5th September, 2012
Last week was very interesting and thought provoking, it was for me a learning process. I didn’t even realise that last week’s article would be one of the most controversial that I have ever written but it’s a good thing because I like to do things that would make people think, that would provoke people to share their knowledge. It’s just a matter of touching people’s emotions and getting them to air their views.
However, we all have to be careful how we air our views. It’s okay to be emotional about things but then again people have to learn to criticise constructively. Even when you are against what somebody has said in an article or even when you don’t agree with it, it is advisable to teach the person, it’s advisable to correct the person and not insult him or her.
I went over some of the responses to my last week’s article. I was very impressed with some people who taught me a lot of things that I didn’t know. A lot of people opened my eyes to more things; they directed me to some verses in the Bible to encourage me, teach me and guide me in my quest for knowledge.
If you remember, the article was titled: My Questions About Christianity (which was originally I Have Questions). I know that I never came across as one who claimed to know it all and who was pointing fingers. I was asking why things are the way they are based not only on personal experiences but experiences from people around me, experiences from places that I have been to and reports that I have received and things that I have read from even the newspapers who got direct information.
Those were what formed the questions that I asked and the idea was to put the message out there for people to know that this lady wants to try and find out what should be but a lot of people misunderstood that. A lot of people came at me with name-calling, and all sorts of unthinkable things but through it all I had a blast.
I also want to thank those readers who responded and made me feel that it was a good thing to try to enlighten people on what’s going on so that people can be aware and be careful of what they listen to, who they listen to and where they go.
It was lovely and refreshing to hear from you all but then that also leads me to another issue that I’m going to raise again this week, so if this whole season is going to be filled with controversies then I don’t mind. It means that I am saying things that people are sweeping under the carpet and if it takes me to touch their emotions for them to react and come out of their shells, then so be it.
I feel that if you have anything to say, if you are so educated and a great student of theology as a lot of people have claimed to be, then you should be teaching people and telling them the truth, not waiting for somebody else to bring it up and then incur your to insult.
So, since I know that I am nowhere near being an authority in the things of the Bible or things of life, I have decided to do something different this week.
I read a book called Open Heavens every week written by Pastor Enoch Adeboye who is one of the most respected men of God in the world today and I am sure everybody agrees with me when it comes to our Christian faith.
A lot of people have become victims of lies which is one of the questions I was asked in the last article but , let me read some parts of this article, Victims of Lies, from the book (Monday 20 August’s edition) and then you will understand what I mean.
It reads: “If you enjoy being flattered, you are a lover of lies. Your self deception will soon land you into trouble.” Beyond lying to one another, lying has assumed a frightening dimension. How? Lying is now a common feature in the House of God. In fact, lying has become a big money spinner in the House of God.
“Since people love to hear lies and they flock around those who will tell it to them. If instead of hearing the undiluted word of God you prefer to run from one prophet to another then you are a lover of lies and you may soon be a winning victim of deception.”
It is also explained in the book: “If you are a lover of visions beware or else you would become a victim of lies. Any prophetic declaration that has raised your hope coming from merchandising prophets and pastors will surely disappoint you. In some places, when a lady wants a particular man as her husband, all she needs to do is to bribe the prophet or prophetess and later the leader will go into acrobatics. At some point he will say, “Thus sayest the Lord, Brother so and so, Sister so and so is your wife”.
“Those of you who go to your pastor to pray for you and tell you who to marry, if care is not taken you will become a victim of lies. You are simply lazy, no pastor or prophet should tell you who to marry, they are to pray along with you, counsel and guide you, using the word of God. If you fail to pay the price to hear from God on that matter, you may be deceived. God can use your pastor or a genuine prophet of God to confirm what he had already told you. Many homes have been established on falsehood and that is why things are falling apart and the centre cannot hold. Some pastors are seriously into match-making, they have taken over from the Holy Spirit. Match-making remains God’s prerogative and he has not delegated it to any pastor.”
What I have just written out for you was taken from Open Heavens and I was so blessed and relieved when I read it because at a point, a lot of people made me feel that I was talking out of ignorance but the truth of the matter is that the institution called marriage belongs to God.
I have had my own fair share; I have had my own challenges and my own issues. I am not ashamed to say this. Nobody can judge me because if you judge me you will be judged as well. There is nobody that has not faced one issue or the other in their life, whether it is marriage, work, relationship, career or whatever it is that they are doing. But the truth of the matter is that the day we begin to submit ourselves to false prophets and start asking them questions about things that we should go on our knees and ask God, that is the day that our problems will start.
According to what this book has said, a lot of people go to their pastors and say, “Oh pastor, I need a husband” and the pastor will tell you don’t worry, after praying for you I will tell you who your husband is and they will call a brother’s name and say, “this is the man you are supposed to marry, that’s what God told me.”
I, Stella, still insist that if God can speak to you and tell you, then I can also go down on my knees myself and say “God, please in your own time, according to your will, let me find the person that you have destined for me.” And he will answer me.
A lot of people have married the wrong partners without knowing it. They get stuck in a union and it becomes difficult to come out. When that union starts to face serious challenges then you begin to ask “where you went wrong, not knowing that you have been deceived into getting into the wrong union because you believe that a pastor has every answer in the world and as for me, that is not true.
My pastor should teach, guide and tell me where to read, tell me how to pray when I am not certain about the approach, make me attend bible and wisdom class so I can get to know and understand the Holy Spirit, be my spiritual head and let me know that if I have a problem I should go on my knees and pray to our God. A good pastor should tell you to go and read so and so verses in the bible; he should preach salvation and the need to study the word. He should encourage me to stick to my God and never forget his word which says there is heaven and hell.
A lot of people are in trouble today because they want to hear things that will favour and please them. They will rather spend their life savings on people to pray on their behalf. It’s a different thing when you go to a man of God and say I want you to pray with me in agreement. The Bible says, “Where two or more are gathered I am there in their midst.” There is absolutely nothing wrong in asking your pastor to pray with you. But when you neglect your own responsibilities to go on your knees and pray to God you will be deceived in the hands of false prophets.
You go to a man of God, give him money and ask him to pray for you, then you go to your bed and sleep. When the man of God calls you to say, “It was revealed to me that if you do not bring N10 million and sacrifice five cows in this place to sprinkle the blood around your office you will not get the contract,” of course you will run to and fro, raise the money and do the sacrifice because you believe that your man of God is a powerful man. When God does things for you, he does not get the glory because you now decide that it is the man of God that did it for you.
These are part of the questions that I am asking: why do we depend on pastors for all the answers without searching for God’s word and asking the holy spirit to teach us? When he says you can go on you knees, call on me and by faith, through the name of Jesus Christ,that he will grant your heart desires, he meant it. Why would you pay for somebody to pray for you? Why would you ask a pastor to be the one to decide who your husband is?. According to Pastor Adeboye, match-making and marriage is God’s idea, it’s God’s divine institution but a lot of us have missed it totally and put ourselves in so much confusion. We do things by ourselves, believing that we are wise and intelligent enough to know and we go to people who will deceive us. But the Bible is there for us to get all the answers from.
So, to all those people who said those horrible things to me, I’m a Christian and I love my God without apology, I love him with everything I hold dear, I love him with my body, spirit, mind and soul and that is why I refuse to see people perish for lack of knowledge. I want to acquire as much knowledge as I can so I can also help people to understand some things. I will not sit in my house, fold my arms and watch the children of God perish. I will not sit and watch those people who are supposed to know and love God move around in ignorance. So, no matter what you say to me, no matter how much you insult me or abuse me, I will not stop asking questions, I will not stop looking for the truth, I will not stop reading my Bible and I will not stop saying the truth as I see it, no matter what.