LIVE DRAMA!!! THE STORY OF PULPIT BANDITS

©Story by Charles Awuzie

This was me ministering in a small church run by an older Pastor in Lagos MANY YEARS AGO…

I travelled from Abuja where I lived to Lagos on his invitation … I bought my own flight ticket and he put me in a hotel.

He was much older than me and I was just a very young and passionate Evangelist.

On getting to the hotel, he said to me “Evangelist, it’s Christmas oh. I haven’t bought anything for my family. I need money. That’s why I organised this revival.” Honestly, I got scared.

On the first day, I ministered and as usual, prayed for the sick. That was my gift. That was what I loved to do – praying for the sick.

That night, he came to my hotel after the service and told me money can’t come if that’s all I came to do – pray for the sick. He told me that I needed to add Prophecies and that the people only believe prophecies. I told him I wasn’t called to be a prophet and he said he’s older than me in the game and has the right to advise me. I was in my 20s. He was in his late 50s. He could literally biologically father me.
That night, he told me the names of some of his church members – there’s this guy he told me about and how he was seeking for a visa to travel abroad.
During the service, he introduced me as a prophet that night and ‘gingered’ the congregation with how forensic I can be. He told them that the previous day was just introduction and that the second day would be “HOT 🔥”…. Pentecostals love Red Hot Speakers… Unfortunately, I was never one. I am soft spoken. I have a soft voice. I can’t even scream with a mic.

Under pressure, I took the mic, sang my favourite song 🎶- Crucified…led behind a stone… You lived to die… Rejected and alone… Like a rose… Trampled on the ground… You took the fall… And thought of meeeeeee… Above all…. 🎶

Back in the days, each time I sang that song, I would cry… Even as I type this, I still feel the tears as I typed the lyrics. And everywhere I sang that song, I preached with genuine passion.

But that night, I walked to the brother who had been seeking for a visa according to the host pastor. I called him to come to me. He came. I asked if he’s been applying for a visa and he said Yes. I asked him to tell me his story. He said “Sir, my family is p00r. My mother is sick and dying. I have spent everything to look for a visa to go abroad and fight for me family. Sir please help me”.

I asked him what sickness his mother had and he said Cancer. My heart broke. I started crying. I asked him to go back to his seat. I couldn’t preach. In few minutes, I dropped the microphone and left the church.

I called a friend to get my things from the hotel and I moved into another hotel.

The pastor called me and threatened to destroy me. He said I messed up his church by not prophesying as he told me to. He told me that all the money he spent on inviting me was a waste. I told him my conscience was more important than his invitation.

That night, I couldn’t sleep. I cried about the young boy who just wanted to leave Nigeria and make a living to save the life of his mother who was dying of cancer. I cried about the Ignorance of church members who were mere objects of manipulation to their prophetic papas. I cried about my lack of funds to travel back to Abuja. I couldn’t sleep.

The next morning, I got a call from a family in Canada who were supporters of my ministry. They paid for my ticket back to Abuja and when I told them the whole story, they asked me what my honorarium would have been if I played along. I told them and they paid that amount into the ministry’s account.

Someone mocked me recently about how I am hustling as a Tech guy when my mates in ministry then are controlling millions of people around the world. He said I failed in ministry. I laughed at his Ignorance but cried at the current state of the PENTECOSTAL church in Nigeria.

Don’t come here and say “there are still genuine prophets.” Just calm down. You don’t know anything if you were never in ministry. I will only respect the opinion of any true mission minded pastor who will read this with sobriety. They know the truth. They are also victims of this other gang. But for you who is just an “ordinary church member” or son/daughter of a prophetic papa, this post is above you. You should spend some time in ANALYSING THE PROPHECIES YOU WITNESSED.

The biggest fraud is no longer carried out by Yahoo boys, the biggest fraud is what has become of the PENTECOSTAL Prophetic church movement in the past 20 years. I took a break for the sake of my conscience – and I am proud of my choice. I have left all forms of religion and I am focusing on what is practical and factual like Technology and science. I have a personal spirituality but I have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH ORGANISED RELIGION besides telling my story – my truth.
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