If the problems of our nation; Nigeria must be solved and brought to an end then "all hands must be on deck" because some have eyes but they cannot see, some have ears but they cannot hear and yet some have mouth but they cannot shout out the problems they have until the problems killed them and such is the paralysis that killed some when they have ailment or disease of a kind but instead of shouting it out maybe they can find someone that has the cure to it hence we on the editorial of this News-track- Online do not want that of ours in the search and course for the solution to our nation's problem so we went out to make sure we are "not leaving any stone un-turned ", to do our best in unraveling the riddle behind the problem of the nation; Nigeria and thus went as far as meeting a man of God, pastor of repute in person of Pastor Joseph Akin Akinade of "Lion of -Judea, Dizengoff Area, Iyana Church, Ibadan who we had an exclusive interview with as unwind-ed below:
What are the qualities you believe a man of God should possess if he want to represent God well and the mankind?
Een! firstly one of our hymnbooks says "Mo fe ki n da bii Jesu, ninu iwapele, ko seni to gboro ibinu lenu re leekan ri" the first thing you have to humble yourself , bible says " Olorun juba onirele, o n wo agberaga loke reere", It is one of those things perhaps you want to be a leader in gospel or pastor, secondly you have to know whom you are serving who is Jesus Christ; Our Lord, I don't say you can have all but must strive to be as perfect as expected.
What can you say about power of prayer?
Well! I always wonder when people say they had been on the mountain for long without having being answered, what are you doing at the mountain for almost three months, before you can pray to God , he needs something from you which is praise-worship. If you want answer to your prayer you must praise him first, if you want to receive from God you must praise him, a Yoruba adage says "Abiamo ko ni gbo ekun omo re , ko ma tati were", Nkan kan wa taa lee se fun olorun, ko to le da wa lohun, nkan naa ni orin-iyin, orin-iyin je ohun pataki ti olorun fe. Psalm 150 the last verse 6 says " Let everything that has breath praise the Lord"When you are praising God you alert him to know someone is somewhere that is mentioning his name and asking for a request and thus ask him what are really is request and what is he asking for, when you are praising that is when he knows you are alive. You have to worship him, you have to praise him that is when he will hearken to your call. Before you can ask anything from God you have to praise him. To cite an analogy " There was a praise-singer praising a rich man and after the rich man had given almost what are on him and the praise singer still continued he felt highly moved and went inside to bring gun that whether when he killed him, he will stop " all this tells you the power behind praise, if an ordinary man can be moved in such a way, how much more God that loves only praise-worship. It is when one don't know the importance of praise in prayer one neglect praise and without it we pray amiss. When you praise God then use thirty minutes to ask for what you need and he will manifest himself and you will see that he answers prayer.
Sir! you are the pastor for this age-long church left behind by Late Pa/ Pastor Akinade and it has been successfully managed by you, how have you been finding the shoe left behind by him?
Hun un! it is not an easy job, you know people that go to church believe in the anointing of the founder of the church, if you don't believe in the anointing of the founder you don't go to the church. The first thing before Papa died he usually do something and that was not preaching himself but gospel and being a prophet he always gives revelation. And when members of the church don't hear him give revelation and prophesy they feel dejected and may not like it but because Papa preached gospel then that is what we have been enjoying by preaching the gospel. And don't forget I'm a musician and before Papa died we have something in common when you are talking about praise I'm a musician, an instrumentalist, I play keyboard, sax, drums , I compose and arrange music, even when Papa was alive I assisted him on this so when we talk about praising God I know it and my wife knows much about praising God , to worship God, I know much about the words of God and with the radio-programme I present often people had known that I can handle things well regarding the present position God put me as a pastor so in a nutshell I can say I started where baba left it.
Sir! what can you say about redeeming the youth back into Christendom considering many of them going into music of life and yahoo enmasse, what are you doing lately to attract them back to the Christendom?
The problem we have is that you are talking about , what about the many youth flocking into pastoral , are they really working for God ? There are three calls one, I may call you to serve God through pastoral because you are doing well in church two, you may call yourself because your work is not going well the third are those God call; these ones are divinely called, just start with God and end with him, you are talking about yahoo; but some pastors are the ones praying for them, some pastors pray for the robbers, some pastors are no more saying the truth again at church's services because they don't want to incur the wrath of these so called money-missed roads, yahoo guys . Some pastors are already under spell of satanic influence, some pastors don't want to preach gospel again because they need money . They know when they preach and you are offended as a rich-man you will leave the church , forgetting that just like wall-clock which when the battery packed off that's the end and such is the lives of ours. And we talked about these pastors what about the parents of these yahoo-guys, a pastor is to preach for few hours but what about the parents of these yahoo boys who during their school days they have nothing from parents to foot the bill of their study or course and when they passed out or dropped out of schools they would eventually end up in yahoo so the problem lies with the parents. Now no church want to listen to poor again but the rich people; the moment some pastors realize you are not there in their to give money they will be indifferent to your presence but what they are doing is for short time.
Is your profession or position as Pastor, go-speller, and composer with your wife too a go-speller not affecting the home?
Let me start this way before I met my wife it was gospel song I was engaged into, I have my band, some people now popular in gospel music I was the one that introduced them into it. During baba Akinade's life I was there assisting him in musical line before he was called as a full time pastor, it was music I was into before I met my wife who was talented in gospel song but there was no financial backings for her but we arrived at a conclusion not for two of us on the same line singing gospel song hence I dropped off the music line for her to continue while she will be singing and I will be composing and arrange it for her. All the children of my mother had been destined to be in the vineyard, that is, working for God. I'm the last born and had known my callings before birth as it was for Late Pastor Akinade, my sisters are in gospel line, we are children of covenant. I didn't want to do God's work before the death of my brother ; Late Pa/Pastor Akinade I had been troubled to start God's work I had been ordained since 2008 but never put on collar, then I even told them gospel-music I'm into is also God's work but our mother had explained to us all, and she had known where we are arriving at eventually. Now back to your question because I have to explain better to you what you don't know, you know I have been used to music line, my wife also is a gospel-musician, any show she goes I'm the one contracting it and anywhere she plans to go I'm the one arranging it, nobody has right to bargain with my wife on the balance of whatever outing she goes. I'm the one in charge of her several outings, I think it is the grace of God. My wife is such a humble woman, she can kneel down for a baby of yesterday , you know whatever you may be is just by the grace of God, some people have more talents than you; only the grace was not there for them. So whenever my wife and her band members go out for engagement ; I also often time have engagement but luckily we have some close-relatives that are there for us at home taking charge or guidance over our household. There is no problem , she trust me and I trust her, we don't have any marital problem , that wives of musicians often have because where you put my wife is where she will be.
Nigeria is the most religious nation of the world and with regard to the present situation economically what can we say of the importance or power of prayer?
If God had not been merciful to us it could have been worse, since 1977 was when we had wronged God because of the display of the several idols at the Festival , God don't like this and since Festac 1977 we have had our problems with God, it is prayer that had save us thus far. After God there is no other God, there is only one God, whoever is saying otherwise is lying to you. Until Nigerians set aside a day to worship God the almighty, that is when all our problems would be solved and solution to them would come like thunder-light, to free us all. Don't you know the numbers of lives being was because of some scheming for political posts and shedding blood is grievous before God and their blood is the blockade to some of our prayers from reaching God. I told somebody sometime ago and he was renouncing my stand on the greatness and glorious status of Jesus Christ, why should that be even the Muslim have their normal ways of corroborating the greatness of Muhammad in exalting his name yet some traditionalists also believe so much in their deities and idols like the Ifa people when they tried all their best to fathom the problem of somebody or a certain aspect of their puzzle and getting know it is to no avail using their method or traditional but arithmetic analysis and when they did that also to no avail and in the eventual got to an aspect called 'ela' they concluded there is no other way out for the patient. And that 'ela' is what they don't know as the 'word'; hence it is called " ela-loro", the 'word' is the salvation as Yoruba depicted it ' ela-loro". And the bible too says " from the beginning there is word and the word was with God and the word is God". So this Jesus Christ is the 'word', he's what they don't want us to know. Look at American during the swearing of 'Trump'; it was the bible they read throughout, when has the leaders of this great nation; Nigeria called the citizenry together to collectively praise God in their various denominations? I'm not preaching religion, whenever anybody is preaching I always got ruffled whenever I hear pastors inviting people on-air to their churches saying " come to our church tomorrow and receive salvation", who told them or give them assurance that they will be alive tomorrow?. If there is a church near your church go there , just don't leave Jesus Christ. The only solution we have is for the leaders to convene the citizenry of this great nation to come together a day regardless of their denominations to exalt God and praise him, it is such a way people of the old practiced with their leaders in the bible convening their people to appease and appeal to God for forgiveness. And God will hearken to their prayer and supplication for forgiveness. When has the leaders of this nation done that to praise God and ask God what we want. Some people don't want to die hence they kill other people to renew their lives, it is a lie, they are adding to their sins, sorrow and punishment from God. If we cooperate; this nation would be better but some Christians don't want to go into politics because no way you can do politics without using charms, but if the Christians are sitting 'on fence', thinking without charms no one can do politics don't you think some good ones may not be found to be in politics helping to move the nation forward? You see If I will not lie to you politics is in bible, see the issue of Jonah that was reluctant to carry errand for God and inside the ship then a lot was cast to know who is the jinx and that is politics, the way we interpret politics is different. If the Christians fail to come into into politics then that means whoever come into the rein of government we should accept. If not the much prayer we have been praying in this country; this nation could have collapsed. Look at the Niger Delta - the MASOP and Co, they are aggrieved and agitating for their freedom to secede and what they are doing has put our leaders on guard and careful , we can't be silent and expect things to change for better . People who had studied political-science should be involved in politics pragmatically and also those who are willing to come naturally into politics, they should go there to serve the people and the nation, those who are selfish are the ones burying money, what for?! These set of people lied to the citizenry before attaining the political positions but when they got there they change for worse, if the money being kept is in the bank, dollars wouldn't have appreciated more than naira. And even the bible say you the foolish , today we shall ask for your life.
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