The SCOAN Sunday Service of 31^st July, 2016 was a special package from the Holy Spirit. From the songs of the choir to the wonderful testimonies, the presence of God was demonstrated beyond doubt. Congregants had the opportunity to watch clips of the Morning Water ministration during the just concluded South Korea, 2016 Pastors’ Conference with Prophet T.B. Joshua. They witnessed the power of God at work, breaking yokes, healing different kinds of ailments and delivering souls from the captivity of satan.

Evangelist Edward animated the atmosphere with evangelical zest when he delivered his edifying message titled LEARN OBEDIENCE. He reminded Christians that whenever they are faced with challenging situations, they always have two options. One is to act from their own human frailties or to obey and abide by the Spirit of God: “But in the moment of decision, you are presented with two options: to act out of character and react badly, emotionally or intellectually to the weight of your situation or to trust the Holy Spirit in the midst of your challenges and respond by the Spirit. You can choose to learn offence, anger and disobedience or you can choose to learn obedience to the will of God.”

Citing the sufferings of Christ and how He obeyed and abided by the will of His father, Evangelist Edward observed that a Christian’s character is shaped by the difficulties he encounters as he journeys through life with all its ups and downs: “The way a Christian’s character grows through obedience is by facing difficulties and dealing with problems. As a Christian, what you are going through serves a useful purpose: To form and strengthen your character and to prepare you for the eternal glory that lies ahead.”

He concluded by encouraging Christians to accept and embrace every difficult challenge as an opportunity to pass through God’s refinement process, stating that many have missed the glory ahead because of their refusal to accept the process: “Whatever situation you are passing through is an opportunity for you to learn obedience to the will of God. However, many of us are rejecting the process, the method, the very instrument God is using to refine us. This is why we remain as we are. That is why all we go through seems to be wasted. We will continue to repeat the test until we learn our lesson and pass it.”

TESTIMONIES

“THOUGH THE VISION TARRIED, GOD’S APPOINTED TIME CAME TO ME AT THE SCOAN”

After failing her Bar Final exams at the Nigerian Law School, Abuja campus in 2015, Miss Chikodi Iwu realised that her failure was not ordinary. Recalling that her family had had a pedigree of backwardness and limitation in progress, the picture of what was going on became clearer to her. No one in her entire family had ever attained success academically. It took her eleven years to gain admission into university and after graduating, an evil tormenting spirit had vowed never to allow her to become a Barrister. That failure at the law school in 2015 became a sore point in her life as all subsequent efforts she made resulted in disappointment.

As soon as she started preparing for a resit of the exams, all those who supported her in the past abandoned her, thinking she was an incurable failure. She had to beg to be able to survive and faced serious accommodation problems. As the resit exams approached, she could not concentrate. Frustrated by different worries, she had to run to a pastor who was a staff of the Nigerian Law School in Abuja. The pastor revealed to her that her problem was from her village and advised her to visit The SCOAN, stressing that she doesn’t need to see the man of God in person before her situation would be turned around.

Visiting The SCOAN during a Sunday service, Chikodi witnessed God’s power as soon as Mass Prayer started. Immediately Prophet T.B Joshua raised his voice to lead prayer, Miss Iwu started screaming and shaking uncontrollably, attracting the attention of ushers who held her while the evil spirit spoke through her. The evil spirit confessed that it had wanted to kill her and destroy every good thing in her life, including her educational aspirations. Taking authority in the name of Jesus, the man of God commanded the evil spirit out of her. Delivered and redeemed from the oppression of the devil, Miss Iwu received two Good Morning Stickers from Prophet T.B. Joshua.

Wrapping the Good Morning Stickers around her writing pens, she returned to Abuja and unwrapped them as she sat for the exams. To God be the glory, after the exams, she came out in flying colours. Her results qualified her to be called to the Nigerian bar. A dream of eighteen years finally came to fruition after her encounter with the power of God at The SCOAN. Today, Miss Chikodi Iwu is addressed as Barrister Chikodi Iwu – a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Thanking God during her testimony, she told congregants that she is the first in her family to break the so-called jinx of attaining university level and graduating as a qualified lawyer. She promised to serve God diligently.

“GOD DESTROYED MY EVIL POWERS AND GAVE ME A NEW LIFE IN CHRIST”

Mr Ifeanyi was deep into fetish engagements right from his childhood days when he was twelve years old. His grandfather, a witch doctor initiated him into witchcraft when he took him to his shrine and instructed him never to allow the water in a particular pot get dry. Days later, his grandfather became ill and demanded to see his father in order to hand over the affairs of the dark arts to him. But when Ifeanyi’s father arrived at the hospital where the old man was ailing away, the old man denied him, saying he was not the one to take over the shrine from him.

When Ifeanyi arrived at the hospital, he met his grandmother, who on seeing him rushed to go and call the nurse. But while she left the hospital room, his grandfather had laid hands on his head – an act that sent cold shivers down his whole body. After that episode, he fell asleep only to be woken up by nurses later. He was asked to go home, unknown to him that his grandfather had passed on. But the laying of hands on his head meant a lot even though he did not know. When it became public knowledge that his grandfather was dead, a meeting of witchdoctors was convened to deliberate on their member’s burial. Before his corpse was buried, Ifeanyi was given white powder by the witchdoctors to administer on grandfather’s face.

After the burial, Ifeanyi continued to carry out the instructions the old man had given to him before he died. But he would soon be faced with a dilemma as his father insisted on destroying the shrine, saying it was the cause of the animosity between their family and people of the village. Ifeanyi’s father actually came with anointed oil which he handed over to his son to minister on the shrine before it would be destroyed. Unknown to his father, Ifeanyi had removed some fetish items from the shrine and had kept them in his own room.

Ifeanyi would go ahead to destroy the shrine as directed by his father. While digging to uproot some of the evil pots buried under the soil, a bird and smoke flew out from one of the pots. An enraged Ifeanyi told his father that he should be ready to face the consequences of that action. When the witchdoctors discovered that the shrine had been destroyed on the directive of Ifeanyi’s father, they afflicted him with poison and he died. After the death of his father, the witchdoctors regrouped and tried to retrieve a fetish staff from him. Ifeanyi would not be cowed into releasing the staff given to him by his late grandfather. His defiance attracted their wrath as they fought him through all sorts of demonic manipulations.

After undergoing all sorts of spiritual fortification in different shrines and through initiations, Ifeanyi managed to withstand the fetish battle between him and his enemies. On many occasions, the river goddess controlling one of the rivers where he was initiated would appear to him in dreams giving him evil counsel. She had told him what to do to become very powerful and had also given him a live fish to swallow. Ifeanyi eventually swallowed a live fish physically and later started carrying masquerades from village to village. He became so popular that people consulted him for spiritual help. Truck drivers consulted him for amulets to prevent robbery attacks and accidents on the road. Women who were desperate to marry also came and received ‘solution’.

All efforts to neutralise his evil powers through prayers proved abortive as he used some fetish items to cause heavy sleeping among the ‘prayer warriors’ whenever they gathered to pray against him. Ifeanyi became a very notorious witchdoctor that had many evil powers. He wore some around his waist while others were in different parts of his body. He continued to live with his evil powers, tormenting and oppressing people until a certain man appeared in his dream and kept telling him, “Son, follow me.” The man and his voice kept recurring to him in a mysterious dream-like experience until he found himself in Lagos at The SCOAN being bombarded by the Spirit of God in the Morning Water medium. The evangelist commanded the evil spirit in him to speak and it revealed so many horrible things it had done to Mr Ifeanyi’s life. Said it, among other things, “No man can bring him down. No masquerade in the land of the east can bring him down.” Through the power in the blood of Jesus, Mr Ifeanyi was brought down with his back on the floor while the evil spirit was cast out completely. During his testimony, a completely transformed Mr Ifeanyi said he has surrendered his life to Christ and will continue to be devoted to the Word of God. He advised people in the following words, “There is no other way; Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life.”

LOST JOB RESTORED
For four years, Mr Acha Vincent Njeok was out of employment. The former IT Officer in the Cameroonian Ministry of Sports and Physical Education faced a lot of difficulties trying to keep body and soul together. In the midst of all the hardship, he had encountered a friend who just returned from Nigeria. He asked his friend if he had visited The SCOAN and went further to demand the Morning Water from him. His friend asked him to come over the next day. Getting to his friend’s house, they prayed together. Thereafter, his friend asked him to buy a bottle of mineral water so he could minister some drops of the Morning Water into it for him.

After getting the bottle of mineral water, Mr Njeok received just three drops of the Morning Water into the beverage. With that, he continued to pray that his sacking should be reversed. In February this year, he was recalled to his place of work and entrusted with more responsibility as Chief of the Department of Maintenance. He was also recommended to travel to Europe for more training on the job. Thanking God for the restoration of his job, promotion and recommendation for foreign travel, Mr Njeok also testified to his healing from a strange and debilitating tumor (that had developed around his anal region) through the same Morning Water medium. “I advise viewers that if you have the Morning Water, you can do anything. With the Morning Water, you can cross the oceans by faith, in Jesus’ name!”, he said.