The Level of Corruption In The Body Of Christ Makes My Heart Bleed- Bro Joshua Iginla …Many Celebrated Pastors Are Not Of God,+ Why Its Been Difficult To Make Politicians Repent

Brother Joshua Iginla  is the Senior Pastor of Champions Royal Assembly with the international headquarter located at Abuja, Nigeria.

In this first part of The Rhema News, encounter with the generous preacher, he registered his concern about the alarming corruption in the body of Christ, why it’s been difficult to make disciples of politicians by the Church and the reason " popular fathers in the lord may not get  Christ's nod on the last day" Enjoy;

 

Your church has really evolved in the last seven years of operation. As a result of this tremendous growth, there have been speculations that there may be other forces beyond God , responsible for  the growing  popularity and rise of your ministry, whats your reaction to this..

 

Normally I say there is nothing you do in this world that does not attract criticism. If you’re quiet people would complain that you quiet, you are talking people would say you are a talkative, if you sit people would say you are idle, if you are hardworking people would talk. Normally when you see the growth of the church, its nothing else but God. When a minister of God is genuinely called by God, God is going to back up the work and secondly is focus. Can you imagine a church that started from a living room that we had no chairs and we had nothing not even a musical instrument? Of course we had days of struggle but because of focus, hard work and God’s blessing on the work and of course when people come to the church and then they pray and what they ask God for, God answers them; they have  no other option but to invite others. I can tell you categorically that my evangelism group in my church is not as strong as any other person would think. It is God that has been  bringing the people and one of the things that excites us is the word of God that people hear from the altar that touches their heart and making them come back.

 For example, someone who has been trusting God for a child for 12 years came and during the service God opened her womb and three months later she became pregnant, you know she would take the good news out. The multiplication of the church is as a result of the wonders God has done in the lives of people. Some people who are addicted smokers who are in so many things, God delivered them and the transformation of lives is part of the reason why the church has exploded beyond human explanation.

 

How has the journey been   

 

 

It has been challenging really. It has been rough. When there was no money, when there was nothing to fall back upon, when there were no members,  we had to pray and pray, when there was no musical instruments, when there was no place of worship.

God has been with us, the journey has been so far so much challenging and so exciting to know that God spoke his word and he backed up his word; we saw many people who are saved especially the salvation of souls. People who have returned back to God, widows and orphans that have been touched, lives that have been transformed and how the church has grown in length and breadth within and outside the country under the space of seven years. The Lord has given us international recognition, the commencement of Champions television that has been running without sweat or pressure, the Lord gas been so faithful, the speed that God has given us  is so high. The journey so far is full of challenges and its been tasking.

You have been mentioning Challenges, any major challenge you want to recount?

 

Yes, at first the challenge of starting a ministry; people don’t believe you, people think you are out there for their money and all of a sudden they now believe because God confirmed his word that he has genuinely called me. I would not blame people for doubting preachers because a lot of preachers are in for their pockets and I used to say it that “to every original there is a counterfeit and to every counterfeit there is an original”.

One of the challenges is the lack of  unity and love among pastors. A situation where  pastors out of bitterness and jealousy,  would say derogatory things about fellow pastors. We have been so focused not to be  distracted and God has helped us to overcome the storms and the obstacles and he is to be praised.

 

You referred to some men of God..can you narrow it down.

I think so many people are not called and they have tried to call themselves, even the bible said that “many would come in my name, saying Lord! Lord, and would deceive so many”. A lot of people are not called and they claim to be pastors and they have deceived a lot of people because they have a business mindset; these are the people who are trying to forcefully collect money, manipulate people, rape ladies because they are not genuine. As a man of God you should be genuinely called and know that your  strength lies in the Holy Spirit and when you commit sin the spirit of God departs from you and there is no way you can operate in God’s power and be effective when you are in Sin. So part of the things is that some of the people that we claim are men of God, they are not actually men of God, and they are just men for themselves. As a result of that, they have done a lot of atrocities that make a lot of people not to believe but I would keep saying this “many are called, few are chosen and there is still few in the body of Christ”. Of course if we pick 100 of pastors that are around I can say 60 percent categorically are not genuinely called that it is only few that understand the purpose of their calling and we are very few. Some of the men of God that we celebrate in this country and in this nation, some of them might not be originally called by God, some of them might be celebrated and we say oh they are genuine they are genuine. The true hallmark of a genuine man of God is not even the miracles that he performs, it’s not even in the message that he preaches, it’s in the life that he lives outside the pulpit like what we have among men of God; men of God becoming like politicians who are amassing wealth for themselves that they cannot even spend in their lifetime. A lot of widows, orphans helpless are suffering, if we are called as genuine men of God how many people in our community have we been able to return God’s resources to save and affect their lives and that is why it is difficult for the politicians in the country to be saved because more or less there is no difference between them and the so-called men of God that we have in this country.

 

 

If I may ask sir, why do you think there are churches everywhere and yet..

 

Cuts in...There are five reasons why we are having multiplication of churches, one among them is genuine. The first is the errors of the spiritual fathers of Faith, who have raised children up, who have trained pastors, who have started ministry; the ministry is now doing well and they don’t take care of pastors, this error is one of the reasons why some pastors break out even if they are not  really nurtured and matured by their spiritual father in the quest to have independence of their own because they are not really taken care of. There are ministries that are very wealthy but they do not even pay their pastors, there are ministries that are blessed that G.O get richer and the pastors have peanuts as money so such pastors in the quest for fighting for spiritual independence they break out and they start church. That is number one reason the error of the fathers. Number two is greed; some pastors are well taken care of but greedy. These ones are not really called, they just want to get money they have seen ministry as business. Greed, that’s the second reason. The third reason is pride, some pastors feel they’re anointed and they cannot stay under a general overseer and so for that reason they go out to start up their work and God has not told them. In addition, you watch such churches the pastor break out from his father in the Lord and he locates his  church just five kilometers or three kilometers away from the boss's  church, and this is one of the reasons why there are multiplications of churches. Then the fourth reason is that,  of course in the latter days (which is one of the genuine reasons) there would be multiplication of the increase of the Gospel, God is raising up men of God so that the Gospel can go round to the whole world, because iniquity is multiplying, wickedness is multiplying and that is how the word of God should multiply in the Body of Christ. And of course the fifth reason is that people start church for merchandise purpose, for business purpose, some people believe that running a church is one of the lucrative business now,  so as a result of that even whether they are not under any general overseer, we have seen politicians, we have seen business men, we have seen professionals who are not really called, who just felt that if this person can do it let me do it. So some people are running churches for merchandising  purpose that is one of the reasons why we have so many churches.

The Body of Christ is too divided in the name of denomination and this  is why we are not  formidable to become a voice. You will find out that these one say we are orthodox, these one say we are Pentecostal, and as a result we  having a lot of breakout. And lest I forget doctrinal issues is part of the reasons why a lot of people too are breaking out to start up a church and some people feel that we can wear trousers, some people feel that we cannot wear trousers. As a result of these some pastors are grieved and they want to practice it’s just like the constitution of this country, politicians can interpret the constitution to suit their desire, that is how most preachers are doing. Sometimes we misquote, misapply and misinterpret the bible to suit our selfish purpose. 

 

If Men of God in the country are ranked  in the pecking order, what would be your position.

 

It’s a difficult question to answer because I believe that it is God that measures our spiritual rank in the realm of the spirit. It is true that we have hierarchies; we have fathers in this country or spiritual fathers in this country. We have the ones who are doing well and we have the ones who have failed their generation or the younger generation, like I use to say some spiritual fathers met ladder and they used the ladder to climb up and when they got up, they removed the ladder so that the younger generation have no ladder to climb up. Some of us forcefully through the help of God have been able to carve our own spiritual silver spoon spiritually if not we would not be where we are. I use to say it and some people would say “no don’t say it” and I say yes I would say it, with due apology we have few fathers in Nigeria spiritually who are doing well”. Of course I’m also a father in my capacity, but we have few fathers in Nigeria (spiritual fathers) who are doing well. Since the exit of Arch. Bishop Benson Idahosa, we don’t have fathers who are fighting for the cause or championing the cause of the Body of Christ. Some fathers are championing the cause of their ministry, we don’t see it as the body of Christ it becomes selfish provided it does not affect their ministry, their denominations, they don’t give a damn about what happens and I think we should remove the partition and the division of denomination and start preaching Jesus, thinking and talking about Jesus because on the last day we would not be asked the name of your church, the name of your pastor but we would be asked if we are washed by the precious lamb of Jesus.

You are reputed for your generosity, so much that, sometime ago,  you doled out Jeeps  to members of your congregation, whats your motive.

 

I can only drive one car, live in one house, and stay on one bed and room even though I have all I have. I want people not to misquote me, I am a blessed preacher but I believe that there is a lot of corruption in the body of Christ and I bleed in my heart. I feel offended that we have Pentecostal fathers in this country who claim  that they are spiritual and more righteous. They should teach us what to do if they claim to be righteous, how many widows have they affected, how many orphans have they affected.

I believe on the last days there is going to be many surprises, because what is the purpose of amassing wealth that even some of the universities that are built by preachers, many people cannot attend and pay. The missionaries that brought the gospel to this country gave a lot of our ancestors free scholarship, free education; if we claim that we are of a good frequency of faith why dont we  help the masses. I am reliably informed that there are a lot of preachers in the country that can eliminate and eradicate poverty in some states, if they are insulting our politicians. What have they done with quarter of the money that God has given them? How many of those ministries are pastors not being paid? How many of such ministries are even have their  members suffering? I looked at it that some time even the Pentecostal body of Christ has to sit down. We need to comb ourselves, remove the speck in our eyes before we point accusing fingers at others. To me I have vowed never to be a party to any group of people who run down any man of God because I believe on the last days there would be many surprises. Even the so-called highly celebrated fathers; if they are not careful, they can be disappointed on the last day.

Before now, you carried the tag of a Prophet, why the sudden change to a  Brother that you are now addressed as, as against the initial prophet

 I am not against title, like the bible said “whosoever desire the office of a bishop desire a good thing” but God leads us individually, our callings and directions are different. I was praying in South Africa sometime ago and i told God  that I  wanted a raise from the level i was at the time and the Holy Spirit said i need great humility in the new level designed for me. The Holy spirit said “I would give you an instruction and if you can carry it out then I would lift you up from where you are”. And what was the instruction, the Lord said I should drop all the titles i have acquired  through  my journey in ministry and should be addressed simply as  “Brother”. It was shocking and I said okay if that is what is going to cause my story to change from the level I am to the next level I accept and when i returned  to the church in Nigeria, I declared God’s instruction and ever since I did that, everybody can testify to the glorious move of God and His wonders in the Ministry and the peace around me .Am also at peace with myself bearing Bro Joshua Iginla..