Popular Pastor Slumps In Church (Part 8)
Hearing God Series
By Femi Oluyamoju
*Part 8*
My wife bursted into tears. Not minding the blabbing of the caller, she knelt before me and said ” My husband I need to confess”
Pastor Abong was my boyfriend in secondary school and we lost touch over the years.
I was surprised when he was the one that was transferred to our branch from the international head quarters.
I was fed up of acting right in church when our home was in shambles. You were very angry with me regularly. Everything I did at home annoys you.
Because of my highly placed position in the church, I couldn’t talk to anyone. Because I am the one other pastors wife look up to for marriage advice, I bottled up my hurt and pain inside.
I was about to do something drastic when Abong arrived. Due to our history together I was open to him.
He came to report his wife to me, his marriage is also scattered, his wife had denied him sex for over 2 years. She had pushed him out of the matrimonial bedroom. She told him that she hate him with passion.
We naturally started discussing and keeping ourselves company. He had made efforts to hold me or kiss me, but I didn’t agree
To be honest, I didn’t know when we started sending love messages to ourselves. I didn’t know when I started sneaking out of the house to meet with him in restaurants just to be away from all my own marital storms.
My husband, I am sorry.
Two weeks ago, I stumbled on a Facebook post that says, emotional relationship is adultery. I felt bad, I told Abong but he wasn’t ready to stop.
I went into fasting and prayer. I told God I will give him anything just to have my marriage back. I told God to name his price.
God gave me a dream. I saw an old man walking into my room, he brought out a big sack and told me to open my closet. He packed all the cloths that were either short or tight for my stature. He went into my closet and packed all my jewelleries. He packed all my make up kits and even my sexy G-string panties. He packed all my wigs and add-on eye lashes.
Then he went to my shelve, packed off, all the feminism novels I had gathered over the years.
Finally he collected my phone and started deleting all the romance and x-rated novels I had downloaded.
He now gave me our wedding picture as compensation for everything he packed. Then I woke up from my dream.
I knew the sacrifice He wanted for my marriage is what He showed me in the dream.
My darling husband, I complied last weekend, you were to busy to notice, I have changed totally from what I used to be.
This week, I fasted and I cried to God that since I have given Him everything He wanted, He must give me my husband back.
I told Abong we needed to stop our relationship but he blackmailed me that he would expose all our chat. He also emotionally blackmailed me that He would kill himself if I stop spending time with him.
I was afraid to tell you because I know what you can do when you get angry.
I’m so sorry my husband. I will take any punishment you decide to give me….
I was totally disappointed at her, at my assistant pastor and most of all at myself.
I feel like dealing with that assistant pastor but I need to wait for the Holy Spirit.
I remembered that one of the points Satan had against me was being unforgiving.
I lifted up my wife from the floor and hugged her to myself.
Immediately I did that, I felt the warm love of God and I heard the Holy Spirit say “YOU JUST PASSED A TEST”.
My assistant kept trying to text my wife to confirm if she had truly confessed to me or not, but I told my wife to just act normal with him.
****************
Five days later, at the leading of the Holy Spirit, I organized a dinner for both families. My family and the assistant pastor family.
We do this once every year.
I acted normal as if I haven’t heard anything.
He was stealing glances at my wife but I kept my cool in Christ.
During the dinner, I stylishly apologized to his wife. I said “my sister, let me apologize that I kept your husband busy for months as we prepare for the praise program”
Usually, his wife was so reserved, she is an introvert and she keeps to herself, but tonight she seems very jovial.
She smiled and reply “pastor! Don’t mind my husband o, no matter how late he gets home, I must be ready for sex. He loves sex more than food”
Assistant pastor was staring at his food very seriously.
My wife almost chocked on her meal.
I smiled, God is exposing the lair.
His wife continued her chatter….
I also want to thank you and mummy for the one million naira you gave our family. Though my husband wanted to keep it a secret but I saw the alert.
This time I chuckled too. So he was stealing money from the church in addition to trying to get my wife.
Sweet Holy Spirit, well done.
His wife continued….”I also want to thank you sir”….
It’s ok now, let us eat…. The husband interjected in a stern voice
The wife for the first time jumped up in our presence, faced her husband saying “do you want to beat me in the presence of pastor?”
“The way you beat me when I questioned your traveling with Helen for church ministration”
She faced me, “I’m sorry sir, don’t send my husband on ministration with that Helen. My husband is a smooth womaniser.”
My wife was standing by now….
The eyes of the assistant pastor was very red and his hands shaking….
I replied his wife, “I never sent your husband on any ministration with Helen neither did I send any money to your husband”
His wife shouted… “Abong the smooth liar”
At this point, my wife spoke up, “Pastor Abong, but you told me your wife didn’t give you sex for 2 years, you told me she locked you out, you told me she is the one troubling your marriage?”
At this point, pastor Abong stood up and faced me and said….
“Well FYI, your wife has been asking me out, I have evidence of our chats.
I smiled and replied: “I have seen the chats too so I am not surprised”. I stood up to hug my wife in solidarity.
His wife laughed loud and said, “bros FYI, I have seen all the chats too. I saw how much lies you told her and how she told you to stop calling her but you refused”
“I saw your chats to that young widow in church and to numerous sisters”
I saw it all 3 days ago.
You lock your phone always but you forgot to lock it 3 days ago and I saw all your deceit.
I added my own bit, I told him “Pastor Abong, I saw you when you came into the office and you discovered me fainted, you were wicked enough to leave me there and go to dance with my innocent wife.”
Ahhhh, your heart is wicked.
At this junction, assistant pastor was expecting me to shout at him or arrest him.
The wife who feels so much pain was now crying.
My wife had to comfort her.
But I will forgive him for 4 reasons
First, if I had treated my own wife well, he won’t have been able to come into her. I have a great fault
Two: The accuser, the devil is waiting for me to make a mistake and I won’t give him a chance.
Three: My new friend, the Holy Spirit told me I must forgive.
Four: I wasn’t the one that exposed him, God, who is now fighting for me, exposed him.
So I forgave him but he was still arrogant.
The Holy Spirit told me not to suspend pastor Abong, that He wants to deal with him Himself.
3 weeks later, he went to see one of his girlfriends, she was also double dating a very crazy tout. The guy caught them in the act and used cutlass to deal with pastor Abong.
Today he is on a wheel chair. He is no longer a womaniser and very devoted to God
Hmmmm stop trying God’s patience. He can be a consuming fire.
3 months after my experience I was sacked as the pastor by the church board
[2/10, 10:10 PM] Bro Akiode Olatunde: Hearing God Series
*Part 9* The Final
After my encounter I discovered that there are two ways to run a church and that there are two ways to run any ministry that God has called you into.
The popular way or the Jesus way
I discovered that the popular way is the way every other person tend to run ministry without taking into consideration the instruction of Jesus who founded Christianity.
So we have a new kind of religion that looks like Christianity but designed to please the people rather than obey God.
The second way is the way of the Holy Spirit, where all decisions and all activities must first be signed off by the Holy Spirit before you take any step or do anything.
I discovered that this way is tough and it’s not easy and it is naturally against my human instinct.
I learnt that for me to appropriately have a ministry that will please God, I have to die to my own thinking, my own desires and submit hundred percent to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
This was tough
This was not only tough for me and my wife, but it was tough for our church members because they have been used to the human way of running ministry.
The common phrase that was now used to describe me was that, I had gone crazy. Some others said that when I fainted my head must have hit the ground and now I am a lunatic.
But the more they call me crazy, the more they called me abnormal, the more the Holy Spirit congratulated me for obeying him.
I discovered that to please the Holy Spirit in this world of ours, you will be hated and despised by those who don’t have time to follow or listen to the Holy Spirit.
This is where my problem began
*MESSAGES*
Before now I used to listen to other people’s messages and use it to prepare my own message or I read Christian literature to prepare my own messages.
After my encounter, when the Holy Spirit became my personal teacher, I had to go back to read the Bible and understand the message.
I must practice the message in my own life before I am permitted to preach it on the altar.
It is now do as I do, not do as I say.
The Holy Spirit told me that He is not gathering people to church in order to entertain them because when we die we will have the best entertainment in heaven. He told me that the only reason why He has gathered people to church is to help them to pass their test and make it to heaven and that any other thing we do that does not add value to members getting to heaven is a total waste of time.
So my messages changed from prosperity, blessing and Grace to holiness, righteousness and heaven and my pastor colleagues didn’t like it so I was no longer invited to preach in their churches.
*MONEY*
There is a man that used to sow seeds into my life regularly in tens of millions. After my encounter, he brought his seed again and the Holy Spirit told me not to collect it.
As soon as I told him that the Holy Spirit told me not to collect it, he laughed and said finally your eyes are opened.
Actually the Holy Spirit told me later that anytime I collect the seed of this man, my marriage suffers because the seed is coming from the hand of an unrepentant wife beater.
After this encounter I set up a committee in the church to investigate everyone that is bringing sizeable payments into the church.
A lot of the heavy financiers didn’t want the source of their money investigated so they stopped paying money into our church and this got me queries from the headquarters.
*MY LIFE OF LUXURY*
My parish is the most successful parish in our denomination so I enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. I had state of the art cars and a private jet.
The Holy Spirit told me that I do not have a house in heaven because I have enjoyed beyond what I should enjoy on earth.
Rather than having a house in heaven, I am indebted to heaven. I have withhold more than I should have.
God told me that, I must first pay my debt for the monies I shouldn’t have spent but I have lavished on my lust for lush lifestyle.
So I sold my private jet, I sold all my cars and I sold my house to move to a modest environment with modest cars. I set up secret accounts to take care of the poor and the needy in our church and in the environment.
Every time a financial breakthrough comes my way, I take only what I need to live and give out the rest to help those around me.
Every time I do this, the only spirit shows me my house in heaven, it is currently being built.
The less I use on earth and the more I give out to those in need around me the more my house is being constructed in heaven.
*SEEDS*
Before my encounter, on a monthly basis I sent very fat seeds to specific men of God so that I can be in their good books especially our general overseer. I wasn’t giving to God, I was giving to men
After my Encounter I was no longer in charge of my finances, rather than allow me to sow as I used to do in the past, the Holy Spirit started sending me to various unknown persons.
Anytime He sends me to sow and I obey him, that night my mansion in heaven will be shown to me as more construction is taking place.
Every time I disobey him my mansion is shown in heaven being reduced by my level of disobedience.
*THE CHURCH*
After my counter I removed all the funny items in the pastor’s office and prayerfully replaced them with simple furniture. I broke down all the special privileges being given to me as the pastor and started sitting with the congregation without any special seat.
I cancelled all the titles that was given to me.
*My Sack*
3 months later, I got a call from the headquarters to come for an urgent meeting.
As I sat down at the meeting the Holy Spirit told me that I will be sacked that day and that I should get ready. I should not have any argument with anyone.
My spiritual eyes could see secrets about those sitting on the panel.
The chairman of the panel, the general overseer, started the church because God called him but the love of money has blinded him and he was really angry because the income of our church has gone down due to the fact that we now interview people before they can donate to the church.
The vice chairman of the panel is an old pastor who is also a grand member of the ogboni fraternity. His mission in the church is to water down the doctrine so that it will be easier for his fellow members to become pastors, leaders and eventually take over the church. He saw me as a threat and about to take me down.
They leveled so much accusations against me and just like Jesus did, I said no word.
That day I was sacked as a pastor and excommunicated from the church for deciding to follow the teachings of Jesus rather than play normal general church.
*A New Church*
God touched a brother in India to come to Nigeria. God gave him my address. When he got to my house, he told me that God said, He will reject him unless he comes to meet me. He is a well accomplished construction engineer.
A billionaire was preparing to die. God told him that his home in heaven will only be completed if he builds an auditorium for Him. So he bought a land and built a church.
He equipped it according to instructions from God. He never met me. A day before he died, as directed by God, he signed the documents transfering the auditorium to bro Judel Jones. A name he saw in his dreams.
I was driving one day, I saw two men drenched in rain, the Holy Spirit asked me to give them a lift.
As the men entered the car, they started shouting “praise God, God is good”
They asked me to park, they got down in the rain and started dancing.
I asked what happened, they told me, God told them to come and wait at the junction, that the bro Jude Jones will pass and carry them.
I told them yes, I am he…..
They handed over to me, the documents to the church the billionaire built.
The engineer from India helped us to construct the road to the church, he used his construction company based in Nigeria.
Even before we started services, God would go to people’s dreams, show them our church and tell them to begin to worship with us. We didn’t do any advert.
The day we started services, I only went with my wife to spend time alone with God in the auditorium. I got to church and saw people waiting outside.
I asked them what they came for, they said God told them to come. We had no choice but start service that day.
*My Marriage*
My wife and I have become close friends. If I do not treat my wife well, the Holy Spirit won’t talk to me. God didn’t give us our own biological children but we have a house full of children.
*Conclusion*
Today I go from place to place teaching the gospel of Jesus reconciling souls back to their creator and helping everyone that comes my way.
The last time the Holy Spirit showed me my house in heaven it has been completed. The house is actually bigger than a continent on earth.
I lost friends and families along the way but I gained GOD as a friend and HE is waiting for me eagerly to reward me for all I have lost after my encounter with him
I am now eagerly waiting for the day I will die and leave this sinful world to meet with my saviour. There is nothing you could give me in this world that could make me satisfied, my focus is my mansion in heaven and grand welcome from my Lord Jesus.
I am eagerly waiting to defeat the devil in the court of my saviour because this time around I am not led by flesh or worldliness, the Holy Spirit who is wiser than the devil is the one in charge of the affairs of my life.
Hopefully you have learnt one or two lessons from my own experience and hopefully you will decide to also stop playing general Christianity. Give God a chance to encounter you and submit to the directorship of the Holy Spirit
I hope that by my story, you can take away your focus from the things available on earth. I hope you will begin to work on your mansion in heaven so we can meet together at the feet of Jesus and probably live on the same Street in heaven.
Your brother in the vineyard.
Bro Jude Jones
The brother that fainted in church
*Do You Wish To Pray*
You can tell Jesus wherever you are that;
1) I surrender to you totally from now on
2) Please deliver me from lukewarm and unprofitable Christianity
3) Holy Spirit, please I need you as my best friend
4) A blind and deaf Christian is a disaster, please open my spiritual eyes and ears
5) Help me to focus on heaven and defeat worldliness.
Thanks for reading and following,
May God bless you and give you more understanding in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
Part 9 to be continued tomorrow