THE NAME OF JESUS HAS POWER AMONG HIS FAITHFULS

Psyching up the congregation in readiness for the main service as he took advantage of the interlude between hymns in the choral adoration, Prophet T.B. Joshua reminded them that their past was over as God was always with them. By way of amplification, he assured them that where they were coming from did not matter as our Lord would not use their past to determine their future. He reminded his listeners that satan cannot stop those with spiritual insight into Jesus. Extolling the Bible as a gem among the artifacts of worship, he went into spirited rhapsodies about its purifying, enduring, converting and healing powers maintaining that it keeps believers out of sin and profitably so.
Exhibiting zeal and fervor comparable to the prophet’s, Wiseman Harry treated his listeners to the formulaic expressions of

introduction and identification as he progressed through questions, suggestions and allusions to the title of the message. He described life as a battle in its many ramifications. Life, according to him, presents various and varied problems of sickness, poverty, frustration, disappointments and others of that ilk. He however, cautioned that the way you fight your battle determines who you are before God adding that ours is not a fight against flesh and blood but a war against satan which rears its ugly head in many forms among which are doubts and unbelief. Satan can only be stopped by the strength of the Lord. You have to be a partaker of God’s strength if you want to stop satan. Are you working in the name of the Lord or yours? He asked as he disclosed the title of his Message: By What Authority? Citing Acts 19:11-17 as his proof text, he drew a tentative conclusion that the name of Jesus has power among those who are committed to Him. Like the seven sons of Sceva, it is common to profess affinity to Christ in hypocrisy while the flesh is unchanged like the seven sons of Sceva. According to him, when you confide in God, you are sitting next to Christ. In this state, all of Heaven is backing you and you need not fear the test of legitimacy that exposed the seven sons of Sceva. The seven sons of Sceva called the name of Jesus without being led by the Holy Spirit hence the evil spirit gave them a sharp reply and exposed them to ridicule and corporal beating. The lesson to be drawn from this, according to the wise man, is that the name of Jesus has power indeed but only among those who are committed to the glory of God. It is a warning to those who confess the name, Jesus without repenting of their iniquity. Citing Luke 10:19 to substantiate his point, he averred that Jesus has given us the Word of God as a special weapon which satan cannot withstand. By the name, he went on, you, as a Christian, have power over all principalities and advised that the name be used ‘continuously’.
THE ANOINTING WATER TESTIMONIES

The miracle of the previous Sunday regarding the Anointing Water was visited. The beneficiary of this miracle is Madam Mbelu Prudence of Congo Kinshasa, who for 37 years had been confined to the wheelchair from which she was married and had three daughters, who have distinguished themselves as stylist, medical doctor and lawyer. These daughters, like her husband who married her when she was 25 years, had not seen her before on her feet and she wondered how they would feel seeing her pacing on her feet for the first time. Standing detached and aloof from the healing process in demonstration of the healing autonomy of the Anointing Water, Prophet T.B. Joshua asked two first timers in the Church (a man and a woman) to administer their Anointing Water to Madam Mbelu Prudence whose entire physique had been ravaged, mangled and twisted out of shape by the ailment. After administering the Anointing Water to her, they helped her to her feet as she appeared afraid to attempt that unaided. Summoning courage from this initial prompting, Madam Prudence threw a leg forward and then another and in no time at all she began to walk unaided. Christ supported her efforts to the admiration of all those in the congregation who in reciprocation, poured adoration on the Lord for this mother of miracles. In her testimony, the 58 year old lady recounted her fruitless efforts in the past 37 years (by which she likened herself to the man by the pool of Bethesda who remained helpless for 38 years) both with traditional medicines and hospitals to get healed. She however, noted the spontaneous resuscitation of her sensations as she took the Anointing Water. She also seized the opportunity to pay tribute to her sister, Madam Musau as a principal actress in the onerous task of caring for her and her specialist needs as a disabled person. She concluded by advising her listeners to come to Christ as the Saviour, noting that her addiction to Emmanuel Television with all the miracles therein was an important catalyst for her decision to visit The SCOAN. In confirmation of her hopes, she received her healing. Venerating the Lord, she enjoined all those in need of help in one way or the other to always turn to the Lord, the Creator and chief Provider of all our needs.
Taking the baton of adoration from her, Prophet T.B. Joshua told the congregation that the miracle is a proof that the scriptures are God’s Word. According to him, Madm Mbelu Prudence came to The SCOAN uninvited and stayed outside in the overflow congregation during the services for about three weeks from where she was picked for the miracle. He, in turn, praised the Lord for His unfailing grace.

The second testimony to the wonders of the Anointing Water came from Mr Sunday Thomas who came from Atlanta in the US. He, according to him, got the news of Michael’s mental disorder from his father in-law and sent the Anointing Water to them in Canada. Michael’s early life, according to them, was that of addiction to smoking weeds and regaling in the midst of bad friends. A visit to him by insanity was therefore not a surprise. The surprise was however that the mental disorder in him which had remained unresponsive to modern medicine for years, yielded automatically to the Anointing Water. In the joy and euphoria of the miracle, Sunday Thomas and Michael considered it worthwhile to visit the home of the Anointing Water (The SCOAN) to narrate their testimony. Advising youth from the benefits of hindsight, Michael told them to abstain from drugs and bad company and embrace the Lord early in their lives to actualize themselves in line with the plan of God for them.

A pastor from Angola, Pastor Eliseu Augusinho took turns to extol the miraculous powers of the Anointing Water. He narrated how the land on which their Church was built was disturbed by flood water, apart from the trouble they had with the government over the same land. In faith, he came to Prophet T.B. Joshua to seek his spiritual assistance regarding the water that was a problem to the Church. Offering him the Anointing Water, the prophet assured Pastor Eliseu Augusinho that the water would dry following the administration of the Anointing Water. In his buoyed faith, the pastor went back and administered the Anointing Water in the evening as enjoined by the prophet. The following morning and to the glory of God, they noticed that the water had dried up. Today, according to the pastor, his Church is christened the ‘mystic Church’ following the mysterious drought of the water. In addition to this miracle, he recounted the wonders the Anointing Water has brought about in the entire Church as an instrument of healing, deliverance, blessing among others. There was the case of a young boy whose eyes were swollen and was given the administration of the Anointing Water. In a few days, normalcy in facial appearance and functioning of the eyes was restored. A beneficiary of the Anointing Water in Pastor Eliseu Augusinho’s Church who was healed of a fractured hand and ushered into a life of plenitude empowering him to build an imposing mansion and buy a car was on ground to corroborate the pastor’s testimony. As usual, the congregation praised the Lord for these miracles.

An evangelist from Namibia and her daughter, Frieda mounted the rostrum too to give a testimony in praise of the Anointing Water. She narrated the healing of her breast cancer through the Anointing Water. She also narrated her daughter’s case, who from the age of ten was plagued with ovarian cyst. After over nine years of unsuccessful cure, the doctor hinted the idea of surgery but the daughter, Frieda rejected the idea and resorted to the Anointing Water for healing. She got her healing through the Anointing Water and she stood by her evangelist mother to give the testimony to the glory of God.

The next testimony came from Mr Kolawole Kisiliu who got burnt as he worked on the fuel pump of a vehicle. As the fire raged on, the owner of the vehicle erroneously poured four-litre fuel on him. In desperation and agony, Kolawole rolled on the ground to put out the fire. At the end, he was thoroughly scorched and blistered.

The doctor in charge told him that if he survived the fire-burns, he might lose the flexibility of one of the arms. Ignoring the doctor and his threat about his arms, he came to The Synagogue where Prophet
T.B. Joshua prayed for him with the Anointing Water. The prophet’s prayer, according to him, stopped the pain and initiated healing. Today, he added, he had been healed fully and effectually with his arms in their full flexibility. He thanked God for the miracle.

Chief Segun Salami from Kwara State had a foot ulcer which for three years ravaged the right foot to the bone. When he presented himself in the prayer line for healing, Prophet T.B. Joshua prayed for him with the Anointing Water making him react immediately with a cough. The pain, according to him, stopped immediately after the prophet’s prayer and he was able to walk and even stamp the foot on the ground without any pain.

In course of time, the ulcer healed steadily to the glory of God. He thanked God for the miracle through the Anointing Water which had restored him to full health and the mainstream of humanity. The congregation, on their part, joined him to thank God for the miracle.

A couple by name Dickson and Mary Jam from Warri in Delta State, also testified to the miraculous powers of the Anointing Water. Their joy was deliverance from abject poverty into enviable material well-being, at which new position they could brandish ownership of a modern mansion and a sleek car as indices of their newly attained material status. Before giving his testimony, he visibly orchestrated a motion of salute as done in the Army to Prophet T.B. Joshua in acknowledgement of the miraculous powers the Lord has invested in him. He narrated how in the course of administering the Anointing Water on him in 2008, the man of God had asked him what he was doing in a graveyard. He admitted that visiting and staying in the graveyard was part of the package he put in place to deliver himself from poverty but all was to no avail. It was after the prayer with the Anointing Water that his life picked the track of recovery from poverty to affluence. Three years after the prayer by the man of God with the Anointing Water, he is now a proud owner of a mansion, a car and above all a benefactor to many. He, in connubial synergy with his wife, Mary proffered copious adoration to the Lord visiting them magnanimously through the instrumentality of the Anointing Water.
A VIDEO CLIP OF MONDAY SERVICE
As a testimony to the prophetic gains of the Monday service, Prophet T.B. Joshua demanded a clip of the service to buttress his advice to first timers to avail themselves of the service. The clip revealed many prophetic messages delivered by the wise men. In one of these messages, Wise Man Christopher saw and delivered a prophecy to boy notorious for his stubbornness and utter disrespect for age and elders, thereby defying the fourth commandment which enjoins respect and reverence for parents, age and elders for one to enjoy longevity in life. Reminding the boy of the brusque manner he addressed his elders in the past, he cautioned him to change and exorcised him of that demonic spirit.
The next clip revealed a girl whose stomach bears testimony to the many incisions inflicted on her in the past. According to the wise man, these incisions and a mirror she owned were employed by the evil spirit to monitor her movements and abort the love relationships contracted by her. He thereafter delivered her to keep the evil spirit at bay.
The next prophecy to a lady was a most pathetic one, as the lady revealed to the wise man that her husband abandoned her in the Church because of a misunderstanding. The cheering news which came from the wise man was that God had prepared a baby boy for them to consolidate their marriage otherwise the man was going home to prepare grounds for the disintegration of the marriage. With the prophecy, the spiritual husband tormenting their marriage had been warded off for ever and their marriage would be on a new footing of love and bliss. The lady in question thanked the Lord for the prophecy dusting gloom from her countenance in appreciation of the prophecy.
THE MAN WITH MANY CHARMS

The climax of the day’s service was a prophetic message delivered by the prophet to a man who had a gunshots–repelling charm and also the magical power to disappear at will. Wondering what the man in question needed all these powers for, the prophet urged him to come out for deliverance as his days were numbered in the face of the repercussions coming to him from these magical powers. A young man, Mr Adi from Taraba State emerged from the congregation to admit that the prophecy referred to him. He added that he inherited the charms from his father and the charms imbued him with a wide range of magical powers. Among these were the powers to disappear, to reduce gunshots to a nullity and to successfully evade capture by adversaries. Wondering why Mr Adi man had been reluctant to come out for deliverance, the prophet added that the young man had chanted incantations to hide his identity. In one of these incantations he spit saliva on the floor. All these were admitted by Mr Adi. In compliance with the prophet’s injunctions, the young man went into the Church premises to where he hid the bag of charms to fetch it. Coming into the Church with the bag, he displayed the heap of charms as he portrayed their functions and magical powers. Describing the charms one after the other, he said one of the charms could stop a gun from firing at all. Another of the charms could make him remain in one position even though he would appear to be following whoever was forcing him from that position. If he was put in the cell, the following morning he would be seen no more in the cell. With another of the charms, he could cause the fall of an attacker without touching him but by merely shouting at him. One among the charms would render anything iron impact- powerless on him. If he was hit with iron or a piece of rod, he would not feel the impact, whatever the effort of the attacker or the weight of the iron. In the same way, he remains invulnerable to any attack that employs cutlass or iron. He revealed that a spiritual being taught him the functions of the various charms to complement the knowledge he gained from his father before the latter died. He admitted that the charms helped him through the monetary offers of his clientele to care for himself materially and so it was difficult for him to abandon them. Among the charms, was a shirt which inspired spirits to fight for him if he wore it. With another garment, he would invite bees or rain if he wanted. He also had a mirror where the people he wanted to kill would first appear. Reminded of the ones he left at home, Mr Adi quickly admitted that he left some at home, especially the one that was partly a snake. Asked to demonstrate how one of his shirts was worn, the young man proceeded to attire himself in the full regalia of amulets, adorning his waist with girdles of charms and head with headgears of charms as if preparing for an inter-tribal war or attempting to try his charms on the prophet. At a moment when the congregation was on the verge of being piqued by his braggadocio, he exclaimed, ‘Man of God, deliver me!’ It was this that caused the frothing emotions of anger among the congregation to subside. The man of God asked the pastor from Angola to speak to him and command him as he wished even in his full array of demonic charms. In total submission to the orders of the pastor, the young man spinned out of control and slumped. This ended the most breath- taking deliverances of the day and the service ended after some announcements.