On Sunday, The SCOAN Choir gave an especially inspired, energetic praise and worship session that saw many falling under the anointing available at ‘The Arena of Liberty.’ From song to song, including the iconic “Rain Your Power Over Me” and “Holy Spirit Take More of Me”, the choir struck the right chords with the Heavenly Host and set congregants in tune with the heavenly frequency.
Prophet T.B. Joshua exhorted the church on the need to make heart contact with God when making requests of Him. He once again stressed the importance of offering “life-saving and life-changing prayer” that is addressed to the Son of David, Jesus Christ. He taught the congregants to pray sincerely thus: “Son of David, have mercy on me. Let Your mercy speak for me. Let Your favour speak for me.” However, he also insisted that breakthrough can only come when a person has “a heart that is full of love, forgiveness, pardon, faithfulness, obedience and humility,” which he prayed God to give the congregants. In a ministration spiced up with faith-building and conscience-stirring songs, Prophet T.B. Joshua said it was necessary to testify to God’s goodness always and to shed off all weight from pain of the past before climbing on the Mountain of Prayer. “Something will leave your business today. Poverty will leave your home today. Hardship will leave your finances. Stagnation will leave your career. Prepare yourself before you get there,” he counselled the congregants after praying with Emmanuel TV viewers.
Speaking in the same vein, Prophetess Yinka gave a message titled LET IT GO SO YOU CAN GROW. Citing Ephesians 6:11, Luke 11:4, Luke 15:11-32, Judges 15, Romans 12:17-21, and Ephesians 4:2-4,31-32, she identified some of the Christian attributes that help us to receive from God, as well as those that hinder His blessings in our lives. She noted that a Christian needs both defensive and offensive tools as part of their armour. She further said that forgiveness, love, peace, kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, forbearance and endurance are among the positive qualities required of a Christian. The opposite of these, she added, would hinder God’s blessings. A highpoint of her sermon was the advice: “If you find it difficult to forgive someone who hurt you, try responding with kind actions – love and care for him or her. Soon you will realise that right actions lead to right feelings.”
TESTIMONIES
PROPHECY DELIVERS YOUNG MAN FROM BED-WETTING AND SPIRITUAL WIFE
Two Sundays ago, during the Mass Prayer session, a prophecy Iocated Mr Jade Baatjes, an Indian. It was a case of bed-wetting. “I think your case needs urgent attention,” Prophet T.B. Joshua told the young man as he gave him an anointed handshake that sent the latter sprawling on the floor. “You are free; you will never experience it again!” the prophet declared, in Jesus’ name. Last Sunday, Jade returned to church to glorify God for his deliverance. The 26-year-old told the church he had also had the affliction of a spiritual wife and that it had all started about seven years ago. Jade told of his addiction to pornography as well as of his isolation from family and friends due to the shame of bed-wetting.
“Once or twice a week, this spiritual wife would come to sleep with me,” Jade confessed, adding that the spirit of lust had consumed him so much that he could see women naked even when they were clothed. “I was extremely depressed and suicidal,” Jade opened up, even as he disclosed that he had been about to kill himself when he got a call from a concerned aunt of his. Jade said he had come to The SCOAN after having been to several other places in search of deliverance. “The bed-wetting has completely stopped and I don’t see the spiritual wife anymore,” he said. He advised people to see Jesus Christ as the permanent solution and to commit to receiving from Him.
FOR MRS AKPOS OLOYE, IT’S TWIN GIRLS AFTER 20 YEARS OF BARRENNESS!
For over 20 years, Mrs Akpos Oloye suffered the reproach of barrenness. However, she wasn’t Mrs Oloye for all that time. A previous marriage had been childless for so long that her then husband had had to part ways with her due to family pressure. And when Mr Kebbi Oloye had asked her to marry him, Akpos had told him about her problem but the young man had persisted. He said a voice had told him she was his wife. As such, despite severe opposition from family and friends, Mr Oloye had gone ahead with the marriage. At some point in the search for a child, the couple visited The SCOAN for prayers. There, a prophecy located them and Prophet T.B. Joshua placed an anointed hand upon them. Several months later, the couple returned to The SCOAN: Mrs Oloye was now heavily pregnant. During her testimony then, she said Prophet T.B. Joshua had appeared to her in a dream, telling her God said he should give her two children. She immediately went to buy clothes for the expected babies.
Every morning, the couple would address the baby things as their children. On Sunday, several months after that testimony, Mrs Oloye returned again to The SCOAN with not only her husband but also some of her friends and other family members. Why? Because the twin babies have now arrived, to the glory of God! In a tearful testimony in which she recalled her days of heavy reproach from neighbours and family, Mrs Oloye spoke of her plan to commit suicide as well as of her husband’s steadfastness and sacrifices despite taunting from colleagues at work, even as she thanked God for using His servant T.B. Joshua to minister deliverance to her.
Disclosing her babies’ names as Tamarapriye (‘God’s Gift’) and Perere (‘Wealthy Woman’), Mrs Oloye described herself as the ‘Hannah of our time’ and advised spouses to be patient with each other during times of challenges. She also advised all people to wait on God’s promises. On his part, Mr Oloye advised people to believe in God’s power.
FIREFIGHTER HEALED OF STIFF NECK
For eight years, Cameroonian firefighter Mr Taku George was rendered virtually helpless by a stiff neck owing to cervical spondylosis. Doctors gave him powerful prescription painkillers and a neck collar but these did little to ease his pain.
His disoriented state of mind often made him forgetful and he would accuse his wife of taking money that he himself had misplaced. Booked for an operation in South Africa, he decided to seek God’s help, having been told that the operation held the risk of paralysing him. Two Sundays ago, he received prayers at The SCOAN, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Testifying of his healing on Sunday, he said he had been unable to run or do his exercises as a firefighter. According to Taku, he became light right after the prayers and he can now turn his neck in all directions, with absolutely no pain. “I’m not feeling any pain; I’m a happy man,” he told the church. He advised people to believe in God’s healing power.
NO MORE ISSUE OF BLOOD!
“There is a woman there – you are bleeding,” Prophet T.B. Joshua had prophesied two Sundays ago during the Mass Prayer session. As those words rang out, a woman named Chioma Enyinnaya came out to confirm it, saying she had had the condition for twelve years. Speaking in French during her testimony last Sunday, the Gabon resident said the condition would make her weak and her stomach would swell; it also affected her relations with her husband. She used orthodox and herbal medicines but the problem remained. After the prophecy, she said the blood dried up immediately, to the glory of God. She advised people to have faith in God.
ARREST AND PROSECUTION AVERTED AFTER PROPHECY
Two Sundays ago, Mr Charles Kenechukwu had been at The SCOAN Sunday Service when a prophecy located him during the Mass Prayer session. The Holy Ghost had revealed, through Prophet TB Joshua, that the businessman had received stolen goods and now faced the possibility of arrest and prosecution. Realising the gravity of the case hanging over his head, Charles had promptly come out to confirm the prophecy, explaining that he had been unaware that the car batteries he had received were in fact stolen goods. True to the prophecy, when he returned to his base in Owerri, Imo State, Mr Kenechukwu learned that an arrested robber had mentioned his name in respect of the goods. However, following the divine mercy he had received after the prophecy, Mr Kenechukwu did not have charges pressed against him, as the owner of the goods opted to discontinue the court case. He advised business people to “carry God along” in all their dealings.
DELIVERED FROM THE MALICE OF A FRAUDULENT CHARM
Mr Abraham Oghenekewe, an Abuja-based contractor, wanted to have a comfortable life – with loads of money streaming in from his contracts. He told a friend about it. “I know a witch doctor in Delta State,” the friend answered. Abraham followed him there; after all, he himself was from Delta State. The herbalist gave him a charm meant not only to bring contracts but also to ‘protect’ him. But there were strict rules to be followed: He was not to let his wife see the charm, he was not to touch it after sleeping with his wife, he was to return to the herbalist immediately if he lost the charm, he was not to let the charm be drenched in the rain. He took the charm home, hoping to start prospering within three months. But no! In fact, all contracts ceased and sickness invited itself to the Abrahams’ home. His daughter took ill, his wife’s legs began to swell and Abraham himself lay on the sickbed. He called the witch doctor. “It’s a small thing. Come over to the village,” the herbalist instructed the ailing man. Ignoring the state of Abraham’s pocket, the native doctor demanded a live goat and the sum of forty thousand naira, besides other items.
Desperate to get out of the situation, Abraham managed to raise the funds and the witch doctor performed the rites. But the situation worsened and his wife’s legs swelled even more. Then he stumbled on Emmanuel TV at a friend’s home and planned to visit The SCOAN. He eventually made it to the church after mysteriously losing his transport fare several times. Somehow, Abraham had managed to get into church with the charm. However, as the service progressed, a prophecy located him during Prophet T.B. Joshua’s ministration exposing that the charm which he had brought to the church service was in his pocket. “Since then, I’ve felt like a newborn baby,” Abraham testified on Sunday. “I feel free, extra free,” he added. With his equally healed wife standing beside him, Oghenekevwe also confirmed that his daughter has now recovered from her illness. “My brothers and sisters, please follow God,” he urged the church and viewers.
AT LIVING WATER SERVICE, MAN VOMITS THREE DEMONIC COWRIES
When he turned 14 years old, in junior secondary school, Desmond got initiated into a cult. As he grew older, he acquired more and more powers as he literally shot his way through the ranks, eventually becoming the next-in-rank to the head of his cult. When shot at, bullets would bounce off his charmed body. And when danger was lurking, he would get a sign in his chest and be immediately teleported elsewhere. Of course, he sometimes landed in uncomfortable places, such as trees and rivers, but he always managed to escape danger.
Regretful of his past life of violence, Desmond came to church two Mondays ago and participated in the Living Water Service. He was there to ask for mercy from the Son of David, Jesus Christ. After he communed with God on the Mountain of Prayer and took the Living Water, he began to vomit. In the end, three cowries got out of his system; they had been the source of his fortification in the violent world of cultists. During his testimony on Sunday, Desmond told of how he perpetrated violence on campuses and at political gatherings. Booze, women and riotous living, he said, were the things on which he frittered away all the money he realised from doing violence on behalf of politicians. Now a new creature in Christ Jesus, he advised the youth to desist from joining cults.