FRANCIS WALE OKE’S $3,000 PRICE TAG ON GOD’S BLESSING

By Akin Ojumu

This past August, the Pentecostal Elder Statesman Francis Wale Oke was the guest minister at the New Covenant Assembly, Calgary, Canada. He was invited to come and scratch the itching ears of the hundreds of biblically uninformed and spiritually undiscerning folks who attend the religious establishment. 

At the very end of him giving his spiel of spiritual toxic waste, after he had spent the better part of his time on the pulpit prepping and priming the crowd, the gathered crowd was easy pickings ready to get scammed out of their earnings. Like the smooth-talking used car salesman that he is, Mr. Wale Oke went about laying his elaborate scheme of extortion on the unsuspecting victims.

Sounding all pious and holy, and with all the sanctimonious claptrap he could muster, Mr. Francis Wale Oke told the audience the following:

“The Lord spoke to me, today, for you to offer a sacrifice for your family.”

Now, if I were in that audience and I heard Mr Wale Oke utter those words, I would have picked up my Bible and walked out of that place immediately. “The Lord spoke to me...,” is a warning signal and an alarm bell alerting me that what I’m about to be told is all a lie. I know this because the Bible tells us that everything we need to be complete in Christ and equipped for good work is already written in Scriptures.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Anyone who claims that the Lord spoke to them outside of the pages of the Bible is a mouthpiece of Satan who is pushing the idea that Scripture is not enough.

As far as I can tell, when the people heard Mr Wale Oke, they were captivated and riveted. They believed they were about to hear God’s instructions from the mouth of an oracle of God.

But let’s allow Mr. Francis Wale Oke to continue.

“Whatever plague you’ve been trying to battle with, you couldn’t cope. Let God arise. Let His enemies be scattered. Hear me. It was a very very expensive sacrifice. David paid for it and he stopped the plague for all Israel. I’m going to ask you. Listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Listen to God. There are three major pillars in a family. The father, one pillar. The mother, two pillar. The children, third pillar. And a nucleus family is complete. I want to ask you, those of you, if you want to raise an altar and put a very expensive sacrifice on the altar of God for you, your family, and all the works of your hand like Obed-Edom. And you are making a sacrificial seed of $3,000. You heard me very well. I move around the world a little bit. And I know $3,000 is quite some money. But that’s it. Very expensive sacrifice that comes from the heart. Not because you are compelled. No! Not because you are pushed. No! Not because you are wounded and wounded. No! You are connecting with God; between you and God. I want this plague of my life to end. This plague of my family to end. This plague over the work of my hand to end. I want you to bless me like you bless Obed-Edom the Gittite. I put a seed of $3,000 on your altar. Step out here.”

Whether it’s the scary-looking, bare-chested hoodlum trying to sell you worn-out Tokunbo tires, i.e., used tires, as brand spanking new tires on the streets of Oshodi or the pious-looking, agbada-clad preacher trying to get you to empty your wallet, con artists are cut from the same cloth and they all use the same playbook. In the very act of scamming you, they’ll be telling you they are not trying to pressure you into doing what you don’t want to do. It’s the trick they all use and it’s their modus operandi.

Here we find Mr. Francis Wale Oke subtly coercing and intimidating his audience by claiming that the Lord spoke to him that they should sow a sacrificial seed of $3,000, yet he is telling them he is not trying to compel them, push them, or wound them up. The very thing he claims he is not doing, is actually what he is doing. Who wouldn’t feel compelled or intimidated when a “man of God” says it was God who asked him to tell you to sow a $3,000 seed? Who in that audience will refuse to do what God tells them to do, especially when it is tied to ending the plagues on their families and the works of their hands? 

Asking people to sow an expensive seed of $3,000 in order to raise an altar against the plagues of lives is what’s called the Sin of Simony. This is the transactional exchange of spiritual things – such as church offices, sacraments, or blessings – for money. The Sin of Simony comes from the deeds of Simon the Samaritan magician who, in Acts chapter 8, offered Peter and John money in exchange for the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Acts 8:18-20

“Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!””

You cannot purchase the gifts and blessings of God with money. God would never ask you to sow a seed to raise an altar that would end the plagues in your life. It is an egregious sin to place a price tag on God’s deliverance. And it is blasphemy to say God told you to ask people to sow seed for their breakthrough.

The Bible has a lot to say about Gospel hucksters like Mr. Francis Wale Oke who exploit the ignorance of church folks and take advantage of their several lusts for the purpose of enriching themselves.

2 Peter 2:3 (KJV)

“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”

2 Peter 2:3 (ESV)

“And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

For ascribing to God words that God never spoke and for twisting and distorting the word of God and using it to advance their greedy schemes of manipulation, exploitation, and extortion, the hottest parts of hell is reserved for Francis Wale Oke and all other Gospel hucksters like him.

And to all of you who consume this nonsense, you only have yourself to blame. The reason you keep falling for this sort of deception is because of your own greed. It’s your desire to have your itching ears tickled that propels you to continue to follow after and give money to extortioners like Francis Wale Oke who parade themselves as men and women of God.