CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT AND INSIGHTS
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, just because of the things we do online, people recognize me wherever I go—children, parents, and others. It’s very exciting, and it’s possible for you too, no matter where you are.
Now, why is it that in Africa, we pray a lot, but we produce very minimal results? We preach a lot about prosperity, yet countries like Nigeria are getting poorer. Only 6% or 4% of Nigerians have more than 500,000 naira in their savings accounts. Despite all the sowing of seeds, staying awake to pray at night, the noise about tithes, offerings, and giving—all of which are good—there is something fundamentally wrong with our Christianity. If it is the God of Israel that we worship, then why do the Jews excel in everything they do, while we face so much poverty, underdevelopment, violence, and misbehavior?
Most people don’t hear from God; they don’t know how to hear from Him. One of the things I developed early through study and meditation is how to identify the voice of God. This helped me stay ahead of myself and my contemporaries. It enhanced my understanding of the scriptures and my ability to analyze issues beyond my mental capacity because the Holy Spirit leads you into all truths and teaches you.
I am always amused by those who don’t believe in God—that’s their business. The Bible says, “The fool says in his heart that there is no God.” I will do a video about that this morning. When you receive instructions from God, your life is constructed by Him. Just imagine the way we pray in Africa—do you talk to your father like that? How can you talk to your father without waiting to hear from him? Which father communicates with only one son or one woman, claiming, “This is my anointed one; it is only through him that I will speak”? We are no longer in the wilderness. If the Bible says, “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me,” then we should be able to hear from God directly.
An American tourist once saw some Syrian shepherds whose sheep had mingled together at a waterhole. As each shepherd left, he would call out “Mana, Mana,” and his particular flock would follow him without him turning back to look. The American, curious, asked if he could wear the shepherd’s clothes and try it himself. He did, but when he called “Mana,” no sheep followed him—they knew the frequency, tone, and pitch of their shepherd’s voice. The only time they fail to follow, the shepherd explained, is when they are sick. When they are sick, they cannot properly decode his voice.
The foolishness we see in churches in Africa—where people are told to eat grass, drink petrol, or where snakes are brought into church, and pastors stand on people to preach—is alarming. Pastors behave as if they are gods. If this was what I saw in the 1980s when I became born again, I would never have become a Christian. Back then, I saw reasonable, decent, progressive people. One of the reasons I didn’t become a Christian in university was that most of my Christian friends didn’t look attractive or appealing.
The rubbish we see in Christianity today is because people are sick—sick of emulation, greed, desperation, fear, hypocrisy, and idolatry, which is greed. People want to become like others, and pastors have infected their minds with these rubbish ideas. They don’t hear from God; they hear from men, and they just follow blindly, chasing after every wind of doctrine.
Learn to hear from God. I will do another video on how to hear from God, so you will know when it is truly His voice. Christianity needs to be practical. After all, there were schools of prophets; prophets were trained. My friend, Venerable Saturday of the Anglican Church in Port Harcourt, would often tell my son, “Your father is not a human being; your father is a spirit. How can you just call a man, wake him up, and he starts discussing an issue with you? Your father is a spirit.”
Let me share a secret with you. When I meditate, I hear from God, and my mind becomes a storehouse of His teachings. It’s like the skills I acquired in surgery from my lecturers and consultants. I don’t need to think too much before I put those skills into practice. It’s the same with driving, business, and communication skills—I have observed and learned how to communicate effectively. This is the difference—I generate original thoughts because I meditate. But our churches are too noisy, our environments too chaotic, and our Christians too talkative. Just look at social media—one person attacking another. It’s because they no longer hear from God. Their ears are clogged with the clinking of coins, dollar notes, and naira notes, the sound of building big cathedrals, and the loudest “Amen” that they tell people to shout.
Sometimes, people are not reasonable. They are told, “If you shout the loudest ‘Amen,’ you will get the biggest miracle.” Does that sound reasonable to you? How were deaf and dumb people healed in those days at crusades? Did they shout “Hallelujah”? They didn’t talk, they didn’t hear, but their tongues were loosened, and their ears were opened. They didn’t need to shout the loudest “Hallelujah.” How were dead people raised from the dead? Shouting the loudest “Amen” does not translate to anything.
Jesus said, “When you want to pray, say, ‘Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.'” He didn’t say, “My Father, my Father, my Father.” Is your father deaf? He didn’t say we should shout. Instead, He instructed us to go into our closet to pray. You are becoming echoes of men, not the voice of God. When you hear from God, your voice will be distinctive, and men will listen to you.
I remain your grandfather, Dr. Charles Apoki.
