By CHRISTY ANYANWU

Dressed in a designer suit at the launching of his two books last weekend, you’ll have the impression that the host  is an icon in entertainment or a socialite. Dr Chris Okafor,  is Senior Pastor of Liberation City with   headquarters  at Ojodu, Lagos. Sunday Sun cornered him after the event for a chat and  discovered that the Business Administration graduate of  Ambrose Alli  University , Ekpoma has been at the helm of  affairs of the church for almost 11 years. He gave us a glimpse of his humble beginning  and spoke on other issues.

Excerpts:

You’re light-skinned and quite handsome. Which of your parents do you look like?

My parents are dark in complexion. I’m the only light-skinned  child among my siblings. While growing up  in the ministry, people used to say “This pastor looks like Jesus.” Initially, my mother gave birth to only my elder brother, Daniel, but he later died. My mother had other children after his demise, but they’re  girls and my father was uncomfortable with that.

My mother got pregnant again and prayed, believing God for a male child. Before  I was born, prophesy  revealed that she would have a son and that “he would  be a mighty man of God and  known all over the world.” While still pregnant with me, my mother  did something very unusual. She went to the market, bought a portrait of  Jesus and  placed it on her belly every time she was lying down. Eventually, I was born.

 

How do you cope with women as a pastor?

I’ll say I’m  focused . I know what I’m doing and where I’m  going. Women will not necessarily distract me. We are busy almost everyday of the week. Sometimes, we resume in the morning and close very late at night. My day starts at 2am and  I pray till 6am or 7 am. I fast everyday also. I have been fasting for eight years on daily basis.

I am committed to this work of my heavenly father. If you don’t go to the river, you will not drown. My daily itinerary is from my house to the  church, from church to my house. I don’t go to parties, I don’t go to functions.

 

Even when you were in the university,  you didn’t party?

I come from a very disciplined home. We fasted twice weekly  while I was growing up. We  fasted every Tuesday and every Saturday. There was no time for misbehavior.  My parents were not rich, they were poor. My father was a carpenter and  my mother a vegetable seller. During my primary and  secondary education, I hawked vegetables for my mother. I was also an apprentice of sorts in  my father’s workshop. He  made chairs and  I  carried them  to the market and  sold them. So, there was no time for idling.

 

Tell us your journey into the ministry, how did it start?

By the grace of God, I didn’t grow up to say  what  I am  going to do but  I was born to do this . From the tender age of eight years, this gift  became manifest. It was then my mother told me when she was pregnant with me that there were prophesies from great women of God revealing that she would give birth to a great man of God.

You may also  know my name is not just an  ordinary name. It’s prophetic. My native name Ihechukwu, means “the light of God”.  My parents  were  Anglicans and  we were born and  raised in the  Anglican Church. We also attended   house fellowship , which  was like a prophetic ministry and these tendencies   manifested greatly there. The Lord told me, “I  called you to be here. You have a mission, you have a mandate, go ahead.”  If  God  says  go and do something, it doesn’t mean you will find it easy on the way and  because it’s God’s direction and intervention, He will see you through.

 

What was the initial challenge you encountered in the ministry?

I grew up mainly in Edo State. I was born and brought up in Benin City. I attended  primary and secondary school  in Benin , then gained admission to  Ambrose Alli University,  Ekpoma.

When I finished, the Lord asked me to go to Lagos. It was like the case of Abraham, who was asked to leave his father’s house into an uncertain future. People would rather prefer to be in a place they are sure of  than  uncertainty. I relocated to Lagos even when  my family had never  been to Lagos.   I had no relatives in Lagos. I didn’t  know where to stay. I came to Lagos with a polythene bag.  I dropped at Ojota  not knowing where to go. I  strolled up and down the streets.  I slept in a secondary school for at least  nine months. Subsequently,  I met this wonderful couple who   mean  so much to me. The man, Rev Chuks Elezie is an Anglican priest.

They took me into their home which was a  three-bedroom flat. They gave me one room and from  this one room  the church started. Then, I was counseling  people every Tuesday and before I knew it, within one month, the whole compound was filled sometimes with at least  200 people. The landlord became uncomfortable with that and  threatened to evict the couple. Being a man  of  God , it was difficult for him to ask me to leave.  The fellowship  no longer held there. We now rented a hall at  a school in Ojodu.

You just launched two books last weekend. Could you tell us about the books?

God gave me a special mandate to liberate souls. One of the tricks of the enemy is that he uses what you don’t know to torment you.

It may be ignorance , because a lot of people are strangers to themselves. You can ask some people why they’re bearing a particular name and the person has not even bothered to know why he or she is  bearing the name. You may want to know what a tribal mark on your face or body  represents. Why is it that I come from this community and  we don’t eat fish from this river? Why is the fish from the river sacred?.

These are mysteries surrounding people and in some communities they worship snakes and these  snakes don’t hurt people. They  even come to visit them and the person is a Christian but  unaware that he or she is dedicated to the devil. Ignorance is a license to bondage and when God called me, He said,  “go and liberate my people. Show them the mystery that  the devil has hidden from them.” People come here in their thousands and are delivered. What God is doing here is undiluted.

That is why  Liberation City is not just a church but  a supernatural institution. One of the books is entitled  Dealing With the Enemy Behind the Scenes. For instance,   you are going through a problem, what is responsible? There is an enemy behind the scene because 2 Corinthians 10 : 3 -5 says,  “Though we dwell in the flesh, we don’t war over the flesh because the weapons of our warfare  are not carnal, they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” Every problem mankind goes through on earth has a spiritual undertone.

Until you demystify the mystery, until you discover, you cannot recover.  The other one is  entitled, The Jinx Breaker. The jinx breaker  breaks you out of every yoke and tells you how to identify yokes, where  they’re coming from and what is responsible and how to deal with it.

 

When you prophesy and it comes to pass, how do you feel?

God made people like me  watchmen to the nation and not only to this nation but to the world  at large, because a lot of things have happened and before they happened, God reveal them to us and we   warn the nations. Prophecy is not all about propaganda. Prophesy stands for three things; it reveals, it warns and brings about prevention.

The Word of God  in Deuteronomy says,  “every secrecy belongs unto God.” Like nine years ago, there was a prophesy about Boko Haram, about  how some demons entered  Nigeria  and caused demonic orgies through humans . That  these people wouldshed human blood  and it would continue if the church and authorities didn’t  put some certain things in order and pray.

 

When you got the prophesy about Boko Haram, why didn’t you speak out?

It’s one thing to speak and another thing for the appropriate authority to take heed.

Every year, God gives messages for the year and what is to come. During the year,   lots of prophecies also come. Some of them  warn about dangers and some of them counsel  the appropriate authority to put some measures in place, for such  dangers to be averted. The recent one was the  prophesy about the Malaysian Flight MH17 that was shot down between Russia and Ukraine and the military air crash that occurred in Bama, Bornu State.

They were  prophesied here with emphasis during a Sunday service.  It was very clear that an helicopter  would crash and there will be men  in uniform on board. We prayed. Sometimes  we write the  appropriate authorities but they don’t respond. We write to them to help them not that we are looking for anything. God has placed people like us on earth to be able to avert these tragedies. One thing is for me to tell you there will be an accident, don’t go out, the other thing is for you to heed the prophecy and not go out. You would also “forget this stuff” and go out. In that kind of situation, you don’t need prayers, you just need the people involved to  obey instructions.

 

Could you talk about “the harvest of babies”?

It’s all about making women that are barren fruitful. You see hundreds of women that are barren which  some doctors  have written off . They  come to church, we pray for them and  prophesy to them  and they become mothers. Last week, a couple dedicated their twins. The wife gave birth for the first time and had twins. There was another case of barrenness that lasted for nine years.

It’s an annual programme and  people come with their children every year to testify  to what God did after they attended the previous year.

People come from all over the world every  year. I thank God I heeded  His Word when He  said “ Go, break the yoke of barrenness from women and make them fruitful.”

We have been doing that. It’s a week-long program in the month of July.


Source: Sun