Shaping Thoughts

Churches in Africa seem to lack an understanding of how reality works and how to use the word of God to change the things that they find to be incongruous with the word of God in society.

This is baffling, given that many of those who lead large denominations in Nigeria especially will boast of being highly educated and even wear their professorship or doctorate degrees like a coat of armour to the altar

Critical thinking is very much missing in the Nigerian church and this is a pity Take for example many of the prayer points that these men of God feed their church members every day from the altar, books, tapes, and other channels or mediums that have led to a fearful mindset and altered their worldview from that of a victor to that of a victim in their daily lives,

If these so-called educated men of God had paid attention to the Bible, they would have chosen a very different approach to solving those problems which requires no prayer

There was no place in the Bible where Jesus led the disciples to pray against any of the cultural practices or traditions of the Jews which were unacceptable to him

He merely did what he knew to be right and challenged them through the Word of God to accept his verdict on things rather than stick to unproductive traditions in the name of being loyal to Moses whose laws had become obsolete and grossly irrelevant in His days

The law says nobody should work on the Sabbath day. Jesus did. He didn’t turn it into a prayer point, he simply worked and every time he was challenged, he quoted scriptures and asked questions that challenged the reasoning of the religious leaders

If he were a Nigerian GO, he would gather his members and tell them to pray to say, “Father, every demon of religion operating in the life of the religious leaders in our synagogues, fall down and die in Jesus’ name” Luke 6:1-11, Luke 13:10-17

Jesus simply did the right thing and this encouraged the disciples who were with him to defy the sabbath laws too and eventually, the church started doing the same Jesus taught the Jews that these rules were wrong and showed by example that the Sabbath day was a day to honour him and His Father by doing good and worthwhile things such as helping people.

You don’t change the culture of a people by inventing demonic prayer points, you change a bad or evil culture by teaching people a better culture and demonstrating this by example.

The Jews had cleansing baths of all kinds in their religious rites, John the Baptist introduced another culture entirely which involved dipping people into a flowing river by immersion, and the Israelites embraced it

Jesus took this several steps further by introducing the church to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Many Nigerian G.Os who claim to be Christians are still skeptical of the Holy Spirit’s baptism and would rather conduct deliverance for their members, ‘to cast out evil spirits’ every quarter rather than get them filled with the Holy Spirit as recommended by Jesus Himself so that they are preserved from the evil one once and for all.

This is baffling to me.

To hear members of certain denominations in this time and age on social media, especially X, arguing against praying in tongues, the authority of the believer, prophecy, and the other gifts of the Spirit is not just outrageous, it is almost evil

Jesus was our example, the one we are to model our lives after and He walked in these gifts right after receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit but one Professor, General Overseer or Doctor of Science General Overseer from Nigeria is inventing prayer point of, “Every evil arrow shot at me from the pit of hell, fall down and die” Wow!.

Mary Slessor did not invent a prayer point to stop the killing of twins at Okoyong in Nigeria, she actually stopped the killing of twins by sending out twin missionaries to mission houses to take care of all the twins who were rejected and condemned to be evil.

When the twins grew and started doing well without bringing any evil to communities, people embraced them, and the evil law was changed

You don’t pray against ignorance, you spread knowledge and ignorance dies

You tell young Christian women that those with evil intentions against them can come to their wedding, spray money, and cause them to be barren or ensure their marriage fails

On their wedding day, the bride is all tensed up and sensitive towards the people around her and whatever they say which she believes is very powerful and could derail her marital fortunes

What about your own blessings, what about your own declarations? Are they ineffective? Are they that impotent? The bride is fasting, the groom is fasting, and both of them are looking at close relatives suspiciously and fearfully, interpreting every gesture as harmful or with the potential to cause harm

They are tensed up, easily provoked, and afraid, why? Because of your teachings which focus on the evil in the world rather than the power that is at work in them.

What a shame! I have conducted weddings, seeded couples with living words and the anointing of the Holy Spirit and none has ever been able to hurt those who are of the light under my care. I say this with my full chest

For there is a power at work in a believer, darkness cannot comprehend it unless the believer was taught otherwise by his or her General overseer and pastors.

I was listening to members of a denomination (A couple) speaking at a hospital in Abuja a few months ago. These guys live in America, they have lived there for many years and they work and have adapted to that society very well even though they are Nigerians

Their words were full of fear and a morbid consciousness of evil

Every time they opened their mouths, they would say something like, “Our Daddy in the Lord told us the story of a man who had a great glory but his parents went to tie down his glory so that he would not travel abroad and leave them alone in Nigeria because he is an only son” “Our G.O told us the story of a man whose older sister saw that he was doing well and then went to a river to call his glory and bury it in the mud”

This G.O is educated and he didn’t tell his church members the exploits they can do to change the world in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit

Rather, he seeded them with tares about how the darkness has figured them out and is now powerful over them so much that if they don’t pray all the prayer points he brings out of his morbid stories they would be victims

Wow! That is not the gospel of Jesus Christ

I told these couple what the gospel is, I opened the scriptures and showed them who Jesus is and who the Believer through the Holy Spirit is, and what the word of God says about those who believe in the Lord Jesus.

They were looking at me as if I was from another planet

They would rather believe the “enemy” from their village is out to get them than believe they are the light of the world whose mandate it is to go out and make this “enemy” a child of God by the display of the grace and glory resplendent in a believer

As a young boy, I was told by one of the GOs never to go to my village because once I went there, my destiny would be destroyed. I believed it at the time and so did my mother. I kept away for as long as I could

Then I came to know the gospel by reading the Bible by myself and I got filled with the Holy Spirit

I lead one of the most outstanding Christian fellowships in the world today and the headquarters is in my village.

In my village, they do the Oro festival but they dare not do it when my fellowship is in town

You can use ignorance to tie up the unenlightened but if you put “touch not” on a local lamp and I put “Touch not” on a transformer and we dare each other to touch our power sources, I will touch yours and kill it with my bare hands. You will touch mine and your death will put the fear of God in the whole community

Christian leaders are tacitly working hand in gloves with the devil by keeping the church ignorant of their power to shape cultures and change traditions all in the name of keeping people compliant in the name of religion What harm will it do to set the people free with the right knowledge? Are you afraid they will no longer deify you if they see that they are deities too?

Are you afraid they will no longer call you Daddy and hang on to your words once they begin to see the truth for themselves?

Is it the tithe or the offering that they may stop paying that is making you keep them from the truth?

They were called to operate in the perfect law of liberty not in bondage anymore that they may fear

Prayer points that came out of devilish stories have no positive impact on the church

The gospel is good news…glad tidings of great joy!

An imagination that has been made impure from the pulpit that was supposed to set it free, brews fear and torment in the heart of the believer and this affects how he or she sees the world and processes reality

A woman got married, her mother-in-law came joyfully towards her calling her “Our wife” which is normal in Yoruba culture, the woman looked at her mother-in-law and said, “I am not your wife, I am my husband’s wife. I will not allow anyone to pour evil water at my feet and bring me into an evil covenant in the name of marriage” (The Yorubas have a culture in which a new bride will be admitted into the family by older brides and women of the family. they will pour water on her feet and pray for her that her time in the family shall be full of joy and rest)

She was taught this tradition was evil, she was not taught that, “nothing shall by any means hurt you” or that “Idols are nothing”

She was taught to believe more in the efficacy of evil than the reality of who she is in Christ, the marriage failed, not because of the power of the enemy but because of the mindset planted in her by the church which put her at odds with her husband’s family, fed her insecurity and made her see the support system she was supposed to influence with her light as the enemy.

No one I have taught or shown the gospel will ever back down for the power of darkness or count darkness as anything but a nuisance

It is time for the church and its leaders to wake up and show the believers who they truly are in Christ.

Jesus shaped thoughts. Thoughts shape words, words shape beliefs, beliefs shape actions, actions shape learned behaviours and attitudes, learned behaviours and attitudes shape norms, norms shape cultures, and cultures shape worldviews.

This is how he has been changing the world till today

Dear General Overseers, Church leaders, and church members, please be like Jesus

Thank you

PS: I was playing FIFA 19 with my 12-year-old son nights ago; it was my first time playing the game and we were taking turns to play

His 10-year-old brother was waiting to play the winner between both of us

I took a shot from the midfield and my first son said, “Come on Dad, you have to be reasonable here, you should know you cannot score from there”

I tackled him and took another shot from the midfield and I scored My son said “Wow, Dad, how did you do that?” So, I showed him and he used it when he was playing with his younger brother a few minutes later

It is easy to believe something is impossible until you are shown it is possible and possibly even easy to do

There is no darkness like ignorance and there is no light like the gospel

Why those who are born again are afraid of the deeds of darkness is because of their pastors who feed them stories of the deeds of darkness

You are ambassadors of Christ; can you please teach Christ?

Can you stop preaching about twisted realities and deeds of darkness and focus on the finished works of Christ and the Acts of the Apostles (You are one of them too) If you insist on the light, there shall be light.