By Dare Adejumo
It is never a simple task to dissect a global spiritual
personality such as Prophet T.B Joshua. You need to be in a higher etereal
realm or be graciously given the grace to do so.
TB Joshua as fondly called is a prophet of God with uncommon
Christian lifestyles. Such a being cannot but generate some
controversies. By his divine gift and endowment, he operates on a higher
pedestal with an incomprehensible yawning spiritual gap between him and his
generation.
He is the known but unfathomable divine envoy on earth. He
has remained an enigma, a gigantic puzzle, a bundle of God’s inexorable and
inexplicable mysteries to which mankind must simply and humbly accept their
limitations.
The most persecuted, the most vilified, the most
grossly misrepresented and disdainfully maligned in his country of birth,
TB Joshua has continued to pray for his adversaries like his Master, Jesus
Christ: ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’.
In today’s firmament when Christianity has become a mockery
in many quarters, TB Joshua remains a shining light in darkness and has clearly
shown to the world that “by their fruits you shall know them”!
One incontrovertible great fact is that The fate of
TBJoshua cannot be different from his divine predecessors especially His Master
Jesus Christ who out of spiritual blindness, rigidity, ignorance, crude
envy, fear and unbridled jealousy was maliciously crucified in the most
excruciating and agonizing manner by the same people believed to be most
respectable religious authority of his time. What an irony!
TB Joshua must necessarily drink of that cup and
joyfully too because of the grace of his Father.
There is something extraordinarily peculiar to TB Joshua.
This is the UNCONDITIONAL LOVE he radiates like the soothing moonshine in
the sky. He cannot be offended. As a human being I doubt if he can allow any
offence with him for five minutes.
It is love without discrimination and this is reflected in
his joyful superlative giving, charity, activities and humanitarian and
selfless services.
Unlike some other churches where you will be turned back if
not in compliance with their physical and religious appearance standard, TB
Joshua is home to everyone. Whether you are a Muslim, pagan, occult groups,
lesbian, gay, idol worshippers just name any, TB Joshua is a friend to all.
“ I am interested in the salvation of their souls. Jesus does
not hate sinners what he hates is sin. If Jesus came for the salvation of
sinners who am I not to welcome sinners in love and bring them to knowing Jesus
Christ my Master and our saviour”? He would enthusiastically appear publicly
with them like one who has just found a new lover. I could remember when a
group of herdsmen in their rusticity visited him. He welcomed them like VIP,
sat along with them and even collected their traditional caravan gourd which
they all usually put their mouths in to drink water to also use the same thing
to drink the water inside with them!
Because of human spiritual banality and pedestrianism, TB
Joshua has oftentimes been maligned with outright chimerical tales and
concocted lies by his superficial observers who could not decipher the Spirit
of the Father working in him.
“I must necessarily experience all these. Who would I then
resemble? Rejoice because every temptation and every situation is meant to draw
you closer to God if you have been called by Him and maintain your focus, He
would continue to strengthen you because God would never forsake His own”.
To talk of TB Joshua’s God’s endowed towering spiritual power
in him is like dipping a cup into the sea to fetch water. The power radiates as
he walks or talks with countless diverse healings and miracles beyond human
imagination. There was one occasion when armed robbers waving fiery guns and
shooting sporadically were operating in the upper street during the church
service. The suffocating miasma of their operations extended to the church
area. In holy anger TB Joshua fiercely came out of the service to confront
them and collected their guns from them! The armed robbers were reduced to
vegetables by the TBJoshua’s superb Holy Spirit power. It is not surprising to
find Ogbonis, witch doctors, idol worshippers, psychists, Hindus, just name
them – all forms of esoteric practitioners, confessing their sins and
surrendering their satanic instruments by the fire of Holy Spirit
engulfing them and accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior in Synagogue
Church Of All Nations SCOAN through the God’s nature in TB Joshua.
Nothing is done in secret in SCOAN. Everything is open and
transparent. It is not a place of spiritual manipulation. Any wonder then that
foreigners are trooping into SCOAN in droves and the church has to be
overwhelmingly checkmating requests of intending pligrims and yet
countless others will find their ways to Nigeria through back doors thus
causing a lot of embarrassment in the enviroment beyond the church
expectations.
“It is not everybody that can come here” says the Man of God.
“Only those God calls will come here”.
TB Joshua is humility personified. Ordinarily he is very shy.
He is indeed the biblical broken vessel in the hands of God.
TB Joshua has made the physiognomy of Christianity real and
Jesus and His mission on earth clearer with discernible understanding of that
narrow path to the Luminous Heights.
One of the most shockingly admirable things in TB Joshua’s
life is his in-depth knowledge of Bible and the words of God. Here is a person
who never went to theological school, mentored by anyone or really educated in
the real western sense. Yet he is a teacher of teachers with strikingly
penetrating power into your spirit. He opens your eyes and hearts at
every teaching with profound spiritual transformation for eternal yearnings
in the listeners! It is usually a moment of spiritual rediscovery. You cannot
ignore his messages. Simple, nonoratorical or colourfully/attractively
presented, it carries fire and power with uncommon insight and revelations.
You cannot be going to SCOAN and be engaging in sinful lives.
TB Joshua will see all you are hiding secretly in your house or any immorality
you are committing which you think has been successfully covered. He
would compromise indiscipline and immorality. He is stern and firm!
I have severally witnessed instances where such members are
called out except he doesn’t come across you.
“In this church, you are coming here and you are still living
in this sin”? Whatever is saying is confirmed, no quibbling or mincing
words as such sinners will immediately fall down crying to Jesus
narrating the circumstances that led him or her to it asking for God’s
forgiveness. You will be shocked when he exposes all the details of what you
did!
SCOAN is not a place for ‘bigmanism’. Whatever you are from
outside cannot be carried inside the church. You must be humbled! Have you ever
seen where a big man or woman is asked to go and join sanitation group where
they do cleaning or what you can regard as menial jobs? Yes, TBJoshua
would tell you: ‘go and join them, God will hear your prayers’. In most
instances it is like the case of that army General Naman the leper in the
Bible who in arrogance felt how could he go and wash in a particular river
directed him to go by the prophet when there were other better rivers he could
go. But the grace of God saved him by listening to his servant and eventually
was made whole as he washed himself in the very river.
One crucial lesson you learn from TB Joshua regarding prayers
and fastings is that when they are not done on the precious arms of the Holy
Spirit it is a balderdash. “ You can pray and preach wonderfully. Once you have
not been adopted by Holy Spirit, people may hear you and even clap for you but
God will not hear you. You can call yourself born again but as long as you are
not adopted by Holy Spirit you are simply wasting your time”.
He has made worshippers in his church realise that your faith
must be genuine, your meditation in God’s Word and making it the standard
practice in their lives as NOT NEGOTIABLE for their Christian lives not be a
failure and for them to have rewarding faith. To live in pure love to all your
neighbors regardless of their religion or who they are, holding no
offence against anyone and be a blessing to others for you are blessed to bless
otherd. “O Lord give me love enough not to see the mistakes of others” is
one of the prayers
Hear the Prophet:
“God cannot entrust you with His power if you do not have
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. This is because you will begin to use it for the benefits
of those you want and then against your enemies. Look at this church, can you
see any member of my family holding any positions? It’s God’s church and He
knows what to do even when I am no more”!
TB Joshua is not competing with anyone. He has no faculty for
looking into the affairs of any other churches or what anyone is doing or
saying anywhere. His focus is on God. His only pain is the disunity in the
church of Christ.
On several occasions when people from other churches received
landmark healings and miracles he won’t allow them to do any Thanksgiving in
SCOAN. He would tell them: “go back to your church and do the Thanksgiving
there. We are working as a team. It is the prayers you have been praying in
your church that also brought you here. Go and remain in your church and be
worshipping there”.
That is TB Joshua for you. He is the embodiment of
Jesus Christ himself. In SCOAN no soliciting for fundraising, sowing
seeds, donations or Thanksgiving. Even payment of tithes or offering is
completely voluntary. “Take your tithes or Thanksgiving money to the needy;
look for poor pupils to give scholarship; look for the sick and all
others you see in hardship to help. When you do that God will hear your
prayers”.
Hear him again:
“Have you ever seen me printing envelopes here asking for
donations? No! When God truly give you an assignments He would also put
in the hearts of those that would assist you on the assignments”.
Today TB Joshua has brought back the early church of the
apostles with Christian revival for a better understanding of worshippers to
worship God in truth and in Spirit.
Speaking with a spiritual elder who prefers anonymity,
he said: “There is no other person like him today in the entire world. It’s
usually one at a time. He is on God mission but unfortunately God’s design did
not permit many who ought to know from recognizing him. Do you think if he is
fully recognized in Nigeria there will be any space in Nigeria for other people
in the world to come?
Hear him: “You can see he is not establishing branches like
others. He has kept absolutely to God’s directives and agenda and not to human
opinions.
“God really loves TB Joshua. Some did not know that it was
out of God concern for him to fulfill his mission that his last prophecy on
American election did not click. If it had clicked there’s every tendency
for some people to turn him to God which will affect him. God has brought him
for the rise and fall of many. I only pity those in ignorance of his origin and
are using their mouths unconsciously to jeopardize their own eternity”.
Adejumo is Lagos based journalist and public affairs analyst.
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