Prophet
Hezekiah Oladeji, the General Evangelist of Christ Apostolic Church, Worldwide,
took time off his busy schedule to speak to the Editor of CHRIST APOSTOLIC
MAGAZINE, Pastor Ademisoye Alawode.
He spoke on wide range of issues from the point of view of an Evangelist. We
serve you excerpts from the Interview:
What
is your vision for Christ Apostolic Church?
My vision for the Church is subsumed in the
vision God gave to Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola. God had given the Great Apostle
a vision of what the Church should be and what the Church should be doing. This
had been pursued energetically by the Apostle and the patriarchs of the Church.
They did their best and handed over to the present generation. This generation
is still pursuing the vision.
I am keying into that vision of God for the
Church. If you insist, I am going to summarise that vision for you in these few
words: VISION: Soul winning and
spiritual reawakening of the world, OUR
MISSION: Leading people into the knowledge of God through an in-depth study
of the word of God, prevailing prayer and spiritual worship.
You may now say this is the commission of
Jesus Christ to all Christians. Yes, I agree, but the energy most of us who
profess to be Christians, put into the pursuit of this vision, is what makes
the difference. Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola and our patriarchs pursued this
vision diligently with everything they had, during their own time, and the
whole black race knew that Christianity was not the worship of an inactive God.
So, what we are saying is that if we could try to equal their zeal and we
remain focused, God will do what He alone can do by fulfilling His word.
There
were miracles, signs and wonders in the ministry of the Apostle. Are you saying
we should be expecting miracles in your ministry?
There were miracles during the ministry of
the Apostle. The Apostle never attributed those miracles to himself. God did
what He alone could do, when the Apostle and the patriarchs did what they were
supposed to do. Our commission is to go to the whole world to preach the
Gospel. It is true that when we have done our part God often proves Himself with
signs following. But God alone is the miracle worker. We are to proclaim God’s
message. He would then prove that He is the one that sent us to proclaim His
message. He has never disappointed us in this regard.
For
a long time now, there has been prophecy of end time revival that will come
from the Christ Apostolic Church, when will this happen?
Revival will come when the people of God
are ready for God’s move. Revival is needed when something that has been alive
and active suddenly went dormant. When such thing slumbers, there is need for
revival. When such a thing is not as active as it used to be, there is need for
a revival. What is the state of the Church in Nigeria today? Generally
speaking, the Church needs revival. When holiness, righteousness and love for
others are no longer the hallmark of Christianity, there is need for revival.
As for Christ Apostolic Church, it is
generally believed that this first Pentecostal Church in Africa needs revival.
We are no longer seeing our signs. For there to be a revival, there must be the
awareness of that need. The Church must realise that it needs revival when
there is overwhelming evidence that things are not what they used to be. This
Church used to bask in the power of God for healing and deliverances. This
Church has reputation for holiness and righteousness. The interesting thing is
that the leadership and the entire membership of the Church have realised that
there is need for revival. We are praying for revival to happen in our own time
and we are also ready to do whatever God prescribe for us to do in order for
this revival to come in our own time.
What
are you doing to bring the many evangelical ministries in the Church under one
umbrella?
We have started work on this. We are going
to bring everyone who genuinely knows that they have the call of God in their
lives to be evangelist under the authority of the Church. We shall no longer
tolerate a situation where someone will be using the name of the Church without
belonging to the Church. All our evangelists, Church planters and prophets are
going to be involved in all our evangelical programmes.
Church planting will be unified. Although
we respect and appreciate those whom God had used to plant Churches, but we
only need to constantly remind them through effective interaction that if
you plant a church, you plant it for the
Lord, not for yourself. The Church belongs to God. It is a rare privilege that
you are given the grace to do so. It cannot be your personal or family’s
property. You can’t will it to your children after death. So, we shall engage
everybody, tap the resources God deposited in them for effective evangelism.
We are on course in this regard. Very soon,
any evangelist who is not within the umbrella of the authorities of the Church
would no longer be able to operate within the Church.
You
mentioned that Christianity covers a wide space in Nigeria but its root is not
up to one inch. The more churches we have, the more widespread are
unrighteousness, wickedness and sin. What can we do to change the situation?
We have to preach the Gospel. It is the
power of God for salvation of soul. What we can do is for everybody, I mean
everybody from the leaders in the country to the least in the country to return
to God through Jesus Christ. We are witnessing moral decadence and killings,
kidnapping and all sorts of immorality because people are far away from God.
Anybody that is not ruled by the law of God would not mind to kill and maim and
kidnap in order to make money. Anybody outside the will of God is under the
influence of the devil. As devil’s agent, no evil, no matter how diabolical, is
too much for him/her to perpetrate.
Mention any evil under the sun, the
children of perdition are the perpetrators. It is nothing to such people to
enter into any evil cults that demand human blood for ritual. There are cults
of killers, there are cults of human flesh eaters (cannibals), there are cults
that use women parts. All of them are agents of the devil, their master the
devil had given them reprobate minds. He had closed their hearts to
understanding the fact that they would not live perpetually in the world. One
day, they would leave this world. The devil had shut their mind to see the
dreadful judgement awaiting those who are evilly disposed. The devil would not
allow them to think twice that they would give account of whatever they do here
on earth. This is why these evil is spreading. But as Christians, we have a
duty. We are to preach to them. Our own duty is to preach, God is the one that
would convict a sinner and make him repent from his sins.
So, we must not fail to discharge our own duty.
We must preach the Gospel, whether they would accept or not. Once we have done
our own, God surely will do what only Him can do.
A
word for the ministers of God.
We must allow the word of God to permeate
our lives so that it will reflect in our ministry, our home, our community and
in this country, when we have done this, these evil acts will be reducing in
the country. With what is being preached in the conference of Pastors, if we
put the teaching to use it is supposed to impact in our country.
What
is your advice to politicians as we approach the 2019, year of general elections?
My advice to this nation is that we must
return to God completely. The reason is that anybody that is not a friend of
God, there is nothing too much for him to steal, there is nothing too much for
him to snatch. If anybody is not a friend of God, if he sucks human blood, he
would think he is on course. If he rob,
kill or maim before he steals another person’s property, he wouldn’t have scruples,
no pinch of conscience.
But if we return to God, it will be
difficult to steal, to maim and convert the national treasury unto his personal
use. Something belonging to the nation an individual would want to grab it for
himself, all these stems from lack of knowledge of God. If we have knowledge of
God, we’ll have the fear of God. We must not turn a deaf ear to the word of God
in Nigeria.
Many don’t remember that we brought nothing
into the world neither are we going to take anything out of the world. This
knowledge that is lacking in many people is responsible for these evil
practices. There is nothing we brought into the world and there is nothing we
are taking out. If someone has a trillion Naira, what does he want to do with
it? How many years does he want to spend here on earth? If he spend 100 years
or 120 years in the end, he would die. He would be like water poured out that
cannot be gathered again. We must not forget that we came into the world
eventually, six feet down is our ultimate end.
The bible says the proud will be like a
trimmed grass. Its top has been trimmed, it is useless.
I want to advise all of us especially
politicians looking for positions. Those that want to be Governors,
representatives or senators, whatever position you hold in government, it’s
just for a while. People like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Bola Ige are all gone.
What is more, after death, judgement follows. There is no where we are situated
that we won’t give account of our stewardship. There is judgement after death.
There is nothing we become in the world, if it is not from God, we have stolen
it. There is none that would not stand before the judgement seat whether you
did what was right or what is wrong.
My advice to Nigerians is that let us
return to God. If we return to God, we shall have contentment. May God uphold
us.