For quite some time now, the
gossip about the richest men of God and questions about tithe and offering has
been on social media. Nigerians have been furious about how some men of God
acquire wealth by compelling their members to sow seed, to double their tithes
and offer God fat offerings for God to bless them. Many people have continued
to question the fact that these men of God feed fat on their poor members without
minding how these members are faring. Most of these men of God measure God’s
goodness and presence in their lives by the number of cars they ride on, number
of churches and how big their cathedrals are, in addition to the competition of
who owns a private jet.
Church members on the other
hand have become so gullible that they believe everything their pastor says;
whether it is working in their lives or not. They believe and trust their
pastors that they seldom reason in line with God’s word and purpose for their
lives, in order to flow in the direction God has specially planned for them.
Some have become beggars after giving all they had in obedience to seed sowing
command from the ‘prophets of God’, in the name of pleasing God and getting
reward.
When Elijah met the widow at
Zarephath, he asked her for water to drink and bread to eat, and just like he told
the widow, who complained that she only had a square meal for herself and her
son, the widow was blessed and she never lacked again until the drought was
over. These days we see helpless worshipers who continually sow seed, pay
tithe, give fat offerings without anything to show for it; in the long run, some
of them will lose faith in God or even cause Him for what is not His making.
The richest pastors or General
Overseers according to media ranking as published by Naij.com are:
1. Bishop
David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Tabernacle also known as Winners Chapel who
is worth about N54 billion. He controls churches in 45 African nations as well
as in Dubai, the United Kingdom and the United States. He is also the owner of
Covenant University, Sango Ota, Ogun state.
2. Pastor
Chris Oyakhilome of Christ Embassy who is worth about N18 billion. He is the founder of Believers’ Love World
Incorporated where he has shot a lot of top Nigerian gospel artists into
limelight. He also owns three separate television channels that gather up to
2.5 million views per nightly event.
3. Pastor
Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) who is worth about
N14 billion according to the list of the richest pastors. He began his career
in preaching while still maintaining a professorship at the University of Lagos
(UNILAG). Pastor Adeboye has a goal to put a church ‘within 5 minutes’ of every
home in the world with about 14,000 branches in Nigeria alone.
4. Prophet
T.B. Joshua of Synagogue Church of all Nations who is worth about N3.6 billion.
He has over 1.5 million Face book fans
So many others who are eyeing
the success of these men of God in ministry and are imitating them are in the pipeline.
Almost all these pastors have
universities built with the seed of the majority of the poor in their midst, yet,
those poor people cannot afford to send their children there. They have packed
jets which are consuming instead of generating money. They have many churches
worldwide, yet crime increases on daily basis. In most of these churches, the
rich get richer while the poor get poorer, and when the expectations of the
poor are not being met, frustration will drive them out into the streets. A
hungry man has the need of food and should be fed before he or she responds to
preaching and praying. Preaching, prophecies or prayers administered to a
hungry or needy person has no life in it. In fact, it is an insult to God
Almighty, especially when it comes from the person who can do more than pray.
Peter and John told the lame
man they saw at the beautiful gate that they have no silver or gold to give him
but they made him walk, which is what that man needs most to enable him mine
for gold and silver by himself instead of begging. There are many jobless,
hungry and frustrated people in our churches who can’t even open up because the
men of God around them and big men and women in their churches are no go areas
for them. Their problems will be solved when jobs are created, their problems
will be solved when they are empowered intellectually and financially to do
business, their problems will be solved when they have food on their tables.
Violence, crime, destruction of
lives and properties have become a tradition in Nigeria and poor people suffer
it the most, yet all we hear from the men of God is pray. The prophecies that
come to us concerning the current happenings are prayers, prayers, prayers, and
nothing but to pray. Are we going to continue praying until we are all wiped out?
Are God’s ears not itching because of our too many unnecessary petitions, as a result of our dumbness and inability to read and understand the times? God cannot come
down from heaven to engage in the fight or battle of words when we are here.
The men of God who have eaten fat from their poor members and are swimming in
billions should please rise and speak because they have all it takes for their
voices to be heard, if not, they are not being relevant because the politicians
also swim in billions, as a result of exploiting the masses, it makes them all
the same; no difference.
Written
by Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi
Powered
by Samweld Nditah
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