‘Today, we have more motivational speakers than preachers’

Pastor Zaccheus Babatunde Adeisa of Look and Live Believers Ministry, Itori, Ogun State, speaks with RITA OKONOBOH on his 24-year experience as a minister, what Nigeria must do to improve the economy, and what God has for the country for 2017. Excerpts:

Ministry

I have been in the ministry since 24 years ago. I thought I would further my education. However, after I finished secondary school, I had financial challenges, so I decided to learn a skill. I learnt automobile and electrical battery charging and I assumed that was the path through which my life would run. However, one day, at the shop, I heard the Lord speaking to me for the first time. The call was also confirmed through another cleric, who told me that God wanted to use me for the spread of the gospel.

However, I ignored the message and continued living my life. However, in 1992, the call came again and became more intense and I realised I had no choice but to heed the call. So, I began with Heirs of God Christian Bible Church in Ilaro, Ogun State. I spent about three years there before I joined another ministry for about nine years. Along the line, I kept receiving the message from God that I was to set up a ministry. As such, I decided to work with some other ministries before setting up Look and Live Believers Ministry.

Having been in the ministry for 24 years, do you have any regrets?

I have no regrets, although there have been challenges with regard to people who didn’t want the ministry to exist. For instance, when I just got into the ministry, around 1992,  in Ogun State, a man stated categorically that no church would be sited in that area. However, by the grace of God, that was where I carried out serious evangelism and we thank God for the turnaround that place has experienced. When challenges come, God is ever faithful to saving those who are close to Him. Challenges help a person to grow in the faith, as it is stated: ‘no cross, no crown.’ God always wins the battle for us.

When you compare Christianity of over 20 years ago when you joined the ministry and now, would you say things have changed?

Yes, Christianity has changed. What was hammered upon during that time, many years ago, was holiness and how to attain the kingdom of God. Now, however, people are more focused on other things. Moral decadence is on the rise and prosperity messages, even at illegal costs, are becoming more popular. That is not to say that there are no preachers who speak on holiness.

However, such preachers are few. That change in Christianity is probably a means to get more members and as such, those pastors, whom I would rather refer to as ‘motivational speakers,’ have dropped their standards. Even Jesus, when He spoke about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, the multitude left Him because they said such conditions for following Christ was hard. We thank God for those who still focus on the real message of the gospel. If a person wants to be faithful to the true calling of Christ, church membership will not be a criterion. Clerics must be focused on helping people attain heaven.

Do you subscribe to the notion that the current state of the world is a signal that the end time is near?

Yes. I agree with that. However, the fact that the end time is near does not mean we should be experiencing the current state of the Nigerian economy because it is not only in Nigeria that the end time will take place. The state of the country is as a result of so many sins. Nigeria is a country God loves so much. Interestingly, worldwide, I’m not sure there is a country that prays or worships God like Nigeria.

However, unless we repent of our sins, things may not improve. When a person is faced with principalities, such a person doesn’t need deliverance. What that person needs to do is to seek out the situation that has allowed that challenge to affect him and make the necessary adjustment. That way, heaven will also come to his aid. That is what Nigeria needs.

Even in churches, which should be the proof of God’s presence on earth, people commit so many sins. Churches have failed God in so many ways and that is why Nigeria is in its current state. If we repent and call upon God in sincerity and truth, He will make things better. God loves Nigeria so much and He has so many good plans for the country. As much as we should be conscious of the end time, we should also be conscious of living righteously.

What has God told you about Nigeria as we approach 2017?

God has told me that people would not lack. However, when God says there won’t be lack, that is if government and the people seek God’s intervention in the affairs of the nation.  So, the prophecy is for those that believe in God.