MESSAGE 2 TO THE CHURCH LEADERS IN NIGERIA by Bro. Alex Oguh

 MESSAGE 2 TO THE CHURCH LEADERS IN NIGERIA by Bro. Alex Oguh

I had said in the first message that we should just drop paper yet, just drop the story of Zacchaeus yet. Telling us what God had done for Zacchaeus who died about 2,000 years ago, is not enough. That is why we have produced fake men, fake people carrying fake certificates, fake men who are pretending to be big while they are hollow inside. I want to beg you, let’s drop stories of others first. Let’s tell stories of the people we have become, not just stories of Abraham and those in the Bible. They are gone.

I was like that mad man. I had to come back to the village on 1st July 1995 because I had to sell things. I had to disband the groups I was into. I had to come out of the business partnerships with crooks in government and lying Politicians. As the architect, they gave works to me and they eat from it. I also used their positions to get money. It was very fine until I met the Master whose judgment is different. 

In fact, they were owing me some money. I was expecting them to pay me one million naira because of the stage of the work done then around 1992. Then the government changed hands and they shared the money available then in the account. Self is a terrible being. Fear man. When I wanted to complain in prayers, for I also wanted to get the world like the other people. If I was in their position, maybe I would have also shared that kind of money. Then the Lord asked me: 

“You are talking of one million naira indebtedness, what did you do that qualified you for that kind of money?” I was dumbfounded. Aah, aah! Everything in our kingdom has foundation. Fraudulent money, money-laundering, liars making money, women sleeping with men on television and getting a lot of money, what is that one? It is because we have not really come out of the Bible. Let’s come out of the bible. Let’s leave the stories of the Bible first. 

Like that man, his own family and the people around had heard what happened. So when he arrived home, they didn’t run or bar him from entering. Perhaps, they helped him. So when I arrived home in 1995, the villagers welcome us. They helped us pack down our loads from the lorry and the car. 

It was on Saturday that we returned to the village. I had to pray before daybreak to know which Church denomination to join. The Lord told me to join anyone that will help me to learn to know Him more. It has to be one that has the best best study activities. So I picked the one they call CHRISTIAN EVANGELICAL FELLOWSHIP OF NIGERIA, CEFN. There were two other denominations in the village. Since the Church is also a teaching and learning centre, I knew the CEFN will help me more.

So I went to the CEFN church. The madman came early. I was coming from Foursquare and so I was used coming to Church early. So when I arrived in the Church, nobody was there. But the former madman, the man who was a fornicator, who had been spoiling their girls had come to Church. The Elders said nothing that day. They must have been tolerant to have shared their Holy Communion with me. By the following Sunday, Elder Omatiga (he still alive) came to me in the congregation and he said, “We heard what happened, but normally, the Church you are coming from should have given you a letter to give us.”.

Though I had been in Church for about 26 years, I didn’t have any Church tradition. Then I said that I was sorry. Then I wrote my Pastor, now Rev. Julius Adamu, he is the current District Overseer for The Foursquare Gospel Church here in Lokoja. I sent the letter from the village to Idah. I bever saw the reply, but a reply came to the CEFN Church leaders in Owowolo in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria. I don’t know whether they had meetings over the reply, but another Sunday, I was standing there in the congregation, Elder Omatiga came and said that the Elders had received the reply to the letter and that I should now come to the Altar. 

I said, “No, no need. I can just be here. As I was not willing to go, he turned to go back and the Spirit within me spoke up. That time, I was more obedient than now. Oh, God, help me to the end. I don’t want to lose obedience. You held me firmly then, keep holding me to the end. He said, “Follow him” and I followed him. As he was reporting that He will not come, the other leaders were looking at me at his back. So when he looked back and saw me, he went and sat down.

I came there and the Lord said, “Kneel down, write, I want to talk to you”. So I knelt down and wrote. What I wrote then brought me into CEFN some eight years later. Why will I come to CEFN? When He told me that I will one day come into CEFN, I said, “Why? What will I do among them?” Of course, my mind that time was carnal. My way of thinking then and years after was natural. I thought that God will give me money and I be helping them. Many tend that way, but He said, “No. You are coming here to help them with the word of God.” And I was not very comfortable with that instruction. He helped my heart by saying “These people you see here are nearer revival than those other people you are thinking are in revival.”

So I did what He told me – to read Igala Bible through two times and some other instruction. I have not been able to lay hands on the paper that time, but I obeyed the instruction and expected something to happen. Nothing happened from around that July 1995 till 2003 when my interest in the body of Christ became a problem to my leaders in my denomination. Why would I do crusade and allow people to go back to their churches? Why would I gather people and not keep them, but instead advise them go back to their pastors and Churches? I knew this God is the God of all. He is lie a man with a very large family – like a man with many wives who have children for him. Denominations may serve as mothers, but we are brothers and sisters. There is no denomination that cannot have true followers. If I came out of the Catholic Church, how can I ever conclude that there are no true followers of Jesus there?

Only that our Father, our nature, our manner, our character,  our family tradition should be one. So I got home and my people were saying, “We heard what happened.” Even my blood brothers and sister heard because it happened at an accident scene on 30th December 1991. Who would not have heard? My motor killed somebody. 

Go back to your people and say, “Something happened.” When I came and announced that something happened and that Jesus entered into me and that I had become another person. That your brother died and that this a new brother. But because the package look the same, the height looked the same, everything including the way I walk remained the same, they didn’t know that Jesus had come into their family. 

Go and tell them. That was what that ex-madman did in ten Cities. Go and study Decaplis, that Greek area of Palestine then. Ten Cities evangelized by a former mad man. Those of you who were not mad before, how many Cities have you covered?  How many States or regions have you covered? How many countries have you covered? How man continents have heard your story?

Please, go back home. Leave the Bible first. Tell them what God had done for you and how great He had had mercy on you. Not about material things first, please brother. Not about material things first, please Sister. Tell them that you are no more mad. It is madness to live in sin. It is madness to live on corruption monies. It is madness to forge certificate and call it your own. It is madness to rape a woman under any tree and expect God to bless you and your generations. We have all been mad in this country. The Church-goers are not exempted. 

I was annex-mad man. You and I haven been mad like that man before. What have we not done? Go and tell them that you are no more injuring yourself and your generations and screening, roaming up and down in the night and restless. You are no more lie that. Then tell them. Later we can bring the Bible.

Alex Oguh