to Nigerians.

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD (Judges 6:1-6 (KJV)

These vast armies come like locusts as the bible described their with their beasts like Fulani Herdsmen and encamped around these people and their farmlands, destroying their harvests and their substances. They watched them labor in their lands during farming seasons. But during harvests, they appeared in vast numbers more than the plague of locusts and devastated all their crops, lands and force them to starve and have nothing for the year. The people started living in caves and dens for fear of these people and their beasts. The people of Israel suffered lack of harvests, devastations, oppressions for seven years. It was worst than what I could describe.

THEY CRIED TO GOD
After seven years of these oppressions which caused them to flee their homes and lands and hid in caves and dens and suffered these great oppressions from the overwhelming armies without stop, they turned to God in prayers. In answer, God sent His Prophet to go and remind them the root of their problems. They forsook Him and worshipped foreign gods (the gods that could not even save them from their present troubles).

And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites, That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice (Judges 6:7-10 (KJV)

Their problem started when they turned their backs on God of their fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and began to follow and worship graven images. When God brought His people out of the Egyptian bondage and entered a covenant of Ownership with them on Mount Sinai, He gave them series of laws and statutes by which they shall live. These laws were the covenant laws that bind them to God as His treasured people. He is their only One God, True God and King. The laws were thus, summarily summed up under Ten commandments. One of the commandments is as follows:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (Exodus 20:3-6 (KJV).

The Angel of God appeared to Gideon and gave him instructions on how to defeat their enemy. The LORD Jesus appeared as God’s Angel in many instances in Old Testament. When Gideon discovered that the Angel he encountered was God Himself after the acceptance of sacrifice to God by fire: he built an altar there which he called: Jehovah Shalom: God is peace. The altar of peace was established because he met the Prince of peace.

So Gideon went and destroyed the altar of Baal in his father’s house as the LORD commanded him, and built God’s Altar in its place. His father was the priest of Baal and so had the altar in his house. The people demanded that Gideon be killed for destroying the altar of Baal, and the father asked them if they would contend for Baal. His altar was destroyed. If Baal be god, then let him contend for himself. Gideon was called Jerubaal, meaning let Baal contend with him. Eventually, through Gideon, God raised only three hundred men through whom He destroyed all these hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of armies with their beasts who oppressed them for seven years.The Bible says that those armies were like locusts that could not be numbered. Only 300men were God’s instrument that He used to destroy them…for the battle is the LORD’s.

We therefore, need to understand that it is in God’s hand to kill and make alive. The peace our people are seeking for, can only be found in Christ. God has established for us the Savior the LORD Jesus as our sacrifice for peace. The cross is our altar of Peace. The LORD Jesus paid for our peace with His Blood.

So, we follow God’s guideline for our deliverance. They said that desperate times call for desperate measures. The LORD God said that if His people will humble themselves and pray, and forsake their wicked ways, he will hear and heal our lands. In Psalms 46, it is written that

The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire (Psalm 46:6-9 (KJV)

God causes wars to cease. He breaks the bow of the wicked and destroys their weapons of war. He has all the battle strategies. Gideon followed all the strategies He gave him and divided his 300 hundred armies into three camps to secretly move into different areas of their enemy camp within their land. It took a shout of war given by God, the breaking of their touches and blowing of trumpets; these millions of people went into disarray and began fighting and Gideon’s army came upon them and slaughtered them including their two kings. Every battle has a strategy which God Himself gives. The first step we take as a people under this oppression is making peace with God. Destroy our idols. These idols of stones and woods have not saved our people since all these troubles started. We need to clean out our mess and invite God in our lands. Gideon had to throw down the people’s idol and replace it with God’s altar. Yea, let us return to God with weeping, with repentance, with mourning for our sins; also to destroy our idles. Let those young men marching and crying to Fulani people for peace, protesting to the government who refuse to help them, return to their lands and destroy the shrines and those images of gods of their people. Let them gather as armies of Gideon and cry to God for help. You will not die for destroying the idols of your lands. Gideon did not die. Run to God. It’s sad that when all these are happening most Nigerian Pastors are wallowing on false prosperity gospel and false prophecies. If you don’t have any sincere Pastor to lead you through these, let any one among you young people remember that as long you have trusted the LORD Jesus as your personal Savior, you are God’s Priest and can lead others. Start with fasting and prayers to make things right with God first, with your groups. Confess the sins of your fathers and invite Jesus into your lives and cities. The LORD will lead you step by step on how to destroy the graven images of your cities and clean your lands by the Blood of Jesus. If there is no sincere pastor around, let any matured Christian that understand the word of God lead others: Prayer warriors, Prophetic intercessors, Youth leaders, etc. Gideon thought he was nobody when the Angel approached him and asked him to go in this his might. He did not know about his own strength and might, but the One who put it there knew about it and aroused him to his prophetic calling and strength. He stopped being a victim that hid in Caves with his people to becoming a Predator who pursued their enemies until all of them were destroyed including their kings.

This is time for national repentance, but some willing people can stand for the nation and for their people. Go to your villages and houses, destroy those images of silver, gold and woods. For Igbos, destroy Enyi, Ahaijpoku shrine, Amadioha…and confess to God the sins of our fathers and ours. No more traditional and ancestral dances and cultural festivals. Let us return to God of Abraham, amend our ways and accept the sacrifice of His Son the LORD Jesus on the cross. It will be well for us. God will fight for us, our lands.

When this happens, we will begin to learn how to serve God in spirit and in truth, and also observe His laws of farming, Harvests, land Sabbaths. All these are important but they are topic for another day.

The link below is great book to understand God’s Battle strategies and aligning with them for victories. God’s angels fight along with us when we allow Him, the LORD of hosts as our Captain of wars. It examined various battles in the past and the strategies for victories for each of those battles as the people followed divine direction for those battles.

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