So, I heard a voice saying "I am your God. I am giving you a divine commission to goand carry out the work of the heavenly father". At the same time, the same hand of the tall man gave me a small cross and a big Bible, bigger than the one that enteredmy heart with a promise that as I keep pressing in his Time and Name, I would begiven a bigger cross but if I failed, the opposite would occur. I also heard a voice of thesame tall man but I could not see his head, saying "I am the Lord your God who wasand who is- Jesus Christ, giving orders to the Apostles and Prophets." The same voicesaid to me "I would show you the wonderful ways; I would reveal myself through you,in teaching, preaching, miracles and signs and wonders for the salvation of souls.Since then, I have been receiving in my vision every year and according to myfaithfulness to God, bigger cross that means to me, more responsibilities. The Biblethat entered my heart symbolise spirit and life (the Holy Spirit). God's word is spiritand life. He does nothing without his word. The book of Roman 8:16 says "God's spirit joins himself to our spirit to declare that we are children of God."
If you were not doing God's work, what would you have been doing?
The question you just asked me is purely divine because I don't know. Listen, we arecreated in God's image and what matters to God is not our physical or mentaldisposition, but one with Him in terms of love, kindness and so on. It is the goodnessof our cause that interests God and not our physical or mental disposition. Really, notthat our physical and mental dispositions do not have roles to play, just that thegoodness of our cause interests Him more than that. And since we are created for theglory of God, no one can say what he or she would like to be. We are created for hisglory and we must live for his glory. Our lives are in God's hands. We have no control.We can't control Him by using the Bible or cross as a good luck charm without athorough reformation of heart and life. So, I think that question is for Baba God.
Before that encounter with God some 23 years ago, who were you?
When we talk of encounter, there are different stages of encounter. The one we aretalking about is the deeper encounter. You know, there are deep, deeper, and deepest;that is the three stages in the life of a Christian. So, every Christian must go throughthe stages. It is about our responsibility to God; how we obey His rule. We have manyBishops who are just deep in the Lord and we have many Christians, just ordinaryChristians without any title whatsoever either as a pastor or Bishop who are deeper inthe Lord. We have many pastors who are deep and their members are deeper. So, notuntil you are in the line that you'll begin to know this. But before I got the calling, Iwas a member of the Anglican Church and participated actively in many Churchactivities. On three different occasions, I was appointed the chairman of children'sHarvest/thanksgiving ceremony. During my primary school days at St. StephenAnglican primary school, Agbaluku, Ondo State. I was the leader of Student ChristianFellowship. I taught my colleagues the scriptures without formal Bible training. In mydream, I was always taught the scriptures that gave me an edge over the otherstudent colleagues even above my teacher. I was the smallest in the class and I ledthe prayer during school devotions. My teacher, Mrs. Margaret Tolani Adejumo and mycolleagues usually called me small pastor. So, it is God himself who performs thedivine anointing on all who have the wonderful privilege of becoming His children.
The essence of the question is to know if you have lived a kind of life thatnegates outright, the life of a Christian before you were called to serve. So,who were you before you became a man of God?
That's a nice question. When you look at my life, you'll see that there was noopportunity to live a funny life. I don't know my father. It was very, very difficult. Infact, there was no opportunity to live a funny life because all through, it was rejection
and isolation and it really helped me. It was not by power of mine, so, we should notmake jest of those who lived funny lives because the book of Galatians 6, says, if oneis caught out of sin, you that caught him should take him gently; restore him gently sothat you also will not be tempted. For instance, you saw someone smoking and youbegan to make jest of him; saying, ‘Ha, you are a smoker.' Be careful because youalso may be tempted. For anyone to live right, it is not by his power or by his might, itis the grace of God because without God, no one can live right. The Bible says yeshould be careful because the first may be the last and the last may be the first.
It's Christmas. Let's talk about its essence. What does Christmas connote?
Well, I would not want to say anything that will run contrary to the theology, but I'llput it in a way that a scholar of the scriptures will understand. Christmas is the periodof opportunity for everyone to show our true remorse for our unworthy past. I don'twant to say anything that will elicit controversy but it is an opportunity to show trueremorse, and not an occasion to show off. Simply put, God has a son and he plantedhim in the earth to produce a family. Today, millions are born again through this seed.And if that is it, how then do we celebrate Christmas? How do we register ourappreciation to him? That's the question. If God has a son and planted him in theearth to produce a family, and today, millions are born again through this seed how dowe show appreciation? We show appreciation to him by giving every good thingwithout asking of us: our love, our time, our strength, our faith, our loyalty and ourmoney. You see, there is what we call humility; total humility and submission to hiswill. That's our offering and when you want to give him, you should remember thequality ones because for instance, in Nigeria today, we are good givers, but we dogive when it is convenient. That is Nigerians for you. But as true Christians, do notgive only when it is convenient for you. You should give even when it causes somepains. Even when you are not happy, people can rush to you and say please help me, Ihave not eaten today and you say leave, go, I am not happy, why should you ask mefor money? But even when it causes pains to do, please do because God has only oneson and he planted that son in the earth. You can imagine that. So, when you givewhen it is not convenient, your offering will be a sacrificial giving. So, as we go out tocelebrate Christmas, we should remember the weak, the poor and the lonely in thesociety. It is praise-worthy to give, not only to our power but also beyond our power. If this is our aim and objective of giving, even if we gave out a little, that offering will beacceptable to God. That's Christmas for you. Some may say where is it written in thebible, but the truth is that it is an occasion for us to truly remorse our unworthy past.What this means is that a time of giving is a time to show true remorse, not the timeto show off.
