Men of God Should Stop Doing Things on their Own – Apostle Okechukwu Etiaka
Apostle Okechukwu Etiaka is the Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Bible Believer Church International, Mafoliku, Oshodi, Lagos. He is a public administrator and the Province Chairman, PFN Mushin/Oshodi Province. Also, the Chairman of CPFN Oshodi.
He spoke with Gracious Akintayo on various issues about his ministry, the church, and the society during the church mid-year thanksgiving servic. Excerpt;
How would you describe your journey as a Christian and minister of God?
That is a long story (smiles). But thank God for where He had picked me, guided me, directed me, and brought me and still taking me to.
God has been good and wonderful. He has proved Himself in my calling. No one believes we can be where we are today and build this kind of structure in this place, even to win souls and have members. But when God’s hand is upon your life, He will prove Himself. I didn’t send my Savior, He sent me and everything I have, I will use them to serve him.
Like David said, I will not give unto, something that will cost me nothing. To the glory of God and the support of people, every resource that comes my way is channeled towards the projects of God and I did not consider changing my car.
When you have the heart of Christ, God will honor you, He will show you His mercy and through that revival will come.
In all we plan and do, God deserves the best. If I have a house and make it beautiful and comfortable, then God’s place of worship should be given the best of beauty and comfort.
Thank God for what He is doing. When you serve God and build for Him, He will bless you beyond expectations. When the way of a man pleases the Lord, He blesses him and gives him peace from every challenge. This applies to me and I have nothing to be afraid of. There are pastors who are afraid of people around them and people are not free to be with them because they are involved in all kinds of evil and secret things. My pastors here and everyone in our church are free with me. If you enter my house, there is nothing secret or hidden because everything I have is not mine, they are for God.
If you want God to use you and your calling to be successful, be sincere with yourself, live a Christlike life, and don’t deceive yourself. If a lot of people continue to deceive themselves, they are going nowhere. If you keep running after money, the money is not going anywhere but first seek Christ and go where everything will be added to you.
Christians should live a life that testifies Christ is in them and that is the beginning of revival. Look at the internet and social media handles today, you’ll be surprised and discouraged at what some children are doing. You will also see and hear some pastors turning the Bible upside down, all these are signs of end-time.
Many people have been negatively impacted and now at war, fighting dubious wars. They think wrongly and want things easily, claiming it’s the world of technology. But it’s not like that, the Bible standard does not like that, if you miss one, you’ve missed it all and that should be the message and teaching to people.
How would you describe the present state of Christianity?
What is happening today is a global issue. We are at the beginning of the end-time and the time christians faith is going to be tried but as Christians we should keep faith alive and don’t give up.
This is what Jesus said, that when the time comes, the love of men will wax cold, there will be deceivers, and evil will strive. All we are seeing today, the wars and the rumour of wars, famine, and false prophets are signs of the end-time.
Christians should follow Christ with all their heart, soul, and body. Jesus sacrificed Himself and paid the price for us on the cross of Calvary. Whatever the challenges we are facing now are not as what Jesus faced and we shared in His glory of sitting at the right hand of God. As Christ’s disciples and chosen, we should fight the good fight of faith and hold on to our faith.
With the happenings today, believers should know that, whatever challenges that comes their way, are part of life trials. God allowed some things to happen, He didn’t promise that things will be easy and free. But He would not allow them to overcome us. Those things He allowed are to bring the best out of us and make us a better Christian.
Jesus is gaining ground and the more they fight the things of God and against Christians, the more God is gaining ground because if those things did not happen, how do we acknowledge the God we serve? God has highly exalted His name above every other name, that in the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. His protection and hands are upon us to overcome.
What is the missing link in today’s Christianity compared to the olden days?
Satan is in the world now but his kingdom will come to an end soon. In the olden days, there was great revival and great movement of the Holy Spirit. But today, with the modernized world, technology age, and the new generation, many things are making people lose their faith and confidence in the word of God.
I believe the Bible is the Word of God and cannot be defied. But most pastors go to the altar today without the Bible, forgetting its peculiarity and the power in God’s Word. The devil knows it’s a weapon and invented ideas to cause distractions.
The revival in Christianity has gone low and the fire has gone down. We are in the days of butter and bread Christianity, with people not ready to sacrifice and meet the standard of God. But the standard of God’s word cannot be lowered, changed, or withdrawn. However anyone paints it to suit their purpose, they are on their own, because God cannot lower His standard.
As a Christian, you must believe the truth of the Word of God, accept it, and live by it as a practical and responsible Christians. You live by what you say and people will see the light in you.
I am delighted in serving God without discrimination and do it with my resources.
It’s God’s grace that I would be returned for another four years as the Chairman for Mushin/Oshodi Province.
When you commit yourself to Christ’s value and have the heart for God, God searches the heart, He will honor you, prove Himself in you, and show you mercy.
What should be the solution to this situation?
The key solution is that the Bible should be our mirror. Men of God should stop doing things on their own, they should go back to the Bethel, to God who called them. They should consider their ways, where they had missed it, and forsaken God. They should repent, ask God for forgiveness and mercy, He will forgive them, take them back, and direct their steps.
To help us solve the present spiritual situation and to be revived, let us go back to the Lord who called us.
What is your opinion on the present situation in Nigeria?
Many things are happening but we are pleading and begging God for mercy over Nigeria. No one sits on the throne that God is not aware of. Whatever is happening now is not going to last forever, many nations of the world have gone through similar situations, if not the worst. God wants to use this situation to bring us back to Himself and this is what the government should look into because, only righteousness exalts a nation.
As christians, this is what we should be doing, praying for those in positions of authority. Instead of condemning, abusing, and cursing our leaders, they are human, we should be praying for them and it will go a long way to help the country, the citizens, and our future.
All criticisms should be constructive with proffer solutions and not in a wrong way without suggestions for solutions. If there’s anything to talk about to them, we should pass through the proper channels, or people close to them. There are fathers of faith and christian leaders close to people in power that we can pass our message through and they will be delivered.
With what we are going through, there could have been another war but God loves Nigeria and intervened. He would not allow us to perish because we are a praying nation. Those of us who know and experienced what happened during the civil war in 1967 will not suggest or pray for war. Whoever has not experienced war, will not know the aftermath of casualties, losses, deaths, draughts, and misplacements. During the last civil war, Nigeria lost more than three million massacred men, women and children with lots of things destroyed. We don’t pray for war, it’s dangerous.
What we need is to continue praying and talk to people in authority, the local government chairmen, the legislature and other government channels to talk to the president. Truth is, he may not know the true situation of things, except he has genuine people close to him to tell him the true position.
Certainly, I believe Nigeria will pass through the present situations and challenges. Other countries are going through it but we will overcome soon because God loves Nigeria dearly.
What’s your advice to Nigerians?
Nigerians should be patient, calm, and hopeful. They should wait and see what good that will happen to Nigeria soon. We are humans, not angels, let’s join hands together and push Nigeria forward as a nation. With unity of purpose, prayers, and godly mindset, things will turn around for Nigeria.
Other advanced nations have passed through and overcame. Today, they are super powerful. Definitely, Nigeria will overcome and become a better place to live, stay, and secure. Those who traveled abroad will come back to Nigeria.
