The general overseer of God’s Mercy Revival Ministries (GOMERM) Idimu Lagos, Dr James Akanbi, spoke with Sunday Oguntola on the current economic recession and ministerial abuses in the body of Christ. Excerpts:
Nigerians welcomed 2016 with great recession. They are asking ‘where is God in all of these?’
God is where He has always been. He is still on the throne. To me, if we are expecting national or general prosperity, we should perish the thought.
Why should we perish the thought?
To me, it is very simplistic to expect that National Gross Product (GDP) and other economic indices will improve. When oil prices improve, another challenge will surface. That is how things will remain because the world is aging.
What I have always said is that individuals should get God so that He can be their personal prosperity. In the midst of national calamities, individuals can still prosper. In the midst of national financial crisis, individuals can still prosper.
There is a great covenant with prosperity that has nothing to do with what is going on globally economically. I have seen God’s people testifying to prosperity in the midst of recession. But I doubt if there will be national, general prosperity. Every nation will always have troubles to deal with. But God can insulate people from all the troubles around them.
How do we reconcile this with the scripture that asks us to pray for the peace of Israel because those that love it will prosper?
You know I quote this scripture a lot. But it says only those that love it will prosper. How many people truly love this nation? If we love this country, we will prosper. If we do righteousness here, God will reward us for doing it. The fact is if Nigeria prospers today, it doesn’t mean more people will move out of the poverty line.
Why not?
Okay, let consider this. In the last seven years, we experienced a great boom. How many millionaires rose from it? In fact, the more money we made, the poorer many Nigerians became. Our leaders became greedier. The more it came, the more our leaders positioned themselves to siphon it. A lot of them are satanically positioned to loot.
So, individuals have to get God to get what belongs to them. Only God can spread wealth meant for His people. Whether the nation is rich or poor, those of God will feed. Those who know their God will do exploits and prosper.
Christians should not be afraid by what is happening now. This is the best time to rise with God. When Eagles see storms that is when they soar. If individuals float, the nation will float. If we are too bothered about saving the nation and we are not floating, we will all perish.
It is in personal prosperity that national prosperity will come to be. But if we concentrate on personal prosperity, there won’t be individual prosperity. I just look at the scriptures, key myself into what it says and it has never failed me. If anyone waits for the nation to turn around before experiencing prosperity, they are deeply mistaken.
Pastoral authority has been taken to a ridiculous level in the nation. How did we get to the point that people listen more to their pastors than God?
We got there in the 80s. Many of those converted in the 70s, unfortunately are not that much around again. I gave my life to Christ in February 1979 and met a remnant of the original gospel. But in the mid 80s, our ministers came back from America and created personality cults.
They started branding themselves more than the God they preach. In the midst of that recession came in and people needed God. Those who just came from America started telling us, in a de facto way, that this is it and nothing but it.
They started changing the church systems, bringing in body guards and other paraphernalia. Those who learnt under them also replicated the same. Everybody wants to be like J.D Jakes, Kenneth Copeland and all that.
Will you blame pastors or members for the substitution of God for pastoral guidance?
You blame the people who are unable to understand what God words say about leaders. Leaders are to be respected, not feared or worshipped. That is clear in the scriptures.
Those who want to just respect their leaders and not worship them are labeled as rebels…
…You see rebellion is about attitudes and disposition. You can prostrate to greet someone meanwhile you are standing in your mind. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. A kiss is a sign of affection and closeness. Yet, Judas used it to hand Jesus over. That someone is kneeling before you does not mean such a person means well or is following you.
But many church leaders seem to love and encourage that
That is because they don’t know any better. Many who started Christianity in the mid 80s will not do that or enjoy it. There are church members who come here bowing and I have had to raise them up. Many remain on their knees and I have had to insist I won’t attend to them until they sit up.
People will always offer but it is up to pastors to determine how to respond. Must people go down to talk to me? That is not necessary. I have worked in a secular multi-national where everyone, from the cleaner to the MD, is on first-name basis. That didn’t change anything or what we have.
Messengers in the office called me by first name. At our headquarters in Sweden, everyone was on first name. I was in the system for 14 years and so find what many do very odd. If ministers are not careful, they will run into troubles with God. In 1999, God told me never to take His glory. He said if I hold on to His glory, it will create blisters in my hands.
Isn’t this fuelled by overdependence on pastors for divine instructions?
Yes, I agree with you my brother. You see ministering as a prophet is different from seeking to control lives. I operate in the prophetic office but it is not to pry into someone’s private life. You are kidding if you say you are a prophet by just telling where they live, what car they drive and their family backgrounds.
That is the specialisation of the devil. He can tell the past and the future. He only lacks powers over the future. That someone is telling you your car’s number doesn’t make him a man of God. The devil can do that. He gives people gifts to do all of that. You can hear voices without being a man of God.
You can look at people’s palms and tell what is happening to them. It doesn’t make one a Christian. You don’t have to be a prophet to see all that. The bible says by their fruit you know them. But the problem is that some evil people can cultivate those fruits but they have secret sins. If you study them hard and long enough, you will find stuff that does not belong to God in them.
Is there hope for the church from such manipulative pastors?
My answer is mixed. In the midst of the confusion, God is getting some glories. The gospel is being preached. At least the name of Christ is being heard by the fake and genuine preachers. But the hope for church is that Christ will continue to be preached. That is the only hope.
Maybe again if government regulates activities of religious bodies, things might change a bit. We have a church in the UK and I know how well we operate there. But the problem is that some haters of the church can also capitalise on that to kill the body of Christ. In advanced societies, the regulations are so cast in stones that nobody can manipulate them to hurt the church.