Ministers Should Further Seek God Deeper -Pastor Tony Chukwuemeke
Pastor Anthony Kennedy Chukwuemeke, an ex-banker and the Senior Pastor of Christ Glorious Pentecostal Bible Mission, Ita-Oluwo in Ikorodu area of Lagos State recently organized a 3 days Open Air crusade, themed , “Divine Liberation 2” at the main field of Ita-Oluwo in Ikorodu.
The crusade had Pastor Isaac Omogbai and Goshen Club Ikorodu ministers as guest speakers with Pastor (Mrs.) Princess Balogun, Sis. Blessing Okoye and D Melody Sax as song ministers.
In this interview, Rev. Chukwuemeke spoke with Providence News on the crusade and other sundry issues. Enjoy reading;
Kindly tell us about your Christian background?
I was born Catholic to a retired military man. When the call came I shifted to Pentecostal. Though it wasn’t easy, God took control. After his retirement, he took us home and from there I went to a higher school. By God’s grace, Zenith Bank gave me employment by the time I finished. I started with them and was on the job for 22 years before I left about 13 years ago when the call came. The Lord asked me to leave the job for the sake of His children and I left the banking job to continue the ministry work until where we are today.
My immediate boss then was not ready to let me leave, but when I told him about the call, he accepted my leaving and said he would not come in between God and any man. That was how I left and answered the call into the ministry and by God’s grace, it has been a glorious journey with the proof of the move of His power, His mighty presence and sufficient grace.
I had been in the ministry for six years when I joined Goshen International Club under Dr. DK Olukoya’s mentorship. I am presently the Coordinator of Goshen International, Ikorodu chapter with about 182 churches and 116 general overseers as members.
Where were you worshipping and serving before going into the ministry?
I was a Catholic from a family of 13 with my parents, 6 males and 5 females. One among us, my younger brother, a reverend father, passed on. The remaining 10 of us are waxing stronger, now every family member is almost Pentecostal. They became Pentecostal when they saw the move and the power of God in my life.
We had our first crusade on November 9 – 11, 2020 and since then, we have been considering when to do the next crusade. There was a divine leader and instruction to do a crusade this year. In March this year, we started planning and preparing for the crusade we had in November and by God’s grace it was successful with outstanding testimony.
How would you describe your journey in the ministry?
My journey into the ministry has been wonderful beyond my imagination. It came all of a sudden and as it came, I realised that God was involved. When I was Catholic, I had an issue and a friend told me the issue was more spiritual and advised me to see a pastor to assist me in prayer.
He introduced me to a man of God, the man of God prayed for us and said, I have news for you, but I don’t know how you will feel about it and I said, nothing new under heaven. He said, what is happening to me is that God needs me. He needs me to give my life to Him. I said, I am already a Christian and what kind of giving is that? He said I need to be converted, be born again and be part of a Bible-believing Church. I said that since it is of God, I had no option and did not argue it. Right from time, I love anything about God and it moves me.
Does it mean you were prepared for the eventuality?
Something like that! All I wanted was a holistic solution. The man was surprised I did not argue nor object to what he said or disagree with him. He told me it may take me to leave the Catholic church and become a Pentecostal, I said okay. He was surprised and that was how my journey into Pentecost started. Two months later I willingly gave my life to Christ and became born again.
One day I was in my sitting room praying and I saw the vision of a meeting and in the vision, every setting in the sitting room was not there again, I only saw the firmament, a dark open space and I sighted a tiny light from afar. The light was small and drawing closer, the closer it came, the bigger it became. Until it got close to about ten feet away from me and I discovered the light was revolving around a human form. It was the body of the human that emitted the light. And I saw him, He was covered from head to toe.
He was holding something I had not said to anyone. He said I should not say it until it is done. He showed it to me and said it was for you, but do my work first. He smiled and that was how the setting vanished. That was to confirm that God is on this journey and I will always give Him all the glory, honour, and adoration.
I told him, “I will do your work as much as you empower and enable me to serve you. By God’s grace, I stand by that and He has been wonderful.
What brought about the vision of the crusade and what do you intend to achieve?
In 2020, God spoke to me to leave the job for My children. That was clear and I took a bold step to obey the instruction.
For two years, my parents and siblings never knew I had left my job because if I had told them, they would not have taken it easy with me. After two years and four months, it became rumoured that friends and acquaintances felt uncomfortable. That was when they approached me, to ask what was happening. Then I told them that I had left my job. They didn’t take it lightly and it was not easy between us. But the question I asked them was, has my life changed to a bad one in two years plus? They answered no.
That was when my dad said, they should be praying for me to see what God would do about it. It was burdened on me that He asked me to leave my job for His children with the best way to get across to His children is not to stay inside the four walls of a church and not be comfortable with few folks in the church. You must take a bold step.
Meanwhile, three years before I quit my job, there was a female customer at my bank, a sister who attends Deeper Life Church. She came to my branch regularly for her business. She consistently invited me to a Reinhard Bonnke Crusade when it started, and I promised her I would come. But I was busy and occupied until a particular Friday, she came and said the next day, Saturday would be the final day, and I should please try to be there.
That Saturday, I was at the crusade ground waiting in the car two hours before the crusade kicked off. Ten minutes into the kick, the helicopter that brought Reinhard Bonnke came and landed at the venue. I was emotionally touched and began running into tears, I couldn’t control it, even when he eventually came down. Not until after the crusade ended before the tears stopped. It was expressly laid in my heart, “Do a crusade this year”, I said yes sir. Then I asked what the theme should be and where we should do it. He said the theme would be “Divine Liberation” and you are to liberate men.
With what happened at the crusade ground and the sighting of Reinhard Bonnke, I knew I had been impacted and by God’s grace, something new was about to start in my life.
That’s why the crusade was themed Divine Liberation. We had our first crusade somewhere at Ajegunle and God showed Himself mightily. Since the theme is by revelation, there is no need to alter or change it. The last one continued with the same theme and tagged “Divine Liberation 2 and will continue like that in the series.
I don’t know how far God wants to go. But the goal is to reach out to the people, making myself available for God as a channel to reach out to His people more than being confined to the four walls of a church.
To understand your calling clearly. By God’s grace, clearly. Because I always tell him something, he never disappoints me one day.
What would be your advice on relationship with God?
The more you give yourself, the more God is available to you and the more you are committed to God’s work, the more He will be able to pass through you as a channel to do more. For instance, among the disciples, Peter was the only one, the Bible recorded, who walked on the water. Other disciples were privileged to walk on water, but they didn’t. They felt comfortable, Peter left his place of comfort and tried it and discovered it was doable. Even when he was sinking, he still walked on the water.
If you want to go deep and far to be used as a formidable channel of God, you must step out of certain comfort and leave your comfort zone.
You must enter into God’s purpose for your calling and always find out the next thing to do. No matter how far you go, if it’s not how far God wants you to go, you should always find out and be courageous to go further by stepping out of your comfort zone. Every next level is a comfort zone, but the more you look further than where you are, the more God is prepared to take you higher and do great things for you.
I will advise that no matter the level of comfort you have attained in serving God, you should look and move further to seek God deeper. The deeper you seek God, the further God takes you.
How was your experience and expectations during the just concluded crusade?
The way things went in our previous crusade is not the same as the one recently concluded. In the previous crusade, it was within a locality, we printed only 500 copies of fliers with 20 small banners. But during the last crusade, we printed 10,000 posters with 1,000 banners and the crusade was successfully held in an open field with a large turnout of people.
God took control and made provisions for the crusade more than our expectations, He gave the vision and made available the provision with adequate provisions.
God raised financial supporters and used other kind-hearted people, including fellow ministers from Goshen International to support the crusade with God’s promise that He would do more.
Many great things happened during the last crusade. There were testimonies of instant healing, deliverance, restoration, salvation, redemption of souls, and others who gave their lives to Christ.
Our primary goal is to bring back to God those who are of God but missed their way and to depopulate the kingdom of hell. By God’s grace, we are already looking and planning for God’s direction for the next crusade.
