EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE CHURCHES IN NIGERIA (PART II)

“When the Holy Spirit Becomes Private Property and Ministers Become Spiritual Supermen”

By Akin Ojumu

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CHAPTER TWO: “I CARRY POWER”: THE RISE OF THE SPIRITUAL ELITE

Now concerning spiritual gifts, Brothers, I would not have you ignorant. Unfortunately, some of your ministers have become extraordinarily imaginative.

One says: “I carry healing.” 

Another: “I carry fire.” 

Another: “I carry deliverance.” 

Another: “I carry resurrection power.” 

Another: “I carry governmental authority.”

Another: “My presence changes atmospheres.”

Another: “There are diseases that cannot survive around me.”

Marvelous. You carry so much. Perhaps Emirates should start charging excess spiritual baggage.

Tell me, O mighty carrier: What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you speak as though the Holy Spirit signed over ownership?

The Spirit distributes gifts AS HE WILLS. Not as Apostle wills. Not as Papa wills. Not as Daddy decrees. Not according to the ministerial seniority chart.

The Holy Spirit is not your spiritual electricity. The anointing is not diesel in your private generator. Healing is not stored behind your ribs. Fire is not bottled inside your abdomen. You are not a divine power bank.

THE SPIRITUAL MEGASTAR.

But you have created two classes of Christians.

There are ordinary believers. Then there are the Men Who Carry Things™.

Ordinary believers pray. The carriers command. Ordinary believers ask God. The carriers announce outcomes. Ordinary believers say: “If the Lord wills.” The carriers say: “I decree.” “I declare.” “I release.” “I activate.” “I shift.” “I command.” “I legislate.”

Apparently, Heaven has now become a branch office. And apostle is regional director.

Some even speak as if creation itself waits anxiously for their vocal cords.

Rain must obey them. Disease must flee them. Wombs must respond to them. Airports must cooperate. Embassies must surrender. Weather systems must stand at attention. Cancer must check who entered the room. 

And if thunder rumbles while Papa is preaching? Of course. “Atmospheric confirmation.” Nothing is ever just weather anymore.

THE MIRACLE-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.

Now concerning your miracles. I hear extraordinary things.

The dead are raised every month. Tumors disappear every Tuesday. Blind eyes open every convention. People teleport and levitate. Storms are commanded.

Women conceive because they sit where Daddy GO had sat or eat his left-over chicken. Babies allegedly change sex because apostle spoke. Cancer flees at the appearance of the man of God. 

People die, visit heaven, meet the pastor there, return, and somehow no hospital can locate the paperwork.

Nigeria appears to contain more resurrections than the Book of Acts. Yet strangely—documentation remains one of the rarest spiritual gifts.

Where are the doctors? Where are the medical records? Where is the death certificate? Where are the scans? Where is the pathology report? Where are the independent witnesses?

Silence.

But ask for evidence and suddenly you are “touching the anointed.” Ask questions and you “lack faith.” Request verification and you have a “critical spirit.”

Apparently, Satan’s newest weapon is requesting documentation.

Brothers, Faith is not gullibility. The resurrection of Jesus was proclaimed with witnesses. But your miracle economy increasingly demands that the bigger the claim, the fewer questions anybody may ask.

What a convenient arrangement.

“DON’T QUESTION PAPA.”

You say: “Do not criticize the man of God.”

Why?

“Touch not my anointed.”

Ah. The national emergency verse. One text. Dragged from its context. Beaten senseless. Then deployed as ecclesiastical pepper spray.

Prophet makes a false claim? “Touch not.” Daddy mangles Scripture? “Touch not.” Apostle invents doctrine? “Touch not.” Papa collects money with promises God never made? “Touch not.”

Meanwhile, the Bereans examined even apostolic preaching against Scripture. But apparently your Daddy outranks Paul.

Even Paul could be examined. Papa cannot. An Apostle of Christ could be tested. Your General Overseer requires diplomatic immunity.

DIMENSIONS EVERYWHERE.

And what is this obsession with “dimensions”?

A new dimension of prayer. A dimension of wealth. A dimension of favor. A dimension of apostolic alignment. A prophetic dimension. A governmental dimension. A territorial dimension. A marketplace dimension. A marital dimension.

At this rate, Nigerian Christianity requires a physics department.

Paul preached Christ crucified. You preach dimensions. Paul reasoned from Scripture. You advertise portals. Paul taught justification. You teach atmospheric legislation. Paul spoke of sanctification. You speak of mystery codes. Paul wanted believers rooted in Christ. You want them “activated.”

WHEN NOBODY CAN SIMPLY PRAY.

Even prayer has become theatrical.

No one can merely pray: “Lord, have mercy.” Now prayer must sound like an artillery exercise. 

“I FIRE!” “I SCATTER!” “I BREAK!” “I DESTROY!” “I COMMAND!” “I LEGISLATE!” “I RELEASE!” “I CANCEL!” “I REVERSE!” “I SEND BACK TO SENDER!”

And everyone screams as if decibel level is a fruit of the Spirit.

Brothers, your Father knows what you need. Prayer is not a spiritual shouting match. God is not deaf. Neither is Heaven activated by vocal violence.

EXPERIENCE HAS BECOME SCRIPTURE.

Someone says, “I visited heaven.” You believe him. “I spoke with an angel.” You believe her. “My spirit traveled abroad.” You believe him. “I saw myself in three countries simultaneously.” You believe him. “My spiritual father appeared in my dream and performed surgery.” You believe it.

But show you a biblical text in context, and suddenly you demand proof. Your standard of evidence is upside down. The more biblical the claim, the more debate. The more bizarre the testimony, the louder the applause.

YOUR DREAM IS NOT A CANON.

Even if you saw something, so what? Experience does not establish doctrine. Dreams do not rewrite Scripture. Visions do not create theology. Goosebumps are not revelation. Coincidences are not exegesis. A testimony does not become true merely because somebody cried while telling it. And an angel is not automatically credible.

Have you forgotten? Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

So, stop building doctrine out of midnight dreams.

THE BIBLE AS DECORATION.

Many of your sermons begin with a Bible text. Then depart from it permanently. The verse appears on the screen. The preacher reads it. Then spends fifty minutes discussing destiny helpers, enemies, mantles, gates, keys, dimensions, witches, altars, firstborn battles, bloodline patterns, generational curses, prophetic advantage, and next-level favor.

The Bible served its purpose. It provided the opening ceremony.

That is not exposition. That is kidnapping a verse and forcing it to endorse a sermon it never volunteered for.

THE “REVELATION” ADDICTION.

You do not want ordinary truth. It must be “deep.” It must be a “mystery.” It must be “hidden.” It must be something nobody has seen for 2,000 years.

And conveniently, your apostle discovered it last Tuesday. 

The original Apostles of Christ missed it. The early Church missed it. The Reformers missed it. Missionaries missed it. Millions of Christians missed it.

But your prophet found it while pacing behind a keyboard in Abuja. And now the body of Christ must buy the conference registration to hear it.

Wonderful.

You are not a divine warehouse. You do not own healing. You do not own fire. You do not own power. You do not own grace. You do not control the Holy Spirit.

If God uses you, thank Him. If He gives a gift, serve. If He heals, glorify Him. If He does not heal, do not manufacture a testimony.

And if you insist on saying, “I carry power,” remember this: You are not carrying God around. God is carrying you.

In Chapter III, we will examine how the Household of God has turned into a marketplace where God is the product.