Once, I lived with a very prayerful friend, who would spend almost every minute in church and prayer houses. Initially, her faith was intimidating to me. She would vibrate at prayer, speak to God with seasoned grammar and quote a great deal of Bible verses.

She must be a powerful Christian. I thought to myself. But one day, all these impression vanished and I realised what they said about empty barrels.In this case, prayer without a skin-deep faith.

And so, one evening I returned home to find her praying and jerking.

 ‘Father in the name of Jesus, I bind and cast you out. You cannot harm me. I say you cannot harm me o! God. Forbid. Bad. Thing…’ She prayed and jerked with the words.

‘Hey, what’s happening? What’s with this serious prayer that sounds like you are beating someone?’ I asked her with great curiosity.

‘I found a snail in my bathroom. I have waited all day and shouted on it to get out, but it didn’t. This is demonic o! Oh my God!’ She kept letting the words out from her tensed heart.

‘This is just a snail, my friend!’ I explained with all irritation. ‘When you see creatures like this, you should be happy because they are valuable to the food chain and to your existence. People eat it too. It is not a wild animal.’ I tried to reprimand her. After all, no one had the right to harm animals. Or is it because this country has no animal laws?

‘But it is a bad omen! I hate snails!’ My friend retorted.

“Listen, my friend. A snail is a snail and nothing more. And if you feel insecure by the presence of a snail, use the power of your words as a Christian and repeat these words, ‘Snail, you are just but a snail. You are nothing more. You cannot be anything more.’ ”

***

In the spirit of receptive ecumenism, a lot has got to change. One of such minor areas is to learn from one another the proper manner to worship God.

At creation, the interconnected between humans and all other created things was established by God, the Creator of all. God’s will is that such a harmony be maintained in His creation, all of which He considered as good.

How then, and since when, did we begin to have it the other way round? In most Nigerian Christian settings, a cat is no longer seen as one. Likewise, a little snail is no longer seen as what the Creator made it to be. These are now all seen as agents of darkness,  abnormal creatures and vehicles of witchcraft. The creatures which have been created to co-exist with human beings now become sources of fear to them. Abominable!

Yet the fundamental question remains, ‘How did this begin?’

Since human began to divert their attention from true worship. Since they began to fear the attack of demons and the devil. Since they shifted their focus from the presence of God as the Yahweh Sabbaoth.

In Nigeria, prayers without a binding-and-casting section aren’t considered as complete. The rise in prosperity churches have not made it any easier. These churches run and operate as full time businesses with a unique proposition of finding solutions to every problem. In these kinds of churches, worshippers do not take blame for their actions or inactions. Mistakes and troubles arising from the former or matter are caused by someone in the family.

More homes have been wrecked by these solution-providing churches. They have brought family drama, war and anarchy in homes. They have sold fake prophecies and deliverance sessions to vulnerable members. With the rise in the belief that nothing bad should happen to anyone, more people have put their trust in pastors and priests.

So? What do we do?

First, it is best to start by saying that true worship begins when our spirits connect with The Holy Spirit. Not that of the pastor or priest. Nigerian Christians need the discernment to know when certain religious activities tend towards neo-cultism.

This can only be known by those who have spent so much time genuinely learning from the Lord that they decide not to swallow wholly everything that men of God randomly say.

Second, worship does not replace work. If we need God’s grace as Christians we must position ourselves by doing the work required. Did you see the efforts made by the friends of the paralytic man? They even went to open up the roof to lower his mat down the stage where Jesus taught.

Spiritual laziness is an offspring of physical laziness. When we pray and prophesy, let us also back it up with genuine work. The reason most people are duped in churches is that they depend so much one man to give them doses of prayers to solve their problems; whereas what the Lord needs is a little prayer and a little effort.

Thirdly, we should never underestimate the omnipresent nature of God. He kills and make live. He gives time for joys and sufferings. The moment we realise this, we will stop visiting Christian-native doctors in the quest to seek a solution. Why do Christians want to know who killed another?   Is God not the avenger? What are they interested in seeing the future? Is God no longer capable of giving us much more than we can ask for or imagine.

True worship will only prevail when we see each other as images of God in spite of all our differences, backgrounds and weaknesses. If a man truly loves his neighbour, he doesn’t need a Christian babalawo to help him deal with his erring brother. If he is in trouble, he does not use the Holy Spirit as a cooking gas for destroying enemies. Instead he seeks and seizes every moment to broker peace, preach love and correct them. The goal is not to have more enemies, but to love them as Christ has commanded us.

Since true love conquers all, we can only say we have had dominion when we subdue all around us with the same love with which this authority has been given.