ARE YOU A CHURCHGOER OR A TRUE WORSHIPER OF GOD? Preached by The son of man APOSTLE PETER ODOEMENA at the Household of God Onitsha
I am your Savour. I am here to tell you things you do to get eternal life. Without me, there is no salvation; without me, there is no eternal life. Believe it if you can…
-The Son of Man
A Word from the Author
Do not condemn the denominations until you have excelled them. For us to excel, we must convince God that we are His true worshippers and not churchgoers. Find out whether you are a churchgoer or a true worshiper of God.
What is your choice? Are you a churchgoer or a true worshiper of God? Examine yourself and tell yourself the naked truth. The choice you make in life determines your approach to life. The same way also, the choice you make as regards worshiping God will determine your approach towards obeying the Word of God. Your lifestyle will tell us whether you are churchgoer or a true Worshiper of God.
Some come to Fellowship because their husbands, wives, relations, parents are here. When you cannot serve God, let it be known to you that
you cannot serve Satan; it easier and less expensive to serve God than to serve Satan. We are not twenty years old in this Ministry, yet we are tired. Many come here and sit down like man-made gods.
Even in the Scriptures, it is written, “Seek yee first the Kingdom of God and every other thing will be added unto you.” A fool says that there is no God or I can serve God anyhow.
If you are a true seed of God, a true worshiper of God, any way you feel in any circumstance is the way God feels. A true worshiper has the same heartbeat with God.
If you have the revelation of God and you are growing from strength to strength, the higher you go, the greater your conviction. That is why we have to face the facts of our Faith.
It is not compulsory that everybody must worship the Supreme God. You have the right to
decide the god you will worship. This is where people make mistake or fail. You have to decide the god you will worship.
I have the right to decide the god I will worship. Nobody has the right to impose any god on his fellow human being. Worship is a matter of conviction. If you are not convinced, you should not show any concern. You have to be convinced as an individual that you are not being deceived or forced to believe something that does not exist.
For me to worship any god, whoever that is introducing me to that god must be ready to convince me beyond reasonable doubt on the existence and the reality of that god. Where you cannot do that, I will throw it away. Therefore, if you are coming to Church for coming sake, you are wasting your time because you have no conviction of why you must worship God. To God, your Coming to Church makes no meaning. Remember that it is not you following God that matters, but God recognizing that you are following Him. If you are churchgoer, it is meaningless for God does not recognize a churchgoer.
If you say that you are a true worshiper of God because you come to Church, take part in every Church activity, let me tell you, it is your right to join others to worship God, but as long as God has no covenant with you, you are wasting your time. If you watch all that have covenant with God, they never complain or murmur despite obstacles.
Even in the days of Jesus, as long as He was performing signs and wonders, many followed. But when He opened the Word, many drew back. Before the disciples (the true worshipers), He was a good man, but to the crowd, He was a bad man worthy to die. To Pilate and Herod, He was innocent. The kings that rule freed Him. Those that
believed in him see Him as God, while to the majority, He was a deceiver. To those people in captivity who thought He came to free them and He did not, He deserved death.
Sometimes, we try to compare this Faith with other Churches. We are mixing this Faith with our religious beliefs, religious dogmas, doctrines and philosophies. The Message is a mercurial Message. Mercury is a metal that exists alone and the only metal that is liquid. The Message, like mercury, stands alone. It can never mix. Mix it with what you know in the Pentecostal or Orthodox Churches, it will say No! This Faith is the only Self-existing One. It grew out as a tender plant and became a big tree — self-existing one, self-existing Message.
As many that have covenant with God, they are as saviours or messengers to the world. If you are not with us, you are against us. If you are staying away from fellowship, you are a sinner. I believe that a child of God cannot backslide. If he backslides, where will he backslide to? If he backslides to Satan, he will reject him. A seed of God is a seed of God; you cannot compel him to obey God.
What am I trying to say? I am saying that if you are not a seed of God, you will remain a churchgoer. However, if you are a true worshiper of God, you will remain a child of God because you have conviction of why you have to worship the Lord.
Nothing weakens the congregation more than the influence of mixed-multitudes. What we are suffering is the influence of mixed-multitudes. The worst believers are the make-believers, churchgoers, snipers. There are many make believers, churchgoers in our midst. They can be shouting when the Message is going on, but in practice, they are reprobates.
Finally, if you are a true worshiper of God, having covenant with God, nothing can separate you from God, not even hardship. Bear in mind that we are not in this Faith to please any man but to please God.
The choice you make concerning this Faith will determine your attitude. God is not mocked! You cannot mock God and get away unpunished. Nobody ever sneered God and go away with it. Remain in your sanctified estate as we continue in Him.
Apostle Peter Odoemena
The Son of Man
Duty compels one to do what he/she does not want to do. Many are going to church as a duty because they do not want to go to hell. If you are serving God as a duty, serving God because you do not want to go to hell, you must go to hell because you are a churchgoer. God is served in love and in truth.
— -The Son of Man
Are You a Churchgoer Or A True Worshiper Of God?
by
The son of man
APOSTLE PETER ODOEMENA
Chapter 1
ATTRIBUTES OF A CHURCHGOER 1
From time to time, stop and ponder over your life, this is why it is very, very important that I will speak on a very short topic, which I believe everybody will understand very well. I do not know how to caption it rather than putting it in form of a question: ARE YOU A CHURCHGOER OR A TRUE WORSHIPER OF GOD?
2. Are you a churchgoer or a true worshipper? Do you go to Church or to worship God? Where do you belong? This is the topic I want to consider.
3. Ask yourself this question: Am I a churchgoer or a true worshipper? We gather like every other people; if you look into the world, there are many Churches around. Everybody is going to Church.
4. We have morning or evening service; our Church is doing this or that; our Church has this programme or that programme etc., how, many have you heard saying that “God called us, and we are going to answer or attend God’s programme,” or “we are going to the House of God, we are going to worship God.” It is very difficult to hear such language.
5. Anybody coming here as a Church – we used to gather here on Wednesday and Sundays; “our Church, our Church, our Church;” number one, it will be a burden to you. Number two, you will be tired and soon give up because nothing is as monotonous as something done daily as a routine. The only thing you can do without getting tired is worshiping God. Worshipping God is not for everybody, but only for God’s children. If you are
not a seed of God, you have no right coming to worship God. Everything about God is for God’s children. It does not concern one who is not a seed of God.
7. I want to speak a little on this topic. It is not a new message. A churchgoer does not go late. Every time is suitable to him. Even if he is on his way coming and hears, “Dismiss, it’s all over for today,” he says “amen” and goes home rejoicing. A churchgoer goes there as a tradition, as an obligation he must fulfil. He goes there carelessly, “After all, nobody will flog me. If you disturb me I go back to where I came from, nobody brought me here,” this is a churchgoer. Any day he does not feel like going, he sits back. He looks at the time, “what time is it? I do not have the strength to go to church today,” he says this because it is burdensome to him. His eyes will be about the clock watching the time. “Oh! Well, let me go, it is better to be late than not go at all.”
8. A churchgoer goes to Church to fulfil formalities. He is there to avoid his name being mentioned in the pulpit. A churchgoer does not know why he or she is coming here other than, “It is our Church.” If you ask him or her why he or she is going to Onitsha, leaving any other place, he or she will tell you, “Because our Church is in Onitsha and not at Oba.” He or she does not know when he or she comes here, that it is to play Church. He or she will not listen to the Deacons because he is here for Church. You are supposed not to disturb him or her by asking questions concerning any of his behaviours; after all, you are not the one that brought him here.
9. He is here to play Church; nobody should guide or police him about because nobody brought him here, for he is here for Church service alone.
10. Therefore, nobody should query him concerning anything. When you belonged to different denominations, where these not your attitude? If your attitude in the denominations remained, the same since you started coming here, you are a churchgoer. The difference is that you changed from Holy Trinity to G.T.C or you left C.M.S to Catholic or you left Deeper Life to Bride Ministry. Wherever you may go, it is still the same Church. I hope am communicating? I will show you where their righteousness lies before I will speak on the true worshipper.
11. A churchgoer does not know why he is going to Church. Let me use Brother Philip for example, yes I will use him because he is in front of me. Maybe it is really happening in his house, but he deliberately covered it, thinking it is like that everywhere. He is coming from Oba with his family; I know it is a burden to him. If he is a true
worshiper, but the wife is a churchgoer, trouble will never cease in their family. The trouble is this:
“Whatever he is going to do at Onitsha, I do not know, only him knows. Anyway, let me keep following him. There is no money for feeding or for meeting some pressing needs. But he has money to pay for our transport fare to and fro Onitsha.
12. Any day he is tired, he must stop. He left all the Churches at Oba and he is taking us to Onitsha, let me keep watching him, when I asked him money for garri, he has no money but, he has the money to go to Fellowship.” If he is coming to worship God, the wife is coming here to go to the church where her husband initiated her into, this trouble will never cease. The result will be: the worshiper is going at the appointed time while the churchgoer is going when she wants to come.
3. You can never see a churchgoer until she has finished everything she has to do at home, when
she has finished, she will come at her convenient time; nobody will levy her. “It is even better to ask me to go, let me go and have my rest,” that is a churchgoer’s statement.
14. Once you tell a churchgoer to go home and rest, you have given him his heart desire; he will go home and rest because that is what he had been longing for. He is not a seed of God for he is not coming to worship God.
15. Let it be known to you that it is not all that eat and drink at the same shrine that worship Idol. The person who kills a fowl before that shrine is not a worshiper, the cock is used by another person for sacrifice. He is attending that shrine, not a worshiper.
16. If a law should be made at all, the idol worshiper should not come out in a day, it does not concern him. Sometimes, there may be too many drinks at that shrine, passers-by joined in drinking,
they are not under obligation. They eat and drink to their fill and go their way. Even St Paul joined in the eating and drinking, he said it does not matter.
17. But the true worshipers of this idol who came to offer sacrifice, they do not eat anyhow. They reverence the idol. Sometimes, they do not even join in the eating and drinking. After performing the rituals, they give the meal to eaters who are known as idol vultures – vultures of the idols. They run around the idol not to worship but to eat and drink.
18. If after coming for three or four consecutive times and there is no meat or drinks used for sacrifice, they will all vanish one by one. They will keep monitoring from their houses when some drinks will be available again and you see them gather again.
19. I want somebody to look into his or her life. No true Worshiper comes late to the Fellowship, it is always a churchgoer that comes late, he is here because he ought to be here. He is here to play Church because if he does not care, he will become the topic of the day. A churchgoer plays eye-service but a true worshiper does not look at anybody’s face, he does not want to know whether any other person came or not. He is only concerned about himself. Whatever may happen, he is ever mindful of himself— to save his life.
20. A churchgoer is always looking for good commendation, praise and adoration. If you refuse to acknowledge and praise him for anything he does rightly, he gets offended because he is not here to worship God, but to play Church. That is why, when you look into denominations today, everybody is vying for one position or the other. If he goes to any group where he is not recognised or given any position, he goes away to another group where he will be given a recognised and exalted position because this is the order of the day.
21 My sister in-law came to my house with her husband from Lagos. At Nsugbe, they were Catholics but at Lagos, they are Pentecostals. Their reason was that they were looking for position. The husband has started paving a way for himself. In no distant time, he will be given a position from where they will enrich themselves.
22. Can you see his reason for going to Church? There he pretends not to be drinking alcohol, but down here, he will be scrambling for beer and palm wine. When they get home, the wife will go to C.W.O while he himself will go to C.M.O. When they get back to Lagos, they will be looking for position in the “Praise the Lord Church.” Can you see the fruit or result of going to Church?
23. Every churchgoer is for both God and Satan. when he sees God’s children, he becomes a child of God, if he sees heathens, he becomes one of them. He has both attributes. He knows the tradition of both; he does not leave any at all. Everything he has been holding unto in his life, you can never strip him of any. When you talk about God, it sounds like a story, a moonlight tale to him because it does not anchor anywhere in him. You do not blame him because he is not a seed of God he is only using this place as a cover.
24. Watch all the churchgoers; by their fruits, you shall know them. If it is a woman, her composure here will tell you that they are not interested in whatever we are saying. Some will be playing with their babies while the Message is going on. Some, their duty is moving up and down, whatever you are preaching does not concern them, it is not for them at all. Some will be going into that cubicle (compartment) with the pretence that they are eating and at the same time listening to the message.
25. These are self-deceivers. Churchgoers! They claim to be eating and listening to the Message at the same time, having discussions with someone else. They are only here for formality’s sake. Just to fulfil all righteousness. She does not want to stay back at home to avoid answering questions from neighbours or to avoid her name from being mentioned in the pulpit, these are churchgoers!
26. Instead of not going at all, she will be there late. “The most important thing is to be present, at least;” this is the statement or vision of a churchgoer and not a true worshiper.
27. A true worshiper starts from his house to worship God; the righteousness of a churchgoer is only when he is with the Brethren, sometimes and not always, because certain situations may arise then, he will no longer recognise who is who, and who his Brethren are. His true nature will manifest.
Even if he does not fight, you will be hearing his voice threatening to deal with somebody.
28. A churchgoer is very mindful of his physical appearance, the type of outfit he is putting on, he is not here for worship but is mostly concerned with who is putting on the best cloth. He is looking for the silk he will sew next week. He competes for dressing and beauty contest. She is not here to praise and worship God, but to compare her dressing with others’.
29. Examine yourself to see where you belong. Every seed of God that has covenant with God comes to worship in all conditions; come rain, come sunshine, it does not stop him or her from worshiping God. However, any day it rains, the churchgoer will have reasons not to come here: “After all, worship does not end that day.” If the sun is very hot, he will equally have reasons to stay away, saying he cannot go out in this terrible heat of the sun. If he hears that there is trouble in the city, he will take his leave for one week. He books every of his appointment on Sunday. If he was to visit his village or attend meetings, it must be on a Sunday because he is a churchgoer. Any day he comes back, he will continue with his Church activities.
30. But a seed of God, knowing that he is covenanted with God, keeps that day as a sacred day set aside for God alone. He does not play with the days of worship. He does not fix an appointment with anybody on that day until the Fellowship is over. Even when we were in the denominations, when we use to recite catechism, it says, “Remember the days of worship, keep it holy, honour, and set it apart for God alone,” not for any other personal work. How many of you now remember and sacrifice that day of worship as Sacred unto God? It will take only the seed of God
to do that. A seed of God need not be reminded that he had a covenant with God as pertaining the day of worship. His worship starts at home because he believes that God is with him wherever he may be. But for a churchgoer, God goes on holiday from time to time.
31. Nothing takes the seed of God, a true worshiper away from the Presence of God. That is why Saint Paul said, “What shall separate us from the Love of God, is it hardship, suffering, ill health e.t.c?” Nothing in this life or in the life to come shall separate us from the Love of God;” such is the seed of God and a true worshiper indeed.
32. But a churchgoer moves along with the tempest of life. Wherever the wind of life blows him to, he goes there. Money, wife, husband, child, business, work etc., can take him away from the Presence of God. Anything can take him away because he is a churchgoer – one leg with God, the other leg with the witch doctor. When we went to Nsukka, I was somewhere with my wife, we started holding a meeting with them.
33. Somebody in this Faith confessed before us how she went to see a native doctor who prophesied to her and told her how people are pursuing her about after which she said nothing, but told her husband’s relations who went to confirm from another witch doctor. I was just listening to her, at the end of her stories, I asked her one question and she was dumbfounded.
34. “After you have gone to all these places, what next did you get? Did you get your purpose of going there fulfilled? Why did you come looking for God?” That is a churchgoer, everything goes.
35. “Give that which is Caesar’s to Caesar and that which belongs to God, to God.” Every Churchgoer has this notion: “Who knows where he or she will be in the end? When we get there, let God judge.” But a true worshiper knows that everybody must reap what he or she sows, even while alive. That your life now will determine how and where you will end it. He knows that the eyes of God are constantly upon him in whatever he is doing, whether good or bad. He knows that there is One that watches and sees everything.
36. A churchgoer, his reward is from man, if you refuse to pay him back for any good deed, he will forsake and divorce you. A true worshiper knows that his or her reward is from God, whether is he being noticed or not. Whether or not he is being praised, he knows that it is between him and his Maker, it does not concern anybody else. This is his decision and determination with his God. ANY PERSONAL DECISION TAKEN BY CONVICTION IS NOT BURDENSOME.
37. To a churchgoer, the decision to go to church is by persuasion. A churchgoer goes there under persuasion. But a true worshiper worships God freely by personal revelation and conviction. That is why it is said that God is worshiped by personal revelation.
38. When our forefathers devoted themselves to worship God, they called it “ofufe- ndu”— worship of life and not “ofufe-onwu” —worship of death. True worshipers and churchgoers are not the same. All the troubles we have been encountering have been with churchgoers, not the true worshipers. The true worshipers do not have any problem at all. Check all that are having problems today, they are all churchgoers. Amen.
Apart from God, the next person that Knows you is Satan, another person is you. Satan cannot strike until you stray away from the faith. Once you stray away, you create room for Satan to strike.
–The Son of Man
Chapter 2
THE CHURCHGOERS VERSUS THE
TRUE WORSHIPPERS
The righteousness of a child of God lies in his obedience to the Word of God. His outermost concern is his relationship with God, nothing else. Anytime his conscience convicts him of iniquity before God, he loses his peace of mind until he has made it right.
2. God speaks to every seed of His; each time, God will come to him; warn him and telling him what He wants him to know. God can speak to him through dream or audible Voice. He will hear it very audibly as if somebody is there speaking with him.
3. When he gets up, he will see nobody. But nothing speaks to a non-seed of God whether he does good or bad. His eyes and mind are fixed at that which he wants to achieve. He has no adviser, always alone on his own. They often get trapped and fall into great troubles.
4. A churchgoer wants his righteousness based on his contributions for burial, for the needy etc., he will make sure that his name is clearly written down. He attends every general work in the Church premises. These are good and commendable, but he is doing his supposed duty in the Church, that’s a churchgoer.
5. However, when it comes to obeying the Message, he or she scores zero. If your actions are not directed by the Word of God in any group you find yourself, if your purpose of doing anything is not in obedience to the Word of God, you are a churchgoer.
6. Every action of a seed of God is directed by the Word of God. He does not want to walk in disobedience. The Message or Teaching of God is the spirit of God. But a churchgoer only walks by sentiments; he does not want voices to roar on his head. He does not want his name to be mentioned, secondly, he wants to be seen and recognised. Consider what is the motivating factor behind your actions in any congregation you find yourself.
7. Anybody being moved by the Spirit of God to do anything in the Church does not go on strike, but one who is seeking attention, seeking to please human beings, any day you offend him, he will embark on strike action. Anyone working for God does not demonstrate or go on strike action, but one seeking human praise soon goes on demonstration, if his efforts are not recognised.
8. If you are working for God, as long as God has not offended you, you have no problem. But if you are working for somebody else, you stand chance of being offended. It will take a churchgoer to come behind schedule to make sure everybody is there for the work. But a seed of God does not care about anybody else but himself.
9. If work is scheduled here, a churchgoer will wait for Brother Joe, Brother Kelechi, and Brother IK to come. If they are not complete, he can never do any work. If he fails to come to the work, he will be at home but his major concern is to find out those that came and those that did not come. Then he will console himself that he was not the only person absent.
10. A churchgoer can never fulfil God’s righteousness. God’s righteousness is in opposition to the Church or religious righteousness and vice versa. A child born into a family does not joke with the affairs concerning that family. A servant can never protect the interest of the family. It is the same thing with a churchgoer; it will take one born in that family to protect the interest of that family with all his life.
11. If you are not a stakeholder in any organization, you can never protect the interest of that organization. For you to protect the interest of any association, you must. be a stakeholder.
12. If you are not a stakeholder, you have nothing to protect. “If it will crumble, let it crumble, if it will stand, let it stand, it is none of my business; whatever they decide, it is for them. “If they like, let them protect the interest, if they do not, that is left for them,” if you have these attitudes, you are a churchgoer! You are not a seed of God, you are not worshiping God and you do not even know who God is.
13. This is the attitude of people in various religious groups. If this is your attitude here, you are still the same you! A vulture remains a vulture wherever it might find itself.
14. Look into the city today; see the number of people going to Church, the number of Bible-carriers and preachers, they even outnumber non-Bible carriers. Fifty years ago, non-bible carriers are more in number, yet evil was less. If carrying the Bible led to increase in evils and crimes, it then means that the Bible is the author or origin of evil. Now, everybody is carrying Bible in all the Churches.
15. The question now remains; what are you worshiping? Because everybody is entitled to his or her belief. You worship the god you choose, it is your right. That is why there is confusion everywhere, because Anglicans, Grace of God, Catholic, Presbyterians, all have their own beliefs.
16. You know that the family of Nnadi was formally Anglican, same is lay reader, there are so many other Churches at Opi, Grace of God, Assemblies, Anglican, Catholic, Seven days Adventist, Sabbath, Odoziobodo, name them! Every one of them is calling God, God, God, yet they do not agree with themselves. Is this God the author of confusion? What Am I saying? Opi, you carry the Bible and you are worshiping what you do not know. Amen.
Grow in wisdom and knowledge just as you grow in stature. The worth of a man is not in his bank account. The worth of a man is in his brain. Every true seed of God must live as a shinning example.
–The Son of Man
Chapter 3
EXAMINE YOURSELF
Examine yourself very well to see whether you are a churchgoer or a worshiper of God.
One that worships God, worships Him in spirit and in truth. He worships him based on the conviction of whom God is.
2. A churchgoer goes to Church carnally. All his worship are done carnally and not in conviction, for he has no conviction. All he knows is that he is Worshiping the ‘Invisible God.’ “Who has ever seen God since the world began?” This is a statement or belief of churchgoer.
3. A worshiper of God has direct interaction with God. If you have not started worshiping God to the extent that you have personal interaction with Him your worship is in vain.
4. That is why, even when we were reading the Bible, we were challenged. It says, “We must try to convince God of our worship.” We must try our possible best to convince God that we are His worshippers.
5. It is not God that will convince us. It is our duty to convince God. Can God depend on you? God is supposed to depend on you. If God cannot depend on you, you are a counterfeit.
6. Is your father supposed not to depend on you? Any son that is not trustworthy or whom the father cannot have confidence in is a disappointment to the father.
7. This is why you must win God’s approval; win God’s confidence so that God can depend on you.
God can say, “Even if others have failed, this one is still remaining steadfast.” Can God look at you and say, “It is true that others have disappointed me, but this one is still worthy of my trust. He is still faithful.” Can you be that faithful one? Can I be that faithful one?
8. If we go to the story of the Bible concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, how many people was God looking for? How many was sought for as faithfuls? How many were found?
9. God was looking for one, two, three, four, five persons that are faithful and trustworthy. That is what God is looking for. Those God can depend on. If God should come to this our Fellowship today, how many people are faithful in their worship of God in the promise they made with their family on how they will worship God? How many people are faithful, both man and woman?
10. Or should we be seen as churchgoers? Examine yourself while I examine myself. A churchgoer, his attitude will show you that he is a churchgoer, if he/she is an adult, before the Fellowship dismisses, he will go out up to seven times, excusing himself to go and urinate, yet he is not actually urinating. If you preach more than one hour, he will get offended. He will be here booking appointments. He will be here answering calls. He will be here but his mind is already where he wants to go.
11. If he comes to Church, you are wasting his time a lot. It is even better that he comes and registers his name and goes away – he has answered “present.” This is what he wants. Looking at the way he is coming, as one that is being forced or pressured to come.
12. Some will come and stay at the corridor to show you that they came to Church. He that comes to worship God comes with respect and reverence. He comes with love. He comes with the fear of God before Him. But a churchgoer has no respect, love nor reverential (respectful) fear. That is why, when you see one that comes to Church, he/she starts misbehaving immediately he/she comes in. Once he/she comes in, jesting starts, talking starts, eating starts. If it is one that eats before coming here, he starts moving about immediately.
13. Looking at those breasting-feeding their babies, their attitude will tell you that they came to Church. She does not listen to the preacher while breast-feeding her baby, but she is talking there at the Corridor with her colleagues while the preacher is On the pulpit.
14. A churchgoer is a segregator, a politician. He is only coming to stay with his colleagues. A Churchgoer is a sniper. Anyone that does good things is his enemy. He will say that the person is seeking recognition. This is a sniper!
That is why the Bible said that they are those that sneer at those that do good. These are churchgoers.
15. A true worshiper does not have time for all these things. He is always concerned by day or by night of what he will do to receive blessings from God; what he will do to please God, that he might not stand condemned before God.
A churchgoer feels good wherever he finds himself. This will be evident by the type of life he lives. He takes everything for granted because he is a churchgoer.
16. A true worshiper takes the Word of God serious and takes his business (that is what even he is doing) serious, he is well convinced. You do not tell him stories. You do not talk to him twice because as he is moving, he looks into his life, always considering his ways. Because he is sure of what he is doing and would not like anybody to tell him long stories. A churchgoer is not like that.
17. I live along the road. I use to see those that hurriedly go to Church very early in the morning to attend morning mass. But on their way back, come and hear the type of conversation that will be coming out from their mouth. See various, various groups as they are going back indulging in an ungodly conversation, but while they were going in the morning, they were holy, holy. But while coming back, hear their conversation and look at the type of life they live.
18. It is the same thing here; I say it is the same thing here! Since I started here, is there anybody that fought or jumped the fence? Everybody is sitting like a holy angel.
19. God has touched our lives. I will not know Whether God has touched your life until you leave
this place. If after leaving this place, your life remains the same, no single change, it is a proof that you are merely coming to Church to fulfil all righteousness.
20. Anyone coming to Church will see someone coming here as one who does not know what to use his money for. One who has no better occupation, he sees him there as a fool. “What are you going there to do? Alright, let’s go there today and hear what they have to say. Let us hear their stories;” this is a churchgoer! The only good thing he sees is dancing or the day of merriment. He will eat and drink his turn. That is the only day he sees the Holy Ghost come down, that is a churchgoer, a Church member!
21. Who are those God is interested in? is it the churchgoers? No! It is the true worshippers. That is why He warned in the past when He brought them out to the wilderness, from the land of the heathens, He did not tell them anything; rather He gave them only one commandment: “Only listen
and obey my Words that it might be well with you. Any day you disobey my Word, you shall be destroyed.” Amen.
The worst thing that will happen to one Is the fear of God leaving him. Once the Fear of God leaves a man, his calling will crash land. Do not allow the simplicity that is in Him to blind you even to destruction.
-The Son of Man
Chapter 4
ATTRIBUTES OF A CHURCHGOER 2
Check all the problems you are having today, check the source, you will discover that they stemmed from your disobedience to the Word of God. If it is not disobedience to the Word of God, it might be that you belong to the group of churchgoers – one that comes to Church in hypocrisy. He does nothing wholeheartedly. Whatever they do is under persuasion.
2. If the Word roars hard on him, he will stay quiet. When the Voice stops, he will rise up again. A churchgoer is a confusionist, a trouble-shooter, a
segregator, sowing seeds of discord in different families.
3. A churchgoer should be avoided. As we read from the Bible, we were told that it was churchgoers that killed Jesus. When judged from the Church point-of-view, they all failed. Yet they were the ones that killed Jesus. They called him Satan, Beelzebub, yet they were all snipers, mockers, betrayers.
4. No Word that goes forth bears fruit in the life of a churchgoer. He stands firmly while telling lies. If he is stealing, he stands firmly. Whatever evil he does he stands very firmly. “Say whatever you want to say, I will do what I want to do,” that is a churchgoer.
5. Churchgoers are everywhere. He might be preacher here. A Pastor, Teacher, Apostle, Deacon Evangelist can be a churchgoer; anybody can be a
churchgoer. Nobody is exempted. It can be a man or a woman.
6. Watch all churchgoers; by their fruits, you shall know them. While we were discussing in my house with Bro. Shedrack, he was telling us the phone call he received from our former Brother Charles. He was fuming and quarrelling over the phone, how he will deal with him. The type of war he will wage against him.
7. I was there with Bro Thomas. I said, “Can you see, he was suppressing his feelings all the time while he was in our midst. His true nature has manifested. If he is a seed of God and he was excommunicated, nothing will ever make him dream of waging war against his Brother in this life.” Anybody that is excommunicated for his wrongdoing in the family and he flies away, he is not part of the family. He was not born in that family. He has gone back to where he came from.
What is he? He is a bush fowl that is following the hen about.
8. I said something further there: “What I am passing through with Brethren and their families has made me to know that any evil thing a man is doing in this Family, his wife knows about it. The wife is also involved. Whichever one the woman is doing, her husband knows about it and he is equally involved in it; coming here to dance shows that you are a churchgoer.”
9. A churchgoer delights in and rejoices in what he ought to be ashamed of. If the husband is involved in fraud (419, wayo!), the wife knows about it and she is part of the game.
10. Check all these house agents, fraudsters abound there. Go to his house, if he is not around the wife knows what to say, she knows when creditors come. She knows when tenants that are looking for accommodations come.
11. Do not say, “Behead my wife, behead my wife.” If your wife is beheaded, you will equally be beheaded because both of you are involved in the same act.
12. Every churchgoer here, if you are a woman, your husband knows that you are a churchgoer; if you are a man, your wife knows that you are a churchgoer.
13. That was why the wife of Victor said, “Why are you disturbing me? What am I coming here to do? My husband that is coming, there is nothing in his life to prove that he is hearing teachings here or is this teaching meant for me alone? Let me go home and rest!”
14. Will you blame the woman? The husband is a churchgoer, likewise herself. Today they have had their fill. Let them stay at home, if they want to worship idol, it is their right.
15. The problem is that Charles was here shouting in the name of interpreting the Message. You will not know whether you are a child of God until you are punished for your wrongdoing.
16. If you are a child of God, when you are punished for your iniquity, you will repent. But if you are not a child of God, you will rebel and go away. This Message was preached by Okechukwu Nwamkpa – the Message he used to excommunicate the wife of Nnamdi Ogbogu, titled “Do Not Take Side With The Devil, Do Not Take Side With The Wicked,” that was the Message he preached.
The son of Mrs Ike, Chidi, wrote us a comprehensive letter of six pages about his mother; her relationship with Mrs Ogbogu everything she said, that was where she linked the involvement with Sister Joshua. I have a copy of that letter till today. Amen.