POJU OYEMADE AND THE GOD WHOSE PLANS CAN BE THWARTED BY MAN

“When the Almighty Becomes a Helpless Spectator to Human Decisions”

By Akin Ojumu

It is becoming increasingly difficult to recognize the God of the Bible in the deity Poju Oyemade describes from his pulpit.

I do not arrive at this conclusion arbitrarily. My assessment is based on Oyemade’s own theological assertions and the portrait of God that emerges from his teachings.

Judging by how easily the plans and purposes of his god can be frustrated, obstructed, and rendered ineffective by mere mortals, one is compelled to wonder whether the deity Oyemade preaches bears any resemblance to the omniscient, omnipotent, and sovereign Creator of heaven and earth revealed in Holy Scripture.

Apparently, the god of Poju Oyemade is a deity who makes plans but cannot guarantee their fulfillment. He conceives purposes but lacks the power to bring them to pass. He proposes, but man disposes. His eternal intentions hang precariously on the spiritual activities of His creatures.

And when human beings fail to perform the necessary religious rituals, His divine agenda collapses.

Don’t take my word for it.

Listen to Poju Oyemade describe the limitations of his god:

“There are somethings that will never happen in the life of a person that God planned to happen if that individual doesn’t enter into times of consecration.”

Read that statement again.

According to Oyemade, there are things God has planned to accomplish in the life of an individual that will never happen simply because that person failed to enter into what he calls “times of consecration.”

In other words, the Almighty has plans that man possesses the power to cancel. The Creator has purposes that His creatures can permanently frustrate. The omnipotent God of heaven and earth is apparently powerless to accomplish certain things unless a human being first fulfills the required spiritual conditions.

What an astonishingly diminished conception of deity!

This is not the God revealed in Scripture. This is a god fashioned in the imagination of man, a deity whose supposed sovereignty is held hostage by human performance.

You will search the Scriptures in vain for any teaching that the sovereign purposes of God can be defeated by the failure of a human being to engage in particular religious exercises.

There is absolutely nothing that God has sovereignly purposed, decreed, or ordained that will fail to come to pass.

No human will can overturn His decrees. No satanic power can frustrate His intentions. No earthly authority can obstruct His eternal purposes. No spiritual force can prevent Him from accomplishing what He has determined to do.

God does not formulate His plans and then anxiously wait to discover whether human beings will cooperate sufficiently to make them possible.

He does not sit helplessly on His throne, wringing His hands in frustration because someone neglected to pray, fast, or observe a season of consecration.

The Almighty is not at the mercy of His creatures. His sovereign purposes are not contingent upon human permission, dependent upon religious performance, or subject to the veto of mortal men.

The testimony of Scripture is unmistakable.

DANIEL 4:35

“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’”

Notice those words carefully:

“NONE CAN STAY HIS HAND.”

Not even the person who fails to enter into Poju Oyemade’s prescribed “times of consecration.”

PSALM 115:3

“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”

The Psalmist does not say that God accomplishes whatever human beings permit Him to accomplish.

He does not say God does all that He pleases, provided His children observe the necessary spiritual protocols.

He does all that He pleases. Period.

PSALM 135:6

“Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.”

Whatever the Lord pleases, HE DOES.

Not whatever He pleases, HE ATTEMPTS.

Not whatever He pleases, HE HOPES.

Not whatever He pleases, HE ACCOMPLISHES ONLY WHEN MAN COOPERATES.

Whatever the LORD pleases, HE DOES.

ISAIAH 46:9–10

“For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”

Pay particular attention to the emphatic declaration of the Almighty:

“MY COUNSEL SHALL STAND, AND I WILL ACCOMPLISH ALL MY PURPOSE.”

God does not say His counsel might stand. He does not say He will accomplish some of His purposes. He does not announce that the fulfillment of His eternal decrees depends upon the successful completion of a spiritual consecration program.

He declares, unequivocally, that His counsel SHALL stand and that He WILL accomplish ALL His purpose.

JOB 42:2

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

Did you catch that?

“NO PURPOSE OF YOURS CAN BE THWARTED.”

Not some purposes. Not most purposes. Not merely those purposes for which human beings have supplied the appropriate religious assistance.

NO PURPOSE OF GOD CAN BE THWARTED.

These passages demolish the notion of a deity whose sovereign purposes can be permanently frustrated by human actions, inactions, disobedience, or failure to perform prescribed spiritual exercises.

Now, before anyone attempts the familiar theological escape route, let something be clearly understood.

Scripture certainly commands Christians to pray, pursue holiness, obey God, and devote themselves to godliness.

Human responsibility is biblical.

Consecration, rightly understood as devotion to God and separation from sin, is biblical.

But nowhere does Scripture teach that God’s eternal decrees can fail because a human being neglected these responsibilities.

There is a fundamental theological distinction between God’s commandments, conditional promises, and His sovereign decrees.

God may condition particular blessings upon obedience. Human beings may forfeit privileges through disobedience. But that is not the same thing as claiming that something God sovereignly determined to accomplish will never happen because man refused to cooperate.

Indeed, God ordains not only the ends He intends to accomplish but also the means through which He brings them to pass.

The God who sovereignly determines the outcome is the same God who governs the circumstances, instruments, and human actions through which His purposes are fulfilled.

He is sovereign over both the destination and the journey.

To turn prayer, fasting, or consecration into an independent human power capable of determining whether God’s sovereign decree succeeds or fails is to elevate the creature above the Creator.

It is to enthrone human performance and dethrone divine sovereignty.

And that is precisely the theological problem with Oyemade’s assertion. Unfortunately, it is not an assertion unique to Oyemade. This is the prevailing view of God’s sovereignty in most of the Pentecostal/Charismatic theological universe.

The God of the Bible does not merely attempt to fulfill His purposes. He fulfills them. 

He does not make plans whose success depends upon the unpredictable decisions of His creatures.

He does not announce His intentions and then retreat into Heaven, hoping that human cooperation will rescue His agenda from failure.

He does not require a mortal man to activate His omnipotence through a season of consecration.

God’s sovereignty is not an inspirational slogan. It is not a decorative theological expression that preachers invoke when convenient and abandon when constructing their elaborate systems of spiritual performance.

It is the unequivocal revelation of Scripture concerning the absolute authority, irresistible purposes, and supreme dominion of the Almighty.

The God of Daniel 4:35 cannot be stopped.

The God of Psalm 115:3 does whatever He pleases.

The God of Psalm 135:6 accomplishes whatever He wills.

The God of Isaiah 46:9–10 fulfills all His purposes.

The God of Job 42:2 cannot have His purposes thwarted.

That is the God of the Bible.

Any theology that portrays the Almighty as a frustrated planner, a helpless observer, or a powerless deity whose eternal purposes can be defeated by the failure of His creatures to perform certain religious exercises has exchanged the sovereign God of Scripture for a diminished god manufactured in the theological imagination of man.

A god whose sovereign purposes can be defeated by man is not the sovereign God of the Bible. He is a theological invention dressed in biblical vocabulary.