04042021 - Tension as gunmen kill Miyetti Allah leaders in Nassarawa

INTERVIEW
that of your wife if you are married; otherwise, it’s the
Holy Spirit. Also, go to God in prayer and if you have
mentors and friends that can tell you the bitter truth,
you can confide in them.
How has life been as a preacher?
It’s been challenging. Being in the limelight draws
attention; both good and bad. Being a preacher
provokes envy-my greatest battle. Pastors rising and
using people against me. I have heard some pastors
said: ‘Are you sure this man of God is using genuine
power? ‘
There are people who believe that once you are
a pastor in Nigeria, you have money. So, they come
around expecting to get money from you. If you are
not careful, they can even kidnap you.
There has been an attempt to kidnap my child
before. These are some of the challenges that I face
as a pastor.
If it were possible, would you do it again or you’ll
choose a career path?
I would never choose another path. This is the
path created for me and I believe God has an agenda
and greater plans ahead for me.
When you are not preaching, where do you like to
go to rest?
My house. Where else would I go? Well, maybe
if it’s summer, I will go abroad for a week or two and
that is the way I rest. But most times, I am just indoors
alone with God and my family.
Beside the Holy Spirit, who are your mentors in
faith and why?
When I got born again many years ago in the
Scripture Union, I worked with Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor
of Word of Life. I served in the Soldier of Christ and
I helped his late wife (Stella ) with house chores
because I was a small boy then. Late Archbishop
Benson Idahosa was his Pastor then. I got filled with
the Holy Spirit through Idahosa and he was also one
man that moved me. Pa S.G Elton of Ilesha was
somebody that I learnt a lot from when I was at the
university of Ife. We went to his house every weekend
as members of the school fellowship. Pastor Kumuyi
brought me up in the area of holiness as a young
believer.
These are people I learnt from and I used their
materials and sometimes worshiped with them.
What won’t you be caught doing as a pastor?
I won’t be caught committing sin, preaching
false doctrines, deceiving people in order to receive
miracles. I won’t be caught following women or
pursuing money.
If you were Jesus who flogged out the money
changers in his days, what category of people
would you weed out of the church today?
The hypocrites and the snakes in the church and
they are many. Some are pastors who are there to
kill even the General Overseer to get a position. Such
people should be exposed. I’ll weed out politicians
who come to use us to win elections and at the end,
they dump the church.
The third kind of people are those who are in
churches to steal. They are not pastors or politicians
but church members. Their aim is to steal, kill and
destroy. Some women come to set up pastors, some
come to plan kidnapping.
The Bible says the heart of man is desperately
wicked. Of my 45 years in the Lord, I’ve seen that
those you think are sincere are evil. I will advise that
pastors should go on their knees and ask God to
shake the church. God knows how to do it best. God
knows how to weed them out. He might even start
from those you think are actually good.
To the sick, homeless, hungry, and hopeless,
what would you say to them this Easter and what
should the church be seen to be doing?
I will say to the sick, homeless and the hungry that
there is hope.They should hold on and trust God they
will make it.
To the sick, there is healing; to the homeless,
there will be shelter, the same for the hungry and the
hopeless.
Look at a man like me that wanted to commit
suicide, before I discovered Our Daily Manna. I felt
all hope was lost. But look at me today. They should
hold on, after the pain, tears and the agony, triumph
is coming. The same would happen to any man
or woman who waits or endures. The Bible says
in Isaiah 49 verse 23 ‘..for they shall not
be ashamed that wait for me.” Whether
you are sick, hungry, homeless, or
abandoned, falsely accused, envied,
betrayed, etc, wait upon the Lord
and you will never be ashamed.
The church should physically
feed the hungry, cloth the
naked. The church of Jesus
Christ should go back to
Jude 3- church is not just
about building. One of the
disturbing factors today
is the way churches are
trying to outdo one
another in architectural designs. Wanting to have the
biggest building in the world, in my view, is a mistake
no matter who is doing it.
Today, we have 500,000,000 auditorium, all these
are structures that will come and go. Let us go back
to the days of raising the dead, signs and wonders,
purity, holiness. This madness of the biggest church
in the world, my building must be more colourful than
your building is flesh.
The Apostles of old met in homes and miracles,
testimonies were happening. They talk the talk and
lived the life. I think we should go back to that.
Unfortunately, our big fathers in the Lord are the
ones encouraging us to begin the competition for
properties and church buildings and that to me, is
carnality creeping into the church.
Of my 45 years in
the Lord, I’ve seen
that those you
think are sincere
are evil.
April 4, 2021 / 5