Pastor's...cause of the world's problems?

 

 

 

Pastors... the Cause of the World&rsquos Problems?

I have no idea why, but of late I find myself thinking about a certain feisty young gentleman. What was his name again? Oh dear, can you believe I have simply forgotten? How could I? Anyway what drew my attention to him was one of the extremely radical things he said. I hear his Igbo in mild reverberations... Nsobu n&rsquoine di n&rsquouwa n&rsquokeanyi o ndi pastor pastor n&rsquoebute fa. Literally meaning, &ldquoPastors are the cause of all our problems in this world.&rdquo

What an amazing contradiction, after all pastors are called to help alleviate problems and not create them! As for my dear friend, since I&rsquove suddenly developed amnesia as far as remembering his name is concerned, I&rsquoll call him David. David is a Messianic Jew- a Jew who believes in Jesus Christ, and is as radical as they come. Africa is the Garden of Eden, Jesus Christ is a black man, he writes in one of his revoltingly fanatical books which were rejected by many a bookshelf in the city of Johannesburg South Africa... Catch my drift? I met him in Johannesburg about three years ago, granted he made an immense impression, but I completely forgot about him until recently. Could this perhaps have anything to do with the emergence of certain pastors or prophets as they call themselves into my ever so boring life?

It was about July 2006. And, suddenly the rug had been yanked from under what was left of my &lsquostable&rsquo life. What are the main things that make a human being comfortable apart from the basics - air, water and food? A comfortable home and a good car I would imagine. I strived for them, and the more I strived the more they seemed to elude me. Having come back almost unceremoniously from my cushy life in Johannesburg with just a suitcase to my name, you can imagine that acquiring those two essentials were atop my priority list. In my quest to resolve housing wahala which seemed to be my albatross, my feet took me to this fine young widower. Incidentally, he was the Vice President of the Full Gospel Business Men&rsquos Fellowship in a Lagos suburb, and better still he had a place to let. &ldquoI like you,&rdquo he said, &ldquoMy spirit is at peace with you. I have no problems giving you my house. In fact, I want you to live here. This house also suits what you need.&rdquo

Indeed it did. I wanted a single storey building which would also double as an office. Live upstairs, work downstairs, perhaps was my slogan. It was perfect, but...there was one little snag that seemed to make all the difference. Ba Kudi...no money! Anyway, I would claim it by faith. I began to chant within the four walls of my borrowed bedroom, specific bible passages that would enable my access to funds, which would ultimately stop me from being a vagabond. &ldquoBut may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.&rdquo   

Surely, God who led me to these scriptures would make a way...

Still ...no money! I got a text later from my landlord, oh by the way did I mention that I had added landlord to his name in my phone address book? Yes, I put my faith to work! He saved my name as &lsquotenant&rsquo in his phone too! &ldquoI will take only one year&rsquos rent from you,&rdquo he said in his absolutely delightful text. My God is on the throne, I thought. All I have to do now is work harder and intensify prayers. Alas, that didn&rsquot work, as all those pesky doors that would lead to my getting the money clammed up, and for reasons best known to them, their horrible keys were nowhere to be found! Finally, I got another text months later &ndash &ldquoI am sorry, I cannot hold the house for you any longer.&rdquo I was to learn shortly after, that a young man with more money beat me to it. He also had my &lsquoslogan&rsquo-work downstairs and live upstairs. Darn...but it wasn&rsquot that bad, after all through my landlord who never was I started fellowshipping at the Full Gospel Business Men&rsquos Fellowship, Oh well, I must unashamedly and unapologetically admit that my new found place of worship initially, was for purely selfish reasons. After all, worshipping with them under the approving eyes of my &lsquolandlord&rsquo just would have accelerated my case with getting the house would it not?

This was also coming at a time when the last stabilising component of my life was suddenly taken away from me &ndash my comfortable car as a result of a misunderstanding and perhaps victimisation in my former place of work. Now with that final blow, my unlimited wakabout moves became very limited as I was confined to my immediate environs. That meant attending midweek services in church was totally out of the question. I guess Full Gospel came in handy as it was within walking distance from borrowed lodgings, so did Faithcare Fellowship, a vibrant women&rsquos fellowship, which was also within reach. It was on those platforms that I was introduced to the wonderful prophets and prophetesses. I&rsquoll call them Prophet Joe and Lady Jay.

&ldquoYou must have cried endlessly to yourself and had sleepless nights. Don&rsquot worry, God is going to embarrass you,&rdquo announced Lady Jay. She had singled me out among this group of fine women. She was referring to my single woman status, which would miraculously turn around. My goodness, I had no idea I had, &ldquoI am single and miserable, I must marry or I die,&rdquo etched all over my forehead- an imprint that was visible only to the great and discerning prophets and prophetesses, as I moved around the city of Lagos.

&ldquoYou will have twins, but you will also need to sow seeds in the lives of twins.&rdquo Amazing, I did recall claiming multiple births about seven years before I heard her.

&ldquoIn Full Gospel, we meet for prayers every Monday,&rdquo says my landlord who never was. So Monday it was. &ldquoI see two babies,&rdquo says Prophet Joe. &ldquoGod is taking you to your husband&rsquos house.&rdquo

 What is this? Double blessings, double unsolicited blessings? I wondered, anyway it&rsquos all cool. This kinda makes up for not being able to attend mid week services in my church.

&ldquoWrite down nine prayer requests for the month of September,&rdquo said Prophet Joe. &ldquoGod says I should pray for nine people this month and you are one of them.&rdquo

Indeed, am I that special? I wasn&rsquot too comfortable with him getting too close. Perhaps it was a figment of my ever vivid imagination but he seemed to gravitate towards praying for a particular genre of people &ndashsingle and perhaps affluent women.  He had put me on endless fasts, for which I was truly grateful, but, I wasn&rsquot sure I needed a personal pastor whom I would give a blow by blow account of my life.  

Don&rsquot ask me why, but about a week later, I found myself texting Prophet Joe. &ldquoWhere can I drop off my prayer requests?&rdquo Again, life had thrown some more punches and I needed to dig even deeper into the realm of the Almighty. Maybe the punches came as punishment for blatantly flouting the orders of a man of God...maybe. Anyway, his response came. &ldquoSow a seed to cover your requests.&rdquo

You must be tripping...actually I couldn&rsquot tell him that but he had to know I would not yield to such an absurd request.

Okay you don&rsquot have to sow if you don&rsquot want to. Just send in your prayer requests. I did, and that opened another door to more fasts, prayers and seed sowing...

&ldquoGod says you are paying your tithes to the wrong church. You should pay your tithes where your deliverance is.&rdquo

&ldquoWrite down 10 prayer requests for the month of October sow a seed of N10, 000. It is for your husband.&rdquo

&ldquoWrite down 11 prayer requests for the month of November, you&rsquoll also need to sow a seed.&rdquo

Gaddem!!! Oops sorry all! But I just cannot think of another way to vent out my frustration and irritation. God, are you telling me that the only way to total deliverance, salvation, healing et al, rests in this one man who can&rsquot seem to get it together? God are you telling me that he is the key to my life partner? Are you telling me that he is now my financial responsibility? If you are then I must start asking questions about you Lord!   

God is this man an El&rsquoymas? Do you remember the story of El&rsquoymas? Walk with me down memory lane if you will!

When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came from a certain magician, a Jewish false named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But El&rsquoymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) withstood them, seeking to turn away the proconsul from the faith. But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy, will you stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind and unable to see the sun for a time. Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him and he went out about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.&rdquo (Acts 13: 6-12)

The proconsul was indeed a lucky man! I was also surprised that such an intelligent person almost fell prey to a false prophet. Thank God for the apostles who saved him. However, he had to see miraculous signs before he was fully convinced that El&rsquoymas was a false prophet. I shudder as I think of the hordes of people today who have fallen prey to the likes of El&rsquoymas. Oh yes&helliphe was so fake that he even operated under the name of &ldquoBar-Jesus.&rdquo He could have chosen another name but no&hellipthere had to be a link to our Lord and Saviour. In his warped mind it was a good marketing strategy for his evil devices.

Where did Prophet Joe fit in all of this? It&rsquos hard to tell. There were quite a few things he shared with me that made me believe he may have been God sent, but I couldn&rsquot shake off this eerie feeling I had.

&ldquoFear is not of God,&rdquo says Mina, the founder of Faithcare Fellowship. Apparently she had similar issues with Lady Jay, who made a small fortune off her. &ldquoShe always needed to go to the mountains located on the outskirts of Lagos to pray and each trip cost me dearly. I&rsquove also spent large sums of money on her children.&rdquo  Prophet Joe made frequent trips to the mountains too. Was I also a main sponsor? Only God knows, I&rsquove heard endless stories about men of God who start off very well, but somewhere down the line take a different turn. Did this apply to Prophet Joe? Maybe, maybe not, but you know what? I really do not give a toss! My main preoccupation would be to get him off my back before I am roped into writing 12 prayer requests for the month of December and sowing seeds to cover those prayers. Three months of &lsquocollaborations&rsquo were more than enough. To think Lady Jay had been with Mina for three years...

Pastors are the cause of all the world&rsquos problems. How can this be?

The sad truth is that people use church as a cover for fraudulent activities. Perhaps many have identified in their warped minds that it is much more convenient and effective to carry out nefarious acts under the guise of prophecy as opposed to parading the streets as native doctors. These people take the truth, twist it and use it to manipulate others. This is a fundamental problem, which has been there for generations.

 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he taught and said to them. &lsquoIs it not written, &lsquoMy house shall be called a place of prayer for all nations?&rsquo But you have made it a den of robbers.&rdquo And the chief priest and the scribes heard it and sought a way to destroy him for they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city. (Mark 11: 15-19)

So, where do we go from here? Disturbingly, there will always be people who will in their bid to take short cuts in life fall prey to these supposed men and women of God. Worse still, many a victim may not be as innocent as they claim. Should that be the case, then we just might have to come up with creative not to mention drastic ways of dealing with these babalawos and dibias in pastoral robes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Convictions Confirmations Revelations

By Enuma Chigbo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Posted by: Enuma Chigbo on 28 November 2009

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