When Reverend Silva Daniel sensed the call of God upon his life, he did not hesitate to obey the call. To put himself is shape for the work, he embarked upo series of trainings and today, he is flying where the eagles belong.
Love Aflame Ministries, at Okokomaiko along Lagos-Badagry Expres Road has ouched lives and shaped destinies of people who are willing and obedient to the counsel of the Lord. Testimonies abound. In this interview he granted Bola Adewara late 2007, Reverend Daniel speaks on his call and his church. He also responds to some probing questions on the Nigerian Church and other issue. Excerpts.

Sir, who is qualified to mount the pulpit in your church?
A Ghanaian pastor made a remark I will never forget: he said that the pulpit is a very delicate place that one word from the minister would either scatter the church or build the church. That statement has gotten stocked in me through these years. I realized that whoever pastors in any church is just a shepherd. That's how I look at the church from my own angle.

On whoever is going to stand on the pulpit in my church, we must first of all find out who the person is, where he from is, the person's school of thoughts, his thinking, what he does and also his mentor/s. We are not tribalistic because the body of Christ is one.

Have you ever invited anybody and later regretted?
Yes, there was a Guest speaker we invited in one of our programmes. We had invited him before that time, he ministered well and we were excited by him and decided to bring him back. This time, he went to the pulpit and marketing his books and saying all sorts of things. It was so embarrassing. The experience left a great mark in my spirit.

It really takes the grace of God to gather people because people don't just come like that; it takes the spirit of God leading people. One must be patient and also it takes integrity to lead people.

How did you get born again?
I gave my life to Christ in the year 1980 precisely on October 12, 1980. Few months after giving my life to Christ - I actually heard a knocking in my spirit. There was also a need to get educated along the line of ministry of the gospel, because I just sensed this call upon my life even though I did not know anything about calling. But there was this push towards the work of God.

My father in the Lord, Rev. Elijah Audu from Benue State who has moved to Kogi because of the ministry, told me it is just an initial thing that usually come upon people the moment they give their life to Christ. After that time, I started going through a lot of experience in my dreams, but I didn't want to just go ahead and enter the ministry then. I felt I needed to go to school and I went to Federal College of Arts & Science in Sokoto State for two years, finished and went to All Nation for Christ Ministry in Benin, where I got a Diploma.

In the year 1987, I realized that there was a need for me to get very firm about what I believe God can actually do. I started knowing God, praying for people, lay hands on people, sharing the word, and I was not even called a minister of God.

Initially, after finishing from All Nation for Christ Ministry in Benin, which is an affiliate of Bayelsa University today and started working with Rev. Audu. After the revelation, I came to Lagos , started up a church in 1993, in a place called Okokomaiko where I saw Jesus Christ. It was like in a pulpit situated on a large expense of land, like a football field. It was like starting up a stage for crusade, just working down the stage; Jesus walked up to me and I heard him say to me “Can I trust you?” I wanted to say something but I couldn't talk; but inside me there was this desire to talk, then I heard again “Can I trust you to lead the world back to Me?”. Few seconds after that, He disappeared.

I took the matter to a Bishop and he said it was a definite call upon my life, to lead the world back to Him. In fact, that is the mission God has made with you: to lead the world back to the Lord.

Let's look at how the church started.
Well in Okokomaiko in 1993, we started by just having fellowship in my sitting room, just little by little, clapping hands praising God, from the midst of that we had Wednesday teaching service, from Wednesday service we finally had the Sunday's service, and up till now, the Lord has been faithful. The church was inaugurated on August 1994. It was I with a girl who followed me all the way from Kaduna .

How did you make it, in an environment you have never been before? How did you break through?
We started clapping hands in the midst of all that. There was one young guy in our midst that I know in my school days in Sokoto State , who has been in Cotonou . He got to know I was in town, somebody told him about me and he visited me; he came to my house, we got taking and I told him I am about starting a church and he got excited. He fell in love, brought one of his friends and we all went out for evangelism.

Recently, a South African pastor asked me that where are the Nigerian pastors taking the Nigerian people to? He also said that the Nigerian churches are building magnificent buildings and are not building magnificent people. We are having magnificent buildings but this thing is not manifesting in the magnificence of the people. The government is said to have failed, crime is on the increase and yet the church is on the increase. What is actually happening?
It has to do with the vision each of us have received from the Lord; like for us our vision is “getting the world back to God”. I think what makes some pastors build structures and not the people is for financial gain. The ministers no more disciple people to be like Jesus Christ.

The other problem is that most pastors are not educated: one thing is to be intellectually sound and other thing is to be spiritually educated. Not everyman you see on the pulpit is spiritually connected. Many of them are not born again and are not even Christians.

Many don't have an abiding faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and people today are not looking for Christ, and no character. People don't want to know whether the person has character, they just want to see the result. As the end time draws near, anti-Christ is going to become common place and is going to fill the face of the earth.

Also, the church will like to put magnificent structures in place because want to advertise their churches not Christ. Also, some individuals would like places where there is good structures, air-conditioned church, etc. The 21st generation is a funny generation where everything has to look fabulous, presentable or else you will not see certain individuals in that kind of church.