At a time when many clerics indulge in prosperity messages to attract members, thus laying emphasis on blessings rather than on the true worship of God, a cleric has asked other men in the pulpit to look again into the scriptures with the eyes of God and avoid the dislocation, misapplication and misinterpretations of the scriptures. The General Overseer of Faith Revival Ministries World Outreach, also known as Victory Christian Church, Dr. Nkechi F. Anayo Iloputaife also advised believers to follow the Biblical injunction and seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and that every other blessings will be theirs.

In her words, children of God do not need to chase after blessings and miracles as all this would be theirs, if they truly serve God. Reverend Anayo also said that men of God who have a sincere desire to serve, should not hesitate to go into politics. According to her, we have prayed enough and if children of God do not rule, who should rule?

Background
My name is Nkechi Anayo Iloputaife, I am called of God to serve and preach the gospel, and that is what I do. I am sent of God; what­ever I was before, today I am better.

Born Again
I heard the gospel, but I would say that before then, I was a religious person and for every attempt by people to make me be born again, I said no, I am very religious. I had the fear of God. God was so real to me, so I didn't need anybody to tell me there was God or no God.

Little did I know that what we are saying surpasses religion, and all that it is all about a relationship with one's Creator, and when I heard the gospel, I knew that it was noting but the truth. I have always had this inclination; there is this divinely impressed, self support, importance in me that I started working in Him without even knowing Him personally. But when I heard the gospel that Jesus died for me, it was very real; I gave my life to Jesus Christ. There was a church then my family was attending. We were all part of the church then because it was mandatory that we went to church not because I wanted to go to church. But I made a u-turn. I come from a religious background, very religious. I was baptised and I used to take Holy Communion. So, I really thought that after doing all these, nobody could be more pious as I didn't know there was another dimension to the service of God as in the way I know Him now.

What the Bible calls a new birth, born-again, I wouldn't say that I really understood what happened then in the church. I would say that I virtually I understood what born-again meant; I knew I that I hardly sinned, only that there was an awakening, a new desire to get committed to the things of God, you know. It was like, go all the way with God. I didn't really understand what really happened. It was when I met my I husband, the late Bishop Iloputaife that I got to understand what it meant to be born again. That was when I understood what happened to me because the experience I had was, I gave my life to Jesus, and it was the same year that I married him.

Pastoral training.
I underwent pastoral training here. My husband trained me, under the auspices of the Bible Citizen College for about one and half years. After the pastoral training I got a honourary doctorate from All Nations for Christ Institute International, a Christian university affiliated to Oral Roberts University, USA.

Starting the ministry
I didn't start the ministry, my husband started the ministry. He was the one God called initially to do the work. He set up the ministry.

Miracles
There have been lots of miracles. So many that I can't even remember all. As I minister, God speaks through me. I even told you that some was diagnosed of bone cancer. He was in our Communion service the other time. There was also another one who couldn't see her menses after eight years of bearing the first child. And she was here in Nigeria . She had gone to several night vici1s but she heard our message and was about leaving Nigeria then, two months after, she got pregnant. What happened was that as I ministered the word through the television set, she had placed her hand on the television set. I have always said I am not a miracle worker. Jesus is the miracle man. The miracles Jesus has done through us are numerous.

Deliverance
I believe that when a believer is born again, he also experiences deliverance. It doesn't take a special service. It takes only the ministration of the word of God and prayer to bring the influence of the Holy Spirit. And I don't make a big do out of this thing. They say deliverance service, deliverance message, etc, I believe that when we minister. to you, the Bible says that you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

If one ministers the truth of God, given the power of prayers, given the influence of healing, your deliverance is sure. But remember that the Psalmist says in Psalm 37:4 thus, delight thyself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart. These include deliverance, etc.

Mistakes made before now
I think the fundamental mistake I made before now was that I had an open door policy for everyone to come to the pulpit after the death of the bop, my husband. When he was here, everybody didn't go to the pulpit. I believe that part of the challenges I had after his death was because I allowed everybody to go or come to the pulpit, contrary to what was on ground when he was alive. I think, it's like I was too sentimental, you know, I said let everybody come to see me, without even thinking how people would handle that. The Bible says don't give power to a novice, so, trying to carry everybody along and giving people relevance, created some problems.

I believe it was part of the problem I had initially. With that which I would call open door policy, it created problems. Bringing everybody together, calling everybody, come on, come on and that exposure began to bring out some thing in the people. I believe my husband would have seen these things in the people and that was, may be, why he didn't give the type of freedom that I gave. And that freedom of, come, lets see this things together, well, it was a situation that was borne out of sentiment.

Challenges
In this work, I have had very sincere people who told me that the challenges I have met through the years are not just or common to me because I am a woman. Some of them as males do have challenges too. Some are even worse off with the challenges. But the fact is this, in anything you do, which has to do with people, there has to be problems. But I thank God for what God is doing. I want to say that through the challenges, God has raised me. I have come to know more about leadership. I have learnt more, I have developed more spiritually, intellectually, have grown more in understanding, and I have come to know about the nature of man. So I would say, it is like going to school.

Men of God/politics
I believe that men of God also can be called to serve as 1 Corinthians 12:20 says that governance belongs to God which means that God can call people, and ordain them to be involved in government. I don't have a problem with men of GOO who feel that they are called to be in government. We have prayed long enough. It is time for us to get involved.

Asked whether she would love to be involved, the pastor said, no, because I am not called to get involved politics but I will support anybody who sincerely feels he is called to be in government. Christians should get enlightened, get smart. Sometimes, we are the ones that criticise ourselves and I say why a Christian should get involved in politics. If a Christian does not get involved in politics, who should? I still believe that God calls people and anoints them for politics. And I would encourage anybody who sincerely wants to go in, having received die call, to get involved in politics.

Men of God and social life
Asked to comment on the allegation that some men of God often involve in certain things that any ear that hears it would tingle, she said, I just know that our relationship to the work of God is personal and our work to God too is personal and I believe that anyone that has been called of God, redeemed, separated by God to serve would do so by His grace.

I still know that the devil is an accuser .of the brethren. Sometimes too, just because they want to get at the gospel, people carry stories that are non-existent. But I Know that a man or woman of God who is serving God should be concerned about his or her work with God, and should know that we are only going to be accountable to Him. We will account to God about the way we lived our lives. Paul said something that is very powerful. He said he does not want to please everybody and become a castaway himself.

I love God and I have a responsibility to live a life that will please Him. I want to say that, that should be personal to everybody whether we want to admit it or not, we want to separate ourselves from them, there is a day of reckoning. All will stand before God and give account of the way we lived our lives.

Fraudsters in church business
I don't know of any fraudsters having churches. I am not saying we are perfect, but as I said, it is a personal work.

I know that whether I am a Christian or not, I love God and my work with Him is personal to me. Cultism in some churches I have heard it that cultism is so prevalent in the body of Christ. I have also heard that jass also exists in some of the churches, that some pastors are involved in it. I really cannot speak authoritatively on some things I don't know about. I have heard stories about this. Some of them sound almost convincing but I have not seen it neither will I participate in it, and neither do I cant to see it.

Prosperity ministries
Prosperity message is in the Bible, but the balance in relaying these messages is what has not been there. If we begin to review a lot of things about life of Christians, looking at what they go after, one would notice that there is need for us from the pulpit to look again to this prosperity.

Let s look again with the eyes of God especially ill this part of the world where poverty is the bane of our society. It is easy for us to want to read into scripture what the scripture did not say because of poverty. It is also for us to get into something that we think can get favour, you know, we are all in this part of the world where we are oppressed by poverty.

Devil has also taken advantage of that oppression to bring about some imbalance in our messages because we think until we say what the scripture did not say, so that people can come to join us. We talk about prosperity, or Christianity brings this thing you will pros­per. Most of the time, I can tell you now that I know, God is found in most of the things. You now see that in most churches, you see people who are chasing after blessings, chasing after prosperity, they want to have it by all means.

As real Christians, we don't have to chase after blessings. Chasing after God makes blessings to come to us. Once we can chase after God, blessings will follow us. I can make it clear that God will not withdraw any­ thing from us if we work uprightly. He will really bless us.

As stated in Matthew Chapter 6:33, it says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and every other things will be added to you. Paraphrased, it means seek you God first and his righteousness and all of those things that you need will be an addition. I believe that most people go to church looking for better life and they are going about it the wrong way. But you believer, you don't go about it the way they go about it. Go about it my way because if you can seek me and get my kingdom, if you love me with all your heart, serve me with all your strength, it is part of my responsibility to fulfill your needs. If we can live our lives to please God, God will provide our needs. It is unfortunate that people are no longer chasing after God.

This brings us to the issue of idolatry in churches. You can see a form of idolatry in churches. Most people go to church just to idolise their problems. They no longer go to church because they want to serve and worship God, they go to church because they have problems. Some go because they want to marry, some because they want to buy cars, some others because they want issue of the womb, etc. Because they are problem-driven, they are not even God-driven; they are driven by their problems. If you want to see, in most churches today, some people are problem driven. They forget that the bible says, we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, with our entire mind and with all our strength.

That is where break­through starts. You will notice now that as a result of this, people rotate from one church to the other, from one victory camp to the other. What are they looking for? The truth is they are looking for miracles, and they are not getting it. They have been looking for miracles for years and they are not getting it. You cannot get miracles without knowing the miracle worker. You don't want to live a pure life, you want a miracle. How do you receive a miracle from the Holy God without living a holy life? If you want breakthrough, you must know the master of victory, the master of breakthrough. If you want healing, you must know the master of healing. You must know' the miracle worker. One surprising thing is that, most people in the pulpit do not teach the people to know God, but they are teaching them to seek after blessings.

On dressing in the church.
God is a spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in truth and in spirit. At a time we noted so much in the flesh, you know, it is carnality,. Did he come here? Did he put powder? Did he do this or that? You discover that if people can keep away from all of these, if people can look simple, look dirty, I and may be tattered, you will be amazed. Some people think that holiness is about how you look, holiness is about who you are. You can look holy and may not be holy.

Now, if it is based on the way you dress, if 'you wear something nice they say it is worldly. If it is not nice, then it is not worldly. Now how would you want to convince me that the one that is not good came from heaven and the one that is good come from the world? The Bible says that God is a good God.

When I first became born again, I used to dress and wear jeans, shirts, etc. You know, after a while nobody ever told me to stop. One day, I wore one of my shirts trying to go out, as I step out of the house I felt so condemned. I didn't like the way I dressed. I felt I had annoyed God. I went back and removed all that I wore. Anyone who is working with God, a child of God, walks in the spirit. But I think it makes sense for me to wear trousers instead of wearing a skirt that would expose almost all my body.

Responding to the point that shirts and trousers belong to men and gowns, dresses or blouses belong to women, Iloputaife said no, in the days of Jesus Christ, He didn't wear trousers. Jesus wore caftan, so how do we say that it belongs to men when did trousers come? The same company that makes blouses or dresses for women makes trousers, suits. I would rather have a girl in my church wear a track suit than wear a micro mini.

When you come back to what belongs to men, what really belongs to men? When we go back to the New Testament, which dressing can we say, Jesus wore? He didn't wear suits, He didn't wear trousers, He wore caftan. So, it is civilization that began to dress us up, and the same company that makes dresses, makes trousers, suits. The trouser, dresses or suits are not the problem we have. The 'problem we have is having to serve God with all our hearts. If you can love God with all of your heart, it is okay. We should not reduce everything to dressing. When we begin to major in the minor, we over look the major, we are focusing on the minor and by so doing, we are being distracted from the major.

What is major is our work with God, cultivating a personal relationship with God, our maker. Our relationship with Him has different aspects. He can also be our friend. Cultivating a friendship with Him is more important than what did you wear to church? I also believe that we should be modest. Some of the dressings that are distracting, we should avoid them.

Advice to other men of God
My advice to we men of God is that we should look again into the scriptures and return to the word of God, and not read something when it is not there. We should avoid dislocation, misapplication and misinterpretation of the scriptures. Most of us do these to find what we think is comfortable to us. We should allow the scriptures to say what they say. God paid an awesome price for true worshippers and God is holding us responsible for raising this true worship.

Culled from Daily Sun

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