By Chioma Gabriel, Special Features Editor

A woman visiting her daughter for omugwo
from the South East Nigeria had her first
baptism of fire the first night she slept in her
daughter’s home when during the midnight
hour, she overheard somebody in the next
apartment shouting die, die, die.


She listened briefly to be sure of what she was
hearing and the shout of die, die, die
continued and it was too close. Just the next
flat. She checked her time and it was 12:30am
and she began to panic, thinking somebody
was being strangled to death nearby. She
rushed out of the guest room to the room her
daughter shared with her husband and
knocked frantically at the door.



When they opened, she almost jumped on
them in fear. “I think somebody is being killed
in this compound. It must be armed robbers”,
she lamented but her daughter calmed her
down.



“They are praying, Mama”, she explained. But
her mother was disturbed. What kind of person
would be praying for others to die, she
wondered. She listened again and the prayer
was still on. She shook herself in disbelief as
her daughter walked her back to the guest
room. Throughout the night even till about
3am, the shout continued. The woman soon
realised that it was going to be an everyday
ordeal. Her daughter carefully explained to her
that pentecostal churches pray like that and
that nobody was being killed.

‘He who comes to equity must come with
clean hands’


Charles, an engineer in a communication
company narrated how he made a call to a
female friend and obviously the person he
called was supposedly praying in the church.
“What I was hearing at the background was
Die, die, die. Any person who is against me
shall die, any person who is against my
progress shall die. God let my enemy die and
the person told me she was in church.



A male voice would say it (apparently the
pastor) and she would repeat it. A day later, I
got this woman on phone and I told her what I
heard her say in prayer and that God does not
answer such prayers. I told her that it was
better to pray to God to touch her enemy and
change him or her so that the world will
become a better place. She became angry,
telling me not to question her over her
religious beliefs. I have always known this
woman to be dating married men. I simply
said to her: “What if all married women pray
that God should kill all women who sleep with
their husbands? The call went off and the
conversation ended there.


A woman who is having an affair with a
married man and at the same time wearing
the toga of a pentecostal Christian of a
church where she was shouting die, die ,die !
Tell me, what manner of prayer is that,
especially when it was coming from a woman
like that who goes after married men? Even if
she has enemies, shouldn’t she be praying for
their repentance? Who does she want to be
dead?

“I may not know the Bible like they do but I
know the Bible said: Be not deceived; God is
not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to
his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but
he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit
reap life everlasting. Galatians 6:7-9



“He who comes to equity must come with
clean hands. Is she binding herself or someone
else? Because if you ask me, she is a cheat of
a Christian.” Have you ever prayed for
someone’s complete ruin? That God would
destroy them and wipe them off the face of the
earth? It doesn’t seem very Christian, does it?


‘Kill them’ brand of prayer



Nevertheless, these kinds of prayers are first
recorded in the Bible especially in the Book of
Psalms. Prayers that call for the death and
destruction of others are called imprecatory
prayers. You may not have given much
thought to this kind of prayer before. Or have
you? Those who read the Bible seriously can’t
ignore the passionate plea for the violent
destruction of enemies. Check out a few of
them for yourself in the following Psalms: 5,
10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129,
137, 139, 140.



When asked why his church prays the ‘die’
prayer all the time, a pastor of Mountain of
Fire and Miracles Ministries, MFM, said people
from outside the ministry misconstrue the
concept of MFM prayers and therefore cannot
judge the church.



“Nobody prays for anybody to die. In life,
people do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this age,
against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places. When a sick man comes to
church to pray for healing, it is the contrary
powers that inflicted the sickness that was
being addressed.



“People face all kinds of challenges in their
everyday life and those challenges weigh them
down. They come to church to pray for such
forces to releases them. The concept of death
in these prayers is spiritual because it is the
spiritual that controls the physical.



“But unfortunately, people who copy prayer
styles don’t understand and they inject other
meanings to it. That is their problem, not
MFM’s problems because many people who
don’t understand the prayer points of MFM
pray them without understanding.
Nonetheless, we pray violent prayers because
these are the end times and strange things are
happening in the world everyday. The Bible
tells me that from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence, and the violent take it by
force. That is just the truth.”


‘My sister prays die, die every night for hours
on end’


Chinonye, a broadcaster said she actually
wanted to start worshipping in one of the
branches of the church but was shocked by
the reception she got from the branch she
went to.


“I had just finished my NYSC in Calabar and
came to Lagos to live with my sister. We were
Catholic but inclined towards Pentecostalism.
My sister told me that since I’d finished NYSC,
I needed to undergo deliverance before
embarking on the search for work. She also
decided to join me in the deliverance
programme and so, early on a Monday
morning, we set out to the nearest branch of
the church.


My sister and I are both very fair and needed
spiritual intervention because her marriage
was not going well. I just came back with long
braids, fixed nails recently done and we
headed to the church. We were barely at the
entrance when some ‘holy’ people rushed at
us with jars of anointing oil and shouts of
‘Holy Ghost Fire, Holy Ghost Fire.’ They
almost blinded us with the oil as they shouted
‘marine spirit.




Die, die, die.’ We were overwhelmed and
flabbergasted. Then my sister asked them
whether it is the way they welcome new people
to the church. We didn’t understand when we
became marine spirit. They asked us to pull
everything, including jewelry, and almost
barbed my hair.



“I have no qualms if that is their way of doing
things but at least, they should allow a new
member to sit down before explaining their
doctrine and definitely, not the way they did.
They were too aggressive. Somebody who had
no knowledge of God will never go to any
church after that experience. Well, I left the
church and didn’t go back. I joined Redeemed
Christian Church of God and I have no regrets.
It is indeed a loving church because they
accepted and welcomed me with love and
made me feel at home before taking me
through the doctrine of the church. My sister
is still in the die,die,die church and because of
her fair fine looks, they have not accepted her
completely. My sister is one of them but they
still complain about her but she will always
tell them when they complain that God is sees
her heart.


“There are some good ones who encouraged
my sister to keep on when she becomes
completely overwhelmed. She told me there
are many bad people inside the church even
when the Founder is a good man. And she
also prays the ‘die’ prayer. You won’t believe
it, midnight hours are her prayer times. It’s
like she prays die, die, die every night for
hours on end.



“The die prayers work from what I can see in
my sister’s life. We dread her because she’s
very spiritual and prayerful. Now, she sees
visions and knows the thoughts of people and
she said she is not praying for anybody to die
but for her problems to cease.” A leader of the
female evangelism team of a Pentecostal
church said her church also prays the die
prayer. Evangelist Tinuke said she faces her
‘enemies’ squarely because the holy book
says ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.’



‘The soul that sinneth shall die’




. “I was married for fifteen years without any
child. My husband and I separated many
times and reconciled. He is the only son and
you can imagine the predicament of not
having any child. It was as if their generation
was ending with him. That was when I went
Pentecostal. The first deliverance service I
attended did it all. The doctors had said
nothing was wrong with my husband and I.
“So, that night in the church, I prayed with
everything in me. I poured out my heart before
God. I prayed the die prayer in a special way
because I got a seat and sat the enemy on it.
I used clubs and anything I could lay my
hands on in the fight. I didn’t know whether
anybody was responsible for my predicament
or not. I was just praying and fighting whoever
or whatever.



“When I got home in the morning, my husband
and I got a call from the village that his
mother’s sister was seriously sick and
confessing unto death. She equally confessed
she was responsible for my woes because
since I got married to my husband, I was never
paying her attention, that I didn’t greet her on
my wedding day despite all her contributions
to the success of the wedding, that I was
proud. She died after her confession. Did I kill
her? The soul that sinneth shall die. I was
praying for God to take away my problems and
if somebody somewhere is responsible for it,
too bad for him or her.”



‘The best form of defence is attack’
Reminded that such prayers contradict the
teaching that said ‘Love your enemies’,
Evangelist Tinuke shook her head and said the
best form of defence is attack.



“If I pray for my enemies, I would be pouring
hot coals of fire on them. So, its the same
thing. My prayer against the enemy worked.
My enemy died even though I didn’t know she
was an enemy and today, I have three
children. Anybody who has to die for me to
make progress should die. Isaiah said ‘In the
year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and
his train filled the temple. ’


“Dear journalist, Isaiah said King Uzziah had
to die for him to see the glory of God and that
is my prayer. If anybody has to die for me to
see the glory of God, let him die. The enemy
will not destroy my life and later repent. He
will die before he destroys me and so, the die,
die prayer has to stay.”



One of the biggest problems Christians have
with such prayers is that Jesus’ words seem
to contradict the idea of praying for the
destruction of your enemy, like in the
following:



You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall
love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I
say to you, Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you, so that you may be
sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he
makes his sun rise on the evil and on the
good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust. Mat 5:43-45
.
But Pastor Ayodele of the CAC who claimed
the die, die prayer originated from it said:
“I don’t believe that either of these solutions
work well. Neither Jesus nor any of the other
New Testament writers specifically corrected
the prayers that asked for the punishment of
the enemy. In fact there are some New
Testament texts that also seem to be like that.
For instance, in the Book of Revelation, those
martyred cry out to God: “They cried out with
a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true,
how long before you will judge and avenge our
blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev
6:10 )
“No prayer is about personal revenge. When a
man’s soul is troubled and he cries out to God
and He shows mercy on him, He could kill for
the person. Yes, Jesus said we should love
our enemy and pray for those who persecute
us but He made it clear that when we pray for
our enemies, we pour hot coals of fire upon
them.
“Churches like MFM that pray the die prayer in
English and interpret in Yoruba spring from
CAC. Daniel Olukoya was a choir boy in CAC.
He is well read and understands the issue of
prayer and demons very well. But you cannot
vouch for everybody in the church. There are
all comers amongst the pastoral hierarchy just
like Jesus had Judas who betrayed him. You
cannot use the bad behaviour of few bad eggs
who claim they attend a particular church to
judge the rest of the people inside the church.
No.
“But no matter what you say, prayers are for
different purposes. They may be calls to God
for healing, guidance, or even a bit of rain to
drench a drought-ridden field. Some prayers of
petition are meant to kill.”
‘God may respond by choosing to kill
someone’
Pastor Goodluck of Gloryland Assembly said
God can answer prayers by killing someone.
“An acquaintance who suffered abuse from an
alcoholic father once said that, as a child, he
prayed for God to kill his dad. And in some
religious narratives about prayer, specifically
those found among certain kinds of
evangelicals who practise spiritual warfare,
God may respond by choosing to kill someone,
regardless of whether the human who made
the prayer wished such an outcome.
“I first became acquainted with spiritual
warfare several years ago, when a student
came into my office, sat down, and told me
that he was very tired from being out late the
previous night. He told me that he had been
out all night on a “prayer walk”. He was part
of a small group of evangelical students who
had walked the campus and town, using
prayer to discover “demonic strongholds”, and
then praying and reading Bible verses at those
spots in an attempt to banish the pesky
resident demons.
“One tale that the student shared from the
spiritual warfare conference described how a
“witch” died when they prayed persistently. So,
spiritual warfare marks boundaries, divides
pure from impure, distinguishes orthodox from
heretical, and separates godly from satanic.
And, sometimes, within this religious
imaginary, prayers can kill.
“The truth is, answered prayer may have many
more consequences than you have ever
thought about before. You may not even pray
for anybody to die but in the process of
answering someone’s prayer, God can kill.
“Consider this, everything we do has
consequences. Every decision we make
influences our own future and the future of
those whom our lives touch. The same holds
true with answered prayer. If God answers a
prayer and makes something happen that
normally wasn’t going to happen, everything
else is going to change after that answered
prayer. People will live and die that would
have died or lived in a different way.
You can’t change something without changing
everything. That is, unless we can imagine
God keeping track of all the answered prayers
and continually manipulating happenings so
that the answered prayer really doesn’t affect
anything else. This would make answered
prayer infinitely more difficult than just, for
instance, healing someone who was supposed
to die. That person who should have died now
takes up space that he shouldn’t be in. He will
affect other people’s lives just because he is in
that space. Everything is different, infinitely.”
‘The die, die prayer has become part and
parcel of the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria’
The book “Prayer is Good Medicine” by Larry
Dossey, tells a story about a man who was
injured in an automobile accident. According
to him, “Stephen was involved in a near fatal
auto accident and sustained serious injuries.
We immediately marshaled several prayer
chains in our church and the other churches
as well. His surgeons were astonished that he
survived the operations to save his life, calling
his response a miracle. As the man’s
recuperation continued, so did our prayers.
But, although he had been a successful
businessman and ideal father and community
leader, things were not the same. He seemed
to have lost his vitality and zest for life. He
was apathetic, as if he didn’t care. He was
argumentative, grouchy, and hard to tolerate.
This was a complete change from his previous
jovial self. He was indifferent to his wife and
children. Nothing seemed right.
Ten years later, he died of natural causes.
Several days after Stephen’s death, I was
startled in my meditation by his presence. He
stood in front of me laughing his previous
happy demeanor and said, “I finally won out
over all of you.” And then he was gone. As I
pondered this, I could come to only one
conclusion, Stephen hadn’t wanted to live or
perhaps hadn’t been meant to live. But the
power of all those prayers for his recovery had
bought him back.
“In the Pentecostal churches where they pray
die prayer, I know for sure that those who
understand the true doctrines may not
specifically be asking anybody to die.
Nevertheless, the die, die prayer has become
part and parcel of the Pentecostal movement
in Nigeria. In His bid to answer prayers, God
can kill and that is a fact.”


But Pastor Ayodele of th www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/sister-prays-die-die-every-night-hours-end/

You should write episode two and please make it short cos episode one is too damn long.

Ginaz:
You should write episode two and please make it short cos episode one is too damn long.

Do not mock. Dr Olukoya is a learned man of God. MFM prayer points are powerful. His MACHINE GUN PRAYERS are dangerous in the wrong hands. We forget our God is a consuming fire and a man of war. Sometimes death is the portion of our enemies.

I have killed many in his name through imprecatory prayer.

Many more will follow through imprecatory prayer, In Jesus Name.

Aaronsrod:


Do not mock. Dr Olukoya is a learned man of God. MFM prayer points are powerful. His MACHINE GUN PRAYERS are dangerous in the wrong hands. We forget our God is a consuming fire and a man of war. Sometimes death is the portion of our enemies.

I have killed many in his name through imprecatory prayer.

Many more will follow through imprecatory prayer, In Jesus Name.

I'm not mocking..... I never knew jesus asked us to kill through prayers with his name.

** **

ok

The type of prayer you say depends on your predicament,there are some situations that requires drastic prayer.

Ginaz:


I'm not mocking..... I never knew jesus asked us to kill through prayers with his name.

** **

Are you a Nigerian??

Praying for the death and destruction of others is very common in many 'churches', especially Mountain of Fire and Miracles. It is typical of our pathetic and powerless African responses to crises.

If you ever leave Naija, you should not be surprised at the countless tens of thousands of us languishing forever in the lunatic asylums and jails of the functioning world.

rosy1992:
The type of prayer you say depends on your predicament,there are some situations that requires drastic prayer.

Like asking God to kill someone, you mean?

TrajansKong:


Like asking God to kill someone, you mean?

There is nothing wrong with imprecatory prayer.

SMH. Over religion and madness. Sometimes it's hard differentiating between the two.

TrajansKong:


Like asking God to kill someone, you mean?

A believer who was told by more than two men of God,that a close relative is behind his or her predicament but can only overcome with the demise of such person is left with no option but to pray a dangerous prayer.

rosy1992:

A believer who was told by more than two men of God,that a close relative is behind his or her predicament but can only overcome with the demise of such person is left with no option but to pray a dangerous prayer.

So you would pray for the death of a close relative, just because 2 hyperventilating clowns with Bibles suggested it??

This is too crazy for words. No wonder the rest of the world throws us into secure psychiatric care units.

Can't you see how mad this really is

TrajansKong:


So you would pray for the death of a close relative, just because 2 hyperventilating clowns with Bibles suggested it??

This is too crazy for words. No wonder the rest of the world throws us into secure psychiatric care units.

Can't you see how mad this really is

If they should die it is better they perish by God's hand than by mans. But die they must.

Exodus 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.Kill them with Holy Ghost Fire!

lol...too long..

TrajansKong:


So you would pray for the death of a close relative, just because 2 hyperventilating clowns with Bibles suggested it??

This is too crazy for words. No wonder the rest of the world throws us into secure psychiatric care units.

Can't you see how mad this really is

I attest to your opinion but it is already paramount,and can't be neglected.

Aaronsrod:


I have killed many in his name through imprecatory prayer.

Many more will follow through imprecatory prayer, In Jesus Name.

That makes you a murderer

Prayer is very important especially when one is passing through difficult times. Some problems people have are caused by enemies. When we pray, our concern should be on being set free from the enemy's stronghold, not for any human to die. The implications of a sinner dying without repentance is eternal hell. If you know how terrible hell fire is, you will not wish it for your worst enemy. It is now left to God's discretion to kill the enemy (so that you can be free) or to set you free (and still keep the enemy alive). As a Christian, your target should be your victory, not anybody's death or misfortune.THOSE WHO DESIRE THEIR REAL OR PERCEIVED ENEMIES TO DIE OR SUFFER MISFORTUNE ARE NOT CHRISTIANS. One needs to be genuinely born again, sanctified (purged of inbred sin of lust, covetousness, selfishness, pride, bitterness, unforgiving spirit and malice) to be able to pray for the welfare of his/her sworn enemies. It also takes the grace of God to desist from wishing those who hate us evil. THIS IS THE BASIC DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TRUE CHRISTIAN AND AN UNBELIEVER OR A MERE RELIGIOUS PROFESSOR (Matthew 5:43-48).