Nigeria will overcome economic recession if… —Pastor Asaolu

Pastor Richard Oluseyi Asaolu, the minister in charge of Metamorphosis Christian Centre, an Abuja-based prophetic ministry, is an engineer with 15 years experience in oil and gas sector and a businessman, using his time to do God’s work. In this interview with SEYI GESINDE, he speaks on the state of the church, economic recession and the way forward for the church and Nigeria. Excerpts:

 

The church has been criticised for not living up to expectations and not doing what it ought to do. What do you think has gone wrong overtime?

Well, the Bible says without a vision the people perish, another version says the people move about riotous. Part of the challenges is that we have lost the purpose why we exist. It happens to a community of people, nations, where they lose the purpose of where they are coming from, where they are and where they are going. Like somebody said, if the purpose of something is not known, abuse becomes inevitable. So, what is happening right now is that we are having many visions, lesser visions been upheld in place of the real one. The real one is basically this that we go into the nations like the salt and light representing Christ in our different spheres.

How will this happen, going into the nations like the salt and light representing Christ?

The fivefold – the apostles, evangelists, pastors, prophets and teachers, they are to equip the church so that the church can go into the society like the salt and light but unfortunately, what we have right now is a system whereby the fivefold themselves are like the football players, the church, the people themselves are likes the spectators, spectators are coming to stadium, offering is our ticket so to speak, to come and watch the fivefold perform, and with that kind of system, we have come up with an orientation that we think Christianity is only on Sunday, whereas Christianity is a day-to-day affairs. If I am a messenger at the National Assembly and I’m representing Christ, will I be a part of what is going there right now? Of course not. If I am a staff in any of the parastatals in Abuja and they bring a file to me, will I represent Christ? Or will I be among the people that are collecting bribes? The answer is no. If our people truly are Christ-like representing Christ in their different endeavours, the society would naturally be salted.

So, how can the church retrace its steps to fulfil purpose?

I don’t see how we can do it, but this what Jesus said: that I will build my church. Historically, when we look at the Book of Judges, God will send them judges after years of apotheosis, they would have a good time of peace, then the next thing is that they would go back into sin and sin will open judgement, then judgement will be for a while and they would cry to God. And they moved in that circle for about four hundred and thirty years. Likewise, in our clime too, same thing is happening. So, I foresee what will happen is this, God  will send seasons of revival to the church that some individuals will emerged and some super natural activities will emerge that will bring about the people back to God. And even when you look at the Bible, while the ark of covenant was with David, Shiloh was still in practice, people were still going to Shiloh like in the days of Eli. We human beings are creatures of habit and Jesus said it also in Matthew 13:30: Let both grow together… So, if enemy had sown tears, Lord will not uproot it, what He will do is this, He will make sure He is maturing His wheat and focus more on the real one, so that people who are seekers after God can identify Him. In the days when Jesus was born, even the religious systems of the day were not aware of it. When He walked the Earth, there were two high priests, Annas and Caiaphas, who were against the rule of Moses and Jesus was there, so it now depends on whom the people follow, the Apostate structure or what the Lord is renewing in the land? So, that is what I foresee happening in our land also.

If this will happen, how will the church avoid personality influence over it, even when church leaders are being criticised for patronising those in authorities in the guise of delivering prophetic messages?

First and foremost, many people parading themselves as prophets are not. Prophetic ministry is not the same as pastoral functions. The unfortunate thing is just as Uzziah who made up his mind to assume the responsibility of the priest by going into the temple to offer sacrifice unto the Lord against what Moses said and against the council of priests that said he shouldn’t do it that he is a king and he did it and he got struck. Today, we have pastors, evangelists, teachers and apostles that are stepping into the functions that the Lord has not called them. The reason is because prophetic gift or grace has ability to draw attention like in the case of Nathanael and Jesus. Nathanael’s attention was quickly drawn to Jesus. Any evangelist that is moving with the word of knowledge begins to assume the function of a prophet. We need to first understand that, many of them are going before us and they are not sent by God. That is one. Two, the prophetic ministry in the church in the New Testament is not the same in the Old Testament. It is the church that is meant to be the prophet to the society which is not what we have today. So, I believe the Lord is beginning to redefine that role and as we move on into the future, he will anoint his own and give them authority and they will model the right picture before us.

Now, looking at the present state of the nation, the President came out recently to say Nigeria is a poor nation, against past prophesies assuring prosperity for the nation and its people, now recession in economy is biting hard, what do you say to this?

I will say it in two ways. One, the law of sow and reaping is always true, whatever we sow, we will reap. Proverbs 6 says “Go and learn from the ants, the ants prepare for the future.” We need to acknowledge that where we are today we caused it. When we had the resources, we saw in the days of Pharaoh, seven years of plenty and seven years of famine – what did we do in our days of plenty? We squandered it. Other nations were not foolish as we were. We were prodigal sons.

…What is the way out?

What we need to do now is to repent and ask God to have mercy on us. If we don’t do this any other thing is not going to work. The fact that the President declared that we are poor right now, is like a doctor acknowledging this person has malaria, treatment has to start to identify what is going on. In the midst of this, we look at what doors are open. For about fifty years we’ve had oil, the reality on ground is the door of oil as economic tool is winding up. Seventy years ago, it was coal, now in every generation we have mineral resources through technology to mine, the oil has been there for years, but we got the technology fifty to sixty years ago and by the reason of time, the oil is no longer fashionable, everybody is going back to renewable energy. So, the question we should ask ourselves now is what door is closing, what door is opening? The first door that is closing right now is oil and gas, as a means of driving economy or being a mono-economic control, and the door that is opening right now is agriculture, people must begin to look at what they can do, either agricultural production or agricultural processing or agricultural distribution or export. As we are talking right now if someone goes into export, you will earn your money in dollars, so while others are crying that dollar is increasing, this guy is happy because of rising dollar rate. So, if we position ourselves right, you will find out that some doors were closed yet some doors opened up. Then two, another area we need to look at is home base-business, users to users’ using the internet. The negative way of using it is ‘Yahoo Yahoo.’ But the counterfeit exists because the real exist. The whole industry of home-base business, let me give you an example, direct sale is currently right now globally bigger than Hollywood and it is about $180 billion, that is a whole lot of opportunity for the people, while with your phone, you can be running home-base business that runs to thirty to forty countries. From your bedroom you can actually be making money outside Nigeria legally. So, people must begin to look at some of these things, because a door that is closed is because it has expired, but new doors are opening. Let everybody wear a new thinking cap and stop crying over spill milk.

Then the economic recession, any divine clue to this?

God told Israelites He is taking them to a land flowing with milk and honey, in the wilderness they enjoyed manna, but the moment they got to the Promised Land and they tasted the fruit of the land, Joshua 5:12, the Bible says manna stopped, similar to what is happening now. Should they cry over manna? No, a new door is just opening now. What is the new door? They should plant, they should harvest, they should determine their destiny under the economy of manna, you could not even keep it till tomorrow, and you can’t be a rich manna man. You can only take for today, but under the new economy, they can plant, they can harvest and they can store. They can determine whether they want to plant small or big. He that sows sparingly will reap sparingly, he that sows bountifully will reap bountifully, that is the economy that God gave us. I can say it this way, though we call it a recession, but it is an opportunity in disguise for those that can see it.

What is the prophetic message to Nigerians and Nigeria as a nation?

I believe what the Lord is saying to us is, one, He wants us to pick back our destiny, Nigeria has been destiny to be a trigger of revival across the nation of the Earth, and there is a missionary spirit over Nigeria, that is why every nation you go you find a Nigerian church there, or a Nigerian or you find a church planted by a Nigerian in that place. That shows our missionary spirit. Then, two, we should also understand this that righteousness exalts a nation. There is no other prophetic word other than the word – righteousness exalts a nation. If we decide to do it right, if we decide to follow the principles of the Bible, we are going to have it right. Then the leaders must understand that righteousness exalts the people. You cannot govern the people outside the principles of God, if we depart from Him, He will depart from us, and if we embrace Him, He will have us back. I believe if we see it in that light, Nigeria as a country will step into a new economy. I know we will be in a season of shock, forty years of manna is enough to make somebody not know how to do something else. Someone who was two years old when manna started falling, manna now stopped, you first go into stress, panic and trauma. But if he does not give up, he will begin to see that there is a new opportunity and I believe the wealth transfer has started.