That I may Know HIM - A Devotional

Day 33: Responses to the Spirit of Sudan & Visions of the Future

Thanks to God for His mercies and for the stirrings in the spirit from the word to Nigeria on the Spirit of Sudan. If He was not going to save us, He would not call us to prayers; if these December 2011-January 2012 days were normal times like all other times, His voice that calls to prayers would not have been so strong and so insistent from so many witnesses. A nation is coming to birth; may there be strength to deliver (Isaiah 37:3). It is a season of war. The Lord shall prevail, as in the days before.

Since after posting the message, “The Spirit of Sudan,” the several responses to which have witnessed that the Lord had truly given that word, my head has had bouts of a theological ache from wondering if spirits could be named after nations. Spirit of Sudan? I could argue for “the Prince of Persia” (Daniel 10:13,20); I am not uncomfortable with “principalities and powers” (Ephesians 6:12); and every Sunday school intercessor would know something about spirits of lust, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of darkness, etc.; but a spirit named after a modern nation… a Spirit of Sudan? It did not make as much sense as “Prince of Persia” (or demon ruler over Persia), which though seemed a reasonable historical and Biblical parallel. Nevertheless, God was merciful to my naivety and He let me see Isaiah 19:3. Even prophets are but mortals also (James 5:17), the best of them see only a tiny bit of the total picture, and they prophesy only in part, or a part (1 Corinthians 13:9), and some details, sometimes, Jehovah hides from them (2 Kings 4:27).

  And the SPIRIT OF EGYPT shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards (Isaiah 19:3).

 “Spirit of Egypt”? I paused. A spirit named after a nation? If so, why not also a Spirit of Sudan? I proceeded to read the rest of the verse, and the subsequent verses, about the wicked counsel that would be destroyed, about idols and charmers and wizards all working in concert with that spirit of Egypt, and how God was going to judge that spirit by judging those instruments of sorcery and wicked counsel (and counsellors) by which the spirit thrived. I thought I was reading about Nigeria.

Could I be sure? What will I find in other translations? I checked up the Hebrew for the word translated “spirit” in that verse. It was ruwach; the same word used in 1 Samuel 16:14 to refer to “the SPIRIT of the LORD” as well as the “evil SPIRIT” that “troubled” the backslidden King Saul. It was consoling. Then I got a mail in response to “The Spirit of Sudan,” with an attachment entitled “What is Really Happening in Nigeria?” which had been written by Brother Danjuma. I thought it closed up the gaps. You might find interesting some of what I found there.

  …Right now the Arabs and the Muslim world are behind “Boko Haram” (a group of initially 3800 which according to the Chief Imam of Bauchi Central Mosque were trained by the Talibans in Sudan for the task they are carrying out). And they are working in concert with the top Muslim leadership in Nigeria.… Some of the political parties they control are almost threatening NLC and TUC leaders to ensure they carry through their plans for “mass actions.” …What is happening is a setup to make Nigeria a failed state.  

The information that the Boko Haram army was trained in Sudan (not without the backing of that Sharia government), in some way further strengthened, for me, the appropriateness for the designation of the principality behind the present crisis in Nigeria as a spirit originating from that nation; a spirit of Sudan; a spirit that may have been invoked upon them and had followed them from Sudan after their trainings there. Add to that the information that some of them were also trained in Islamic Somalia – the land of the red horses that were prayerfully diverted from the border of Kenya (as noted in the first posting) – and one can tie up the red dragon of war in Revelation 12, the red horses, and the strongman in red silhouette described in the trance cited in the second posting, “On the Spirit of Sudan.”