Your advice for the upcoming pastors
I want to thank God, I want to look at it from
Biblical background, who is a pastor? In other word, who is a shepherd? One
called to see to the needs of humanity, called of God to disseminate gospel information
to mankind, one who is to act as Christ by bringing people, humanity to the
knowledge of God, catering for the congregation and he is supposed to be a role
model. But what we are seeing these days, even the pastors themselves are
trying to compete with the world. And then I would want to say that anyone who
is called by God to shepherd His people should strive to live out the life of Jesus
Christ for people to follow. They should not be too mindful of the world
because their Saviour and Chief Shepherd also warned them about that. If anyone
happens to love the world the world will, that means the love of the father is
not in him. So they should live out Christ like life for the congregation to
emulate.
My advice for them is for them to retrace their footstep
from that particular fault, although one person has said that some people has
the call of God while some people receive a flash of a torch light so they
so they move into what they do not understand, but I want to believe that
someone who has God calling him, into the ministry to shepherd the people will
not toe such line of the popular people, he must be restricted to that counsel which
the chief Shepherd has given to him.
So I council them to retrace their footstep, be
devoted, do the work that God has called you to do, look after the sheep under
your care, be an example to them, so that you can faithfully say like Paul
follow me, and they followed him.
What is
the secret that made you to succeed as the District Superintendent of the Assemblies
of God, Lagos? And your advice to political leaders
What makes it, if I have succeeded, as you have
also mentioned; devotion to service, commitment, knowing who has called you and
what he demands of you, so I key in to such, not minding the forces around me,
maybe requiring me to do. That is just the main thing. Knowing who has
called me, and following his footsteps.
Then for the political leaders, the scriptures
tell us that no leadership is in place without God knowing about that, and that
the people in authority, we should respect them, honour them, and those that
God has allowed to control human lives, they should be very very careful. The
Nigerian politicians are not like the politicians from countries where say we
are practicing the same system with, like The US, UK, but we have found out
also that it is only the bad side that the Nigerian politicians can only
emulate, but on the good side of the US, because Nigerian politicians would
always mention the system of United States of America, this is what they do,
but they have also forgotten that those people they see the right of the led as
very important, you don't see the leadership there amassing wealth for
themselves, they are there to see how they can affect the lives of the people.
When one person passes on there you see how the whole place would react, but
here, see how human being are being slaughtered here and there.
God almighty so blessed this nation, among the whole
nations of the world, the mineral resources that God deposited in this nation,
he also foresaw the strength, the human population, he gave us these minerals that
if the political leaders are using such blessings for the good of mankind and
not amassing wealth for themselves only, Nigeria would not be where it is
today. I never knew but I want to find out if it is as a result of the
scriptures being fulfilled, I never thought in life, you know one of the states
of the federation is called food basket of the nation, Benue state, but today, I
see the Nigerian people starving, starvation everywhere. Why? Our leaders are
not mindful, we have allowed segments of some people to take over Nigeria. And
because some of our leaders are interested, if a proper investigation is made,
you would find out that some leaders are involved in what we are passing
through in this country, I can't see how a handful of persons will overrun a
nation; we are already on our knees. Our political leaders are only mindful of
themselves, and I want to tell you that God is not happy, and when the poor
cries out, God listens to them, and do not be surprised when God will virtually
intervene in the affairs of this nation, people will be surprised, and I want
to assure you it will happen, why because, day and night people have been crying
to God in this nation.
Your view
on the disunity in the body of Christ and what can be done to resolve it?
I think what is mentioned there is to speak with
one voice but not on the outfit. If we are to uphold the bible we are holding
to, and not interpreting it to suit our purpose, that is where we have problem.
The bible is there to guide us on what to do, the bible is there. If we will
hold to the tenacity of the bible, we will not err but do the right thing that
is required, I know sometimes what happens to us is that Individually people
tend to find one verse of the scripture that suits their purpose, and they will
begin to fly out everywhere, not quite long, one went about talking about tithe
and all that, and if you look critically at the scriptures you would see that he
was talking out of point. In the context of that scripture, it is the Sadducees
and the Pharisee who wanted to justify themselves, we pay tithe, we pay this,
we pay that. I think Jesus Christ was trying to correct them, you say you pay
tithe and neglected righteousness, you have neglected how to handle human
beings created in the image of God, you have neglected holiness, this you ought
to have done and not leaving the other undone. So when you look at it he was striking
a balance, the tithe he was speaking about never came through law, it was
voluntary, Abraham did that, Jacob did that, the law for paying tithe never
came into existence then, so Jesus Christ was telling them, you don't need to
begin to say, I pay tithe this and that, he also compare two people who went to
the temple to pray, one was saying don't mind the other one, he is a Pharisee,
he is a sinner, I pay tithe, I fast two times in a week, exulting himself,
thinking that by paying tithe he has created a way to the kingdom for himself,
neglecting the right thing to do, so one thing that will make us speak with one
voice is to handle this scripture as it is directed, not seeking your own
pleasure. Problem we are having is people
seeking for what will please them and not what will God who has created them,
so I want to advise that we return to status quo, read this bible with
understanding and trusting in the lord.
Your next
plan of action after retirement
What is my next plan? Rest a while...
...And
Japa..
No, nooo, rest a while, wherever that rest is
taking me to, but I am not running away, my children may invite me, but not
Japa, that language, I don't want to hear it, Japa is the language of people that
are tired of this nation, I am a trained professional counselor, I read
Guidance and Counseling at the University of Lagos, and also a pastoral
counselor, so I believe if I team up with this two, I will be a good
professional counselor.
Then, for relaxation sake, if you look behind there
you will see my guitar there; I will also like to improve my knowledge on
computer. I also want to play the piano, I have all those ones, but time never permitted
me, so all these are meant to keep myself happy and I have in mind also to
attend seminars and conferences, because when you stop to learn, you start
dying.
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